From the Bookshelf of Metafilter…
Find A Copy At
Group Discussions About This Book
No group discussions for this book yet.
What Members Thought
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Earth is flashed by some alien presence and a mission is sent out to figure out who's out there. Working in the mission's analysis department is the narrator who is sort of autistic—he's empathically stunted due to childhood brain surgery to cure his epilepsy. Leading the mission is a vampire psychopath who's a lot more interesting, but we only get tantalizing (and bloody) glimpses of what his inner life is like. The rest of the crew are assorted misfits and cannon-fodder. They stumble upon the
...more
An interesting "first contact" story. The nearest comparison I can think of is Lem's "The Invincible." There's some unusual elements, mainly just the vampire, but they were worked into the sci-fi framework rather well, and the universe was consistent. I will say that the science aspects were actually researched, and if some of it was a stretch, at least it was a justified stretch.
...more
...more
Really interesting exploration of sentience and whether this trait is an evolutionary offshoot and not necessarily a good one either. The story it hangs on is pretty standard, but I actually prefer that here as the book's main thrust is bigger and more complex, so it makes sense to drape it in a pretty standard "gang of freaks from Earth have to go out to make first contact" story.
...more
Deliciously creepy in a plausible, well defined hard sci-fi way.
Apr 13, 2011
fellowhuman
marked it as to-read
