- Gebundene Ausgabe: 384 Seiten
- Verlag: Tor Books; Auflage: annotated edition (1. Januar 2005)
- Sprache: Englisch
- ISBN-10: 0765312182
- ISBN-13: 978-0765312181
- Größe und/oder Gewicht: 20,3 x 14,7 x 3,3 cm
- Durchschnittliche Kundenbewertung: 5.0 von 5 Sternen Alle Rezensionen anzeigen (2 Kundenrezensionen)
- Amazon Bestseller-Rang: Nr. 403.115 in Englische Bücher (Siehe Top 100 in Englische Bücher)
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Blindsight
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Produktbeschreibungen
From Booklist
Sf's best visionaries have played out the ever-popular theme of alien first contact in so many different ways that fresh variations are now in short supply. Yet Watts manages an entirely unique approach in this mind-bending novel. In 2082, with utopia waiting just down the electronic pipeline in a virtual domain called Heaven, Earth experiences the sudden shock of a baffling extraterrestrial visitation in the form of bright probes that surround the globe. Within days, the lights vanish, leaving only a faint signal of outbound communication near the Kuiper belt. Possessing few clues about the aliens' culture or intentions, scientists dispatch an unlikely exploration team that includes a linguist with multiple-personality syndrome, a cyborg biologist, and a spectral captain whose genetic code incorporates vampirism. Watts packs in enough tantalizing ideas for a score of novels while spinning new twists on every cutting-edge genre motif from virtual reality to extraterrestrial biology. Watts' fifth, finest, most-fascinating book. Carl Hays
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Pressestimmen
""Blindsight" is fearless: a magnificent, darkly gleaming jewel of a book that hurdles the contradictions inherent in biochemistry, consciousness, and human hearts without breaking stride. Imagine you are Siri Keeton. Imagine you are nothing at all. You don't have to; Peter Watts has done it for you." --Elizabeth Bear, author of "Hammered"
""
"Peter Watts has taken the core myths of the First Contact story and shaken them to pieces. The result is a shocking and mesmerizing performance, a tour-de-force of provocative and often alarming ideas. It is a rare novel that has the potential to set science fiction on an entirely new course. "Blindsight" is such a book." -Karl Schroeder ""Blindsight" is a tour de force, redefining the First Contact story for good. Peter Watts' aliens are neither humans in funny make-up nor incomprehensible monoliths beyond human comprehension -- they're something new and infinitely more disturbing, forcing us to confront unpalatable possibilities abou
""
"Peter Watts has taken the core myths of the First Contact story and shaken them to pieces. The result is a shocking and mesmerizing performance, a tour-de-force of provocative and often alarming ideas. It is a rare novel that has the potential to set science fiction on an entirely new course. "Blindsight" is such a book." -Karl Schroeder ""Blindsight" is a tour de force, redefining the First Contact story for good. Peter Watts' aliens are neither humans in funny make-up nor incomprehensible monoliths beyond human comprehension -- they're something new and infinitely more disturbing, forcing us to confront unpalatable possibilities abou
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3 von 4 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Format:Taschenbuch
The "alien contact" angle has been done and overdone to exhaustion. Yet it remains one of the central topics of Science Fiction. Watts manages to put a new spin on it.
In the late 21st century, a great number of alien spy probes visits Earth. Their mothership remains outside of the Solar System. Humanity first sends a number of robot probes to find that ship, and when they fail, a manned expedition is sent on their way. The crew is pretty much non-human itself, but after all during the 21st century views on what it means to be human have changed a lot. Cyborgs and genetically altered beings are the new humanity. Unenhanced human beings could never carry out a mission that leads them beyond Pluto's orbit. Still, what the crew discovers is weird beyond their comprehension.
Not only does Watts paint a plausible picture of future human development and a kind of aliens I have never seen before, he also raises questions about the nature of consciousness and what it means to be human. Not only does he base his book on solid science, he also manages to take the liberties an artist needs and deserves to make his writing gripping, and presents his profound thoughts in an entertaining way. Not only does he paint three-dimensional characters and a convincing plot, he also has a dark writing style and a talent to write a thriller that kept me turning the pages and staying up late. Not to mention the humor.
If some aspects of the book are not entirely convincing (the aliens' physiology, or his obsession with vampires), I can gladly attribute them to artistic liberties.
I emerged from this book with a lot of new thoughts and ideas in my head. And I was thoroughly entertained reading it. Awesome!
In the late 21st century, a great number of alien spy probes visits Earth. Their mothership remains outside of the Solar System. Humanity first sends a number of robot probes to find that ship, and when they fail, a manned expedition is sent on their way. The crew is pretty much non-human itself, but after all during the 21st century views on what it means to be human have changed a lot. Cyborgs and genetically altered beings are the new humanity. Unenhanced human beings could never carry out a mission that leads them beyond Pluto's orbit. Still, what the crew discovers is weird beyond their comprehension.
Not only does Watts paint a plausible picture of future human development and a kind of aliens I have never seen before, he also raises questions about the nature of consciousness and what it means to be human. Not only does he base his book on solid science, he also manages to take the liberties an artist needs and deserves to make his writing gripping, and presents his profound thoughts in an entertaining way. Not only does he paint three-dimensional characters and a convincing plot, he also has a dark writing style and a talent to write a thriller that kept me turning the pages and staying up late. Not to mention the humor.
If some aspects of the book are not entirely convincing (the aliens' physiology, or his obsession with vampires), I can gladly attribute them to artistic liberties.
I emerged from this book with a lot of new thoughts and ideas in my head. And I was thoroughly entertained reading it. Awesome!
5 von 8 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Format:Taschenbuch
Der beste Science Fiction Roman der letzten 3 Jahre (sogar besser als Accelerando von Stross). Watts hat nicht nur alle wichtigen Artikel zur theory of mind gelesen, sondern sie zu einem plausiblen Ganzen verknüpft. Die Handlung wird aber nie durch den stabilen wissenschaftlichen Unterbau ersetzt, sie erlaubt vielmehr profunde Einsichten in die Abgründe der Psyche der 5 Protagonisten. Aus der Lektüre geht kein Leser unverändert hervor, die Sicht auf die Welt und das, was wir als Menschen darin erreichen können, hat sich für mich tiefgreifend verändert.
Schade, dass die Juroren für den Hugo einem amerikanischen bias unterliegen, dieser Roman hätte ihn unbedingt verdient.
Schade, dass die Juroren für den Hugo einem amerikanischen bias unterliegen, dieser Roman hätte ihn unbedingt verdient.
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203 von 207 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Blindsight is STUNNING
18. Oktober 2006
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
Let's start with the cool factor, because that's what made me buy this the moment it came out. There's a protagonist with half his brain (the half that enabled empathy, apparently) removed, who makes his living reading other peoples' thoughts and intentions through close observation. Imagine a younger, colder, more focused Sherlock Holmes and then take away the drama queen tendencies, the social skills, and the cozy Victoriana; the part that's left might feel a bit like Siri. There are the intricately damaged altered-brain characters you might expect from Watts if you've read the rifters books. There's the space vampire who out-baddasses every other vampire I've ever encountered in a novel, and I know from vampire books. No gothy romantic hero here -- just a creature who has out-evolved you so thoroughly you can't even get your head around it.
Now let's talk about the ideas. Blindsight takes on the evolutionary benefits of sociopathic behavior, and the ethics of torture, the puzzle of sentience, and what it means to intentionally develop a simulacrum of empathy and conscience (and whether it's worthwhile to do so). These ideas have been explored elsewhere, but I've never seen it done so well. Blindsight isn't *about* aliens or vampires or the future of technology. It's about us: our moral choices, our short cultural attention spans, the mental shortcuts we use so we can function, and what happens when our reach exceeds our evolutionary grasp.
But I must digress, because it probably sounds like I'd describing something dry and obvious and preachy. Didactic fiction drives me up the wall. Heavy-handed exposition and self-important authorial philosophizing will make me drop a book faster than anything but bad dialogue. This book is none of that. Watts packs in so many thought-provoking ideas and so much straight-up SMRT that I'm still blinking, and he does it seamlessly, while keeping everyone in character, and without letting up on the pace at *all*. (I should mention that the book includes something that would, in any other book, be three-page infodump. Watts frames it so skillfully that it serves as an emotional climax instead. I goggle at the skill required to pull this off.)
It's completely engaging from the first page to the last, and it's completely readable. It's not reassuring or fuzzy, but it's not a self-indulgent emo fest either. It's not flawless, but its successes overwhelm its shortcomings. It's very cold, very dark, supersharp, ambitious as hell, intellectually satisfying, and astonishingly light on its feet -- and I stayed up till three am on a worknight to finish it in one eight-hour gulp. If any of that sounds like your thing, buy this book. Maybe if enough of us do so, more publishers will realize that there really is a market for books like this.
Now let's talk about the ideas. Blindsight takes on the evolutionary benefits of sociopathic behavior, and the ethics of torture, the puzzle of sentience, and what it means to intentionally develop a simulacrum of empathy and conscience (and whether it's worthwhile to do so). These ideas have been explored elsewhere, but I've never seen it done so well. Blindsight isn't *about* aliens or vampires or the future of technology. It's about us: our moral choices, our short cultural attention spans, the mental shortcuts we use so we can function, and what happens when our reach exceeds our evolutionary grasp.
But I must digress, because it probably sounds like I'd describing something dry and obvious and preachy. Didactic fiction drives me up the wall. Heavy-handed exposition and self-important authorial philosophizing will make me drop a book faster than anything but bad dialogue. This book is none of that. Watts packs in so many thought-provoking ideas and so much straight-up SMRT that I'm still blinking, and he does it seamlessly, while keeping everyone in character, and without letting up on the pace at *all*. (I should mention that the book includes something that would, in any other book, be three-page infodump. Watts frames it so skillfully that it serves as an emotional climax instead. I goggle at the skill required to pull this off.)
It's completely engaging from the first page to the last, and it's completely readable. It's not reassuring or fuzzy, but it's not a self-indulgent emo fest either. It's not flawless, but its successes overwhelm its shortcomings. It's very cold, very dark, supersharp, ambitious as hell, intellectually satisfying, and astonishingly light on its feet -- and I stayed up till three am on a worknight to finish it in one eight-hour gulp. If any of that sounds like your thing, buy this book. Maybe if enough of us do so, more publishers will realize that there really is a market for books like this.
55 von 61 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
First Contact story with aliens who are....
12. November 2006
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
First of all, you've got to love a novel with footnotes and a bibliography. I just wish I had the resources, not to mention enough gray matter, to ferret them all out, and see if they all exist. Or understand the joke, for those that don't.
Anyway, I digress. Watt's books make you think, and usually not happy thoughts. But it's not a far leap to see the world(s) his characters live in.
I don't think I would have liked knowing any of the characters. But life is like that. I mean seriously, would you live in a building wehere you had neighbors like Seinfeld's? But reading about them (and Lennie and her compatriots) is a toally different kettle of fish.
I learned a lot of biology reading his books. And now, I am willing to add Blindsight to the list of books that I keep in the back of my mind for those times when someone asks, "why do you read that stuff"? Its not just what you learn, and what you think, but also how you feel. Its complicated.
Trust me.
Anyway, I digress. Watt's books make you think, and usually not happy thoughts. But it's not a far leap to see the world(s) his characters live in.
I don't think I would have liked knowing any of the characters. But life is like that. I mean seriously, would you live in a building wehere you had neighbors like Seinfeld's? But reading about them (and Lennie and her compatriots) is a toally different kettle of fish.
I learned a lot of biology reading his books. And now, I am willing to add Blindsight to the list of books that I keep in the back of my mind for those times when someone asks, "why do you read that stuff"? Its not just what you learn, and what you think, but also how you feel. Its complicated.
Trust me.
59 von 68 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Feeds your head, but not your heart
7. Juli 2007
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe|Von Amazon bestätigter Kauf
If you enjoy intellectual riffing on hard science, esp. neuroscience, anthropology, and/or exobiology, this book will have deep appeal. (And despite the review commenting that the vampire concept was far-fetched, as a physical anthropology major I actually found Watts' concept intriguing and fun. Heck, human travel to the Oort cloud is far-fetched, too, but many authors describe such concepts plausibly. I've never seen anyone pose a compelling "what if vampires had actually really existed" scenario in this way and I found it original. And it's really just one ingredient of the melange of concepts explored in this story.)
If you are a "reader's reader" who loves juicy characters you can care about--nah, you're not gonna find it here. The book does have some *interesting* characters ("freaks" per one negative review, and yes, they are). It has a very good use of suspense to drive the story, but emotionally it doesn't stick to your ribs. It lacks a certain degree of self-deprecating, self-conscious humor. This is a chilled consomme, or an elegant sushi, but not a hearty stew or chocolate cake. It is the first Alien movie (except with Ripley having Asperger's); it is not The Fifth Element or Star Wars.
So, if you're looking for stew, it'll leave you a little hungry. If you're up for some intellectual bedazzlement, you will probably enjoy it.
If you are a "reader's reader" who loves juicy characters you can care about--nah, you're not gonna find it here. The book does have some *interesting* characters ("freaks" per one negative review, and yes, they are). It has a very good use of suspense to drive the story, but emotionally it doesn't stick to your ribs. It lacks a certain degree of self-deprecating, self-conscious humor. This is a chilled consomme, or an elegant sushi, but not a hearty stew or chocolate cake. It is the first Alien movie (except with Ripley having Asperger's); it is not The Fifth Element or Star Wars.
So, if you're looking for stew, it'll leave you a little hungry. If you're up for some intellectual bedazzlement, you will probably enjoy it.
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