by Peter Watts
First published 2020
Siri Keeton watches alien objects burn through Earth's atmosphere, screaming as they fall. Two months pass in silence. Then a derelict probe detects whispers from a distant comet. Something communicates out there, but not with humanity. The mission team assembles: a linguist fractured by multiple personality disorder, a cyborg biologist disconnected from his own flesh, a warrior who abhors violence, and a vampire brought back through genetic resurrection. Siri himself carries only half a mind, damaged since childhood. They venture into space to make contact with whatever speaks in the darkness. But the crew may prove more alien than their target. Each team member exists at the edges of human experience. Their altered minds might be humanity's only hope of comprehending truly foreign intelligence. The fate of Earth rests with those who barely qualify as human themselves.
Genres: science-fiction, mystery, space-opera, thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: first-contact, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Earth, Comet
Period: 21st-century
382 pages · Paperback · Tor
Content warnings: mental-illness