ALC Review: The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin, trans. by Joel Martinsen, Narrated by Jess Hong
- Story Eater
- 14 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Release date: 8 July 2025
Rating: 5/5
Narrator: Jess Hong
Original Chinese release: May 2008
US Release: 11 August 2015 (Tor)
UK Release: 11 August 2015 (Head of Zeus—indie publisher!)
Synopsis: Read the award-winning, critically acclaimed, multi-million-copy-selling science-fiction phenomenon – now a Netflix Original Series from the creators of Game of Thrones.
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.
Review
I first heard of Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past series in early 2024. I can't say now whether I heard of it through an advertisement for Netflix's (then) upcoming adaptation, the first season of which aired in March 2024, or from some cooler-than-I book nerd. I do remember that, when I read the synopsis, I immediately wanted to read it.
I absolutely love SFF stories from other countries and languages, and Liu's series, along with Kim Sung-Il's Blood of the Old Kings were two of my favorite reads for 2024. The Dark Forest is one of my top reads of 2025. I'd like to hold out and listen to whatever narration Macmillan Audio produces for Death's End by another cast member, but I'm not sure I can wait that long to finish the series.
I still have not watched it on Netflix.
I'm finding on my audiobook journey, which started earnestly in 2023, that audiobooks (which count on TBR's as finished just like an eyeball read) narrated by cast members of film/television adaptations sound amazing (see also Pike/Wheel of Time and Serkis/The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, for just two other examples).
I listened to Rosalind Chao's narration of The Three-Body Problem and now Macmillan Audio has released a recording of The Dark Forest narrated by Jess Hong. Hong's range for characters and emotive narration blew me away. Tense moments had my whole body tightly wound. Anticipation tied my stomach in knots. Moments of emotion held my attention captive over all of my other activity. I hope Hong decides to narrate more books in the future.
My thanks to Macmillan Audio for the ALC, for which I willingly give my own, honest opinion.
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