I just finished reading The dark forest after struggling through Three body problem but ultimately finishing it.
I can’t shake the feeling that this amazing story should’ve been something like Bradbury’s Marsian chronicles: a set of related but disconnected stories that introduce an interesting “what if?” concept.
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And I’m not just talking about the characters, the common critisism of the book, in fact, I enjoy plot-driven tales over character-driven ones. The problem for me is that most of the parts of the bigger picture are connected in such a disjointed way, that they read like a fanfiction of itself.
Examples (I never remember names so forgive me for not using them):
>!The main character in TDF coming up with a fictional girl he falls in love with and then finding her irl? Great short story, but I swear, their imaginary dates and him describing how her hair tickel his face take more space than the Solar System masscre later in the book.!<
>!The Wallwatcher project (not sure how it was translated into English) and how four of them dealt with the power they got. Great short story idea! But in this bigger book, it felt like the author didn’t know what to do with the two surviving ones so they “wander off supporting each other like an old couple”!<
>!The main character waking up in this super advanced city of the future and finding out the city itself is out to get him. Super exciting! Oh, wait, he just runs away into a village, never mind.!<
>!The several spaceships that survived the massacre in space and escaped, forming a new branch of human civilization, but soon realising they had to destroy each other for resources? Great concept, doesn’t add much to the bigger story. !<
Finally, the dark forest concept itself. I swear, when I read the last what? ten pages I felt cheated. You could’ve written a nice short story based on this! Why start with the Chinese Cultural Revolution? It was completely unnecessary and I’m sure turned off a lot of readers who didn’t make it to the second book.
It’s all very Bradburian, I enjoyed the mini concepts, but I’m torn about reading the third book. Is it worth it? Should I read it in English?
by chuvashi