刘慈欣《黑暗森林》书评盘点 [美国媒体]

Cixin Liu’s The Dark Forest Review Round-Up

刘慈欣《黑暗森林》书评盘点



Blogger:Chaos Horizon

作者：混沌视界
（本文是博主为2016年星云/雨果奖作分析预测）

Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem was something of a surprise Hugo winner last year: a Chinese language SF novel that came out very late in the year (November), and then rapidly grabbed a Nebulas nom and a Hugo win. There are a lot of things going on in the case of The Three-Body Problem. Ken Liu translated the book, and he brought with him his Hugo/Nebula credibility (3 prior Hugo nominations, 2 wins; 8 prior Nebula nominations, 1 win). That brought eyes to The Three Body-Problem, and once people starting reading Liu’s book, they found a highly original novel ranging from Cultural Revolution to an alien invasion to a massive human computer to a ship being cut apart by microfilaments to the unfolding of an elementary particle. Three Body-Problem also benefitted from the great 2015 Hugo controversy—it was the book most acceptable to all parties, and enjoyed the support of the Rabid/Sad Puppies in beating out The Goblin Emperor.

刘慈欣的《三体》可以说是去年雨果奖的大黑马，这本中文科幻长篇小说在年底时（11月）推出，迅即拿下星云奖提名和雨果奖奖杯。《三体》获奖本身有很多可细掰的。小刘干翻译的同时也贡献了自己雨果奖/星云奖的光环（历史上3次雨果奖提名，2次获奖；8次星云奖提名，1次获奖）。这份光环替《三体》吸引了不少眼球，一旦人们开始阅读起大刘的作品，就会发现这是一本高度原创的小说，包含了文/革、外星入侵、大规模人体计算机、微丝切割轮船、以及基本粒子展开等元素。《三体》同样从2015雨果奖的大分歧中获益，其本身最能被各方接受，也最终获得了疯狂/悲伤小狗们【疯狂小狗/悲伤小狗，分别是2个右翼团体，其宗旨是抵制科幻届因政治正确而照顾女性和有色人种作家获奖】的支持从而击败《哥布林皇帝》【Katherine Addison着】。

In many ways, though, it wasn’t a fair fight. Cixin Liu is a sensation in China, and these books are considered some of the best Chinese SF of all time. It’s no surprise that the best Chinese novel of the decade is better than the American/British novels of any given year. Perhaps the Hugo is truly becoming a world SFF award, and that would certainly change the face of future nominations.

从诸方面来看，这算不上一次公平决斗。大刘在中国是轰动人物，而《三体》系列被认为是中国科幻史上最佳作品。史上最佳中文科幻小说胜过某年的任意英美科幻小说毫不奇怪。也许雨果奖正成为真正的世界级科幻奖，或将彻底改变未来的提名作品的面貌。

All that aside, let me state this: if Three Body-Problem could win last year, its sequel The Dark Forest could win this year. The same circumstances (and even voters) that created last year’s Hugos are still in place: could Liu be the compromise choice two years in a row?

除此之外，请允许我提出以下观点：既然《三体》去年能获奖，其续作《黑暗森林》今年也可能获奖。造就去年雨果奖的大环境（甚至票选人）仍保持不变，那大刘能否连续两年成为妥协之选呢？

The Dark Forest picks up where The Three Body-Problem left off. Mild spoilers follow. The Tri-solarians are on their way to Earth, and the humans now have a several hundred year period to prepare. In many ways, The Dark Forest is a more conventional novel than Three-Body, insofar as it has more of a main character and a more unified plot. Many readers will like that, although I missed the sheer exuberance of the giant set-pieces. Liu doesn’t do away with those entirely, and by the time you’ve finished The Dark Forest, you’ve seen some truly memorable SF moments, including the idea of the Wallfacers, the concept of the Dark Forest, and a murderous teardrop. I won’t say more for fear of giving away too much.

《黑暗森林》紧接《三体》结局，以下有轻微剧透。三体人正朝地球袭来，人类尚余几百年的时间备战。从诸方面来看，《黑暗森林》比起《三体》更像是一本常规的小说，有着更主要的人物和更一致的剧情。许多读者会更喜欢这点，而我则更怀念前作庞大的桥段所展现出的勃勃生机。大刘也没完全放弃这一点，当你读完《黑暗森林》的时候，你会看见真正令人铭记的科幻瞬间，包括“面壁者”的创意，“黑森”的概念，还有杀人无数后的泪滴【双关】。我不能再多说了，怕剧透太多。

Sequels are always at a disadvantage on the awards circuit. Since not everyone has read the first novel, your potential audience is cut down. There’s also a sense of “This author just won, let’s give someone else a chance.” Liu’s biggest competition might be Ann Leckie this year, so the sequel-disadvantage is in play for both of these books. That’s why Uprooted or Seveneves has a chance to sneak in.

续作往往在评奖过程中处于不利一面。因为不是所有人都读过前作，潜在的读者数就被削减。还有人有“那个作者刚得过奖，给别人个机会啦”的想法。大刘今年最大的竞争对手是安·莱基【她的《辅助性正义（Ancillary Justice）》获2014年雨果最佳长篇科幻小说奖】，他们两人今年都面临续作劣势的问题。这就是为什么《无根落木》【暂译名，Naomi Novik着】和《七チ》【暂译名，尼尔·斯蒂芬森着】有机会偷袭成功的原因。

In terms of nominations, I think Hugo and Nebula nominations for The Dark Forest are likely. Cixin Liu was one of the most talked about SF authors last year, and more and more readers are checking out his work. More readers = more award chances, and we know that the Hugo and Nebula voters tend to be repetitive. It’s hard to fill out a 5 spot ballot; most SFF voters just don’t read 5 new novels a year.

就提名规则来看，我认为雨果奖和星云奖都很有可能提名《黑暗森林》。大刘是去年最受议论的科幻作家之一，越来越多的读者关注他的作品。更多的读者等于更大的获奖几率，众所周知雨果奖和星云奖的票选人往往重叠。要填满5个提名的选票挺难，多数科幻小说票选人不会一年读5部新作品。【雨果/星云奖投票规则简介：两奖评奖机构的注册会员各自有票选资格，按照5个提名作品的喜爱程度依次排序，每轮结算是否有作品得票超过半数，是则该作品获胜；否则淘汰当轮得票最少的作品，首选被淘汰作品的选票向下分流至次选作品，依次类推；可以填写少于5个提名的选票，当填写的前若干个作品都被淘汰，则该票视为弃权；如投票进行到最后一轮仍无作品超半数选票，则该奖当年轮空。】

In terms of metrics, The Dark Forest is doing pretty well. In late October, Goodreads is at 1,617 ratings and a 4.48 score. On Amazon, we’re at 116 ratings and an outstanding 4.7 score. Those score are very high, showing that those who read The Dark Forest have really liked it. That’s inflated because it’s a sequel (if you hated the first novel, why read the second?), but high scores are always better.

从度量指标来看，《黑暗森林》做的相当不错。10月末，Goodreads书评网有1617个评价平均分在4.48，亚马逊网则有116个评价，平均分达到傲人的4.7。这是相当高的分数了，表明读过《黑暗森林》的人真的喜欢。因其是续作，打分略有夸大（如果不喜欢第一部何必再读第二部呢），但高分总是好事。

The Dark Forest                  《黑暗森林》

Published August 11, 2015    出版日期2015年8月11日

About the Book:          读者书评【以下为书评链接】

Amazon Page               亚马逊用户书评  之二

Goodreads Page            Goodreads书评  之二  之三

Cixin Liu doesn’t have much presence in English-language social media. Rather than hurting his chances, I think this might help in the charged 2015-
2016 awards environment: Cixin Liu seems totally removed from the various controversies of the Hugo awards.

刘慈欣在英语社交媒体的出现率并不高。与其说损害了他得奖机会，我认为更游刃有余于2015-2016热闹纷呈的评奖氛围：大刘似乎完全避开了雨果奖的纷争。

Mainstream Reviews:        主流媒体书评【以下为书评链接】

Publisher’s Weekly          《出版者周刊》

Kirkus (starred review)   《柯克斯评论》

Denver Post                   《丹佛邮报》

Not great mainstream coverage—no articles in NPR, NY Times, etc. That might be because The Dark Forest is a sequel. Liu does get a variety of pieces on why you should read him in general. For instance, The Washington Post ran an article on “Why you should be reading Liu Cixin, China’s hottest SF writer”; NPR has a similar piece on “Cultural Revolution-Meets-Aliens: Chinese Writer Takes on Sci-Fi.” Chaos Horizon is still trying to parse through how much this kind of mainstream coverage helps your Nebula/Hugo chances: it seemed to help VanderMeer win the Nebula last year. I’m less certain if it helps in the Hugos.

没有主流媒体的较大覆盖率，没有文章发表在美国国家公共电台、《纽约时报》等。可能是因为《黑暗森林》是续作。总体来说大刘的确获得了不少推荐文章，比如《华盛顿邮报》的文章《阅读中国最热门科幻作家刘慈欣的理由》；美国国家公共电台也有篇相似文章《当文/革遇上外星人：中国作家呈现的科幻》。混沌视界【博文作者】仍尝试分析主流媒体的覆盖率能多大程度上提升获雨果/星云奖几率，似乎曾有助于范德米尔【2014年星云奖最佳长篇小说获奖者，获奖作品是《遗落的南境》三部曲的第一部《湮灭》】赢得去年的星云奖。我不太肯定是否对雨果奖有帮助。

SFF Reviews:                        科幻小说书评【以下为书评链接】

Tor.com                               TOR官网

Barnes and Noble SF Blog      巴诺书店科幻博客

SF Signal (5 out of 5 stars)    科幻信号（星评：5/5星）

That’s actually pretty thin: no online review at Locus yet, no Book Smugglers review (they gave Three-Body Problem a 10 out of 10), no Strange Horizons, etc. Maybe these venues are just a little bit behind on reviewing the book—that happens often when sequels. When people know they’re going to read a book, they might wait until later in the year, or even after the Hugo/Nebula noms, to read something. In fact, I’m afraid that’s happening more and more with the Hugo packet. A reader may say, “Cixin Liu is sure to make it, I’ll just wait for my free copy.” At some point, that attitude will cost someone a Hugo nomination.

确实挺单薄的：尚没有Locus的网评，没有“走书者”的书评（给了《三体》10/10分），没有“奇异视界”的书评，等等。也许这些舆论阵地有点落后于本作的书评，对续作来说挺常见。当人们想要阅读的时候，常常拖到年底，甚至在雨果/星云奖提名之后才开始阅读。事实上，恐怕随着雨果奖礼包的出现而越来越常见。读者可能会说：“大刘一定赢，我就等着看免费版。”从某种程度上说，这种态度会毁掉某人的提名。【雨果奖组委会会邮寄当年雨果奖提名作品的电子版给注册会员，以供其阅读并据此投票，因为免费故称之为雨果奖礼包】

WordPress Reviews:      WordPress书评[博主所属的大型博客综合网站，以下为其他博主的书评链接]

Relentless Reading (4.5 out of 5 stars)
For Winter Nights
Novel Gazing Redux
Simon McNeil
Finding WordPress reviews of The Dark Forest was surprisingly hard. It doesn’t look like a lot of my fellow WordPress bloggers have read The Dark Forest yet. The book came out in August, so it’s been a few months. Maybe this one is in the pile of “too read”–sometimes reading a sequel isn’t as pressing as reading a new book. However, if everyone takes this “wait to read it attitude,” that would hurt Liu’s chances. Readers seem to have liked the book, some more than The Three-Body Problem, some less.

找寻WordPress的《黑暗森林》书评出奇地难。看来很多WordPress博主们都还没读过《黑暗森林》。本作是8月面世，到现在有几个月了，估计把本书归置在“待读”的书堆里了。有时候读续作不如读新作那么紧迫，然而，如果所有人都持这种“不急着读”态度，或许会伤害到大刘的获奖几率。读者们似乎挺喜欢本作的，有些人更喜欢《三体》一点，有些人相反。

Overall, I feel worse about The Dark Forest‘s chances now, after seeing how few people have reviewed his book. I’ll keep checking in to see if this picks up.

总之，看到如此少的人给出书评，我开始有点担心《黑暗森林》的获奖几率了。我会不断关注书评量是否有提升。

My Take: I didn’t like The Dark Forest as much as The Three-Body Problem, which was my favorite SFF novel of 2015. Maybe my expectations were too high. Don’t get me wrong, The Dark Forest is still a good novel, with some very memorable set pieces and ideas in it. It just has less going on than the first novel, and lacks the constantly frantic, over-the-top energy of Liu’s initial vision. If it makes any sense, The Dark Forest is a better novel but a worse book. It may have better characters, a smoother plot, and a more accessible feel, but it lacks the monumental vision of The Three-Body Problem. Still, I think many readers will prefer The Dark Forest to The Three-Body Problem for exactly those reasons. I’ve long since made peace with the idea that my reading tastes are eclectic. 8 out of 10.

我的看法：相比我2015年最喜爱的科幻小说《三体》，我不太喜欢《黑暗森林》，可能是期望值过高的缘故。但请别误会，《黑暗森林》仍是一部佳作，有着几处十分难忘的桥段和点子。只是相比第一部有些许不足，缺乏前作展现出的持续的疯狂过火的能量。这么说吧，《黑暗森林》是一本更好的小说但是一本更糟的书。或许有更好的人物，更流畅的情节，更引人的感觉，但缺乏《三体》那种高屋建瓴的视野。但是，我想多数读者会因前述原因而更喜欢《黑暗森林》。我早就接受了自己中庸的读书品味。评分：8/10分。

So, will The Dark Forest make it back to back Hugo wins for Liu? Will the Nebula voters want to play catch up and give Liu the award? Will too many people put off reading the sequel?

那么，《黑暗森林》能为大刘赢下背靠背的雨果奖吗？雨果奖票选人会紧跟形势而奖给大刘吗？很多读者会推迟阅读续作吗？