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Jan 25, 2012

mark rated it:

what is Consciousness? how did the silly human race evolve beyond the herd instinct, beyond our reptile brain? how, and why? what is the purpose of our individuality, what is the need for our sense of self, what use is Human Connection, why are we even equipped with Empathy? for some naive, kinda-sorta spiritual folks (like myself), these things explain the existence of God. but that's rather besides the point of the question. does empathy help us in the long run, does the ability of humans to c More...

10 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jun 01, 2010

Greg rated it:

You know you're in for trouble when the dedication of the book says:

"If we're not in pain, we're not alive."

One of the quotes before the novel starts is:

"you will die like a dog for no good reason"

And the quote that starts the first chapter is one by Ted Bundy!

But still, it's a sci-fi book about consciousness...how could I not love it?

-----------------------------------------

I've always loved More...

9 comments like (22 people liked it)

Aug 23, 2008

Ben rated it:

This is a great science fiction book. Smart and entertaining with a great cast of characters. In my mind, this book ranks up there with the classics like Rendezvous with Rama, The Mote in God's Eye, and Gateway. Watts is incredible and is on his way to being one of the new great science fiction authors.

3 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jul 18, 2008

Kristjan rated it:

I was really intrigued with this story. There was a lot of concepts that I enjoyed exploring, such as the idea of human consciousness being up loadable into a computer system (obviously separating our psychic nature from our biological machinery). This sets the stage for the author to present his ideas about the relationship between intelligence and consciousness (which I generally associate with defining individuality or ego) in a first contact story very similar to how Space Odyssey 2001 re More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Rob rated it:

...I absolutely tore through this book. An utterly fascinating read; well-done in both its science and its style. Watts makes some clever choices in structuring his narrator (and consequently, the narrative) without it coming across as a gimmick or some other bit of contrivance. So we have this faithful guide working in our favor and a good entry point for the story.

And then he slowly unfurls idea after idea that link together into a shillelagh to bash your brain in. At one moment ne More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 28, 2009

Richard rated it:

Wow. Excellent review here (complete spoiler, though).

Blindsight is an excellent sci-fi novel on several fronts. We've got a meaty and complex apocalyptic aliens-arrive story; Watts somehow manages to make us care about his highly dysfunctional cast of post-human misfits, and then he comments both on the very deep philosophical issues of consciousness as well as indirectly on the problem of the Singularity.

Précis:

The moderately near future. Technology has fractured the na

More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Wealhtheow rated it:

Really interesting, chock full of ideologies, debates, and fascinating new technologies. It's great scifi. The only problem is that I completely disagree with the main premise of the book, which turns out to be that sentience is in fact a *problem* rather than Our Specialness. It's a cool twist to the usual first contact with alien life scenario, but unfortunately it makes no sense to me. I just don't get it. Yeah, a consciousness means that you second guess decisions and are slower to make them More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Alex rated it:

I'm still having a hard time figuring out what I think about this book. I don't believe that it is well written, but I also don't believe that it is a bad book. Let's start with the first one. I've had a brief note up here for a while about this book that pretty much defines why I don't think it's well written. Take a look at this quote:

"There have always been those tasked with the rotation of informational topologies, but throughout most of history they had little to do with in More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2011

Jenne rated it:

Okay, I gave this book TWO second chances because I had heard great things about it, but I eventually gave up.

It's certainly a gutsy choice to have a person with no empathy as your main character, but it's pretty hard to get readers to care about someone who has only a vaguely intellectual interest in other people. Especially if the story is told in the first person by this character.
So as a result, we know that one guy is a vampire, and another guy has some kind of prostheti More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Mike rated it:

Watts writes stuff steeped in hard- and plain-whacked- science. At times he's channeling journal articles as well as Alfred Bester--it caroms from pulp to cog-psych theory and can jar. (He also writes like he found Camus too sunny, and sought here to make amends.)

But a blast. Works as a revamped (ahem) version of the first-contact story. Aliens intrude at the edges of space, and a misfit team sent to greet them. Communication confounded, conflict inside the human craft, and trou More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Jun 09, 2008

Jesse rated it:

So I read a lot of science and speculative fiction. and a lot of it is crap, more or less. Peter Watts is obviously very smart (and has a Ph.D. to back it up - oooh, scary) but is only a marginally gifted storyteller. Blindsight raises a lot of interesting questions about our self-perception (as individuals and as a species), about xenophobia and about our penchant for projecting ourselves into every situation, but the characters all felt contrived and the story doesn't really unfold so much More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Ferret rated it:

Wow... that as a pretty intense book. The characters were all insane, the setting was extremely complicated, and the stakes were huge. I still can't quite process the ending. But I do know that even though it was intellectual heavy-lifting to work my way through the book, I enjoyed reading it. I don't necessarily advocate science fiction as heavily pegged to modern science as this one was in all cases, but hard science fiction has its pleasures, and this was a beautiful extrapolative work of har More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 16, 2009

Hien rated it:

This is a dark first contact story. The gold standard in first contact story for me used to be The Mote in God's Eye. I would have to say this is now my new gold standard. This book falls in the hard sci-fi genre. Diamond hard for sure. Some people may find all the techno lingo a bit off-putting. If you're a fan of hard sci-fi then you'll love it.

The aliens in this book are so utterly alien in both biology and psychology as to be almost incomprehensible. It raises some interesting qu More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2008

Michelle rated it:

Dark and thought provoking SF - grim first contact scenario. A crew of five (and their cryo-suspended replacements) are sent on a foolhardy mission after the Earth is surprised by alien scouts. Waking up confused, 15 AU off course, the crew members are hard pressed to comprehend the aliens (or their intentions towards humans). Weird stuff, like extinct vampires re-constituted from DNA (think Jurassic Park), surprisingly works. Watts is excellent at describing concepts, SF tech, and alien ships & More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 25, 2010

La pointe de la sauce rated it:

'By now you don't experience the world as it exists at all. You experience a simulation built from assumptions. Shortcuts. Lies.' - Blindsight

I realized that this is the book that reignited my research into metaphysics and I hadn't even bothered writing a proper review on it... and I still can't because it is the most hard hitting sci-fi I've EVER read and I wouldnt want to destroy the experience for anyone planning on reading it.

What I will discuss though is one of th More...

11 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 10, 2008

Mark rated it:

It's very soon after my read of "Blindsight". I'm still sort of mulling the concepts about in my head. There's not a lot of action in this book. It's a "hard" science fiction novel with some deep philosophy mixed in for taste. I liked it because it made me think about my preconceived notions of mind/body/soul, the interaction between them, and what constitutes "sentience". However, it's not what I'd call a casual read. It's well written, I suppose, but it's no More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 29, 2008

Kim rated it:

I read this book entirely online (http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.h... ) during down time at work (don't tell my boss).

Wow. This was definitely a wow book. I loved the characters. Every single one of them was incredibly interesting. In the not-so-distant future, a small group of mental freaks is sent out to the edge of the solar system to investigate a possible alien presence. The narrator, Siri, underwent a hemispherectomy as a kid (had half is brain removed) and as a re More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 15, 2008

Keith rated it:

First contact stories are a staple of science fiction and it is a pleasure to read one that is different. This book isn’t an easy read as it is densely written, is dependent on serious science, does not include large ‘info dumps’ to explain everything and explores assumptions we have about ourselves and how we think that are not, at least for me, easy to interact with. That said, it is a dark, almost brooding, tale set in the future with aliens that are nothing like us in physiology, psychology, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 23, 2007

Beldon rated it:

Peter Watts' web site contains a rather unusual quote on it's main page from James Nicoll, "Whenever I find my will to live becoming too strong, I read Peter Watts." Peter himself says he doesn't consider himself pessimistic, but merely "follows the data."

This book, like his others, is firmly based in present-day science with sensible extensions woven in where necessary for extrapolation. A marine biologist by training, he admits to having a had a lot of help writin More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2008

John rated it:

Here's another very dark SF story from Peter Watts. It has a complicated backstory that is dealt with in an appendix (and online), but vampires have been genetically re-engineered from ancient genes. Mentally and physically superior to Homo sapiens sapiens, but physiologically enslaved by them, the vampires serve as councilors to humanity. That's all an aside, however, as the main plot deals with the discovery of an alien intelligence hiding in the Oort cloud around our solar system. A team is s More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 11, 2011

Ricardo rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Dec 28, 2008

Lightreads rated it:

Yes, it is not quite as good as I’d been told, but orders of magnitude more brilliant than anyone had conveyed. Which statement will be very puzzling to anyone who hasn’t read the book, but just take my word for it: it makes perfect sense. And yes, this book will deservedly win this year’s Hugo, if the rumblings are right. Sorry, Temeraire, you’ll have another shot, I’m sure.

So. The actual review. Summarizing this book is quite difficult without being far too parsimonious or far too More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 05, 2012

Endre rated it:

I read Blindsight Christmas 2010, before my purchase of an ebook reader reinvigorated my reading, and did not know quite what to make of it at that point. After mulling over it for some time, I am not sure I get why many people are so excited over it. The overall story, concepts and themes are not especially original, and suffer slightly from weak descriptions (especially in the world-building category) and an erratic plot structure that lead to the suspension of disbelief necessary for science More...

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Nov 18, 2011

Patricia rated it:

Along side the human race live vampires - humanoids who became extinct during the Pleistocene era and have been resurrected by modern science. Their predatory habits are kept in check, but their special DNA and vast intelligence aids humanity as it ventures into space.

On Feb. 13, 2082, a shower of lights fills Earth’s sky. The media dubs them Fireflies. They prove to be a signal from an alien source. An exploratory ship is prepared and sent to search for its origin. A crew assembles More...

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Oct 30, 2011

Elf rated it:

Peter Watts's Blindsight is, without a doubt, the most important science-fiction novel written in the past 20 years. No other novel written recently comes close to matching Blindsight's attempt at prescience. Most science fiction novels are either fantasy (see: Iain M. Banks, David Weber, or me), or are books about the present (see: Charles Stross, William Gibson). Only Peter Watts has attempted to talk about the future in a meaningful way, and Blindsight is the novel that does that better th More...

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Jul 21, 2011

Alan rated it:

The benchmark by which all first contact stories should be judged

I first read this book a while ago and recent conversations with a friend triggered me into reading it again. It blew me away the first time and it blew me away again on a second read. Honestly, I could read this book several times and get more from it on every go.

Peter Watts’ knowledge of biology is excellent – he has a doctorate in Marine Biology – but it doesn’t stop there. His knowledge and exploration of bi More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 15, 2011

Mel rated it:

Voted #4 Sci-fi/Fantasy Book of the Decade by tor.com, Blindsight is an imaginative and thought-provoking book. Peter Watts has invented possibly the most alien race I've ever read. He also engages the reader in a thorough, yet agnostic philosophical discussion on what it means to be human. What does it mean to be intelligent? What does it mean to be self-aware?

The story is told by Siri Keaton, a man with half a brain. As such, the first 50 pages or so read like the "Benjy" More...

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Apr 21, 2011

Ian rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 18, 2011

Kevin rated it:

This is going to be another weird book for me to review, since it's available free online at the author's website here, and so people can check it out at no cost.

I was reminded of Blindsight this morning because of an article I read online regarding Darwinian reasons that might underlie the Fermi Paradox: the essential problem of "If there are alien civilisations, why haven't we detected them?"

Blindsight begins with a meteor-shower all over the world, which is u More...

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Apr 16, 2011

Tom rated it:

If you read a book because its thought provoking rather than entertaining, then you'll probably enjoy this. Me? Even when I read hard sci-fi (this is about as "hard" as sci-fi gets)- I'd like there to be at least one character that I can identify with... at some level. Not one to be found here.

Thought experiments seem to be the main endeavor in this story (ever hear of the Chinese Room experiment? Neither did I before reading this. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_roo... More...

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