Review: The Dark Forest
This might have more spoilers than usual.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about The Dark Forest since I read it. It follows The Three Body Problem directly. The set up is that the Solar System has to prepare for an invasion by a superior force that will show up in a couple centuries. Forest focuses on a facet of the defense plan that basically empowers 4 selected humans to do anything to defend humanity. Humanity can send people forward in time by hibernating, so these humans can see their plans to fruition. The attackers have access to all Earth actions, but limited understanding of the concept of duplicity.
It’s a set up for a cat-and-mouse thriller and Cixin delivers. There are a lot of twists in the characters’ personal plans and experiences and they held my attention. We get to see how the cultures develop under the threat of future extinction. There are personal struggles and space battles. It’s Cixin doing doing the classic SF thing of turning prosaic big issues into fictional threats to show them to us with fresh eyes. And to show how people react with fresh eyes.
But it gets dark. This is probably one of the three most misanthropic books I’ve ever read.
The rules of the game mean that none of the main characters are going to be paladins, but Cixin is a cold realist. He shows us what people do when they believe they are fighting for the ultimate end. I don’t trust all his physics, but I do believe his depiction of people who believe they are messiahs. And I believe there are many self-appointed messiahs today without an interstellar armada bearing down.
I’m vexed that Cixin seems to stack misogyny on top of misanthropy. None of his potential saviors are women. There are few secondary female characters and all of them are strictly in service of the plot. It seems like one of the four potential saviors might be female, especially given how many women played major roles in the first contact in The Three Body Problem, but nope. I suppose he may be arguing that women would behave better, but I disagree. People are people.
When I discuss misogyny, I’m ignoring the character who exists as an embodiment of one of the potential savior’s imaginary perfect woman. That’s very literal and turns into sexual coercion is a way that disturbed me – and I hope most readers – profoundly. But I don’t think this is blind spot misogyny. I think Cixin is intentionally depicting abuse. I also think he’s being deliberately vague about whether this savior is succumbing to his weaknesses or carrying out a necessary subterfuge to hide his plan from an omniscient opponent. And worse than that, no matter which motivation is real or how they’re mixed, the character still deliberately and methodically harms this woman.
All these saviors’ plans are based on ruthless exploitation of people. Several are charged with Crimes against Humanity when their plans are revealed. But those abstract “acceptable losses” crimes didn’t hit me like the deliberate exploitation of one woman. That’s the point of it.
The themes are dark, but the form is an SF thriller and it’s well done. I think lots of Chandler is dark, too, but they’re great mysteries. And there aren’t many books with an Osama bin-Laden cameo that are blurbed by President Obama.
Strongly recommended.