On the Dark Forest

This is an epic novel in the best sense of the word. Its predecessor, The Three-Body Problem, was also a big novel, but it feels small by comparison: where the first volume is like looking out at the sea and glimpsing amorphous shapes beneath the surface, The Dark Forest plunges you into the depths, where you feel miles down and no closer to the bottom. I came to love the characters, especially Lao Ji and, more than anyone, Da Shi. Liu Cixin does fall back on clichés, and a few characters (especially around Lao Ji) feel like little more than devices — the book certainly couldn’t pass a gender-equality test, unlike its predecessor, which felt quite progressive that way. Still, the characters Liu gives real attention to tend to be lovable; they can be a little flat at times, a means to the high-concept material, but the concepts themselves are good, and I won’t be looking at the night sky the same way again. The first book was grounded in the present, while this one takes off and fits more squarely in the classical genre as it reaches into outer space, with cosmic horror woven throughout that ramps to a fever pitch. I loved it. I’m not sure about its readability, since it leans so much on mystery, but I’m going to devour everything this author has written.