The Dark Forest

By: Cixin Liu, Joel Martinsen - translator

Narrated by: Daniel York Loh

Length: 21 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Listen to the award-winning, critically acclaimed, multi-million-copy-selling science-fiction phenomenon.

Imagine the universe as a forest, patrolled by numberless and nameless predators. In this forest, stealth is survival – any civilisation that reveals its location is prey.

Earth has. Now the predators are coming.

Crossing light years, the Trisolarians will reach Earth in four centuries' time. But the sophons, their extra-dimensional agents and saboteurs, are already here. Only the individual human mind remains immune to their influence.

This is the motivation for the Wallfacer Project, a last-ditch defence that grants four individuals almost absolute power to design secret strategies, hidden through deceit and misdirection from human and alien alike. Three of the Wallfacers are influential statesmen and scientists, but the fourth is a total unknown.

Luo Ji, an unambitious Chinese astronomer, is baffled by his new status. All he knows is that he's the one Wallfacer that Trisolaris wants dead.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2015 Cixin Liu and Joel Martinsen (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Critic reviews

'A unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, politics and history, conspiracy theory and cosmology.' (George R.R. Martin)

'Wildly imaginative, really interesting... The scope of it was immense.' (Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States)

A refreshing take on the 2nd Book.

Many people claim the other famous reading has a narrator which butchers Japanese accents even to the point of it being racist. Whilst I never took it this hard, it certainly was a special pronounciation style which lent itself to being slightly stereotypical (this IMO however isn’t so bad for an audiobook, it helps in understandability). However, this young sir right here does an amazing job of narrating the story differently - with a (I must say) amazing, deep, wonderful voice which really adds to the dramatism and sadness of the whole story.


I would love to hear the whole trilogy narrated by this narrator - but would urge him (ironically, considering what I just mentioned about the other narration available) to listen to what “ez” sounds like in Latin Languages, especially not in Spain but in Latin America (as where the characters in this book which have such last names come from). His pronunciation of Spanish Names is actually IMO about as bad as the Japanese stereotypical pronunciation on the other narration available, but luckily since this detail is far less present on the story (since you don’t hear the names over and over), it probably won’t bother most people. That being said, it got to a point where like I am sure he even mixed Díaz and Chávez a few times (besides practically omitting the Z sound which is key here).

Additionally, in comparison to the other narration, this one has substantially more “chapters” so it’s far easier to revisit. No 8 hour chapters here (thank you…).

Regardless, I am super happy I bought and listened to this version too - it was an amazing experience, perhaps even better than the first time (other narration) and I would certainly recommend this one to any fan who cannot take the other narration style seriously, they probably will find this one to be quite more theatrical yet not any less tragic.


Amazing work please consider doing the full series - would definitely listen to the rest too.

PS: once or twice I noticed a line or two recorded on different takes on what was obviously a different setup - please try to omit this very very tiny mistake next time too - after all, it does take away a bit from the professionalism of what is otherwise a fantastic portrayal of the story.

Also, please add chapter names too - not just numbers (which are greatly appreciated too)

Dark but beautiful

The story portrayed is one of the most deeply horrifying experiences I have had, but in the process of exploring such a world, I found profound beauty within the ugliness of humanity, and started to think beyond the concept of good or bad.

Great narrator and story

The story in this book is stronger than the previous book The Three Body Problem. Daniel York Loh as a narrator is magnificent and I hope we can see his narration of the sequel.

Such a profound book, really enjoyed!

The author has done a great job, personally I felt the story is even better than the first book. Can’t wait to read/listen to the third book!

So much better than the previous part

The story was much better, the writing as well, and I never realized how much an expressive narrator adds (the one who did 3-body was very wooden)

imaginación

gusto por la imaginación y diversidad de acción, mal por ser algo confuso en partes

Excellent

What a phenomenal book and the author’s ability to create narratives and subplots is second to none!

Brilliant

This is a brilliant book I recommend to any sci-fi lover. it's worth every second of listening time.

Very slow paced

on a contrary to the first book, it seemed to me incredibly slow and dispersed. Listening by bits of 15-20 minutes didn’t make sense. Couldn’t even finish 😞