The Dark Forest

bixerdo reviewed El bosque oscuro (Trilogía de los Tres Cuerpos, #2) by Cixin Liu

El bosque oscuro, Liu Cixin (Lurraren iraganaren oroitzapena (Hiru gorputzak); 2)

4 stars

Content warning Kontuz izenburuaren azalpenarekin ez baduzu liburua irakurri

"Lurraren iraganaren oroitzapena" (edo "'Hiru gorputzak' ezagunagoa den) trilogiaren bigarren alea. Bigarren eskuko azoka batean ikusi nituen eta lehenagotik zekarten famagatik hartu. Harrituta itzi ninduan lehenengoak ez nuelako horrelako istoriorik espero baina denboralditxo bat pasa da bigarren hau irakurri dudanera arte (ea azkenengoa den hurrengorako ez dudan hainbesteko tarterik uzten. Gero eta liburu meheagoen zale bihurtzen ari naiz). Hau ere oso ondo dago baina lehenengoaren sorpresa efektua galdurik 'arruntagoa' iruditu zait. Gehien gustatu zaidana, agian izenburuaren azalpena (adi hemendik aurrera) Unibertso osoa baso ilun bat bezala irudikatzen du, non aurrerapen-maila ezberdina garatu duten zibilizazioak ehiztari ixilen antzera dabiltzaten bere burua agerian utziko duen hurrengo harrapakinaren esperoan. Ikuspuntu ilun honek irakurlea erabat astinduko du 'Gizadia' zein aurrerapen mailara heldu daitekeen (Doctorowen "Walkaway"n agertzen zena baina onean gogorarazi dit) erakusten baitio eta gero zartakoa eman.

sifuCJC reviewed The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu (Remembrance of Earth's Past, #2)

A dense continuation

4 stars

I tried to read this book earlier but put it down. This time, I listened on audio. The ending this book, or beginning of the next installment, was worth it.

This is a very dense text. It is almost pure plot and setup. But like the first installment's ability to give a sense of cosmic unease just by talking about physics, this book can tip you into dread with exposition. I caught myself creeping into despair yesterday; I had to shake it off.

I can see there is a point to the gloom though. We have to hit the depths before we can be raised back up. I have hope for the next book!

Luis reviewed La forêt sombre by Cixin Liu

Continuación de El problema de los tres cuerpos

3 stars

La historia parece centrarse en ésta ocasión en los vallados, tres hombres con plena libertad para planificar la defensa de la tierra ante la futura llegada de los extraterrestres invasores, que ocurrirá dentro de 400 años. el comienzo me está gustando, cuando lo termine actualizaré la reseña.

Library Liberty Zed reviewed The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

3 stars

The book's premise is fascinating, it tackles quetions about life, cooperation and conflict. But I agree with kab, the author writes misogynisticly with very objectified female characters.

kab reviewed The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

The Dark Forest

2 stars

Reading about an ant painstakingly tracing each character on a gravestone signals the early slog. The flatness of the first two parts cannot be pinned entirely on the alternate translator either. The details are dull and offensive. Women squeal and fuss, and when they’re overeducated they calcify. The ones with speaking parts admit that the protagonist is better at their work than they are, or are dismissed as small with no air of authority, or remain nameless and/or are dispatched by violence, or are pure fantasy, insistently innocent and childlike. Colonisers are labelled art-preservingly advanced and the colonised backwards. If you can wade through the carrying over of misogyny and non-Trisolaran imperialism in Liu’s vision, there are some rewards in part three (the teardrop and the cosmic fight for resources are thrilling), still diluted by legitimising a character’s manipulation by threat of suicide, a despair orgy, and rumination-attempts on the …

Reading about an ant painstakingly tracing each character on a gravestone signals the early slog. The flatness of the first two parts cannot be pinned entirely on the alternate translator either. The details are dull and offensive. Women squeal and fuss, and when they’re overeducated they calcify. The ones with speaking parts admit that the protagonist is better at their work than they are, or are dismissed as small with no air of authority, or remain nameless and/or are dispatched by violence, or are pure fantasy, insistently innocent and childlike. Colonisers are labelled art-preservingly advanced and the colonised backwards. If you can wade through the carrying over of misogyny and non-Trisolaran imperialism in Liu’s vision, there are some rewards in part three (the teardrop and the cosmic fight for resources are thrilling), still diluted by legitimising a character’s manipulation by threat of suicide, a despair orgy, and rumination-attempts on the power of love.

moving to outside.ofa.dog reviewed The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu (Remembrance of Earth's Past, #2)

Wow

5 stars

This book is in a lot of ways more of everything that Three Body Problem was. It's a huger sweep, a pretty intense exploration of how getting thrown into responsibility can break people, and it builds on a lot of the ideas of the first book about how ununified people would be in response to a threat like this - stuff that now looks rather prescient after a year and a half of covid. It does also suffer from the same weaknesses, perhaps even intensified. In particular there's not much dialogue that is really characters being theirselves as opposed to Liu exploring an idea through his characters. But the good parts were so compelling that this was far from ruining the book for me.

I was left with a few questions, two of which seem like weaknesses of the book: 1) Why did Ye pick Luo to have the conversation …

This book is in a lot of ways more of everything that Three Body Problem was. It's a huger sweep, a pretty intense exploration of how getting thrown into responsibility can break people, and it builds on a lot of the ideas of the first book about how ununified people would be in response to a threat like this - stuff that now looks rather prescient after a year and a half of covid. It does also suffer from the same weaknesses, perhaps even intensified. In particular there's not much dialogue that is really characters being theirselves as opposed to Liu exploring an idea through his characters. But the good parts were so compelling that this was far from ruining the book for me.

I was left with a few questions, two of which seem like weaknesses of the book: 1) Why did Ye pick Luo to have the conversation with that she does in the preface? 2) How did any other humans know that Luo would be important? (that conversation with Ye explains Trisolaris's interest - clearly they'd have been surveilling her intensely) 3) How is there a third book? Three Body Problem left the story with an obvious lead in for a sequel, but the ending to this book could have been a series ending. I am now intrigued and want to see where Liu takes this next.

Renato Lond Cerqueira

rated it

Mar 14

The Dark Forest

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