The Dark Forest, is the continuation of this brilliant sci-fi trilogy that began with Three-Body Problem [Hugo winner this year]. And it doesn't disappoint.
The amount of mind-numbing and jaw-dropping moments have not decreased from book 1 to 2.
A quick recap: the 1st book setups the invasion on Earth by the Trisolaris civilisation, whose technological/science level far surpassed ours.
However, due to distance and physical limitation, the invasion would not arrive till 400 years later. In the meantime, the research into fundamental science of Earth was held in lockdown by the Trisolarians to prevent humanity from achieving technological level that can rival them.
Fundamental science is deemed as the most important branch of science here since everything derives from it. It's the study of
deep structure of matter ie. particle physics and quantum mechanics. So how do you lockdown the science of another civilisation to ensure that their technological advances are stunted ?
What followed is the single most mind-blowing moment that I have ever read:
» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «
By sending 2 protons. Farfetch ? No, not really if you do some readup on particle physics theories.
What can humanity do in face of such odds ? This is all dealt with in the 2nd book. Unlike many other sci-fi novels with the same theme, here we have 4 centuries to prepare for the invasion. What unfolded were many plans; some insane, most desperate, and all of them tended to be clouded by defeatism. To show you how ridiculous or desperate or insane some of the plans are, here is one of them:
» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «
One of the strategy involved suicide-bombers. But where to get volunteers ? Hence, the meeting with bin Laden. LOL
While I think the author did a good job in envisioning the socio-economic and geo-political impacts of these plans, this book, just like the 1st one,
is weak in characterisation and its dialogues were not quite realistic. Nevertheless, the ideas and concepts made it worthwhile and they are not baseless.
The end was quite satisfying and the book was indeed aptly named The Dark Forest! The title of this book is related to the solution to the invasion. The solution wasn't subtle as they were already hinted many times, starting in the Prologue itself but I couldn't figure out how it matters. In the end, the explanation was
very well thought of. It is based on 2 axioms of the cosmic sociology which says "Survival is the primary need of civilisation" and "Civilisation continously grows and expands but the amount of matter in universe is fixed". Baffled ? Read it.
NOTE: Maybe Fermi's paradox is finally answered.
Book 3 the finale of this series will be out Jan next year.