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Description edit
Two months since the stars fell... Two months since sixty-five thousand alien objects clenched around the Earth like a luminous fist, screaming to the heavens as the atmosphere burned them to ash. Two months since that moment of brief, bright surveillance by agents unknown. Two months of... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
Who you do send to meet the alien
when the alien doesn't want to meet?
You send a linguist with multiple personalities carved surgically into her brain. You send
a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultra-
sound, so compromised by...
read more
(warning: may contain spoilers)
Characters/People edit
- Siri Keeton: Protagonist. Siri is the narrator and the mission's synthesist. A "fair judge", he is tasked with recording events of the expedition.
- Jukka Sarasti: Captain of the Theseus. Under the conceit that vampire legends spring from an actual cannibalistic predatory variant of early man that died out millenia ago, Captain Sarasti is a real vampire constructed for his superior computational and spatial abilities, from the remnants of vampire DNA still in the human genome.
- Amanda Bates: Amanda Bates is the mission's military advisor.
- Robert Cunningham: Robert Cunningham is the backup BioMed officer for the mission.
- Susan James: Susan James is the baseline and original personality of "The Gang of Four", a group of 4 or more personalities living inside one body. She is also the mission's linguist.
- Sascha: Sascha is one of the 4 personalities living inside Susan Jame's head - collectively called "The Gang of Four".
- Isaac Szpindel: Isaac is the mission's BioMed officer.
- Michelle: Michelle is one of 4 personalities living inside Susan Jame's head - collectively called "The Gang of Four". She and Isaac share a budding romance early in the mission.
- Helen: Helen is Siri Keeton's mother. She has cast off her body and chosen to live in "Heaven", an artificial, communal construct composed of digital representations of people's personalities.
- Chelsea: Chelsea is a past girlfriend of Siri Keeton.
- Robert Paglino: Robert Paglino is a grade-school friend of Siri Keeton.
- Jack: Jack (from Jack in the Box) is the name given to the first probe sent by Theseus to investigate the alien artifact.
- Cruncher: One of the 4 personalities nested within Susan James. Cruncher is "a workhorse" who rarely surfaces in normal conversation. He specializes in pattern processing and often helps The Gang of Four when complex problems of a computational nature are involved.
Setting & Locations edit
- Heaven: Heaven is an artificial, communal construct into which people "plug in", leaving their bodies behind to live out their days in any environment they wish to construct for themselves.Their bodies are packed away in cold-storage and their brains' processing capabilities are used by the Heaven corporation for unknown purposes.
- Theseus: Main setting for the book. A space ship capable of autonomous, interstellar travel. It uses fabrication units to assemble nearly any object the ship or crew may need in their mission. It is nominally powered by a transmission of some nature from the Icarus Array located near Sol.
- Big Ben: The name given to a massive object found after the Fireflies were seen.
Organizations edit
- The Gang of Four: The multiple personalities of Susan James
First Sentence edit
IT DIDN'T START out here.
Themes & Symbolism edit
- Consciousness as distraction: Blindsight's thesis is that consciousness (self-awareness) is an evolutionary dead end and that humanity must and will eventually enigineer it away. Lauded by humanity as something that elevates it above all other species, the book contends that consciousness is, in fact, a hindrance to response, a burden and a distraction, and that only by some quirk of evolution did it arise. Numerous arguments (with the growth of the protagonist Keeton as encompassing metaphor) run through the book. References to Searle's Chinese Room and its counters, the idea of epiphenomenology, and the Zombie cocnept of Dennett colour the book with thoughtful theses and give the reader something concrete to hang their musings on.
Authors & Contributors edit
- Peter Watts (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: TOR
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: 2006
ISBN: 0765312182
Page Count: 384
Publisher: TOR
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: 2006
ISBN: 0765312182
Page Count: 384
Awards edit
- John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (2007: Science Fiction, #3)
- Locus Science Fiction Award (Finalist, 2007)
- Hugo Award (Finalist, 2007: Best Novel)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 813.6
Subjects edit
Popular Tags
Links to Supplemental Material edit
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