Echopraxia

In 2014, Peter Watts released Echopraxia, a continuation to his thought-provoking 2006 novel Blindsight. Echopraxia is a sidequel: it takes place largely concurrently with Blindsight. (And apparently Watts wrote a lot of it while surviving a flesh-eating disease on his leg!)

Blindsight

I was browsing internet forums for science fiction book recommendations, for what I should keep an eye out. Blindsight by Peter Watts appeared in few lists. One person described it as like watching Alien for the first time. That definitely piqued my interest but after reading the book, I wouldn't compare it to Alien exactly. It does have a first contact with an extraterrestrial life form, and I suppose it can be a bit creepy, but that's about it. Alien is horror in a futuristic setting whereas Blindsight is hard science fiction -- really hard science fiction.