Book - The Dark Forest, Cixin Liu (translated by Joel Martinson)
This is the best thing I have read in 2015 to date, the sequel to Three Body Problem. Which, slightly disturbingly, may win a Hugo mainly by harnessing bilateral support from actual science fiction fans and right wing nutters. To be fair, the series is certainly not left wing - it is set in a worse-than-bleak universe where doing terrible things may be the best thing to do. I wouldn't say it was right wing though, because I think we are meant to be horrified by that. However, it is strong on old fashioned plot and has some action, while bursting with ideas. Which is why I voted for it.
This book covers the period after humanity finds out that a fleet of technologically advanced, desperate, hostile aliens is coming in about four centuries from Alpha Centauri to wipe out humanity and colonise Earth. And they have blocked all progress in AI and testing theoretical physics. And they know everything said and everything written or recorded by a computer on Earth.
Genius plan: have four individuals, Wallfacers, tasked with devising deceptive, opaque schemes, who can draw down great resources. It's fairly well done, the way they go about it; even if they do lean rather heavily on mutually assured destruction or running away. I did like the character of Wallfacer Luo Ji, who tried to just live a happy life.
Wildly inventive things: waking up in a world where every artificial surface is a screen and cars fly without propellant in underground cities is not new, but doing so when we were expecting a grim and awful future was a neat change of pace, which did not seem forced. (This fits into the genre of science fiction far enough in the future that a lot of things change technologically, but it is not indistinguishable from magic. And deliberately so).
There is also a lovely piece of misdirection about the Dark Forest of the title. Which is a scarily plausible answer to the Fermi Paradox.
Also a rare science fiction example of the Characters Who Cannot Lie (even when the principle is explained to them).
Bit light on women, this one, especially compared to the first, though they are around in good numbers in supporting roles. Maybe that's why they are so treacherous.
Good points: the book ends with two human warships heading for the stars, having cannibalised their comrades for supplies. The remaining humans on Earth are safe for now due to a threat of mutually assured destruction (and personally I thought Luo Ji was calling for help. Ha). There is however a thread of hope that a peaceful resolution between Trisolaris and Earth is possible. I reread Three Body Problem aftet this, and was reminded that first contact was technically a friendly message (it said Do Not Answer, but still....). The end hit a perfect balance between bleakness and hope.