Dark Forest: A John Matherson Novel Hardcover – 11 August 2015

It's well paced, the subtext and characters are well written. The science or even the fictional science is well constructed.

If you have some ideas about space and its mysteries, you will know what I am talking about. It's just amazing. Just go for it. my favourite out of the three.

Beautiful writing and ability to conjure up such an enormous worldview (though universe view would be more appropriate here) is difficult to ignore or put down. The story moves at breakneck speed while keeping up with the promise of its predecessor. Motivation for some of the characters and the ending canbe questioned but these get dwarfed by the mind boggling scope and detailing of the novel. Overall had a great time and looking forward to the next instalment.

Even if you felt three body wasnt fun..definitely read this one! It is exciting at all levels with all the strands of the story ! Don't miss this book

Intriguing concept

If you love science fiction this is the book. Just go for it.

The narrative is faster paced and more gripping than in the first part (The Three-Body Problem). It tends to be rather verbose at times – almost Asimovian in the long-winded dialogues. In fact, there is a bit about Isaac Asimov’s The Foundation Trilogy in Arabic and Osama bin Laden.No connection, but the latter's nemesis Barak Obama has this to say about the book, “Wildly imaginative, really interesting. The scope of it was immense.”Waiting eagerly for Amazon to deliver the concluding part to learn about the confrontation between humanity and the unfortunate aliens from a planet orbiting (if that is possible) wildly around three suns!

The great thing about this book is that we don't get just one conventional storyline abut a mixture of parallel "what-ifs" which do not look out of place at all.Of course, the fact that this starts off as a clear battle between Earth and Tri-solaris with various consequences has you at the edge of your seat. And for some reason, even though they are vastly different when it comes to the story, you do feel a bit of that "foundation" feel when you read. Plus the nod to "Seldon" was a pure joy to read.I would say, I haven't read current sci-fi because after foundation novels, I was sort of against other sci-fi books but this clearly is a good book. Can't wait to finish book 3 now.

La continuación del problema de los tres cuerpos es igual de interesante y emocionante.

Ottimo libro anche se letto come stand alone e non come secondo della serie di tre. In alcune pagine un pò pesante dovuto alla "cinesità militante" dello scrittore, ma le pagine sono poche. Consigliato per gli amanti del genere hard sci-fi.

Little other view on science fiction. Something I'd recommend

Hard Sci-Fi in it's best. A lot of recent physics concept and new technologies that are in development today and will be among us in the near future. But the more creative in this book is the concept of Cosmic Sociology: how civilizations of others planets in our galaxy will interact between them once they discover the existence of one another. A must reading for Sci-Fi fans.

It's hard to know where to begin talking about The Three-Body Problem trilogy (officially known as the Remembrance of Earth's Past series), a truly staggering piece of science-fiction written by Chinese author Cixin Liu and translated to English by Ken Liu and Joel Martinsen (Liu did books 1 and 3, while Martinsen did 2). A trilogy that spans literally thousands of years, deals with quantum physics, game theory, sociology, religion, space exploration, space colonization, and more, all driven by the nature of first contact with alien intelligence - there's a lot going on in this series, and that's before you start realizing just how much Cixin (reminder: Chinese names are traditionally written with the family name first and the given name second) truly takes on the advanced science of his ideas. And yet, when you finish it, you realize that you've read something truly incredible - a piece of hard science-fiction whose ambition, scope, richness, and ideas are impossible not to find yourself thinking about for days afterward.Once you read The Dark Forest, the series' second volume, Cixin's ambition for this saga starts to come into focus. The question of first contact is settled, and the nature of the alien's approach is known: this is to be a takeover of our planet. But how can we deal with a race so much more advanced than our own, constant surveillance by extra-dimensional forces, and fractured elements of humanity working against us?If The Three-Body Problem was a first contact novel done as hard science-fiction, The Dark Forest is an alien invasion novel, albeit one in which the actual invasion is still many, many years away. It's the first time Cixin starts using hibernation to leap through decades and even centuries, spanning huge chunks of time as humanity changes and evolves in the face of an arrival which will change everything. As humanity struggles to find ways to either defend itself or show that it means no harm, the race has to deal with its own fears of inevitable defeat or a desire to retreat from the only planet we've ever known.It's not as if The Three-Body Problem wasn't already ambitious, but The Dark Forest is on a whole other level, dealing with interplanetary fleets, lightspeed travel, quantum computing, and more, watching as they evolve over huge swaths of time. But more than that, the novel is a deeply philosophical one, discussing the nature of life in the universe, questions about human nature and how we react in the face of threats, how we work together (or not), and game theory in how we try to handle uncertain intentions in allies and foes alike. Indeed, the central metaphor that gives the book its title (which doesn't arrive until near the novel's end) is a stunning one that helps you understand that what Cixin is writing about isn't just this particular alien invasion, but about the nature of all life in the universe and how we attempt to define ourselves in the face of reality.That Cixin does this while, again, mixing in such a compelling story (focusing especially on the "Wallfacers", a small group of people tasked with covertly planning humanity's resistance against the invasion) is nothing short of remarkable. The Dark Forest builds beautifully off of the questions and ideas raised in The Three-Body Problem, but turns them into something else entirely, changing the questions from "how do we initially react" to "how would we redefine ourselves in the face of such news". Far from suffering from any sort of "middle book syndrome," The Dark Forest is incredible, engaging with incredible concepts but never neglecting the human characters that anchor its massive scope nor the ticking clock at its story's core.To explain this series is a difficult challenge, to put it mildly. This is a series that spans a huge amount of time, deals with advanced scientific concepts in complex terms, grapples with rich philosophical and political ideas, debates questions without easy answers, and gives you a scope that can be daunting. It's a story of alien invasions, yes, but one in which the action sequences we're so used to are replaced with existential dread, a rethinking of our own lives, and a fear of the unknown that's hard to quantify. It's also the story of people caught up in these times, trying to give themselves a good life while never forgetting the larger questions of their era, and juggling their own fears with fears for humanity. In other words, it's what hard science-fiction is great at - thoughtful questions, big ideas, and speculation, all of which change the way you think about the world.This series is a truly incredible achievement, one that honestly left me a bit staggered and reeling as I attempt to think about it all, but one that I love all the more for what it accomplishes. If you're a hard science-fiction fan, or simply someone who loves dealing with the complex ramifications of common ideas, this is a must read series. I've never read anything like it in my life, and I'm a richer person for the ideas it's inspired me to think about.