A review of the science fiction novel “The Dark Forest” by Cixin Liu
Following “The Three-Body Problem”, this is the second novel in the ‘Remembrance of Earth’s Past’ trilogy by the noted Chinese science fiction writer. It was first published in Chinese in 2008 and then in English in 2015.
While most of the first novel was set in the near future and concerned the threat of an invasion of Earth by a Trisolar civilisation in four centuries time, most of the first two-thirds of “The Dark Forest” is set in the first 20 years of the so-called Crisis Era and focuses on the Wallfacer programme, which is intended to devise a method of combating this invasion, while the last third is set some two centuries on and describes an encounter between Earth’s new, massive star fleet and an advance probe from the Trisolarians.
It is a wonderful read, characterised by a rapidly-shifting narrative with plenty of surprises. The story is illuminated by lots of Liu’s innovative thinking on radically different strategies for reacting to an invasion by more technologically advanced aliens and on what Earth in 200+ years might look like technologically, socially and politically. A dazzling array of ideas stretches from new forms of clothing, housing, transport and information displays to a plan for the destruction of the entire solar system.
The ‘forest’ of the title is based on the theory that, in the vastness of the universe, there are countless other civilisations. The ‘dark’ of the title rests on the notion that no advanced civilisation would want to reveal itself for fear of invasion and annihilation. It is one way of responding to the Fermi Paradox: that is, why – after long and hard searching – have we not found any evidence for any other life in the infinite space that we call the universe?
“The Three-Body Problem” is long (424 pages); “The Dark Forest” is is even longer (550 pages); and the third novel in the trilogy, “Death’s End”, is longer still (721 pages) – so I’m going to pause my reading for a while.