Blindsight by Peter Watts is a book that will make you question fundamental things about the nature of consciousness, reconsider what first contact with aliens could mean, and is also an incredible journey out into the dark of the stars to get to the big reveal!
Published in 2006
Brent: 4 stars. An compelling idea about how consciousness can work, unbelievably alien first-contact, and a thinker in so many good ways. Some bits feel a little clunky, but just take the ride and it will all come together in the end.
Cody: 5 stars. A complex narrative about extraterrestrial encounter and imagined human bio-modification that packs big revelations. One of those books that forever alters how you think about something, in this case, the possibilities of alien life, and humanity’s core existential drives.
Here's the setup:
Aliens have taken a snapshot of the entire earth, down to 1 meter of resolution - we know because they lit the entire sky on fire to do it. Then, we detect something out at the very edge of the solar system sending a signal - but not to us. The signal is being sent out, into deep space, to another planet, or to something already on the way to Earth.
A ship is dispatched with a crew of five - including two technical specialists who have been biologically and technologically enhanced, a soldier, a resurrected vampire who interfaces with the ship AI to lead the crew, and our protagonist, Siri Keaton, whose job is to understand the specialists and translate their insights for the people back home. What will the crew find waiting for them, out in the darkness between the stars?
Hugonauts' Thoughts:
Everything about the book is geared to make the big reveal just about the best we've ever seen. From the narrative style, to the technical details, to the extremely-well-paced drip of new information, it all combines to prepare you for what is coming; to make the complex revelation hit you with an intuitive and immediate hammer.
When you get to the climax, you have all the information you need to understand how it impacts the characters, the plot, and what it suggests about the very nature of consciousness - without any of that having to be explained because you've already got all the tools you need. As a good example of this, the sections of the book we liked the least (somewhat cringey flashbacks to Siri's relationship with his girlfriend) ended up feeling much better after the climax, because it turns out even those chapters were helping to build toward the conclusion.
It's also hard science fiction in the absolutely best way. The book is chock-full of incredibly interesting (and scientifically valid) ideas that could easily be the basis for entire novels, but are just casual parts of the world building. It is complicated, but you also don't need to look anything up if you don't want to. It's like a Christopher Nolan movie (the good ones, anyway) - if you just let it wash over you, it all comes together in the end.
It’s also pretty scary! Bears mentioning. Reminiscent of ‘Space-Horror’ classics like Alien in this way.
If you like hard sci-fi, first contact, or philosophical books - this one is for you.
Related Books
If you loved this one, you might also like:
The Dark Forest - Cixin Liu
The sequel to Cixin Liu's Three-Body Problem packs idea after idea after idea, culminating in one of the coolest (and scary) theories to answer the Fermi Paradox that we have ever read.
Children of Ruin - Adrian Tchaikovsky
Sequel to Children of Time, Children of Ruin follows the uplift of a new a creature, the octopus. Spiders, humans, and octopuses attempt to fight a threat to all life in the universe, in one of the coolest biologically-driven scifi ideas ever.
The Mote in God's Eye - Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
Spacefaring humanity of the far-future discovers a strange new alien race, and begin their quest to communicate with them. An incredibly novel idea of an alien civilization that is totally believable, and a fun mystery for the reader.
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