Type of bind: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 400
Printing Date: August 02, 2003
Sale Popularity Level: 1305869
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Robert Charles Wilson, says The New York Times, 'writes superior science fiction thrillers.' His Darwinia won Canada's Aurora Award; his most recent novel, The Chronoliths, won the prestigious John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Now he tells a gripping tale of alien contact and human love in a mysterious but hopeful universe.
At Blind Lake, a large federal research installation in northern Minnesota, scientists are using a technology they barely understand to watch everyday life in a city of lobster like aliens upon a distant planet. They can't contact the aliens in any way or understand their language. All they can do is watch.
Then, without warning, a military cordon is imposed on the Blind Lake site. All communication with the outside world is cut off. Food and other vital supplies are delivered by remote control. No one knows why.
The scientists, nevertheless, go on with their research. Among them are Nerissa Iverson and the man she recently divorced, Raymond Scutter. They continue to work together despite the difficult conditions and the bitterness between them. Ray believes their efforts are doomed; that culture is arbitrary, and the aliens will forever be an enigma.
Nerissa believes there is a commonality of sentient thought, and that our failure to understand is our own ignorance, not a fact of nature. The behavior of the alien she has been tracking seems to be developing an elusive narrative logic--and she comes to feel that the alien is somehow, impossibly, aware of the project's observers.
But her time is running out. Ray is turning hostile, stalking her. The military cordon is tightening. Understanding had better come soon....
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Rated by buyers 
-
The story begins promisingly, with a mysterious alien race being observed from earth, 51 light years away, via a quantum computer network. The characters are enjoyable and interesting at first. The middle and ending portions of the book bog down considerably, with melodrama and ultimately uninteresting character interactions. The alien story sort of fizzles out, sadly like the book itself. Overall an average read.
Rated by buyers -
First, my negative criticisms:
1. The "lobster-not-a-lobster" alien, who stands still a lot.
2. Wilson's annoying narrator-shifts in mid-scene.
3. Ray, the main antagonist, who didn't enable me to suspend disbelief. He's an SOB to be sure, but there wasn't anything tangibly good about him either (which, I feel, is the mark of a good antagonist).
But the good outweighs the bad by a long shot in this compelling near-future SF novel.
So, here are my positive criticisms:
1. The prose: Wilson has his "page-turning" technique down.
2. The protagonist, Chris, is a wounded-but-gutsy reporter trapped inside the quarantined Blink Lake research lab after "something happens" to its sister facility.
3. Tess is a troubled pre-teen who has visions that remind one of Stephen King (at his best). In fact, "Mirror Girl" would make a good novel all by itself.
4. Marguerite is a sympathetic and confused mother trying to care for Tess, maintain a career, put a human face on the aliens, and avoid her belligerent ex-husband.
5. The Eye: Wilson once again explores the concept of self-replicating machines and computer code and artificial intelligence without the concept becoming dry.
If you enjoy SF that creates a sense of "wow, cool", then I highly recommend this book, as well as Wilson's other novels.
Rated by buyers -
Maybe alien observation conflict.
Your good old secret government research lab quite possibly has the ability to observe an alien race on a planet a very long way away through some strange technology that noone is quite sure about.
Causing problems here is the 'lockdown' status of the science staff working on this project, enforced by the military.
Needless to say, this strains relationships, especially between one of the main characters, her ex-husband, the new man on the scene she may be falling for, and their Asperger's Syndrome daughter.
Rated by buyers 
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This is my second Wilson novel after Spin which I liked so much that I went for more, as he seemed to be such an excellent hard sci-fi author. The reviews here gave me some more encouragement to pick Blind Lake as my second Wilson novel. But what a disappointment!
Wilson's character development is very good, particularly for a novel in the sci-fi genre, definitively this is one of his main strengths, but the science fiction is really poor. The plot has a very interesting scientific proposition regarding the use of quantum computers for peeking in a couple of inhabited planets, but unfortunately 85% of the story is devoted to the day by day details of the characters, locked down for unknown reasons. The plot spins around three journalists and the boring quarrels of a divorced couple. Everything happening inside the locked down facility could had happened by any cause not related to science fiction, such as a war, a epidemic disease or a computer malfunction, and the novel will read almost the same. The final is another disappointment; it looks a lot like fantasy rather than sci-fi, a real misuse of the possibilities of quantum theory. In short, too much character development and almost no science fiction.
From the point of view of sci-fi, Blind Lake deserves just one star, but I gave the second in recognition of his writing skills. So, for those readers who always complain about sci-fi typical cardboard characters, Wilson might be your choice, but certainly not recommended for died hard science fiction fans, you guys might die of boredom, for me it was a real exercise of patience to finish the book.
Rated by buyers -
Robert Charles Wilson has a knack for combining sci-fi concepts with real human drama and decent characterizations - a rare skill. I found it hard to put this book down once I started reading. Not sure if the ending quite satisfied my expectations from the initial set-up, but it was a good read overall. Recommended.
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