The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin

As imaginative as the first book of Liu Cixin 3-Body Problem trilogy was to science fiction and technology, the second book, entitled “The Dark Forest” creates a nemesis that must be fought with an even better creative and imaginative strategy.  The dark forest strategy itself can't be considered a spoiler in this book review because it is the title.  Literally the dark forest is a term coined by early science fiction writers to mean  if you want to survive in the forest and not be eaten, as a part of the food chain, you must remain quiet.  If you make a sound you will be eaten.  Extrapolating to the cosmos, if there is alien life on other worlds, we must not, as a planet, be a beacon to those other worlds, lest they come to annihilate us.  Which, as described in the first book, is exactly what’s about to happen.  Whereas many of my friends found this book to be the best of the trilogy, I rate it as my 2nd favorite.  I was so happy with the “3-Body Problem” and the introduction to this technology, and the accuracy of the dilemma Liu Cixin introduced, that the solution, in the form of the strategy of the second book, was just a necessary response to his ideas.  Also, I’ve spent my entire career thinking about strategy, whereas his use of game theory, to divine the intentions of an adversary, are second hat.  Not to reduce Liu Cixin’s book in any way, as I said, many find it to be his best, it is, at its core, a book about strategy, and not so much the science fiction, that was the first.  Once he created the science fiction, and the story line, the strategy is just the strategy and how it plays out.   The Netflix series doesn’t end at the first book.  It dives into the second book with the introduction of the key concept of the “Wall Facer”.  On Earth, the strategy they come up with to defeat the attack of the Tri-solarians, albeit 400 years in the future, is to appoint four individuals to come up with strategies in their minds.  Strategies that would be completely secretive that the Tri-solarians would never be able to figure out.  The book traces out the arc of these four Wall Facers through time as their strategies are slowly revealed and defeated by the Tri-solarians as each secretive strategy is uncovered.  The twist at the end of the 2nd book is as good as any twist in any mystery novel and caught me flat footed.  It was, perhaps, the best ending to any science fiction I have read.  Not sufficient to move it into my favorite of the trilogy however.  

I will give Liu Cixin another 4 Stars overall for the book and the trilogy.