When a series of alien devices arrives on Earth, only to burn to ashes without transmitting so much as a greeting, humankind—naturally enough—panics. Siri is hand-picked for a mission to find, study, negotiate with and, if necessary, fight the offworlders who sent the so-called Fireflies. As the Synthesist on board the exploration ship Theseus, his task is to watch what happens aboard and report back on it—as usual, without getting involved in the action. He is seen as a spy by the crew: a linguist with multiple personality disorder, a biologist who has been extensively spliced to the ship's sensors and machinery and a soldier whose primary claim to fame is having achieved a peace treaty by betraying her own people. Siri's presence is barely tolerated, the more so because Theseus is so far from Earth that his reports can have no practical effect on their mission's outcome.

Complicating matters further is the fact that this clutch of oddball experts is being led by a sociopathic cannibal. A genuine vampire whose long-extinct species was resurrected through the miracle of genetic engineering, Jukka Sarasti is faster, smarter and meaner than any of the humans aboard Theseus. Sarasti, it is expected, will determine whether the aliens pose a threat. If so, it is he who will decide how to fight back ... assuming he can keep himself from eating his subordinates.

A dark but humorous first-contact tale

Peter Watts takes the action offworld for the first time in his fifth novel, Blindsight, but certain hallmarks of his writing remain unchanged. The series that began with his first novel, Starfish, also featured a crew of tough-to-love maniacs living in isolation from humanity. Watts also remains one of the most exacting hard SF writers in the field, with a meticulous approach to the science in his works. No matter how wild the material he puts before readers—invisible aliens, paleogenetics, a vampire's inability to deal with a crucifix—it is heavily researched and convincingly sold.

Blindsight throws down a challenge to every banal first-contact tale that features quirky but ultimately lovable life forms, novels where humanity meets up with bipedal, oxygen-breathing aliens whose primary differences from ordinary people can be resolved with some empathy and fast talking. In this book, Theseus finds aliens so different that they don't even have DNA ... and every time one of the crew gets close enough to study them, it is by willingly exposing himself to toxic levels of radiation.

In Siri Keeton, Watts has created an intriguing puzzle of a protagonist. In grappling with the fundamentally incomprehensible nature of the Fireflies' creators, he also struggles to come to terms with a failed romance and his troubled family life. Through his eyes, the author takes readers on a bizarre tour of imaginary landscapes and real-world neurological oddities, all while exploring some rarely asked questions about human consciousness.

Edgy, humorous and heartbreaking by turns, Blindsight is jargon-rich and dense with information. At times it is difficult to keep up with the tightly packed ideas that pour from its every page. Once it has its reader hooked, however, this book becomes impossible to put down.