Starfish

Rifters Trilogy Series, Book 1

By: Peter Watts

Narrated by: Gabriel Vaughan

A huge international corporation has developed a facility along the Juan de Fuca Ridge at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to exploit geothermal power. They send a bio-engineered crew - people who have been altered to withstand the pressure and breathe the seawater - down to live and work in this weird, fertile undersea darkness.

Unfortunately, the only people suitable for longterm employment in these experimental power stations are crazy, some of them in unpleasant ways. How many of them can survive, or will be allowed to survive, while worldwide disaster approaches from below?

©1999 Peter Watts (P)2019 Tantor

Didn’t care about anyone

The was DNF for me. I think there was supposed to be some psychological tension? But it just wasn’t working. There was also some domestic violence and discussion of childhood harm and it really was not expected and became to much a theme.

slow-building, well-crafted hard sci-fi

exceptionally well-researched, the author scientific background comes through. By embracing the most alien landscapes that are on our own planet and near-term technologies that will be realities in The xext century, an alien horrorscape that is far too real emerges. Through world-building and character development we come to sympathize with the radical weirdos and the criminals and see unchecked technological development as the enemy even though radial technological change is necessary for science-fiction to exist as a genre.

Very Unique!

One of the most unique and interesting sci fi books I’ve ever read, the undersea vibe is totally different from anything else out there. The book also takes you places you never saw coming, I highly recommend it?

The Book Cover is a Lie; This is Amazing

As always, Peter Watts leaves me battered and bruised with my brain standing on the edge of some cliff to how everything could end around me at any moment.

As usual, the author has a very cold and uncaring way of telling a story. If you're getting into this book, just assume there's a trigger warning for literally everything. So far, his books often focus on a team of neurodivergents and the trauma that brought them to their current state, right before explaining another way all life as we know it can easily end using realistic concepts and science. The theme is "Normies not allowed and life is excruciating".

The narrator, meanwhile, is perfectly mediocre. He has enough stamina to narrate the whole book for recording without sounding tired, but he has maybe 3 voices he can do for different characters, so of there's 4+ characters in a scene, then you need to really buckle down and catch any and all context that comes your way.

Additionally, some characters have written screams for dialogue, and the narrator represents this with a soft pronunciation of "aaaaaah" at a quiet speaking level. The other narrators I've heard so far would actually back up from the mic and give it their all. I feel like the narrator has a lot more potential that he can work on, because he absolutely shows that he has the endurance and the skills to continue growing. Maybe he's exceptional later in his career.

Now, for the book cover. It's a lie.

The ocean is the primary setting for this, and Peter Watts realistically depicts it as black and murky with no visibility at all. The book cover, conversely, takes a more Subnautica approach. Additionally, intelligent machines are a main idea in the story, but they apparently look like cubes of gel, but the book cover has an android for some reason. I understand that cover artists don't always have all the context, and many in this genre are fashioned from stock images, but let's be clear: This book is not shiny, and it's not wondrous. It is darker than night, it is cold, and it leaves you a little shaken sometimes. It is art designed to challenge certain readers.

Overall, absolutely fantastically-done, and I am reminded again why some people can't read too many Peter Watts books in a row.

The Greatest SF Writer in the World

Bordering on nihilistically Grim, unexpectedly amusing, brilliantly insightful, narrative control deft as a concert pianist, original use of old SF tropes, scientifically and culturally literate...and one monster storyteller...all told, Peter Watts is the world’s best SF writer.