The Dark Forest is the second book in the “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” trilogy, written by Cixin Liu in 2008. Like its prequel, The Three-Body Problem, this one is also an interesting mix of particle physics, geo political issues, virtual reality games along with an alien contact. The first book of the series lays the foundation of something epic that is bound to happen. Ye Wenjie is not happy with contemporary humanity and believes that people are responsible for her father’s death. In a fit of rage, she invites an alien race to visit Earth. And the aliens, Trisolarans, plan to arrive, with an impression that humanity is nothing more than bugs!
The Plot
The Dark Forest is next in line in the series. This book mainly deals with how the people on Earth are divided into different factions and accordingly, each faction plans to combat the alien invasion. There are around 400 years left for aliens to arrive on planet Earth, which means only that much time is left to prepare for the combat. At this backdrop, some, however, are looking forward to welcoming their new “Overlords”, while there are others who want to destroy the entire human race, another segment are working on ways to escape Earth completely. And there is another segment who prefers to stay and fight. Every point or perspective is thought-provoking, it’s difficult to say which one is correct or on whose side would a reader may gravitate. Each faction has a valid psychological point of view.
Eventually, the general body on earth, unanimously decides to create a Wallfacer project, accordingly, four following Wallfacers are named:
- Rey Diaz: He researches how to build a bigger bomb and in the process develops fear of the Sun.
- Bill Hines: He is into neurological research that could increase cognitive abilities especially in front of Sophon
- Fredrick Tylor: He works on a swarm of small fighter planes equipped with large bombs. To understand the intricacies he meets WWII kamikaze pilots and Al Qaeda.
- Luo Ji: an astronomer and sociologist.
These four individuals are allowed to access immense resources, without any questions asked. Their task is to make plans in their head so that the sophons may not shake up the idea. Sophons are the smart subatomic machines sent by the aliens to disrupt human tech progress. Since the Trisolaris have no ability to peep into the minds of humans, the project is expected to proceed with a level of secrecy and unpredictability allowing humanity to plan and act without the constant threat of their surveillance.
Major portion of the plot revolves around Luo Ji, an astronomer who initially refuses to be a wallfacer, as he himself has no idea why he is chosen as one of those. But later becomes instrumental in changing the trajectory of the plot. Although, initially he did waste a lot of resources with his hedonistic lifestyle.
Later he recalls his conversation with Ye Wenjie and suspects that could be a reason for him being under the radar of aliens, and so, the UN might have made him one of the wallfacer. He sets up for the location of a star that’s 49.5 light-years away to be shared across the galaxy, keeping his reasons a bit of a mystery. He then follows hibernation, requesting to be awakened if anything unusual happens with the star. Within a short span after the broadcast goes out, the Trisolaran fleet kicks off a series of speedy probe launches that are set to arrive in the Solar System much quicker than the main invasion force.
After 200 years, Luo gets up from his cryogenic sleep only to see that there exist no Wallfacer program and the Earth has managed to fabricate a fleet of faster ships, which according to them will face the alien invasion, head-on. Unfortunately, this triumphalism is shattered as a “drop shaped” alien tech, annihilates humanity’s combined fleet in minutes. Mass hysteria envelops people on Earth and those who were in other ships in space, plan to move towards other distant star systems to form a new civilisation.
While on Earth, a ray of hope is restored when they discover the star – that Luo shared the location of – has been taken out by some mysterious, super-advanced civilization, which signified that “the planet Earth is not alone” in the vastness of space. But Luo didn’t share the same excitement. Trisolarian with its probe, after destroying thousands of fleets in space, stationed itself on the Earth’s orbit and started jamming signals that were spewing off from Earth into space.
Luo starts to ponder on the dark forest hypothesis and concludes two things, one, there has to be a life somewhere in the vastness of space and two, in order to survive (for a civilisation) one has to remain unnoticed. He then advises a plan, he threatens the Trisolarans with this idea of mutually assured destruction (MAD) through the Gravity Wave Broadcast System. According to which, if they destroy humanity, it would also trigger a cascade of destruction. This will surface the Trisolarans’ location to the rest of the universe. Eventually, Trisolaris agrees to the truce, reroutes its fleet, and is on board to support human scientific advancements.
Flat Female Characters but Brilliant Plotline
Two things that didn’t settle well with me are, one, there was no woman character in the entire book. Spotlight was around the male figures only. Women who do come in between have very little screen presence, or no stories around them.and two, why so much time and energy was given to what was going inside the head of Luo Ji, when he was fully drenched in his hedonistic lifestyle and his misogynist views of women. Pages that talked about his imaginary girlfriend and his long walks with her, what is really necessary? I doubt it!
If we can just minus that “unnecessary part” of the novel, the plotline was moving really well. I am a huge fan of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov, their works have depicted the future, which have been near to the precision. I feel when it comes to science fiction, Liu Cixin too will join their ranks. After all, the scientific and technical advancements explored in his book have the potential to become a reality down the line, and that’s pretty exciting to consider!
Takeaway
In a nutshell, The Dark Forest is a brilliant book, as mentioned, minus the dream sequence of Luo Ji, I enjoyed every bit of it. The tech involved is just jaw-dropping, and the ending – it felt just right!
It’s worth noting how the story approached the alien invasion theme from a collectivist perspective and explored how humanity might react, again spot -on! It kept me thinking, which side would I have taken. It’s so nice to see a refreshing take, especially since many stories focus on individualism. I’m not quite sure what’s next, but I’m really excited to continue this journey.
