A review by inlibrisveritas
The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

challenging informative tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

My complicated relationship with this series continues. So much about this one is brilliant, but it is absolutely buried in things that made me so frustrated.

Too many times did characters suddenly have a nose dive in intellect so that the science can happen, when the science in question is so far beyond what they were capable of any way that it didn't need them to spend 10 mins scratching their heads. The human element was so weirdly clinical and inconsistent, but half of them spoke like they were all vying to get the perfect soundbite. Plus it added pages just to explore the human element but somehow still managed not to add much depth to any character other than Luo Ji. It's bizarre how many pages were devoted to this and I still barely know any of them.

I loved the actual plot and I think so many of the ideas were beyond creative, but it was just brought down by the weird need to 'but wait there's more!' its way to the next section. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings