uhhuhthem reviewed Blindsight (Firefall, #1) by Peter Watts
interesting concept, flawed execution
3 stars
I loved the attempt to describe an alien that is fundamentally /alien/. trying to find a scientific basis for having vampires in the story was... interesting. the "climax" of the novel made no sense, although in its favour, I guess that made it a surprise. the casual and incredibly pervasive misogyny was tiresome, and seems to be on the part of the author rather than just another characteristic to make the protagonist unlikable (it wasn't necessary), considering that there are relatively few slurs in the novel but four misogynistic ones, and one of those is slung by the author in his endnotes at three scientists whose work he thinks insufficiently deals with their areas of research.
part of me wants to know how the core ideas spin out in the sequels but the much bigger part of me wants to avoid anything else by this author.
