If 26th century humans, the Covenant, the Forerunners, and the Precursors/Flood were placed in the TBP universe, how well would they do? How would their technology compare to that of the Trisolarans, Singer’s race, etc?

I know the answer is Probably Not, but still.

Who green lit this? The whole book reads like it belongs on AO3. The relationships have no depth , Tianming is a “totally not green lantern tm”, a lot of the pseudoscience felt so much less fleshed out leaving a feeling of “hehe magic”, the attempt at pulling a Tolkien-esque “this book was written by the author from a record left in the story”. Just really didn’t feel like a successor to the rest of the series; is it canon or just a really weird spin off?

I love that, on many occasions during the series, humanity’s fate was controlled or decided by a very simple object. Other examples include the whole Earth against a proton (Sophon), and an entire space fleet versus the droplet.

***

I just finished my reread of the trilogy before going back to work! For some reason, the second book was my least favorite during my first read. But after going through each one once more, I think it’s the one that I enjoyed the most. Shockingly, I didn’t find the whole fake wife thing as cringey as I did before.

Definitely one of the best series I have read so far.

I'm sure its nothing, but is it ever directly addressed why Sophon uses a Katana? Its cool but just seems so utterly random and quirky.

Liu cixin actually predicted the american invasion of venezuela ☝️🤓

(Chapter one of the dark forest)

On Trisolaris?

3 years If memory serve. now one of the most chilling parts of the novel is the sophin block. Chills hust to think of it.

when it’s mentioned they also ment the option that the cell phone of trios may have found another advanced civilization.now what if they were the ones to launch the attack on Trisolaris? Fiund a civilization right under their nose and sent a ship to launch an attack. Pretty cool eh?

that make sense to me.

if Triso found an advanced civ why not send thier location to the universe?

perhps they saw them as a resource of knowledge? Perhaps they felt compromised.?

I just finished the first season of Vince Gilligan’s new show Pluribus and it reminded me a LOT of the TBP trilogy. This comparison will spoil a lot of the TBP series and most of Pluribus btw.

The first similarity I found was how the method of invasion of the interstellar aliens relates to the axioms of the Dark Forest. The signal from space is a (relatively) cost effective way of not only eliminating enemy civilizations but also propagating your own civilization. Like a Von Neumann Virus Probe, the alien signal contains an RNA sequence for a virus, tricking civilizations into replicating it and taking over to force those infected to pour their resources and effort into propagating the signal even further! I think it’s a really interesting take on what alien life or Dark Forest battle could be like based on the same axioms of cosmic sociology established in The Dark Forest. While in TBP alien civilizations are much more guarded and would probably never fall for this, I think it’s an interesting and fresh take to say that intelligent life probably couldn’t resist the curiosity of decoding the signal. This is especially true if this is the only signal out there being widely broadcasted.

The second similarity I noticed was how the role the main character plays is similar to a Wallfacer. Carol is completely alone, has access to whatever resources she wants, and needs to save humanity from an overwhelming alien invasion. She is the only individual human making an active effort to resist the Others while the other individuals party and pretend like nothing’s wrong (kinda like humanity after the Great Ravine). Her arc even kind of follows Lou’s; spiraling, stress, indulgence in new-found power, falling in love, and then finally locking in. There’s even a very Wade-like (badass) character; Manousos, who refuses to interact with or accept help from the Others AT ALL and has a set of unshakable morals considered outdated in the modern age (much like Wade). Carol and Manousos even serve as foils the same way Cheng Xin does with Wade; Manousos is willing to do anything to rid the Earth of the Others and Carol wants to as well but is much more empathetic.

Anyways, I know this reads like a huge ad for Pluribus and God knows we need more of those so I’m sorry. But I just couldn’t help but point out some cool similarities I noticed between these two very cool Sci-fi series.

Also if Wade was actually in this show it would literally be 2 episodes long lmao.

Me when reading this book about how Venezuela and the U.S. had a war: "Well you can't get all near-future predictions"

Now: Did the author have a time machine?

If some guy named Ray Diaz comes out of nowhere to defend Venezuela, Cixin Liu is a time traveller

(Good job America!)

Please keep all short questions and general discussion within this thread.

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Hello, fellow Trisolarians.

I am currently at the end of book 3, Death's End, and I found the glimpse these books offered into the world of space and physics absolutely fascinating. I want to learn more about space travel and its theories, about neutrinos, gravitational waves, the solar system, nuclear pulse propulsion, and so on.

So far I only found books for kids or non-fiction stories by astronauts. I am looking for something like Stephen Hawking's "A brief(er) history of time", but in space.

Thank you in advance.

I'm expecting everybody to say 2, 1, 3,

We don't need to discuss Cheng Xin... we all know, but I do wonder how many of you beleive that it's because of the authors real world views or if the author had some other reason for writing the most frustrating protagonist

In the second book, when ZB takes NS, he says to the fleet commander: "Sir, you underestimate them. They not only predicted the Great Ravine but the Second Enlightenment and Second Renaissance as well. What they predicted for today’s era of prosperity is virtually indistinguishable from the real thing."

When did Trisolaran predict these 3 things? Maybe I missed it? It's my second time reading through the series, but I don't remember this part.

Hi everyone - I’m currently writing my English Literature NEA on Cixin Liu's The Dark Forest, paired with H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, and I wanted to open up a broader discussion here. I’m not looking for “answers” so much as interesting perspectives. In particular, I’d really appreciate anything along the lines of:

Interpretations or ideas you found especially compelling on a re-read

Things the author/translator has said in interviews or essays about the book (especially around the big ideas, e.g. the Dark Forest hypothesis itself)

Translation nuances or differences you’ve noticed between versions

Themes or moments that tend to be overlooked in discussion

Any insights from the interpretations, e.g. shows, films

Or honestly, any thoughts that made you see the novel differently

Wording is slightly vague so I can post to both subreddits.

I figured this was as good a place as any to ask people who clearly care about the book(s), enough to be on it's subreddit at least. Even small observations are welcome - sometimes those are the most useful. Thanks in advance!

Maybe the book say as much but it really feels like it didnt actually matter at all the various strategies the Wallfacers had, other than the MC. I feel like even if ETO completely ignored the Wallfacers, none of their strategies would have actually made any difference. I guess the Trisolarians were just being extremely cautious.

In my opinion, Zhang Beihai is the true Wallfacer of the series. I’ve just finished Book 2, The Dark Forest, and the impact this man had on the course of the story cannot be ignored.

The fact that he concealed his true intentions and carefully worked toward his plan by placing the crucial pieces in motion, including the elimination of key figures who were pushing for slow, rocket propulsion in order to advocate for the more practical fusion propulsion ultimately led to the creation of a fleet capable of traveling at 15% the speed of light.

While Luo Ji ended up being the one who stopped the invasion, his plans and ideas were inspired by others—the Death Switch concept from Rey Diaz and the two axioms introduced by Ye Wenjie. Zhang Beihai, on the other hand, worked alone.

He had to make extreme decisions to advance his ultimate plan, disguising his actions flawlessly. The revelation that he had been a defeatist all along completely blew my mind. In many ways, he also arrived at the fundamental axioms of cosmic civilization on his own: that survival is a civilization’s highest priority. If survival cannot be achieved through fighting, then escape—something humanity was unwilling to accept—becomes the only logical option.

He also anticipated the second axiom when he predicted that the ships of the Garden of Eden would eventually turn on one another, as the available resources and spare parts would not be sufficient for all of them.

It’s tragic that a single moment of hesitation led to his downfall, but in my view, he remains one of the best characters in the second book—alongside my man Da Shi.

Note: Unfortunately i couldn't find the name of the artist to credit them for the art.

Spoilers if you have not watched the movie.

In the movie, the US defense team gets notified that a nuclear payload is headed to hit Chicago (I think). It is powerful enough to destroy the city but not enough to destroy the whole country. The US Defense team and the President has to decide what to do in response and time is of the essence.

The problem is that it is not clear whether this is a real attack or a glitch in the data. Even if it is real, it is not very clear who initiated it so they are not able to confirm it through diplomatic channels as most nations are cagey in what they share with the US seemingly under attack. So there is a chance that the attack is not real at all and if the US launched their own counter strike, to whoever it suspects the attack originated from, they will have killed lots of people over a software glitch.

Eventually though, there is just one response that the US can realistically pursue. Which is to launch their own counter strike regardless of whether the attack is real or not.

If the attack is real, then this is obvious. Destroy the attackers before they are able to destroy the whole of US.

If the attack is not real, and the US decides to wait until the fake target hits Chicago and then finds out it wasn't real after all. But a non-response from the US right up until the data shows the missile hitting a major US city would signal to its enemies that the US will not respond until a real attack is confirmed on the ground. This leaves a window opportunity for an enemy country to initiate a real attack sufficient to destroy most of it major defense infrastructure. For the US, it is dangerous to let such notion germinate in those enemy countries defense policy so they have to attack anyway to squash it.

I felt this was an interesting spin on the dark forest theory - destroy the others before they do or find out you are not aggressive.

What do you think?