the snowflake project

Blindsight by Peter Watts

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

In an attempt to show us what the word “alien” really means, Peter Watts successfully alienated his audience. (Or at least he alienated me.)

While I’m familiar with some of the ideas behind the post-human picture he paints, I had a very hard time relating to any of the characters or caring about any of them. On top of that, the aliens are so completely alien that I failed to fully comprehend even the little bit that we’re told about them.

To be fair, it’s likely that post-human society (if/when it emerges) will make us all more or less unrecognizable to ourselves – which is what Watts is trying to get across. And it’s also as likely as not that if there is extraterrestrial life, it’s so different from us on a fundamental level that we may not even recognize it as life at all. These things are all true – but I’m not sure they make for good fiction.

Kudos to Peter Watts for researching and writing a very interesting book. I fear that its audience will be limited by its lack of human content.

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I use Goodreads to manage the books I read. I have an ever evolving “to read” list there, and I sort it by average rating, reading the highest rated books first. That way I’m always reading something that comes highly recommended by its audience.

I’ve started up a book club of sorts (aka a group) on Goodreads, and my idea is to have people in the group reading books chosen by the same methods all at the same time. Anyone can suggest a book to be voted on to the list, but only the top books will be read. If you want to participate, join Goodreads and my group: Put the Best Book Forward.