Hard sci-fi can be intimidating, and I certainly got into the genre the wrong way. My first serious read was Blindsight by Peter Watts, which a friend handed me with zero context. I spent the first 100 pages genuinely unsure if I was smart enough to finish it. I’m not a physics nerd, and I didn’t know anything about neuroscience. But with every book I consider, I bring a willingness to sit with something difficult long enough to ease into it. Blindsight was an incredible read, and when I finished it, I understood what hard sci-fi actually is. It’ not a genre for people who want to read fiction instead of textbooks. It is a genre where the science drives everything, and it powers questions about consciousness, survival, identity, and humanity.

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