The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu (4 stars)

Sequel to the excellent Three Body Problem. Less Chinese history, even more crazy thought experiments. Some serious spoilers ahead.

What would you do if your mortal enemy could observe even your most secret discussions and all strategy was essentially an open book? Humanity comes up with a really novel solution in the form of the Wallfacers and Trisolaris counters with their Wallbreakers. Great stuff.

The Wallfacer Luo Ji is obviously set up to be the real danger, by appearing to do nothing for a very long time.

How are we supposed to know whether or not you have already started work?

The Trisolarans recognise the threat and come up with a super sophisticated assassination method. Meanwhile Zang Beihai is also coming up with his own amazingly complex murder plot to remove opposition to technological research: it involves creating bullets out of meteorites....

The central realization of the book is that the universe is a dangerous dark forest where voices are silenced quickly, which is a neat explanation of the Fermi paradox.

“The universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is an armed hunter stalking through the trees like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without sound. Even breathing is done with care. The hunter has to be careful, because everywhere in the forest are stealthy hunters like him. If he finds other life—another hunter, an angel or a demon, a delicate infant or a tottering old man, a fairy or a demigod—there’s only one thing he can do: open fire and eliminate them.

A very interesting and thought-provoking read.

4 stars