Starfish by Peter Watts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is the second novel I have read by Peter Watts (the first being Blindsight), but I believe this was actually published first. This was another outstanding hard sci-fi book from Watts. I have loved the two books I have read form him so far as they really bring real science into the sci-fi in everything that he writes. He even includes his reference material in the books. It isn't just the science her that is so interesting. Watts is one of the few authors that I have read that has been able to take the science and have it disappear into the fantastical nature of the story. Some of the other hard sci-fi books I have attempted to read felt too much like textbooks.
Starfish brings a really claustrophobic and dark story right out of the gate with modified humans who are living and working on a continental shelf out in the Pacific Ocean. the story captures some of that dark narrative like what you saw in the Abyss film. It also brings plenty of discussion about "What is human" and touches on a lot of contemporary topics such as the use of AI (aka gels), climate change, and refugees.
Watts once again brings a cast of characters that are fundamentally broken by traditional societal standards, but have found their perfect niche in their world. My only real critique of the story is the plot device that triggers the final events in the book came out of nowhere for me. 2/3's of the book focused on the interpersonal relationships and inner struggles of the BeeBee crew. The tipping point for the story change came very quickly and was caused by an external factor. I felt that could have been integrated into some of the character development earlier into the story, such as having a gel present on BeeBee the whole time and the crew struggling to determine whether it was sentient or not.
Overall though a great read and an easy one in the world of hard sci-fi. I'm definitely going onto the second book.
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My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is the second novel I have read by Peter Watts (the first being Blindsight), but I believe this was actually published first. This was another outstanding hard sci-fi book from Watts. I have loved the two books I have read form him so far as they really bring real science into the sci-fi in everything that he writes. He even includes his reference material in the books. It isn't just the science her that is so interesting. Watts is one of the few authors that I have read that has been able to take the science and have it disappear into the fantastical nature of the story. Some of the other hard sci-fi books I have attempted to read felt too much like textbooks.
Starfish brings a really claustrophobic and dark story right out of the gate with modified humans who are living and working on a continental shelf out in the Pacific Ocean. the story captures some of that dark narrative like what you saw in the Abyss film. It also brings plenty of discussion about "What is human" and touches on a lot of contemporary topics such as the use of AI (aka gels), climate change, and refugees.
Watts once again brings a cast of characters that are fundamentally broken by traditional societal standards, but have found their perfect niche in their world. My only real critique of the story is the plot device that triggers the final events in the book came out of nowhere for me. 2/3's of the book focused on the interpersonal relationships and inner struggles of the BeeBee crew. The tipping point for the story change came very quickly and was caused by an external factor. I felt that could have been integrated into some of the character development earlier into the story, such as having a gel present on BeeBee the whole time and the crew struggling to determine whether it was sentient or not.
Overall though a great read and an easy one in the world of hard sci-fi. I'm definitely going onto the second book.
View all my reviews