Reviews

Blindsight by Peter Watts

howardgo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Originally published at myreadinglife.com.

This is a book that I have heard about from time to time over the years. It is described as a superb hard science fiction novel that explores philosophy and what it means to be human. That tends to be my favorite kind of science fiction. And with all the high praise for this book, I was excited to read it. Perhaps the reviews were a little overdone for me.

The story is one of first contact with a limited cast of characters. It takes place hundreds of years in our future where all of those on the mission are enhanced in some way, physically. The ship is also a character being a sentient AI. They are sent to encounter a large object nearly the size of Saturn. When they arrive, they find some sort of ship in orbit around the object. The bulk of the novel is their attempts to communicate with and figure out what exactly it is.

The writing is a bit too much hard science. I read this on an ereader and was glad for it. I had to look up the meaning of many words to understand them. The context did little to help with that. The story is also told in a manner that made it feel almost a little confusing to me. I got the main thread but couldn't help but feel like I missed a lot. That said, it really delivered on the philosophy and the human condition. Overall, I enjoyed it.

My rating: 3.5/5

ultraviolett's review against another edition

4.0

Back to my Dawkins, hard-materialist, beauty in lack of life days. A page-turner, and a unique take on what we are, and what life is, and what life should be. One star removed for being a little opaque and technical at times.

luckywitch's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

andreacpowers's review against another edition

4.0

I had a problem with the dense prose. I had to re-read many paragraphs. But smart stories are rare and I appreciated it for existing.

aido_potato's review against another edition

4.0

The most amazing part of Blindsight was its orginality. I’ve read so many science fiction books and this one really did surprise and interest me at almost every turn. I’ll be thinking about many of the ideas and characters in this book for a long time. That being said, even for a philosophical sci-fi this could be dense. I also sometimes felt like the action scenes were confusing and not clearly written, unlike the beautiful prose of the more introspective passages. My biggest gripe was that this book was almost never fun which I like my books to be. All together a 5 stars on the brain scale and a 3 on the heart so 4 overall.

niccith's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

penguin_emperor_of_the_north's review against another edition

4.0

That wasn't depressing per se. More sobering and thought provoking. And while it was good I don't know that I enjoyed reading it because it's rather dark and a downer.

Also, it uses a lot of technical language that I didn't understand. So it was sometimes slow going since I had to go search google frequently. Certainly edifying though.

It deals with a First Contact expedition sent to contact an alien vessel in the outer reaches of the solar system after the 'Fireflies' showed up in Earth's atmosphere. And a significant part of the plot revolves around learning to communicate with the aliens and discerning if they're even alive or just constructs and if the difference matters.

And while I'm reasonably certain that the ending reveal does not apply to real life I'm also as aware as the author is that that's based on a single data point. So there's a new idea that'll be living in my head rent free for the next few weeks.

ryanrask's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

boomflynn's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No

3.5

iguanasaur's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5