Blindsight (Hardcover)

by Peter Watts (Author) "IT DIDN'T START out here..." (more)
Key Phrases: accretion belt, Susan James, Amanda Bates, Jukka Sarasti (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Canadian author Watts (Starfish) explores the nature of consciousness in this stimulating hard SF novel, which combines riveting action with a fascinating alien environment. In the late 21st century, when something alien is discovered beyond the edge of the solar system, the spaceship Theseus sets out to make contact. Led by an enigmatic AI and a genetically engineered vampire, the crew includes a biologist who's more machine than human, a linguist with surgically induced multiple personality disorder, a professional soldier who's a pacifist, and Siri Keeton, a man with only half a brain. Keeton is virtually incapable of empathy, but he has a savant's ability to model and predict the actions of others without understanding them. Once the Theseus arrives at the gigantic and hideously dangerous alien artifact (which has tellingly self-named itself Rorschach), the crew must deal with beings who speak English fluently but who may, paradoxically, not even be sentient, at least as we understand the term. Watts puts a terrifying and original spin on the familiar alien contact story. (Oct.)
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From Booklist
Sf's best visionaries have played out the ever-popular theme of alien first contact in so many different ways that fresh variations are now in short supply. Yet Watts manages an entirely unique approach in this mind-bending novel. In 2082, with utopia waiting just down the electronic pipeline in a virtual domain called Heaven, Earth experiences the sudden shock of a baffling extraterrestrial visitation in the form of bright probes that surround the globe. Within days, the lights vanish, leaving only a faint signal of outbound communication near the Kuiper belt. Possessing few clues about the aliens' culture or intentions, scientists dispatch an unlikely exploration team that includes a linguist with multiple-personality syndrome, a cyborg biologist, and a spectral captain whose genetic code incorporates vampirism. Watts packs in enough tantalizing ideas for a score of novels while spinning new twists on every cutting-edge genre motif from virtual reality to extraterrestrial biology. Watts' fifth, finest, most-fascinating book. Carl Hays
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; annotated edition edition (October 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765312182
• ISBN-13: 978-0765312181
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #118,660 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

136 of 138 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blindsight is STUNNING, October 17, 2006

By	Erin Kissane (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

35 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First Contact story with aliens who are...., November 11, 2006

By	QuicksilverHg (Harrisburg, PA) - See all my reviews

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.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Feeds your head, but not your heart, July 6, 2007

By	Richard A. Loftus "reader, doctor, writer" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.