Blind Lake

Blind Lake is Robert Charles Wilson’s dark, nuanced take on issues raised in Carl Sagan’s Contact (1985). Blind Lake was nominated for a Hugo, but it never achieved the fame of Sagan’s novel. Hollywood opportunity did not come knocking for Wilson as it did for Sagan, who died during the production of the 1997 film adaptation of Contact. Sagan envisioned religious opposition to alien contact. Wilson suggests a pop culture cult. One of his characters writes a bestseller titled “God & the Quantum Vacuum.” He thinks the ampersand in the title is responsible for its success. Sagan’s aliens adopt a familiar human avatar on a holographic tropical beach; Wilson’s aliens are large, reeking sea creatures who appear in a barren show more desert. Sagan’s aliens learn about us from SETI and early TV; Wilson’s team makes contact through an array of telescopes beyond the orbit of Jupiter, whose data is interpreted by the AI of a quantum computer based on a Bose-Einstein Concentrate. Officials wonder whether the AI itself can be trusted and whether the aliens may have corrupted the system. As it happens, the situation is more complicated than that. An alien AI may be talking to an autistic child and her unstable father. In the end, Wilson’s cosmic vision is closer to that of Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life” and its 2016 film adaptation, Arrival, than it is to Sagan’s technological optimism. show less

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I liked this book. It's about a community of research scientists in the very near future who have been able (for reasons they don't fully understand) to observe remotely a community of aliens on a planet far far away. Their research facility is suddenly isolated from the outside world, with no communication possible, and the human relationships between the researchers churn out of control. I thought it was much more successful in this regard than "Chronoliths", by the same author, nominated last year. However, as with "Chronoliths", I felt the ending was a bit weak and left too little explained. I've been trying to think of books that managed the trick of leaving you with the sensawunda without show more explaining What Was really Going On, and really only "Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem and "Roadside Picnic" by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky come close; and of course 2001. But I thought the central human story was very well told, the aliens were very good too, and the failure of imagination of the human scientists studying them all too plausible. show less

Me ha gustado mucho el desarrollo de la historia y la forma en la que está escrito, aunque el final me pareció algo simplón, esperaba que la revelación final fuese más impactante. En general una buena lectura.

Con cada novela que escribe, Robert C. Wilson se está convirtiendo en un escritor a tener muy en cuenta. Wilson destaca sobre todo por el tratamiento de los personajes, a los que les da mucha importancia, no se quedan en meras fichas al servicio de una historia, también tienen sus traumas, aunque igualmente es verdad que algunos personajes están algo estereotipados. Pero Wilson tampoco deja la trama en un segundo plano, y escribe una ciencia ficción hard bastante asequible, especulando sobre diversos inventos tecnológicos en un futuro cercano. Sus novelas tienen un elemento común, y es que suelen transcurrir en un entorno cotidiano donde de repente acontece un suceso extraordinario que trastoca las vidas de los personajes.

Testigos show more de las estrellas (Blind Lake), transcurre en un futuro cercano, en una base científica federal de Minnesota habitada por varios cientos de científicos. En Blind Lake, que así es como se llama esta base, se encuentran unos telescopios que filtran las imágenes a través de computadoras cuánticas, método que ni los propios implicados llegan a comprender. Mediante estos telescopios, los equipos se dedican a observar una civilización alienígena como si realmente estuviesen allí. Pero la vida en la base quedará trastocada cuando se vean obligados a soportar una cuarentena…

En cuanto a los personajes, cabe destacar a Chris Carmody, escritor y periodística científico que ha sido invitado para realizar un reportaje sobre el funcionamiento de estos telescopios. Por otra parte, la científica Marguerite Hauser se dedica a observar y analizar a uno de estos alienígenas, teniendo que cuidar también de su hija Tessa, que sufre cierto tipo de alucinaciones.

En resumen, una buena novela de Robert C. Wilson, de fácil y amena lectura, que equilibra perfectamente lo humano y lo científico, y que cierra todos los misterios de manera satisfactoria. show less

One of two astronomical research stations in the US which show what appear to be living beings on an extra-solar planet is suddenly cut off from the outside world. But why? And are the screens showing something real or just an AI hallucination?

A fascinating and enjoyable exploration of ideas, though it does sometimes tip over into technobabble.

What is a person?

A new technology (that is not understood) allows us to see, through a screen, other planets. We're watching two different ones. One has a sentient, alien life that builds cities and makes things, but seems entirely unlike humans. And the base using this technology is suddenly cut off, quarantined, from the outside world. Left alone, to wonder what happened.

A good, old sci-fi tale about scientists playing with stuff they don't understand, vast alien societies (or not), even vaster alien intellects (or not). And some basic human insanity, to spice things up.

Young Tess may be crazy... or she may be communicating with an alien presence. Her mother may be overly-sentimental... or onto a breakthrough of galactic proportions. show more Her ex-husband almost certainly is crazy... and suddenly, due to the quarantine, he's in charge. And then there's the weird stuff.

Robert Charles Wilson is another writer that I find easy to read. And fun. Certainly, this is not as good as Darwinia, but it's just about as strange. show less

While this is no "Spin" it's certainly a solid Science Fiction novel with an interesting near-time science concept, great world building and thoughtful characters.

Blind Lake has more of a suspense angle than what you find in typical SF - more of an SF thriller. It starts slow and builds to a very solid ending. I liked the technology aspects quite a bit in this book as the author takes you quite beyond current thinking and into consequences that are quite profound. Without giving too much away, while the primary story lines are quite mundane, there's a mysterious undercurrent that is only presented in glimpses until the end.

As a general read, it may be paced a bit slowly for non-SF readers and the ending may be a bit obtuse for those show more same readers. For SF readers the end is its own reward. show less