REVIEW: The Dark Forest

 The Dark Forest
Author: Cixin Liu

I have been wanting to read Cixin Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy for years. My TBR list is ponderous and the books just never seemed to make it to the top of the list. So many books....so little time. 

Then Netflix made a series based on the books. I have a self-imposed rule that I have to read the book(s) first before watching a series or movie based on a book/series. I immediately moved this series to the top of my list and started reading. 

It has been SO hard to avoid spoilers!! I'm being so careful....avoiding anything about the unsolvable Three Body Problem, the books, the author, book reviews....I'm not looking at anything related to these books. I haven't even watched the trailer for the Netflix series. I want to read my way through these books without any outside opinions, information or plot knowledge other than the basic book blurb. I have looked up some Chinese cities, places, famous scientists/philosophers, and history so that I better understand the story. But I've even been super careful about that!

I continued my habit of reading the physical book while listening to an audio book. For stories that have a lot of foreign names and words, I like to read and listen so that I'm hearing them pronounced correctly. It makes the story more enjoyable. I find I also enjoy the story more.  The audio I listened to (Macmillan Audio) is narrated by PJ Ochlan and is just over 22.5 hours long. 

PJ Ochlan is an okay narrator. I found his voice a bit irritating so I had a hard time getting into the story at first. His voice is just too nasal and often monotone. I just didn't like his performance. But, the story is so interesting that I just finally learned to ignore what annoys me about Ochlan's voice. I much prefer the audio narration done by Luke Daniels for the first book, The Three Body Problem. I wish Daniels had recorded all 3 books, not just the first one! Ochlan narrates the audio for Book 3 as well. I'm just going to have to get over it and suffer through. :) 

I'm also not sure why book 2 was translated into English by another person. Ken Liu translated Book One and Book Three. But The Dark Forest is translated by Joel Martinsen. There are fewer footnotes in Book Two. It's making me miss Ken Liu - there were many footnotes in Book 1 explaining nuances of passages that were difficult to translate, information on Chinese history, scientists and famous people mentioned in the text, etc. There were a few footnotes in book 2, but I missed the extra details that Ken Liu included for Book One. I hope the extra footnotes come back when I get to Book Three. 

I am loving this series. This is not a fast paced Sci-Fi Adventure. It's a slow burn. While I do like fast paced, action packed sci-fi, for this series, the slow development works perfectly. It gives the characters and story time to develop, leaves time for discussion of science, physics, human nature, etc. The story is amazing! I love the fact that this story is told from the Chinese point of view and not a Chinese POV filtered through an American or European viewpoint. It gives a story line that has been done many times before (alien invasion of Earth) a different feel. It's not just another oh no the aliens are coming story where the western world military runs in like Roger Ramjet to save the planet. The characters are different. The vibe is different. And the story progression/build-up is different. 

It is taking me a long time to get through this trilogy as I only read/listen when I have time to pay complete attention to the story. I listed to 30 minutes here and there as I can, or longer when I have time to just Be, and enjoy the book. When an audio book is 20+ hours long, that means it takes a good long while to get through to the end. But -- so worth it!! 

7/10/2024 -- I discovered this morning when I loaded up my blog to start working on the draft for the review of Book 3 that I neglected to actually post this review when I finished the book! Oops! I'm almost through book 3 now....and finally posting this review of The Dark Forest. I finished the Dark Forest in June 2024. :)