Blindsight

By: Peter Watts

Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith

Set in 2082, Peter Watts' Blindsight is fast-moving, hard SF that pulls readers into a futuristic world where a mind-bending alien encounter is about to unfold.

After the Firefall, all eyes are locked heavenward as a team of specialists aboard the self-piloted spaceship Theseus hurtles outbound to intercept an unknown intelligence.

©2006 Peter Watts (P)2008 Recorded Books LLC

Compelling modern hard sci-fi

I really enjoyed this one...a lot...really refreshing

It's a dense, demanding work. Watts, a marine mammal biologist, requires that the reader keep up and isn't afraid to put out a term or concept without spoon-feeding. Given his background, he's covering the areas of intelligence, consciousness, language, etc from sort of a neuroscience perspective (which can have a bit of a different feel than some of the classic physics-driven hard SF)

As can happen with hard SF sometimes (Clarke is a good example) the plot itself can be more of a scaffolding for the exposition of speculative concepts...so I think plot-driven reading isn't the best way to approach the read (not that there isn't a plot, just if you focus on the plot, you miss the goods and can misunderstand the pacing..the pacing and "payoff" is in the concepts, not the plot)

After about - Oh 1,200 or so audiobooks I'll say this one really refreshed the medium for me (not so much in production style, which is fairly typical, but in the writing and the type of attention you have to give this work)

It's a different type of read - but well worth it and I enjoyed it greatly
Really some fresh air

Brilliant

One of the best books I've yet to listen to. Watts puts the Science back into Science Fiction without sacrificing the story. His characters are singular and engaging. Great narration.

Haunting,Brilliant, Hard (Would-be Classic) Sci-Fi

What did you love best about Blindsight?

Finally! A well-written, inventive, smart, hard science fiction novel written by a scientist on the cutting edge of neurobiological/linguistic thought. Peter Watts clearly takes delight in the well constructed sentence. I thoroughly enjoyed this audio-book as a perfect mix of literature, action/mystery novel, and thought-provoking, lucid explanation of cutting edge science. Blindsight was a great "read"--exactly what I Iook for in SF as an information scientist and long-time science fiction aficionado. It will be apparent to you, too, that Peter Watts is exceptionally well read. (Dorothy Parker would have become an SF fan had she read Watts!) Watts reaches for the stars in this book brimming with novel thoughts and entertaining writing.

just wow!

I've listened to about 150 audio books. Of those, I've only re-listened to six or so. I'm now on my fourth listen for this one. Of all of the books I've re-listened to, this is the only one that I keep getting more out of with each listen. I almost passed on it because of the vampire thing. However, Watts makes it work. As others have said, this book is high concept and requires full attention. That being said, it is not dry and stuffy or heavy handed. I think about concepts in this book more than any other I've read in years. According to Wikipedia, Watts is working on two additional books set in the same universe. I really hope there are audible versions and T. Ryder Smith narrates.

'I'm going to put a vampire in space...'

'...but, I'm going to make him a side character and not give him any plausibility. Readers will spend the whole story waiting for some deeper meaning and purpose to the lone fantasy character I threw into this science fiction but never get any satisfaction.'

Try and get Red Dwarf out of your mind, I dare you.