Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Really impressive, cutting-edge science fiction, 5 April 2007
If you like your science fiction hard, deep, and philosophically compelling, you're going to like Peter Watts. Self-awareness, consciousness, communication, ethics, intelligence, and the nature of life and reality are just some of the high-brow subjects Watts wraps into the plot of Blindsight. Eschewing the age-old question of what consciousness is, Watts probes deeper to try and get at what consciousness is actually good for. Obviously, this isn't light-weight science fiction, so I suspect the complete science fiction novice might have a little trouble getting into this book. Sure, there is some great action taking place in a deep-space environment, but Watts' philosophical questions are truly at the heart of this novel.
If you want to get Earth's attention, sending sixty-five thousand objects (dubbed "fireflies") careening into the planetary atmosphere is a pretty darn effective way to do it. All of the objects burn up in flight so no physical damage is done, but this shocking event serves as quite a wake-up call for a now-nervous human race. When, two months later, a distant space probe picks up whispers (in English) from the edge of the solar system, no time is wasted on trying to figure out who is out there and, perhaps more importantly, what its intentions are. An extraordinary crew is assembled to fly out there and investigate: a linguist with multiple, surgically-induced personalities allowing her to process information in four different ways, a biologist almost Borg-like with his machinery-enhanced senses, a pacifist warrior who may or may not be able to accomplish anything if the aliens prove hostile, a synthesist to serve as a conduit of information back to Earth, and a genetically reborn vampire to call the shots. We view all of the action through the eyes of Siri Keeton, who, as a child, basically had half of his brain removed in order to cure him of epilepsy. The operation could be said to have removed the truly human part of his personality, leaving him an analytical being who lives and makes decisions based on algorithms and logic rather than human emotions. In other words, he is the perfect objective observer, and his role as synthesist on this space mission is to observe everything and everybody on the mission and update Earth with information on what is really going on out there - with the aliens as well as the human crew.
The novel quickly becomes a story of first contact with a completely alien race. Initially, the human crew struggles to figure out if the communications they receive from a most alien of vessels identifying itself as Rorschach are coming from actual aliens - or if the ship is empty and the communications computer-generated. Surprisingly, that question doesn't get all that easier when they first encounter the creatures they call scramblers inside the alien ship. These creatures are somehow able to affect the human brain, conjuring up unseen shadows and unbidden emotional reactions, as well as hiding things (such as themselves) in plain sight. And even if the creatures are alive, are they intelligent? Are they even self-aware? The more the crewmen learn, the less they seem to know about these absolutely alien beings. These questions of intelligence and self-awareness eventually come back to attach themselves to Siri and his crewmates, culminating in a pretty shocking series of events and revelations. It goes without saying that this is cutting-edge material.
Basically, Peter Watts' Blindsight is hard science fiction at its best - a little daunting to the sci-fi novice but immensely thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating to the reader seeking something far and beyond a good action-packed story. If there's a weakness in the novel, it's the separation the reader feels between himself and the characters. It is difficult to relate to the crew members (let alone the mysterious aliens who may or may not be sentient). It's even difficult to truly understand Siri, despite the fact we see and learn everything that happens from his perspective. As such, however, the novel is basically about us, human beings, and the way we perceive reality and ourselves. Watts provides us with some remarkable insights in that regard, and that is what makes Blindsight such an extraordinary science fiction novel.
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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great read!, 16 Feb 2007
If you've been frequenting popular SFF message boards lately, you are aware that a lot has been said about Peter Watts and his latest hard scifi novel, Blindsight. The more so since the author has made the book available for free on his website www.rifters.com. Many critics and readers opine that Blindsight should be a sure contender for a number of awards, and few people disagree. In addition, my recent interview with Watts leaves no one indifferent, at least judged by the responses I've been receiving. All of which, in the end, is for the best, for I believe that the more people get to know Peter Watts, the more will give Blindsight a shot. Those who do won't be disappointed, let me tell you!
Whenever I hear the appellation "hard-SF" I'm a bit concerned, because such works habitually require a Science degree or Ph. D. in order to understand what the concepts contained within the novel are all about. Neophytes never know if they'll "get it." Not so with Blindsight, though at times things are not that easy to follow.
The notes and refrences found at the end of the book show what sort of extensive research the writing of Blindsight required. Many claim that Peter Watts is on the cutting edge of science fiction. Be that as it may, although Blindsight is based on science and contains loads of scientific facts and jargon, the book also tackles enough philosophical issues to make it truly stand out from the other scifi works out there. As such, that makes Blindsight a demanding but utterly satisfying read.
The permise is traditional: First Contact with an alien race. Typical, you say? Not so, at least beyond that premise. Watts has many surprises up his sleeves, have no fear. The presence of vampires alone should pique your cusiosity.
I found Watts' cast of characters rather unique. When I originally read the blurb, I wondered what the hell it was all about. A linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into four separate, sentient cores. A biologist so interfaced with machinery that he's barely human anymore. A pacifist warrior. A Synthesist with half his brain gone, there to act as a conduit between the mission and Earth. And a vampire to command them all. I found the story to be well-crafted and interesting, but it's the characterizations that really make Blindsight such a good reading experience.
Some readers have complained that the book is too "talky." I beg to differ in that regard. There is a panoply of facts and information that needs to be conveyed to the readers through the dialogues between the different characters. Otherwise, had this simply been part of the narrative, it would have been info dumping in industrial quantity, which in turn would have turned Blindsight into a sluggish and uneven read.
Kudos to the author for maintaining the omnipresent "don't know what will happen next" feeling throughout the novel. Flashback scenes similar to the ones found in Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora help flesh out events and characters. Again, that prevents the "real time" narrative from being filled with too much info.
All in all, if you are looking for a fascinating and thought-provoking book, Blindsight is definitely for you! And with a second printing on the way, you should have no problem getting your hands on a copy. Some say that Blindsight should capture the Hugo Award next year. Well, I wouldn't be surprised if it does. . .
[...]
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A new dimension of alien difference, 16 Aug 2008
At the dawn of humanity there was a human sub-species which liked to feed off us. A supreme predator, 100 IQ points smarter than us, we drove it to extinction at the onset of agriculture. In the high-tech world of the near tomorrow, there is competitive advantage in using such beings in certain ... leadership roles. And so with paleogenetic engineering, we brought them back. Meanwhile, the AIs have transcended the singularity, baseline humanity is basically useless and those few humans who still have a role are very ... different.
The aliens announced their presence with two to the sixteen kinetic missiles which entered the atmosphere on a global grid. No-one was hurt, but the flashbulb was ideal for imaging. The AI-ship Theseus is sent to make first contact. Its crew are altered and its captain a certain top-predator.
There is a style of SF writing deriving from pulp detective novels: laconic, dry, matter-of-fact, jokey. Think Richard Morgan or Greg Egan. Peter Watts does dialogue well and he's pretty good at high-tech descriptive writing too. Only occasionally was I conscious that I had not got a good picture of a ship scene, or the relative position of Theseus and the alien artefact.
Plot development was also not bad. Contact novels have a problem of tempo: by definition the reader starts -with team-human - in knowing essentially nothing about alien morphology, motivations, capabilities, technologies, intentions. Inevitably, increase in knowledge takes time and the interest-level can sag. Blindsight is not immune from this effect, but there is always enough going on to encourage the reader to persist in the middle section of the book.
Watts is both incredibly smart and well-educated. He weaves a lot of advanced concepts into the plot: advanced propulsion technologies, artificial intelligence, nanotech, genetic engineering, neuroscience and consciousness studies. Without introducing plot spoilers, the crux of the novel is centred around the nature and rationale of consciousness itself. Watts has managed to find another, orthogonal dimension of alien difference.
Blindsight does not avoid the traditional problems of concept-heavy SF. Towards the end, there are chunks of the novel which are indistinguishable from an article in New Scientist magazine. But Watts manages to keep the story on the rails and delivers a suitably bleak conclusion.
It is possible to imagine a further final polishing of this novel which integrated expository material more organically into plot development and produced a more compelling account of the final redemption of the main protagonist, Siri Keeton.
I read the whole thing in a few intense hours. I really think, though, that this is a novel it's essential to read twice. It's rare and rewarding to encounter something which has passion and humour behind it, which radiates intelligence and which is happy to assume the reader is educated and smart too. More, please, Mr Watts.
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