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194 of 198 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Blindsight is STUNNING, October 17, 2006
Let's start with the cool factor, because that's what made me buy this the moment it came out. There's a protagonist with half his brain (the half that enabled empathy, apparently) removed, who makes his living reading other peoples' thoughts and intentions through close observation. Imagine a younger, colder, more focused Sherlock Holmes and then take away the drama queen tendencies, the social skills, and the cozy Victoriana; the part that's left might feel a bit like Siri. There are the intricately damaged altered-brain characters you might expect from Watts if you've read the rifters books. There's the space vampire who out-baddasses every other vampire I've ever encountered in a novel, and I know from vampire books. No gothy romantic hero here -- just a creature who has out-evolved you so thoroughly you can't even get your head around it.
Now let's talk about the ideas. Blindsight takes on the evolutionary benefits of sociopathic behavior, and the ethics of torture, the puzzle of sentience, and what it means to intentionally develop a simulacrum of empathy and conscience (and whether it's worthwhile to do so). These ideas have been explored elsewhere, but I've never seen it done so well. Blindsight isn't *about* aliens or vampires or the future of technology. It's about us: our moral choices, our short cultural attention spans, the mental shortcuts we use so we can function, and what happens when our reach exceeds our evolutionary grasp.
But I must digress, because it probably sounds like I'd describing something dry and obvious and preachy. Didactic fiction drives me up the wall. Heavy-handed exposition and self-important authorial philosophizing will make me drop a book faster than anything but bad dialogue. This book is none of that. Watts packs in so many thought-provoking ideas and so much straight-up SMRT that I'm still blinking, and he does it seamlessly, while keeping everyone in character, and without letting up on the pace at *all*. (I should mention that the book includes something that would, in any other book, be three-page infodump. Watts frames it so skillfully that it serves as an emotional climax instead. I goggle at the skill required to pull this off.)
It's completely engaging from the first page to the last, and it's completely readable. It's not reassuring or fuzzy, but it's not a self-indulgent emo fest either. It's not flawless, but its successes overwhelm its shortcomings. It's very cold, very dark, supersharp, ambitious as hell, intellectually satisfying, and astonishingly light on its feet -- and I stayed up till three am on a worknight to finish it in one eight-hour gulp. If any of that sounds like your thing, buy this book. Maybe if enough of us do so, more publishers will realize that there really is a market for books like this.
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53 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
First Contact story with aliens who are...., November 11, 2006
First of all, you've got to love a novel with footnotes and a bibliography. I just wish I had the resources, not to mention enough gray matter, to ferret them all out, and see if they all exist. Or understand the joke, for those that don't.
Anyway, I digress. Watt's books make you think, and usually not happy thoughts. But it's not a far leap to see the world(s) his characters live in.
I don't think I would have liked knowing any of the characters. But life is like that. I mean seriously, would you live in a building wehere you had neighbors like Seinfeld's? But reading about them (and Lennie and her compatriots) is a toally different kettle of fish.
I learned a lot of biology reading his books. And now, I am willing to add Blindsight to the list of books that I keep in the back of my mind for those times when someone asks, "why do you read that stuff"? Its not just what you learn, and what you think, but also how you feel. Its complicated.
Trust me.
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58 of 66 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Feeds your head, but not your heart, July 6, 2007
If you enjoy intellectual riffing on hard science, esp. neuroscience, anthropology, and/or exobiology, this book will have deep appeal. (And despite the review commenting that the vampire concept was far-fetched, as a physical anthropology major I actually found Watts' concept intriguing and fun. Heck, human travel to the Oort cloud is far-fetched, too, but many authors describe such concepts plausibly. I've never seen anyone pose a compelling "what if vampires had actually really existed" scenario in this way and I found it original. And it's really just one ingredient of the melange of concepts explored in this story.)
If you are a "reader's reader" who loves juicy characters you can care about--nah, you're not gonna find it here. The book does have some *interesting* characters ("freaks" per one negative review, and yes, they are). It has a very good use of suspense to drive the story, but emotionally it doesn't stick to your ribs. It lacks a certain degree of self-deprecating, self-conscious humor. This is a chilled consomme, or an elegant sushi, but not a hearty stew or chocolate cake. It is the first Alien movie (except with Ripley having Asperger's); it is not The Fifth Element or Star Wars.
So, if you're looking for stew, it'll leave you a little hungry. If you're up for some intellectual bedazzlement, you will probably enjoy it.
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