Blindsight by Peter Watts Book Review

 Blindsight 

By Peter Watts 

Hugo Award Finalist

Published Year: 2006 ( Tor Books )

Page Count: 390 pages 

Medium Used: Kindle PW 

Genre: Aliens, Science Fiction, Horror, First Contact, Space Opera, Philosophy, 2026-read. 

Rating: 3.5/5

The narrative didn't make sense all the time. Its not like the author went rambling or anything, its just his sentences failed to drive his point. For the most part though, it felt very engaging and gripping. I had some issues with the overall logic and didn't understand why an evolved species like humans or an intelligent species like the aliens/scramblers do what they do. I have enumerated some of these questions I had while reading down below. The horror angle to the plot .. I felt it initially when humans encounter the ship Rorschach and have an formal dialog with the aliens but later the author has made it mostly about explaining away his theories on consciousness and the nature of these aliens.

 A firefly event occurs in earth's atmosphere which is assumed to be a bunch of alien artefacts taking a snapshot of the globe simultaneously before they disintegrate. Naturally, this piques interest world wide. There are strange theories about the nature of this event which is not equal to an attack. When Earth hears a radio signal coming from a point far away in space, they man up a mission and send it, seeking the first aliens, not knowing the nature of their invitation. What I failed to comprehend here is that when they are sending a mission afar, why didn't they furnish them with a warship or even provide more military capacity? This story happens in the year of 2082 and for centuries, people have been pondering about aliens and first contact and majority of the predictions didn't portray these foreign beings as benign. So it makes sense to be leaning more on the cautious side, right? The narrator goes to great lengths to argue that humans are obsessed with the idea of what consciousness is and display an arrogance that only sentient beings feel, while they largely ignore the point of why consciousness is for. Superb, I liked the arguments but I thought it simply deviated and sidetracked the story. He says that these aliens/scramblers (from ship Rorschach) are highly intelligent,without consciousness and an awareness of themselves. I wondered how the biologist came up with these arguments with so little to base it upon. I mean if they are simply mechanical beings, why did they go hostile? Why were they able to outwit the crew members of Theseus ? These scramblers can manipulate electromagnetic signals, can rewire brains, can read thoughts, can learn new stuff at incredible speeds .. but still they are not aware of themselves?? Is it even plausible? Like a beehive full of bees .. that are so much smarter than us!! 

Anyways, this is the debut novel from the author and it shows. Still it is very heavily suggested as one of the best horror + science fiction novel of all time by many major websites. The premise seems good .. a spaceship with limited weapons facing a alien species with their chances of escape cut off  .. their powers alien, their natures alien, their motives hidden .. even when there is no way for Theseus to outdo the alien ship, they leap forward. I would have liked to see some helplessness and surrender here .. instead of valor and foolhardiness. :)