Like the sophons, this book ought to be unfolded onto lower dimensions to appreciate. There are more story threads in The Dark Forest than with The Three Body Problem but Liu Cixin still manages to keep all the different threads relevant to the main theme and plot.

It does not appear that way at the beginning and throughout a good majority of the novel. It looks like The Dark Forest will commit that common science fiction sin of rambling side plots that add little-to-nothing to the experience. This is a result of the major theme of the book: dissimulation and its effects on cosmic interactions and purpose in a humane moral framework.

The theme arises simply from where The Three Body Problem left off: sophons are now able to spy on humanity almost completely. The only thing the Trisolarians do not have access to are the thoughts of people. In this manner, the Wallfacer project is born and four people are selected who will plot ways to combat the invading alien fleet without revealing their plans. They are given massive access to resources and little oversight. This project is countered by the terrorist ETO organization sympathetic to the Trisolarians who assign Wallbreakers to deduce the secret plans of the Wallfacers from their actions.

In parallel with this story line, we also follow the establishment of the Space Fleet and an officers' efforts to combat the defeatism that permeates the fledgling military branch.

The idea of dissimulation is carried into the structure of the story. There are critical moments when characters have realizations, but the content of these epiphanies are kept hidden until the character or their corresponding Wallbreaker reveals them. That means that halfway through the book, a character will have a clear understanding of where to go and why, but the reader will not discover this understanding until, say, the final twenty pages. The payoff is satisfying and events leading up to the reveal do help greatly to illuminate this, but this techinque will try the reader's patience and may discourage some who do not prefer this slow-burn method.

If the reader perseveres, they will be met with a nicely wrapped up novel and what would appear to be a resolution to the central conflict of the series. This is somewhat bewildering to me since there is one more book in the trilogy, so I will have to see where the story goes from here. Some early research seems to indicate that the next book will jump from the past to various points during the series to the future.