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A review by ratgrrrl
The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu
Did not finish book.
DNF 92% (Less than 2/22 hours left of the audiobook)
I'm not going to let this book or Liu waste any more of my time, so I'll be brief (for me, with a bee in my bonnet, autism, and severe ADHD).
(Let me be clear, I am a nobody who knows nothing taking umbrage with a wildly popular book from an awarding-winning and hugely respected author. These are all just my opinions. If you like this book, I love that for you. If you think that cultural differences excuse bigotry, I hate that for you)
- The Three-Body Problem is a contender for my favourite read of 2023 and possibly of all time.
- Liu's worldview is very clearly on display in this book, authoritarian communism*, rampant misogyny to the point that there's maybe one femme in this book who actually has a name and her own agency, not to mention the born sexy yesterday manic pixie dream girl (literally) femme-enfant, weird and entirely unnecessary sneering at promiscuity and Queerness. I struggled so hard to make sense of Liu's first book and the wonder of his author's note when compared to what little he has said about his politics, but this book really made it clear in the same way Pierce Brown's conservative mask slips hard Morning Star and Ben Gailey's pathetic laissez-faire neo-liberalism ruined the end of the otherwise brilliant Chasing Graves trilogy.
- While there is some of the varying viscosities of fascinating sci-fi concepts and exploration/ extrapolation of scientific theories, there's a lot less with any grounding, care, or interest.
- I can understand why somone would find The Three-Body Problem boring, but I was absolutely wrapt throughout. Conversely, this is excruciatingly fucking boring, and only becomes increasingly more boring with countless twists and failed attempts at twists that made me stop caring and not feel like the stakes that had been suffocating in this first book mattered in the slightest.
- This book is in desperate need of an editor and workshopping because the internal logic, tone, and consistency are absolutely fucked. I wouldn't dream of saying you can't blend genres or even more between genres between books or parts of a single book. There does need to be some reason and artifice with this blending, which is not on display here. The first book and the first third of this book are hard-medium sci-fi (some people hate the Sophons and say no to the hard, but I have no issue with them and don't think hard sci-fi needs to be 100% turgid at all times), but the second third just introduces magic realism for no apparent reason withs guy dreaming up a woman, daydream hanging out with her, and then giving our favourite arsehole ex-cop (ACAB) a couple of details, which he then also magical knows all about her 'because a hetdudes know this dream girl', and then actually goes and fucking finds her! Later we have a brief Takeshi Kovacs interlude with some utopian cyberpunk, and later the most boring Battlestar Galactica/ colony ship nonsense. With the time scale it was always going to get more and more speculative and futuristic, but the handling and portrayal of everything is so clunky and jarring in a way that does not feeling purposeful.
- Did I mention how shitting boring it is?! I know I am more sensitive to these because of all the actual shitty gross stuff, but I really wanted to at least see how things played out, after being so obsessed with the first book. I was determined to finish, but between the yikes and snores I physically couldn't, and I came into this book with so very much patience and good will banked!
I really wish I hadn't picked up the stand alone Liu novel and the official fan fiction prequel, before reading this. The fact they were on offer is some comfort, but is all the resson I can't get them refunded.
Let me be clear, I hate hating stuff. If you love this, I celebrate that. I want to love this like I love the first book, but I can't because I fucking hated this.
I'm not going to let this book or Liu waste any more of my time, so I'll be brief (for me, with a bee in my bonnet, autism, and severe ADHD).
(Let me be clear, I am a nobody who knows nothing taking umbrage with a wildly popular book from an awarding-winning and hugely respected author. These are all just my opinions. If you like this book, I love that for you. If you think that cultural differences excuse bigotry, I hate that for you)
- The Three-Body Problem is a contender for my favourite read of 2023 and possibly of all time.
- Liu's worldview is very clearly on display in this book, authoritarian communism*, rampant misogyny to the point that there's maybe one femme in this book who actually has a name and her own agency, not to mention the born sexy yesterday manic pixie dream girl (literally) femme-enfant, weird and entirely unnecessary sneering at promiscuity and Queerness. I struggled so hard to make sense of Liu's first book and the wonder of his author's note when compared to what little he has said about his politics, but this book really made it clear in the same way Pierce Brown's conservative mask slips hard Morning Star and Ben Gailey's pathetic laissez-faire neo-liberalism ruined the end of the otherwise brilliant Chasing Graves trilogy.
- While there is some of the varying viscosities of fascinating sci-fi concepts and exploration/ extrapolation of scientific theories, there's a lot less with any grounding, care, or interest.
- I can understand why somone would find The Three-Body Problem boring, but I was absolutely wrapt throughout. Conversely, this is excruciatingly fucking boring, and only becomes increasingly more boring with countless twists and failed attempts at twists that made me stop caring and not feel like the stakes that had been suffocating in this first book mattered in the slightest.
- This book is in desperate need of an editor and workshopping because the internal logic, tone, and consistency are absolutely fucked. I wouldn't dream of saying you can't blend genres or even more between genres between books or parts of a single book. There does need to be some reason and artifice with this blending, which is not on display here. The first book and the first third of this book are hard-medium sci-fi (some people hate the Sophons and say no to the hard, but I have no issue with them and don't think hard sci-fi needs to be 100% turgid at all times), but the second third just introduces magic realism for no apparent reason withs guy dreaming up a woman, daydream hanging out with her, and then giving our favourite arsehole ex-cop (ACAB) a couple of details, which he then also magical knows all about her 'because a hetdudes know this dream girl', and then actually goes and fucking finds her! Later we have a brief Takeshi Kovacs interlude with some utopian cyberpunk, and later the most boring Battlestar Galactica/ colony ship nonsense. With the time scale it was always going to get more and more speculative and futuristic, but the handling and portrayal of everything is so clunky and jarring in a way that does not feeling purposeful.
- Did I mention how shitting boring it is?! I know I am more sensitive to these because of all the actual shitty gross stuff, but I really wanted to at least see how things played out, after being so obsessed with the first book. I was determined to finish, but between the yikes and snores I physically couldn't, and I came into this book with so very much patience and good will banked!
I really wish I hadn't picked up the stand alone Liu novel and the official fan fiction prequel, before reading this. The fact they were on offer is some comfort, but is all the resson I can't get them refunded.
Let me be clear, I hate hating stuff. If you love this, I celebrate that. I want to love this like I love the first book, but I can't because I fucking hated this.