Blood Music and the short story from which it was developed were considered innovative, so much so that Bear's writing reputation received a distinct boost. At the same time, the novel falls within literary tradition. The plot echoes, distantly, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein of 1818. Blood Music follows great names in hard science fiction such as Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Theodore Sturgeon, James Blish. The novel's answer to the question of "whither humankind" is often compared to Clarke's resolution in Childhood's End of 1953. It must be noted, however, that Clarke's path and overall perspective differ markedly from Bear's. Clarke poses a religious rather than a material transcendence.

In an interview Bear states that he is uncertain about the precedents for his idea of a Thought Universe, but finds it hinted at in Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination (1957), William Hjortsberg's Gray Matters (1971), and certain John Varley...