The Dark Forest
<p>John Durward and John Trenchard are two Englishmen who join a company of Russian doctors, nurses, and orderlies working on the Russian side of the Eastern Front at the height of World War I. Durward, the primary narrator, is a detached and seemingly-objective observer of events; his friend Trenchard is a dreamy, clumsy, and naive man whose fiancee, Marie Ivanova, is serving alongside him as a nurse.</p> <p>The narrative follows the unlikely group as they are embedded in the Front, treating casualties and cholera victims while dodging shellings and enemy ambushes. At first the group seems to get along well enough, until Semyonov, a dark, charismatic, hyper-masculine doctor in their company, sets his romantic sights on Ivanova.</p> <p>As the medics desperately try to fulfill their duty among the brutal backdrop of the war, their intricate relationships become the centerpiece of a complex emotional narrative that winds through the dark forest, a symbol of the confusing shadows that can lie between even two people bonded by wartime.</p> <p><a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/hugh-walpole">Walpole</a> served in the Russian Red Cross on the Russian-Austrian front during World W
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about The Dark Forest
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Second in the Three-Body Problem trilogy. Knowing the Trisolaran fleet will arrive in four hundred years, the UN appoints four secret Wallfacers to plan defenses no enemy can read. Astronomer Luo Ji is the most reluctant.
Yes. The Dark Forest (2008) is the second book in Liu Cixin's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy and assumes you have read The Three-Body Problem. The series is heavily serialized.
Liu Cixin's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy has three books: The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death's End. Several novella collections expand the world.
The Dark Forest is 316 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Dark Forest takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
The Dark Forest is a standalone novel by an unknown author, not part of a series.
The Dark Forest is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.