Blindsight (Firefall, #1)

by

Hardcover, 384 pages

English language

Published March 19, 2006 by Tor Books.

ISBN:
978-0-7653-1218-1
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Goodreads:
48484

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4 stars (3 reviews)

It's been two months since a myriad of alien objects clenched about the Earth, screaming as they burned. The heavens have been silent since - until a derelict space probe hears whispers from a distant comet. Something talks out there: but not to us. Who to send to meet the alien, when the alien doesn't want to meet? Send a linguist with multiple-personality disorder, and a biologist so spliced to machinery he can't feel his own flesh. Send a pacifist warrior, and a vampire recalled from the grave by the voodoo of paleogenetics. Send a man with half his mind gone since childhood. Send them to the edge of the solar system, praying you can trust such freaks and monsters with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find - but you'd give anything for that to be …

2 editions

reviewed Blindsight (Firefall, #1) by Peter Watts

One of my favorite sci-fi novels of all time

5 stars

As someone on Peter Watts' own site is quoted, "Whenever I find my will to live becoming too strong, I read Peter Watts." Reader beware.

I re-read it just recently. This book fundamentally shifted my perspective on my own humanity, and maybe not in a good way. But it did a really good job! I think it took me a few reads to really get a handle on what was happening in the story and that only made the hammer blows of its conclusion stronger.

Has a permanent space on my shelf, except my copy keeps walking out of my house because I lend it out so much.

The author has started giving away this book, available here for free on his own site: www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm

But you might want to consider donating: www.rifters.com/real/donation.htm

Once you've read the book, check out this gorgeous fan-made film: blindsight.space/

reviewed Blindsight (Firefall, #1) by Peter Watts

Give me more!

5 stars

What readers love about AIs is that they often really want to understand humans and thus, observe them closely, and register all their body language signals etc. But we have no idea if an AI would be interested in humans. It's just good for human readers if it does.

In this book, Watts does something similar but without AI: there is this person who's lost half their brain by accident, so in order to understand humans, this person needs to observe them very closely and detect all their signals. Unlike we "normal humans" who get these signals subconsciously, this person evaluates all the signals consciously, right before our reading eyes. This was what I liked the most.

But the rest of the story is absolutely great, too. How the aliens move unseen etc. I really like Peter Watts and damn! Just accept the vampire because it's cool and makes sense …

avatar for DScrimshaw

rated it

3 stars

Subjects

  • Science Fiction And Fantasy
  • Fiction
  • Fiction - Science Fiction
  • Science Fiction - General
  • Fiction / Science Fiction / General
  • Life on other planets
  • Science Fiction

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