Much agreed, along with Greg Egan, Peter Watts writes stories that are probably perfectly suited towards the interests of HN'ers. Both are "hard sci-fi". Blindsight even has an appendix that lists sources and explanations for how concepts from the book tie back to things that can be seen in the real world.

Also check out Children of Time and it's sequel by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Came here to plug this ... great book. (The sequel ... not so)

I enjoyed the second book except towards the end.

It definitely was not bad ... but compared to the first it was a bit off.

I read Blindsight based on a recommendation here.

Honestly… I think it’s a great book, but one that I would have to read multiple times to fully understand.

Yea, can confirm it benefits from re-reading. Without spoilers, there was one part in particular that was confusing on the first read.

Please spoil it, I've read the book multiple times and I'm looking to learn even more :)

For me, it was a bit too heavy on the science and too light on the rest.

The vampire stuff was funny, but felt a bit half assed.

I would argue that the sequel, Echopraxia, is very directly related. Even just the definition of the title.