Maelstrom

Rifters Trilogy, Book 2

By: Peter Watts

Narrated by: Alison Ewing

This is the way the world ends:

A nuclear strike on a deep sea vent. The target was an ancient microbe—voracious enough to drive the whole biosphere to extinction—and a handful of amphibious humans called rifters who'd inadvertently released it from three billion years of solitary confinement.

The resulting tsunami killed millions. It's not as through there was a choice: saving the world excuses almost any degree of collateral damage.

Unless, of course, you miss the target.

Now North America's west coast lies in ruins. Millions of refugees rally around a mythical figure mysteriously risen from the deep sea. A world already wobbling towards collapse barely notices the spread of one more blight along its shores. And buried in the seething fast-forward jungle that use to be called Internet, something vast and inhuman reaches out to a woman with empty white eyes and machinery in her chest. A woman driven by rage, and incubating Armageddon.

Her name is Lenie Clarke. She's a rifter. She's not nearly as dead as everyone thinks.

And the whole damn world is collateral damage as far as she's concerned . . .

©2001 Peter Watts (P)2022 Tantor

A good sequel

Book starts immediately after the events of the first one new narrator which in my opinion is better then the first one. Story is alot more character focused then the first and despite being a sequel can easily be listened to as standalone book cant wait for the next two books in the series

cool concept

sounded like a cool science fictional world but I really struggled following and being captured by it. the narration was to boring for me.

Methadone for those seeking another Blindsight experience.

compelling macro-scale plot and terrific applied sciences in this fiction. but following characters through this rich world was a bland experience.

Dystopic post nuclear scenario

Peter Watt’s Maelstrom is the second installment in his Rifters series. Following the nuclear option to save the world from a lifeform capable of taking over the planet, the US west coast is a dystopic wasteland. Unbeknownst to most, some of the ‘rifters’ have survived. At the same time, an AI is running amok on the internet. More of the background to the rifters program is outlined, while one of the surviving rifters is living out a fantasy as a result of the project programming. As is typical for Watts, this is hard sci-fi that at times is over the top.

Watts leans heavily into hard sci-fi with marine biology, neurobiology, and computer science with a heavy dose of AI. Some of the character motivations seem forced and the science themes are overplayed at times.

The narration is good with decent character distinction. Pacing is smooth

Better than the first book

The first book had fewer interesting ideas than this book.
Overall better in every dimension.

Excellent and True to Form

Maelstrom built on the excellence that was Starfish while standing on it's own to tell a story that kept me guessing all the way through.

Strange characters, story that goes nowhere.

The character Lenny Clark is a woman who constantly sticks up for rapists and women beaters. Makes you think what the author's view on the subject is and if he supports it.

narrator change

why change the narrator halfway thru a trilogy. She isn't even capable of altering her voice for different characters. What a disaster