A dark forest. A whisper. A frightening choice.
Are We Alone... or does something evil this way come?
A dark forest. A whisper. A frightening choice.
Imagine stepping into a vast forest at midnight.
No stars. No moon. Just trees, endless, black, and silent.
You take a step. A twig snaps beneath your boot.
Somewhere, deep in the dark, something hears, and it begins to creep closer, hunting you in the dark.
That’s the terrifying fear behind the Dark Forest Theory, one of the most chilling ideas in all of science fiction: that the galaxy is teeming with life, but every civilization is hiding. Not because they're shy... but because they’re frightened.
The logic is brutal. In a universe with finite resources, any unknown intelligence might be a threat. So, every species learns the same rule: if you make a sound, your entire species might be obliterated.
Liu Cixin popularized this theory in The Three-Body Problem, but echoes of it go back decades. Fred Saberhagen’s Berserkers imagined ancient AI death machines exterminating life wherever they find it. In Greg Bear’s Anvil of God, aliens don’t just lie, they manipulate language and perception so thoroughly, you never know who you’re truly speaking to... until it’s too late.
It’s a terrifying thought. Maybe we should stop broadcasting. Pull the plug on the satellites. Hide our light.
But here’s the problem: it’s far too late.
Even if we shut off every transmitter, we still leave fingerprints across space. Our cities radiate heat. Our industries alter the atmosphere. Our satellites reflect light. Even life itself, breathing, moving, metabolizing, broadcasts energy into the void.
And yet… still we hear nothing.
Maybe the galaxy is silent.
Or maybe it’s noisy, and we simply can’t hear.
Think about this: if you lived in 1750, the air around you could be flooded with signals: radio, television, GPS, encrypted data, microwaves, cell phone calls. But you wouldn’t detect a single one. Not because they’re not there. But because the tools to perceive them hadn’t been invented yet.
Now consider this: we may be living in that same ignorance today.
The universe might be brimming with conversation, filled with alien music, news, games, even greetings. We’re not being shunned. We’re just in the galactic equivalent of the Stone Age, straining to play symphonies with two sticks on a rock.
And what happens when we finally tune in?
We might find cold silence. Or we might make contact, dozens of new voices, new minds, new friends. Civilizations that have waited millennia for someone else to say hello.
Not all forests are deadly.
Some are full of fireflies, laughter, and welcome lanterns swinging in the dark.
We just have to learn to listen.
Until next time,
BA Gillies
Author of Return to the Galaxy
Addendum – A Personal Note from Me
Exactly two years ago, on the 19th of July 2023, I wrote my first ever word of fiction since leaving school. I had no formal training, no experience, just a lifetime of reading and a head full of stories. One month and two days ago, on June 17th, I launched my very first novel, Return to the Galaxy.
Five days before launch, disaster struck. Due to a glitch in Amazon’s software, the book was deleted. I lost nearly 100 preorders. Two years of work, planning, and hope, gone in a moment. I thought it was over before it had even begun.
But then something extraordinary happened.
You. My subscribers, my readers, came to my rescue. You bought the book in droves. You left reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. You told your friends. You preordered Reach for the Galaxy before Return had even finished downloading. You turned disaster into triumph.
Now, thousands have read Return to the Galaxy or are reading it on Kindle Unlimited. The book has passed 100 reviews and, at the time of writing, currently holds a 4.5-star rating on both Amazon and Goodreads. Hundreds of readers have already preordered Book 2, Reach for the Galaxy, which launches on July 29, and the preorders are rising rapidly.
Ewan Scott might be the hero of Return to the Galaxy… but you are the heroes of this story.
Reviewers have said things on Amazon that I never dared to dream:
“The best newly published sci-fi I’ve read since Heinlein’s death.”
“Not Scalzi’s Old Man’s War—better.”
“Feels like Foundation reimagined. Gillies could be the next Asimov or Herbert.”
I don’t agree, but I would like them to send me some of what they’ve been smoking or drinking!
I am so grateful. Your trust and support mean more than I can say. Because of you, I will keep writing. I will keep pushing to craft stories that are bolder, sharper, funnier, more exciting, and hopefully even more unputdownable.
To say thanks, and to celebrate my 2-year anniversary as a writer, I’ve added my newest short story, Wild Women and Fast Horses, to both BookFunnel and StoryOrigin. You can download it for free. It’s just my way of saying thank you so much.
And one last reminder: if you preorder Reach for the Galaxy and send me your receipt, you’ll be entered into a draw to become a named character in Book 4.
My younger brother Brendan entered. He said if he won, he wanted his character to be named Admiral Von Picklebottom.
Somehow… I don’t fancy his chances.