Nia

I actually DNF’ed Blindsight the first time I tried it. I felt like it wasn’t really going anywhere and switched to something else. Coming back to it recently, though, I’m so glad I gave it another chance. It’s now one of my favourite first-contact stories.

This novel made me think deeply, and it’s one of the scariest books I’ve read - especially the idea that consciousness might be an evolutionary dead end, something that natural selection could eventually weed out. That concept stuck with me long after I finished the last page.

Watts throws a number of big ideas at you:

- A virtual-reality “Heaven” where elites upload their minds while their bodies remain alive in pods

- An unreliable narrator, Siri Keeton, who has had half his brain removed

- A highly specialised, transhuman crew engineered for their roles

- A spaceship captained jointly by an AI and a resurrected vampire

- Incomprehensible alien life on a shifting, hostile vessel

At first, these elements felt disconnected to me, but the more I read, the more I realised everything ties together around the novel’s core themes: consciousness, intelligence, empathy, and sentience. Even the flashbacks and glimpses into the crew’s pasts serve to explore these themes.

The inclusion of vampires initially felt theatrical, but it ends up fitting perfectly. The vampire captain adds another layer of dread. Not only does the crew face an incomprehensible alien intelligence, but there’s also a predatory, near-alien “human” among them.

This is not a light read. I found myself Googling several of the neuroscientific and philosophical terms Watts uses, especially early on. Conversely, some important ideas (such as the Chinese Room thought experiment) are explained clearly after they’re introduced. The story can be confusing at times, with intentionally ambiguous descriptions of events and environments, but I think this works in the book’s favour. The disorientation mirrors the crew’s own confusion as they confront something beyond human comprehension.

The pacing is deliberate: the action scenes are spaced out between quieter, introspective moments and flashbacks. I personally enjoyed this rhythm, but some readers might find it slow.

Overall, I’d highly recommend Blindsight to fans of hard sci-fi and existential horror — especially anyone looking for something thought-provoking, unsettling, and unlike more conventional first-contact stories.