Cixin Liu - The dark forest

This is the second book in Cixin Liu's Three Body Problem. I had read the first one back in February. Since then, I embarked on a couple of long books - Kevin Kelly's What Technology Wants and this one. I am yet to finish What Technology Wants. I renewed my loan of that book many times, returned it, and then loaned it again. I will finish it soon though.

I borrowed this book in March, but started reading it on 6th April. For one reason or the other, I was not going to the office this month, so my reading time was really non-existent. I could not hence read this book as I would have in case I was going to office regularly.

Instead, I thought I would extend it's loan. I could not. And so over the past three days, I read this 500 page book.

The book felt a little confusing at the beginning. I wondered about how much words matter as a writer while talking about Murakami, Haruki - Men Without Women.

The other thing I want to talk about is the fact that this is a translated book. Mukarami writes in Japanese. When the book gets translated, is it a Murakami book or is it Philip Gabriel's (the translator) book. How much of craft is lost in translation?
Are stories all that matter? Is the idea all that matters? What about the execution?

I was wondering about this as I started reading this book. The three-body problem is written (translated?) by Ken Liu, this book is translated by Joel Martinsen. When I started reading it, I felt I preferred Ken Liu's translation better. But maybe it was because the story was messy at that time, with too many characters getting introduced.

That problem disappeared as I continued reading. As I got used to the characters.

The Dark Forest provides an answer to the Fermi Paradox. It is a simple answer which lies at the core of this book.

The Dark Forest continues on from the three-body problem where sophons have put a stop to any new advancements in physics, which means humanity is stuck with the knowledge it has and instead has to figure out a way to defeat tri-solaris with that limit.

The sophons can see and record everything so the world comes up with the wallfacers, four people who must come up with a way to beat tri-solaris. They have all the resources of the world at their behest, to come up with a solution. Their work must be carried out in secret, so as to ensure the tri-solarans don't get to know about humanity's actual defence.

There is a lot that happens in this book from here. I would not spoil any of it. I had an inkling of what the solution would be. But the way it was written gave me pause.

The universe may very well be a dark forest.