Not really a review

[ksmith]

Finished BLINDSIGHT last night. Not a happy book. Much by way of the Shiny, and it worked for me. At times, the post-humans seemed as alien as the aliens, which were the best aliens I had ever read. At times, the Shiny got in the way of the plot. But the whole package was compelling enough to keep me reading, which is a hell of a lot more than I can say for the vast majority of books I've read in the last year.

Comments

[pixelfish.livejournal.com]

I need to finish Blindsight.

The Shiny has been very abundant so far. In fact, I suppose that's what compels me to go forward, despite the ominous signals I'm receiving.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

It's not fun. These people don't smile...not that they have anything to smile about. Near the end, I thought the vampire had become more human than they.

The reason I'm not doing the jumping-up-and-down thing that I did when I started this book is because I'm still processing it.

[dandyfunk.livejournal.com]

I liked Blindsight, and then read Watt's STARFISH, which is good but after reading it you realize it's 1/3 of a trilogy and I haven't had the time to read the other two.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I liked BLINDSIGHT enough to go back and read the trilogy, but I'm confused--there's STARFISH, MAELSTROM, and two BEHEMOTH books. Is it really a quartet?

[dandyfunk.livejournal.com]

I only saw one Behemoth book on his website.
Maybe triogy should mean >1 when talking about novels.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

On Amazon, I see references to BEHEMOTH--SEPPUKU and BEHEMOTH--B-MAX along with MAELSTROM and STARFISH.

[chang3002.livejournal.com]

Kristine,

I found you site through Sir Scalzi of John and His Whatever. I found your ficlet's tres compelling and wanted to write sequels to every one but I have to wait to get home and do it when the boss isn't looking.

I, too, have read Blindsight. I had to buy a DICTIONARY to get through it. I liked it alot. What is the Shiny you speak of? Did I miss something? What does it mean? I'm slow.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Hi--welcome. I hope you and many more folks write sequels/prequels to the ficlets. It's fun to see where folks take them.

By "Shiny," I mean all the tech--the brain hacking, the alien physiology, the workings of the Theseus, etc. I found it all almost overwhelming at times, but it defined the alien and post-human worlds so well. I'm sure it's probably been asked before, but is a sufficiently altered post-human any different than an alien, even though genetically they may be spot-on human?

[chang3002.livejournal.com]

Who's Theseus?

Ahem. I see what you're saying. I kind of figured that. It is overwhelming, definitely.

You ask a very good question. I find myself so terrified in some ways about the idea of post-human; intimidated is a better word. As if, we must be modified in order to take part. Which of course is what happens to be the definition of posthuman, right? But if we don't, we miss out on the next step in human evolution.

I personally think that until we completely rewire and change the very structure of the brain we will be totally human. Until then, we're just monkeys with wires in our heads.