Read the first chapter of The Dark Forest, the much-anticipated sequel to The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, coming out on August 11th.
Chapter One: Year 3, Crisis Era
Distance of the Trisolaran Fleet from the Solar System: 4.21 light-years
It looks so old.…
This was Wu Yue’s first thought as he faced Tang, the massive ship under construction in front of him, bathed in the flickering of electric arcs. Of course, this impression was simply the result of countless inconsequential smudges on the manganese steel plates of the ship’s nearly completed body, left behind by the advanced gas-shield welding used on the hull. He tried unsuccessfully to imagine how sturdy and new Tang would look with a fresh coat of gray paint.