Blindsight

By: Peter Watts

Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith

Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

Set in 2082, Peter Watts' Blindsight is fast-moving, hard SF that pulls readers into a futuristic world where a mind-bending alien encounter is about to unfold.

After the Firefall, all eyes are locked heavenward as a team of specialists aboard the self-piloted spaceship Theseus hurtles outbound to intercept an unknown intelligence.

©2006 Peter Watts (P)2008 Recorded Books LLC

Horrifying story and pretty okay reader

The reader has some strange pronunciations for words and the recording isn't as well polished as I'm used to, but the story is the cosmic horror you need if you're bored with middle aged white men in the 1910s wetting themselves because they had a bad dream and heard some disembodied voices.

Creepy Sci-fi

This story is first and foremost creepy, then it feels cold.
It's fits the story, people (?), things, AI, and a vampire can do that. If you're looking for something nerve racking and a bit more dark, this is it.

Great concept- poor characterization

Listened to the whole thing - not sure what to make of it. Loved the concept of the aliens and those were the strongest bits. Characters were thin. Still confused about vampires. More questions than answers at the end.

Narrator Is Awful

The story is great. A little too verbose but overall thought provoking. The narrator is monotone and puts me to sleep. He sounds as if he is recording in a library trying not to disturb the other patrons.

Watts has seriously overcomplicated a grest story

The story is a great story. But dear God Watts jumps around so much and leaves sooo many holes in the back story. This is an extremely tedious listen/read. He goes out of his way to use words that were absolutely unneeded and it feels like the contemplations he is trying induce in the reader are his and.not the characters. I say this because he doesn't use language that fit the characters. His historical recollections of society in up to 2083 makes no sense and assumes the listener will fill in the missing information. I am only three hours in and I am struggling with his syntax and word choice. They don't make sense. You add that with the holes he has left and oddly timed character recollections and listening to it feels like a job. If I were reading this I would have had to go back and reread so many pages i would not have made it past chapter 2. I will probably only finish it because I already spent the money. But so far it is a frustrsting experience. the bouncing ball scene at the crew meeting was such a useless scene and waste of time. If you enjoy an author who wore out his thesarus and puts too much effort into seeming extremely smart then this book is for you. For me it felt like simply telling the story would hsve made this a blockbuster or even a chance at a movie.

The performance was good enough. You could tell the narrator wasn't enjoying the story either because at times he comes across flat as though in his head he to is trying to figure out parts of the story but he is on a time limit.

Dark, Tremendous, and Just what I wanted

the high level of IQ through this story was wonderful to listen to, the moments of confusion, fear, worry, morality...were very well done. The end helped put the writing style into scope and it was a fantastic voyage through the cosmic abyss

interesting parts, grand vision escapes me

I had some difficulty following parts of this book. the fragmented timeline isn't an issue, as some other reviewers mentioned. jumping around makes sense to draw parallels in the story. for me, some of the language used made it more challenging to follow in places. there are some really interesting ideas around consciousness and other forms of life/ intelligence. ultimately, I'll need to read a cliff notes review to be sure I can understand some of the deeper implied meaning. the big picture eluded me on this one, that failing could be my own.

Brilliant audio rendition of a brilliant novel

I'm not sure I would have had the brain power to get even the plot of Blindsight solely from listening to it, even twice. But listening to the audiobook after reading the novel slowly, and doing a lot of rereading as I went, was very satisfying. Reading let me figure out what the heck is going on (key plot points are addressed obliquely) and listening let me bask in the atmosphere and vibe of the book. Highly recommended.

I took off one star from the Performance, but it would be more fair to take the star off for editing. There should be more of a pause between sections of the book. As it is, the performance/editing rams these sections together. White space on the page should be a pause in the audiobook. But Smith's performance overall worked very well for me.

Very interesting story. Looking forward for the movie

Heard about this on JRE and I’m glad I gave it a listen. I love the concept of the vampires in this story and would love to explore that a little more.

incredible exploration of personhood

Engrossing depiction of the manifestations of intelligent, technological beings. Both the multifarious versions of us and the astonishingly alien aliens.
This story spawned in me feelings of vast desolation but even more profound gratitude to be the type of thing we are.