Review of Blindsight

[bluegargantua]

Hi,

So I just finished up Blindsight by Peter Watts.

It's very, very good.

It starts off as a "hard science" sci-fi book about First Contact.

It turns into a tense horror story.

It ends with a disquieting meditation on what it means to be human. Seriously, I'm very creeped out about myself right now.

It has an afterward that describes the hard science used in the book and it's loaded with footnotes on a broad range of interesting topics. The amount of reasearch that went into this book is impressive.

Although it has nothing to do with the Cthulhu Mythos at all, I had a much more palpable sense of "I am staring into the face of an unknowable, uncaring, god-like being", than most of those books.

So, highly recommended. kadath, lucasthegray, mikecap and woodwardiocom, should really enjoy the hell out of this. oldest_song will not only enjoy it but as the author is a marine biologist, she'll probably be in geek heaven when they describe the biology.

But yeah, really slick, creepy hard-sci-fi.

later
Tom

Comments

[lucasthegray.livejournal.com]

you spelled my username wrong. :P

[bluegargantua]

I was referring to your British doppleganger.

You'd probably like it too.

later
Tom

[lucasthegray.livejournal.com]

It does sound like a book I would enjoy.

[methanopyrus.livejournal.com]

Sounds so fascinating and mouth watering.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

-Wishlisted, thankee.

[kadath.livejournal.com]

You realize young adult dark fantasy books give me nightmares, right?

[bluegargantua]

These aren't really "boogey-man jump out scare you" nightmares, these are more "stare at the ceiling late at night pondering whether your existence is nothing more than a cruel sham" kind of nightmare.

Y'know...like being a teenager, but with science to back it up.

Tom