Blindsight

By: Peter Watts

Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith

Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

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

incredible exploration of personhood

Engrossing depiction of the manifestations of intelligent, technological beings. Both the multifarious versions of us and the astonishingly alien aliens.
This story spawned in me feelings of vast desolation but even more profound gratitude to be the type of thing we are.

Brilliant audio rendition of a brilliant novel

I'm not sure I would have had the brain power to get even the plot of Blindsight solely from listening to it, even twice. But listening to the audiobook after reading the novel slowly, and doing a lot of rereading as I went, was very satisfying. Reading let me figure out what the heck is going on (key plot points are addressed obliquely) and listening let me bask in the atmosphere and vibe of the book. Highly recommended.

I took off one star from the Performance, but it would be more fair to take the star off for editing. There should be more of a pause between sections of the book. As it is, the performance/editing rams these sections together. White space on the page should be a pause in the audiobook. But Smith's performance overall worked very well for me.

Great concepts

The story does a good job of introducing an alien species that is truly alien. The parallels between Siri and Rorshach were a nice touch. It gets a bit goofy towards the end though.

One of my all time favorites

I've both read and listened to this book multiple times (which I probably haven't done with any other book). It is such a good story and makes the reader do a lot of thinking. It probably has done the best job (of any science fiction that I've come across) of representing aliens as, well, actually alien... to the point where the characters have trouble even understanding what they're looking at.

good book, awful voice acting

I want to write more than than the voice acting made it all but impossible to enjoy or get invested in. But. That's really it. Just...not good.

Details

I loved that this author brings you into the story with all the technical sci-fi details.

the complex vocabulary I spent most of the book looking up.

narrator did his best, but had more bass in my speakers than an edm song. couldn't tell too much who was who. I spent 3/4 of the book trying to figure out what was going on since the vocabulary and descriptive process used way above average. I finished it though cuz I ain't no quitter.

Intentionally heavy

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The story was interesting, the technical creations were detailed and the biology tidbits were methodical.

Which character – as performed by T. Ryder Smith – was your favorite?

Favorite character was Yuko, but was it really Yuko?!?

Was Blindsight worth the listening time?

Not sure if this was worth it. I liked the story, plot moved along ok, but such a dark take on everything. The book almost depressed me.

Any additional comments?

There were many times I felt as though the author was making things more complicated than they needed to be. You know when you meet somebody who questions the motives of everybody, or has a really strong opinion about something that just doesn't matter than much? (like, will only eat one brand of cheese because the cows that produced the milk all come from a line of cattle bread from royalty stock 200 years ago). I have a feeling that the author is one of these people. Every single human character in the book had a horrible childhood or other such trauma, and were all damaged. Even though the main plotline was about experiencing alien life for the first time, there was no excitement or optimism, it was all dread and despair. Basically, unless it was intentional, I think the author need some therapy and a hug.

I Concur

Any additional comments?

There are previous reviews written by: James 04-04-09 and Old Hippy 11-17-08. Please read their submissions. I have been reading and listening to SciFi since I was perhaps 8 or 9 years old. Sincerely without bragging, I feel I do know SciFi. (I'm 61 now). This is not for a novice science fiction reader. In my opinion it helps greatly to have the history of many reads and perhaps many years of SciFi to cope. I'm going to look into more of his writings. In other words,,,,"Yeah, it was a good story" ;-)

Half brilliant, half incomprehensible

This book is not your typical first contact book. It has some innovative ideas, but it suffers from stream of consciousness writing, and half the time you don't know what's happening. I think to really get it you'd need to read it twice. But I personally wouldnt take the time to do it. Perhaps it's not suited for an audio book because you'd have to rewind too many times to follow. There is some fascinating discussion of intelligence and consciousness and how they are linked. Many worthy passages but overall the writing is too scattered to deserve more than 3 stars. Great performance, though.