A review by skinnercolin221
The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu
4.0
When I was a kid, my big brother used to fight me, so sometimes I’d run to a random neighbors front door and threaten to ring the doorbell, which made him stop and that is basically this book lol.
Despite enjoying the creativity and drama, I found the central premise of "The Dark Forest" to be somewhat unconvincing. The notion that the universe is akin to a dark forest, where advanced civilizations are inclined to eliminate unfamiliar entities due to suspicion, is a stretch for me. The concept of sending coordinates as an invitation for annihilation is intriguing, but it's hard to fully buy into.
I think that any flourishing civilization would inherently develop empathy and a moral compass. Moreover, they would recognize that other successful civilizations would likely have evolved similarly. Take, for example, our experience with nuclear weapons: nearly a century has passed, and the world has yet to witness a total annihilation. I think this is primarily because most humans are not monsters. Or perhaps the threat of retaliation acts as the more powerful deterrent. Either of these reasons could have been more fleshed out. (I know the ending has Luo Ji considering this potential for loving aliens, it just wasn’t hammered out enough for me)
While the conflict over resources between ships was gripping, I don't see that as an apt representation of the dark forest theory. The tensions in that scenario seemed more about resources and less about the inherent distrust of unknown powerful entities.
So why four stars? Because I don’t have to agree with an author to think they’ve done a great job. The author does a great job of weaving different character webs together to build a cohesive gripping story. And as you can tell by my long review, it made me think critically a lot and I appreciate any author who does that!
So I definitely recommend the book to friends!
Despite enjoying the creativity and drama, I found the central premise of "The Dark Forest" to be somewhat unconvincing. The notion that the universe is akin to a dark forest, where advanced civilizations are inclined to eliminate unfamiliar entities due to suspicion, is a stretch for me. The concept of sending coordinates as an invitation for annihilation is intriguing, but it's hard to fully buy into.
I think that any flourishing civilization would inherently develop empathy and a moral compass. Moreover, they would recognize that other successful civilizations would likely have evolved similarly. Take, for example, our experience with nuclear weapons: nearly a century has passed, and the world has yet to witness a total annihilation. I think this is primarily because most humans are not monsters. Or perhaps the threat of retaliation acts as the more powerful deterrent. Either of these reasons could have been more fleshed out. (I know the ending has Luo Ji considering this potential for loving aliens, it just wasn’t hammered out enough for me)
While the conflict over resources between ships was gripping, I don't see that as an apt representation of the dark forest theory. The tensions in that scenario seemed more about resources and less about the inherent distrust of unknown powerful entities.
So why four stars? Because I don’t have to agree with an author to think they’ve done a great job. The author does a great job of weaving different character webs together to build a cohesive gripping story. And as you can tell by my long review, it made me think critically a lot and I appreciate any author who does that!
So I definitely recommend the book to friends!