Blindsight
- 384
- Pages
- about 7 h
- Reading time
- Seiun Award for Best Translated Long Work
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Our view
“Blindsight” is a first-contact novel that uses its aliens to suggest that intelligence may not need consciousness at all. The ideas are the attraction, dense, clinical and pursued with a rigour that makes the book feel more relevant now than when it appeared. It is scientifically demanding; some readers also find it bleak and question parts of its biology. Best for those who read hard science fiction for the argument, not for comfort.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Blindsight is a hard science fiction novel by Canadian writer Peter Watts, published by Tor Books in 2006. It won the Seiun Award for the best novel in Japanese translation and was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. The story follows a crew of astronauts sent to investigate a trans-Neptunian comet dubbed "Burns-Caulfield" that has been found to be transmitting an unidentified radio signal, followed by their subsequent first contact. The novel explores themes of identity, consciousness, free will, artificial intelligence, neurology, and game theory as well as evolution and biology.
Reading order · Firefall
Full order & progress →- BlindsightThis book
7.87.8 / 10 - Echopraxia
7.57.5 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.8 across 785 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 84% of the weight and the score stays at 7.8 — the Science fiction average of 7.8 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.2 | 68 | 9% |
| Hardcover | 7.8 | 717 | 91% |
Frequently asked
How long is Blindsight?
It has 384 pages — shorter than 65% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Science fiction — and a score of 7.8, the closest to this book.
