Blindsight is a hard science fiction novel by Canadian writer Peter Watts, published by Tor Books in 2006. … 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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindsight_(Watts_novel)
One of the main characters in this novel is a vampire. It’s the future, and this ancient vampire species that used to prey on humans has been resurrected. They sent one of them in a spaceship (as the leader of a team of other transhumans) out to investigate a possible alien artifact.
…just short of the forward bulkhead, Jukka Sarasti climbed into view like a long white spider.
If he’d been Human I’d have known instantly what I saw there, I’d have smelled murderer all over his topology. And I wouldn’t have been able to even guess at the number of his victims, because his affect was so utterly without remorse. The killing of a hundred would leave no more stain on Sarasti’s surfaces than the swatting of an insect; guilt beaded and rolled off this creature like water on wax.
But Sarasti wasn’t human. Sarasti was a whole different animal, and coming from him all those homicidal refractions meant nothing more than predator. He had the inclination, was born to it; whether he had ever acted on it was between him and Mission Control.
- the full novel is on the author’s website: https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm
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This is one of those books that gets recommended a lot on SF discussion groups. It’s pretty good, it reaches for some weighty themes… personally I think it could have gone through another couple of revisions and it would have been a classic… But it’s still worth reading.
Yeah, agreed. Its also clearly uhhh…inspired by Rendezvous with Rama and 2001 a Space Odyssey. To a very strong degree.
Blindsight has a sequel, right? Do you need to read both novels to get the full story?
No.
No, Blindsight is the first, Echopraxia is the sequel. Here’s what I wrote in my notes about Blindsight after reading it:
Strange first contact story with an enigmatic alien and a spectrum of technology-modified humans. A lot of it is an exploration of what it means to have consciousness or intelligence, and of how we’re affected by language and communication. Not sure I’d call it enjoyable, but very interesting. Not a fluff piece by any means.
I liked it enough to read the sequel for sure. Neither one are what I’d call “easy reads.” Both have some really interesting things to say.
so like there’s:
- Blindsight. stand-alone novel. the vampire is kind of a background character in the first half but is more important to the second half.
- The Colonel. a short story that takes place after Blindsight but with different characters. It’s more of a lead-in to Echopraxia, and it has some interesting ideas. No vampires though. You can find it here: https://reactormag.com/the-colonel-peter-watts/
- Echopraxia. Haven’t read this yet though it sounds interesting. Dunno about vampires in it.
