The Dark Forest is the second section in Cixin Liu three-body Problem trilogy, published in 2008. The book won the Japan Nebula Award for Best Science Fiction in 2021.
The book describes the Three-Body civilization sent quantum detectors to seize all the information of the earth and block the earth’s science and technology, which leads to the development of the earth’s science and technology will not exceed the scope of the Three-Body civilization block. At the same time, the Three-Body civilization sends a fleet to invade earth. Under the surveillance of quantum detectors, everything earth civilization records on paper and online will be known to Three-Body civilization, so Earth civilization has a plan. The earth civilization selected four people from the world and assigned them a considerable portion of the power and resources. These four people were responsible for coming up with a battle plan against the Three-Body civilization on their own, and no one should know about these four people’s battle plan. The book’s protagonist, Luo Ji, becomes one of the four, and his plan is to publish the coordinates of the Three-Body civilization so that other civilizations in the universe will wipe it out. With this plan, Raj eventually managed to withdraw the Three-Body fleet and force them to negotiate with Earth civilization.
There are several highlights of the book, the author skillfully control over plot, in the first three people battle plan failed, the author describes the earth civilization of all of a sudden a lot of progress in science and technology, which makes readers think earth civilization can beat three body fleet of civilization from the front, but the author wrote a fleet of three body civilization will then earth civilization fleet completely destroyed, This passage gives the reader a sense of despair. Finally, the author describes that the hero successfully forced the Three-Body civilization to make peace with the earth civilization with his plan. It is the ups and downs of the plot that make the book very exciting to read. The author also mentions that there are many civilizations in the universe, cleverly expanding the world view from the three-body confrontation with the earth civilization to the hide-and-seek of all civilizations in the universe. This surprises the reader and sets the stage for the next book.
The Dark Forest is a wonderful science fiction novel that readers can pick up from his previous book, “The Three-Body Problem,” or start reading the Dark Forest directly.