question: I am 2/3rds of the way through. Does it ever get scary, or suspenseful all I can hope for?
February Book Study - Blindsight
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Well, if you mean scary in an existential 'oh God oh God mankind is a flawed existence oh God!' way then yes...but otherwise not really.
I've not had much time this week. I did finish this on the last day of February.
It was an odd reading experience - I don't know if it says something about my state of mind then (stressed somewhat) but I read it quickly - it's undoubtedly smoothly written - even though I'm sure I didn't take in all of the scientific arguments. And scientific arguments are all this book has, the alien encounter storyline being a peg to hang all of this on. (In this is reminded me a little of Rendezvous with Rama.)
It's the hardest hard SF I've read in a long while, and a little too hard for me. The back cover quotes the Washington Post which talks about Watts's "richly developed characters". They clearly have a different definition of characterisation than me. I can read hard SF - though personally prefer someone like Ian McDonald, who has a more distinctive prose style and can do characterisation as well. Talking of whom, I have his The Dervish House in the pile...
And talking of Watts, I should be reading his short story "The Things" soon, as it's on the BSFA shortlist.
It was an odd reading experience - I don't know if it says something about my state of mind then (stressed somewhat) but I read it quickly - it's undoubtedly smoothly written - even though I'm sure I didn't take in all of the scientific arguments. And scientific arguments are all this book has, the alien encounter storyline being a peg to hang all of this on. (In this is reminded me a little of Rendezvous with Rama.)
It's the hardest hard SF I've read in a long while, and a little too hard for me. The back cover quotes the Washington Post which talks about Watts's "richly developed characters". They clearly have a different definition of characterisation than me. I can read hard SF - though personally prefer someone like Ian McDonald, who has a more distinctive prose style and can do characterisation as well. Talking of whom, I have his The Dervish House in the pile...
And talking of Watts, I should be reading his short story "The Things" soon, as it's on the BSFA shortlist.
I'll be honest, I'm not even half way through the book, and it's lost me. I'm more of a Fantasy type person but I do enjoy SiFi, but this was way too heavy for me. The writing it self was good and the characters were... intriguing. But I have a hard time picturing the scene when it's all being described in super sciencey ways. I guess this is why I like my science fiction in a visual format. But, if Watts has any other, not so heavy, works I'd be interested in reading them. I like his overall writing style.
Vampires
I enjoyed the book, though like many, some of the hard science stuff was just too dense to process. Loved his take on Vampires though. The bits about the Crucifix glitch made me chuckle.
I enjoyed the book, though like many, some of the hard science stuff was just too dense to process. Loved his take on Vampires though. The bits about the Crucifix glitch made me chuckle.
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