Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Book Review of "The Dark Forest - by Liu Cixin"


Hands down, "The Dark Forest" is a jaw-dropping and an epic Sci-Fi novel ! It literally takes efforts to put this down once you get into the story. This is the second book in the "Remembrance of the Earth's Past" trilogy. Following the first one, the Three Body Problem, was never going to be an easy task but the Dark Forest proved to be an amazing continuation of the story. In fact, I would rate it a notch higher than the first. The main gripe I had with the Three Body Problem was the not so great characterization which the Dark Forest more than makes up for by introducing a whole new set of characters with an intriguing personality as the protagonist.

The ideas in this book are great, their application to the plot is ingenious and their execution simply superb. The book does start out slow but it picks up at around 30-35% and after that it is a roller coaster ride of fantastic storytelling. The overarching symbolism, the main metaphor of the plot and the various philosophical discussions and conundrums make this a great read. The overall writing and the prose flows smoothly like a calm, serene river and it is simply, for the lack of a better word, beautiful.

So yeah, 5/5.

No comments: