Mare Somniorum

Down the rabbit hole we go again.  “Blindsight” is another book that deals as much with the observer as the observed.  Its story, a first encounter tale, is very well done, even if you just look at the aliens and the traditional bits of the story.

“Blindsight” doesn’t really deal with the first encounter of aliens though.  It deals with our first encounter with ourselves.  Yes, it does indeed mirror bits of “Neuropath” in that respect — or rather the other way around. That being said the works are different in their approch.  “Blindsight”, being set where it is, uses its tools to be more vivid, more direct than “Neuropath”.  The works do however share a few things, they’re dark, they’re gritty and they’re unrelenting.  “Blindsight” probably even more overtly so than “Neuropath”.

The characters here are… Something else.  They are the backbone of the story and our understanding of them leads us to understand the aliens, and then to shine that light onto ourselves as readers.  And even with their defined roles, the characters leap to life as individuals with great success. The storytelling is just as amazing, plot points are shuffled in like how you’d work a deck of cards.  And the writing…   Oh the writing.  It is verbose, technical, and mesmerizing.  And full of doublespeak.  I caught myself snickering and laughing at the pure brilliance of it all.

Theseus carried no regular crew — no navigators or engieneers, no one to swab the decks, no meat wasted on tasks that machinery orders of mag smaller could preform orders of mag better.  Let superfluous deckhands weigh down other ships, if the non-Ascendant hordes needed to attach some pretense of usefulness to their lives.  Let them infest vessels driven only by commercial priorities.  The only reason we were here was because nobody had yet optimized software for First Contact.  Bound past the edge of the solar system, already freighted with the fate of the world, Theseus wasted no mass on self-esteem.

“Blindsight”, Tor Books paperback, p. 53

The book is told from the view of Siri Keeton, and his take on the world is all you get.  His world, his rules, his view.  We’re just company along for the ride and, heh, it’s quite some ride he’s on.  As Keeton observes the aliens, and their intelligence, we’re taken on a tour of the way intellect may, or may not, work.  The questions are troublesome, and the reality Keeton embodies doesn’t make it any easier.

“Blindsight” is good.  I had high hopes, I’ll admit that, but man, Watts delivers.  Highly recommended reading.