Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
This is a creative, highly entertaining and action-packed novel that questions how much we can trust what we see, especially when intermediaries (in the novel, a tech company; in real life, I'd say, the media). It made me think of the better aspects of some of Blake Crouch's novels--but _Blind Spots_ doesn't go off the rails the way _Dark Matter_ did towards the end.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Fun piece of speculative fiction. Pacing was perfect with a lot of time crafting the plot at the expense of the characters. The unique story overrode the lack of character depth however and made this a truly fun experience at least for me!
Now You See It…
Thomas Mullen astonished me with his moving Darktown trilogy of books. Set starting in the 1940’s, these brought to light what life was like for the first black police officers in Jim Crow Atlanta. Read “Darktown,” it is an important and fascinating historical fiction.
Mullen’s new novel, “Blind Spots,” covers a whole different arena, now in the science fiction realm. An epidemic had caused the world’s population to go blind. After a chaotic initial period, “The Blinding,” technology responded with an apparatus, a “vidder,” attached to the temples, enabling the brain to “see” images.
There is major concern over how this new vision is controlled. The very poor cannot afford this device while some groups of people reject the mechanism altogether. As mistrustful as people are about simple vaccinations, paranoia runs rampant over the government controlling people’s perceptions of reality.
“We haven’t voted on whether or not we should combine the human with the machine, but they’re doing it anyway!”
In this setting, we have Mark Owens, a cop still devasted by his wife’s suicide in the aftermath of The Blinding. Back on active duty, he is investigating a murder that seems crazy. A scientist was killed, and the witness claimed she only saw a dark form, “...like he’d been blotted out…” To the police this sounded like a weak alibi. “The vidder must have malfunctioned” was an excuse resorted to often.
Things change, though, when the witness is murdered, and this time Mark is the one who sees a cloaked image of the suspect getting away. Was this a malfunction? Why did his experience match the one his witness testified to? Is this a technical issue or are there dark forces controlling from behind the curtain?
“Blind Spots” branches out into a number of social issues, conspiracies, and plot twists– all the time keeping the action brisk and intriguing. I did not expect a sci-fi novel from the author, but it was very well done.
Thank you to St Martin's Press / Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
Thomas Mullen astonished me with his moving Darktown trilogy of books. Set starting in the 1940’s, these brought to light what life was like for the first black police officers in Jim Crow Atlanta. Read “Darktown,” it is an important and fascinating historical fiction.
Mullen’s new novel, “Blind Spots,” covers a whole different arena, now in the science fiction realm. An epidemic had caused the world’s population to go blind. After a chaotic initial period, “The Blinding,” technology responded with an apparatus, a “vidder,” attached to the temples, enabling the brain to “see” images.
There is major concern over how this new vision is controlled. The very poor cannot afford this device while some groups of people reject the mechanism altogether. As mistrustful as people are about simple vaccinations, paranoia runs rampant over the government controlling people’s perceptions of reality.
“We haven’t voted on whether or not we should combine the human with the machine, but they’re doing it anyway!”
In this setting, we have Mark Owens, a cop still devasted by his wife’s suicide in the aftermath of The Blinding. Back on active duty, he is investigating a murder that seems crazy. A scientist was killed, and the witness claimed she only saw a dark form, “...like he’d been blotted out…” To the police this sounded like a weak alibi. “The vidder must have malfunctioned” was an excuse resorted to often.
Things change, though, when the witness is murdered, and this time Mark is the one who sees a cloaked image of the suspect getting away. Was this a malfunction? Why did his experience match the one his witness testified to? Is this a technical issue or are there dark forces controlling from behind the curtain?
“Blind Spots” branches out into a number of social issues, conspiracies, and plot twists– all the time keeping the action brisk and intriguing. I did not expect a sci-fi novel from the author, but it was very well done.
Thank you to St Martin's Press / Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Pacy procedural thriller about a world affected by blindness and the dangers posed by the tech used to restore sight, both by those who created it and those who exploit it (spoilers - ACAB.)
Perfectly cromulent and not particularly unbelievable.
Perfectly cromulent and not particularly unbelievable.
A cop based thriller that happens to be set in a post-pandemic era where the population has all gone blind. They rely on technology to see. The premise is the danger that technology can be manipulated to control and deceive.
mysterious
medium-paced
Mark Owens, homicide detective, remembers how the world was before The Blinding: a phenomenon that happened 7 years ago leaving every person blind in a matter of months. A couple years later, a device called vidders were invented by Eye Tech that attached at the temple and fed visual data directly into your brain allowing you to “see” your surroundings. Now, a lead scientist at Eye Tech has been murdered and the “eye” witness and friend of the scientist claims the attacker was blacked out from her vidder, leaving the murderer completely unseen. Mark is skeptical at first, until he also sees a black figure running away from a crime scene. How is it possible to manipulate technology like this and erase yourself from others’ vidders? There are many suspects ranging from tech billionaires, those who reject using vidders, and disgruntled ex-employees at Eye Tech. Mark is determined to figure out who is behind this technology and what their end goal is.
This was a super good science fiction book that makes you wonder what would happen if everyone did go blind. How would the government react, what laws would be put in place, and how would technology help or hinder the world as it is now? This author was great at describing how characters “saw” things and what the world had gone through to finally lay down laws to help protect society. I will say the writing style was definitely different than any other book I’ve read, so I had to read this one slower to make sure I got every detail.
This was a super good science fiction book that makes you wonder what would happen if everyone did go blind. How would the government react, what laws would be put in place, and how would technology help or hinder the world as it is now? This author was great at describing how characters “saw” things and what the world had gone through to finally lay down laws to help protect society. I will say the writing style was definitely different than any other book I’ve read, so I had to read this one slower to make sure I got every detail.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes