The Dark Forest review

I just finished The Dark Forest, book 2 of the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy.

Rating: 3/5

My feelings about this book are very similar to the first part of the series, and that’s no surprise since the story maintains the same tone. I really like the survival puzzles proposed by the story and how humanity reacts and adapts to (maybe) solve them. This book, since it happens a few centuries later, also shows us a possible future for humanity. It was cool to see the new technology and how it affected society.

But like the first one, it has too much text, and in this case is even worse because the book is longer. The fact that this happens in a more international environment reduces the footnote reading that polluted the first book (for a European reader at least), but the amount of scenes in this book that have very little impact in the overall plot is just too much for me. Some of these scenes are interesting on their own, but the more the book advances, the more these scenes become void.

But then, like in the first book, the overall plot and story are so enigmatic and the puzzle humanity faces is so complex that it leaves the reader wanting more. And so I had to finish the story, even though I almost leave it multiple times, and I will have to read the last book.

Overall, I can see how many people love it, but it hasn’t clicked for me.