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| Topics | | messages | Last message | | | 75 Books Challenge for 2009 : Staci426 tries for 75 in 2009 | | 48 | staci426, Today 10:52pm |  |
| Science Fiction Fans : Most hated Concepts | | 73 | BooksCatsEtc, Yesterday 12:56am | |
| 1010 Category Challenge : crazybatcow's 1010 Challenge | | 18 | KAzevedo, Monday 12:55pm | |
| Science Fiction Fans : Rekindle my interest in SF | | 106 | etrainer, December 7 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : What are you reading the week of November 21, 2009? | | 227 | Glorybe1, December 2 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : What Are You Reading the Week of November 14, 2009? | | 178 | slarsoncollins, November 23 | |
| Science Fiction Fans : Sci-fi books no one should make into a movie | | 33 | Fred_R, October 19 | |
| Book talk : Things I’ve noticed: Dune really wrecked Science Fiction | | 31 | MonkeyRobo, September 6 | |
| Book talk : Vampires as a modern literary movement | | 13 | dianalaurence, September 5 | |
| Science Fiction Fans : Other sciences | | 43 | RobertDay, August 29 | |
| Science Fiction Fans : 2009 Hugo Winners | | 43 | andyl, August 28 | |
| Science Fiction Fans : Top 100 Sci Fi Recommendations for New Readers of the Genre: Post Your List | | 362 | RobertDay, August 17 | |
| Science Fiction Fans : The most alien alien? | | 25 | mike61n94w, August 15 | |
| Science Fiction Fans : July 2009 reading | | 69 | RBeffa, July 31 | |
| Literary Snobs : The Worst Writers--Give them a kick (low blows permitted, even encouraged) | | 279 | Booksloth, July 12 | |
| Club Read 2009 : fannyprice's 2009 reading | | 238 | fannyprice, May 2 | |
| Book talk : Recommend me: Cynicism / Black humour | | 11 | lucymsmith, March 31 | |
| Science Fiction Fans : Your Essential Science Fiction List | | 153 | falkman, September 2008 | |
| Science Fiction Fans : What are you reading? Q2 2008 | | 219 | lssian, June 2008 | |
| Science Fiction Fans : J.G. Ballard diagnosed with cancer | | 20 | CliffBurns, June 2008 | |
| Science Fiction Fans : New authors I might like | | 17 | johnnyapollo, May 2008 | |
| Dormant: Science Fiction Fans : Newer SF Authors | | 33 | andyl, March 2008 | |
| Dormant: Science Fiction Fans : Your 2007 Best Reads in the Genre | | 24 | stellarexplorer, January 2008 | |
| Dormant: Science Fiction Fans : What You're Reading In The Genre Q4 07 | | 85 | Shrike58, January 2008 | |
| Dormant: 50 Book Challenge : Kmarcil77's Book Challenge | | 64 | kmarcil77, January 2008 | |
| Dormant: Canadian Bookworms : What Are You Reading in October, 2007? | | 30 | mkunruh, November 2007 | |
| Dormant: Science Fiction Fans : What You're Reading In The Genre Q3 07 | | 76 | CliffBurns, September 2007 | |
| Dormant: The Prizes : The Hugo | | 62 | natantus, September 2007 | |
| Dormant: Science Fiction Fans : more 2007 Hugos | | 13 | bluetyson, September 2007 | |
| Dormant: Science Fiction Fans : Should Scientists Write SF? | | 354 | AsYouKnow_Bob, July 2007 | |
| Dormant: Science Fiction Fans : Recommendations, Of a Modern Sort | | 39 | avaland, May 2007 | |
| Dormant: Science Fiction Fans : Blindsight...Spoilers | | 1 | quinaquisset, May 2007 | |
| Dormant: Science Fiction Fans : "Really new ideas" suggestions | | 50 | omf, April 2007 | |
... Kim Paffenroth
Way of the Wolf E.E. Knight
Choice of the Cat by E.E. Knight
Day by Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne
Blindsight by Peter Watts
Half the Blood in Brooklyn by Charlie Huston
Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford ...
Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen
The Lost Highway by David Adams Richards
Paradigm of Earth by Candas Jane Dorsey
Blindsight by Peter Watts I spent the week forcing myself to read Blindsight, a science fiction novel which came highly recommended. The concept was intriguing, an exploration of the mind/body problem and the nature of consciousness wrapped in an archetypal science fiction First Contact/BDO (Big Dumb Object) storyline. U ... ... I still managed to find time to finish The Bloody Triangle this week. Now I'm starting Stalin's Reluctant Soldiers and Blindsight. I've put The Year of the Flood on hold for the moment. I'm not up to reading Atwood at this time. Anthropomorphic mumbo-jumbo.
One of the few SF novels I've read to introduce truly alien life was Blindsight. I finished it months ago and it still hurts my head thinking about it.
Having said that, I absolutely love Iain M Banks' science fiction, and his stuff is pretty human ... Blindsight
... Very high tech, and usually concerning some conflict or special agency at work. I would start with Consider Phlebas.
Blindsight by Peter Watts is a very good "first contact" novel set in the near future. Fascinating for its technical and scientific approach towards understanding what ... ... either - Matter 656 pages, Consider Phlebas 467 pages, Excession 451 pages, Use Of Weapons 434 pages etc, etc.
Blindsight is 384 pages so still not short but not long either.
Admittedly most of Gibson's stuff is relatively short - less than 300 pages. So I'll give you him. ... not adolescent and benign"
I like mine rude and dead-pan (pun not really intended) a la Charlie Huston. And just bought Blindsight to see how vampires do in space.
and - don't tell anyone - I did snag Twilight on audio so will give that a listen at some point, even if only to see what ... ... the massive Drood, his earlier Hyperion novels were not too large.
The same can be said of such innovative titles as Blindsight, any of Iain Banks's Culture novels and many other SF novelists of current times. I joined this group a while ago, then forgot about it. I've recently rediscovered it and have been having fun trying to get caught up on everyone's threads. I have been keeping track of what I've read so far this year, so I'll post my list up to date. I'm not sure if I can make it to 75, but I'm ... I'll second the starfish from Blindsight, which were incredibly alien both physically and psychologically (if that term even applies to them!). It's a remarkable book - a meditation on consciousness as much as a science fiction story. The "starfish" aliens in Blindsight confused the hell out of me, and were very very alien. I'm still not sure I understood that book. I also loved the "scientific" explanation (and inclusion in the crew) of real vampires. Remarkable! The book dealt with the concept of consciousness vs ... ... rs.
2008 - Both The Yiddish Policeman's Union and Brasyl would make my list.
2007 - Eifelheim and Glasshouse and Blindsight were all interesting enough to make the cut even if you didn't like them that much.
2006 - Spin was a worthy winner and Accelerando is hardly white-bread ... ... Carbon (Morgan)
Cryptonomicon (Stephenson)
The Golden Age / Phoenix Exultant / Golden Transcendence (Wright)
Blindsight (Watts)
Accelerando (Stross)
The Star Fraction (MacLeod)
Eon (Bear)
Mortal Remains (Evans) I'm reading Blindsight. ... McClung is a weird and marvelous novel. Peter Watts is Canada's best SF writer by a long measure--check out STARFISH and BLINDSIGHT. Two other writers that come to mind are Brian Fawcett and David Gilmour...and I've always had a soft spot for Sharon Riis's oddball MIDNIGHT TWILIGHT TOURIST ZO ... ... books:
Jeff Lindsay's books (Dexter in the Dark, Dearly Devoted Dexter, &c. or Peter Watts' Starfish and Blindsight. Another book I enjoyed related to these themes: Fight Club.
Thanks a bunch! ... I mention this mainly to lament that fact that, while in general I really like Watts, I felt like his characters in Blindsight walked fully formed from a neuropsych textbook.
Btw, what sciences do you folks think Anathem is dominated by? Western (Analytic) Philosophy (as in, one ... AndrewL@19,
Peter Watts Blindsight also covers neurophysiology. ... @11, 14:
At the risk of overdoing the vampire thing (I'm not a fan of vampire stuff, really), I just remembered Peter Watts' excellent "Powerpoint presentation" (really a Flash animation) on vampires. Takes an hour to watch, ... ... and Out in the Magic Kingdom : Cory Doctorow
Stories of Your Life : Ted Chiang
Ender's Game : Orson Scott Card
Blindsight : Peter Watts
Pattern Recognition : William Gibson
Snow Crash : Neal Stephenson
White Light : Rudy Rucker
Doomsday Book : Connie Willis
Hard-boiled ... ... I disliked the conclusion (3rd book) a bit, but I did enjoy Maelstrom, the immediate sequel to Starfish a lot. Blindsight was also good and available in its entirety for free online here: http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm. Watts' website also has some accompanying video ... ... Watts rather than Peter Watt? The former is author of Blindsight, for example. Glad you liked Peter Watts' STARFISH. Be sure to check out his Hugo finalist, BLINDSIGHT. He leaves his usual underwater environs and ventures into space.
Downbeat and enthralling. ... Got bogged down in a love story and explanations for tunnel construction which were not interesting. 3/5.
Starfish, Peter Watts - people working on a geothermal power station at the bottom of the sea. Exciting, with a plethora of widely varying and interesting ideas. Will definitely look ... ... out on all the interesting questions he could have asked, given his set-up.
I've not read Peter Watts, but his Blindsight was shortlisted for last year's Hugo. Um, so was Glasshouse...
I think I read a Tony Daniel novel many years ago. Warpath, I think. It's probably abut ... ... I'll add:
Farthing, Jo Walton
Bright of the Sky, Kay Kenyon
Alanya to Alanya, L. Timmel Duchamp
Blindsight, Peter Watts (a Canadian, I believe)
... useful to just about any working writer these days, and it dawns on me now that Peter Watts certainly has that quality in Blindsight. A tough call:
1. Storm Front (I only just discovered Butcher).
2. Jennifer Morgue (A total hoot).
3. Blindsight (As disquieting a book as I've read in some time).
4. The Wizard Hunters (A great start to a great trilogy).
5. Orphans of Chaos (ditto).
Honorable ... Blindsight by Peter Watts.
Eifelheim by Michael Flynn.
Thirteen by Richard Morgan.
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.
And one to argue over whether or not it's SF.
The Quiet Girl by Peter Hoeg. I say it's near future. In approximate order of my enthusiasm:
1. Blindsight, Peter Watts
2. In War Times, Kathleen Ann Goonan
3. Halting State, Charles Stross; his best since Accelerando.
4. Brasyl, Iain MacDonald
5. Dark Universe, Daniel F. Galouye; from 1961. Terrific for its day, ... Finished up Blindsight the other day (A). The truth will set you free, not necessarily make you happy, as Watts delves into the "cold equations" of evolutionary fitness. 63. Blindsight by Robin Cook
  ![]() I'm reading Blindsight and The Stories of Mary Gordon. I'm enjoying both. I have Effigy by Allisa York up next. Has anyone else read any of the books off of Giller short list? I'd love to read one or two before they are announced in November.
(also, Effigy is listed in my Library - ... I have Nova Swing and Spaceman Blues on my shelf ready to be read, but right now I'm reading Blindsight by Peter Watts. I'm only about 80 pages in, but I'm enjoying what I've read so far. It's my first Watts, and now I'm curious about his other works. ... and so far I'm finding it to be a very well written and fascinating book. But as of this point I'm leaning towards Blindsight, it's just one of those books that has lingered in my mind long after I finished with it, and seems even more interesting now that I had the chance to hear Peter ... ... pretty damn good. Off to find HMD because it's the only one I haven't read.
Right now it's a toss-up for me between Blindsight and Eifelheimthough I don't have a vote. ... here. I won't call it fluff, it's more than that, but it doesn't have the kind of meat I look for in Hugo winners.
- Blindsight: wow! dark, smoky, spicy, horrific. Amazing novel about evolution and the nature of consciousness. This book is bone chillingly frightening. I wrote a full ... ... by Michael Flynn in an attempt to read through everything up for the best novel hugo this year (so far I'm still hoping for Blindsight).
I'm also going through the first volume of Jack Kirby's Fourth World for a bit of over the top escapism. ... fiction. I gave his early novels a miss, as there is simply too much to read for anyone to read everything. I read Blindsight - and I read his blog - only because the SF fans (...whose opinions you scorn...) recommended the book to me when they nominated it for a Hugo. I don't recall ... For the folks out there who have read Blindsight, could you help me understand the ending? I'm unclear what happened on the ship after Sarasti went after Siri, and if there was a revolt. (I'm pretty sure I understand what happened on Earth--the vampires encouraged people to go to Heaven in ... ... say to check out this year's hugo nominees for best novel. Glasshouse, Eifelheim, Rainbow's End, and especially Blindsight are well worth reading (I have not read the fifth nominee yet). Blindsight, in the first contact category.
Nothing human at all about these aliens. Looking at the recommendations on the Blindsight page is interesting
1. Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder
2. Maelstrom by Peter Watts
3. Spin Control by Chris Moriarty
4. Carnival by Elizabeth Bear
5. Zima Blue and Other Stories by Alastair Reynolds
6. Eifelheim by Michael Fl ... Blindsight is definitely better than good. Dukedom is reading Blindsight now and really enjoying it. Besides the laughing out loud (one liners in the beginning apparently), He keeps reading passages to me. He says it is better than Stross...and he is a BIG Stross fan...so that's quite a compliment.
... today, and the Novik is the ONLY one of the five Hugo-nominees still on the shelves.
I'm now hearing great things about Blindsight, so it's on my list of Books To track Down. Odd that it's going to take some effort to track down. ... Dragon aka Temeraire by Naomi Novik, Glasshouse by Charles Stross, Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge and Blindsight by Peter Watts.
Edited to correct touchstones. Peter Watts, the marine biologist, has written numerous, much-acclaimed novels, including the new Blindsight, which I think someone told me is available for free from his website?
James Alan Gardner has written quite a few novels also, Expendable and Vigilant come to mind.
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