The Three-Body Problem and The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu (Double Quick Reviews)

 

The quick and dirty:
This is sci-fi at it's best! I am almost done with the last book in the trilogy and I am loving it! These books are absolutely must reads if you are into this genre! I got interested in it by the Netflix series (of course!) but the books blow the show out of the water! 

The Review: 

So the basic premise, and it is dumbed down because the science-y stuff is super dense (don't let that scare you please!). The Earth learns that in 4 centuries (or so) an alien species is going to "visit" Earth. Are they evil or are they going to be friendly? That's the question that really drives the first book through. We sent a signal into space to see if anyone answers, and they do. We aren't sure who they are or what they want, so different factions start to form. Those that welcome the new visitors and those that see them as a threat. Can you guess which group the government falls into? 

There's much more to the story, but that's basically the gist of it. Humanity is no longer alone. The first book, though very science heavy is showing how the human characters are all struggling with so many of the  "human" experiences that would be involved around this new knowledge. It's (in my opinion) both science driven and character driven. 

You learn about the aliens, you learn about why they are in space and responding to our signal. You learn about the people that interact with them and you get a good look at how people would react to such knowledge. It's both interesting and horrifying. 

The Three-Body Problem is an excellent read and a great start to a series. 

Then we get into The Dark Forest, the 2nd book in the series. 

This was a bit more dense with the science and a bit more of a slow read. We find out that the aliens have decided that we aren't worth it, so they plan on taking us out. The chaos that ensues from this is wild! The government tries to prepare and plan their counter-attack. Scientists try to ramp up the development of Earth's technologies. The general public tries to cope with the knowledge that there's a ticking time bomb headed straight for them. It's madness, and it's also pretty compelling. 

The Dark Forest is more about the aliens. You get more knowledge about them, their planet and their plans. It's not revealed completely, but you start to understand just a bit more. This book has almost completely new characters from the first, but they too are also well written and interesting to meet. 

I did find that the middle section (the more science-y heavy ones) did drag just a bit, it was tough getting through but once you made it the last 200 or so pages are explosive! So it is definitely worth it to push through. 

I am loving the 3rd book in the series so look out for my review coming soon. 

So for the first two books, I can say that they are very solid sci-fi reads. They are translated and sometimes I felt like the meaning was lost in the translation, but mostly it was easy to follow the plot (though as I've said a few times already the science-y bits can be a bit heavy) the world building and characters are all well developed and interesting. 

I'm not going to do star reviews, but I will say that is sci-fi is your jam and you haven't already read this series I would say go for it!