The Dark Forest

Cixin Liu continues the story begun in The Three-Body Problem in The Dark Forest.  This, the second in the trilogy, takes the story 200 years into the future.  The book picks up where the previous one left off and we find the world planning out how to react to the invading aliens who have total access to our communication & technology.  Realizing that if an idea is never shared it can’t be overheard the UN embarks on a plan where 4 men are given both the extraordinary power to order anything they want done with few, if any, questions and the task of coming up with and executing a plan that will defeat the aliens when they arrive.  The story then follows the actions of these men and the reactions in the world at large.  The world of the time does have hibernation technology so the story is able to jump from its starting point to 200 years in the future with many of the same characters.  The book ends in a very final sort of way which leaves me wondering what lies in store in book 3.

I liked this book just as much as I liked the first and would heartily recommend it, though if you haven’t read the first you will definitely want to get it before trying this one.