Book Description
The Hugo Award-nominated novel by 'a hard science fiction writer through and through and one of the very best alive.' -The Globe and Mail Two months have past since a myriad of alien objects clenched about the Earth, screaming as they burned. The heavens have been silent since-until a derelict space probe hears whispers from a distant comet. Something talks out there: but not to us. Who should we send to meet the alien, when the alien doesn't want to meet?Send a linguist with multiple-personality disorder and a biologist so spliced with machinery that he can't feel his own flesh. Send a pacifist warrior and a vampire recalled from the grave by the voodoo of paleogenetics. Send a man with half his mind gone since childhood. Send them to the edge of the solar system, praying you can trust such freaks and monsters with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find-but you'd give anything for that to be true, if you knew what was waiting for them. . . . ... Read more

Customer Reviews (53)

WOW - aliens that are really alien.
Blindsight is one of the most stunning, original and truly creepy science fiction novels that I have ever read.

In so many science fiction novels the aliens start out as something interesting, but by the end the super-intelligent brains turn out to be blundering comic-opera Nazis with slime who are outwitted by the clever humans.Not here.

Just when you thought that there could not POSSIBLY be YET ANOTHER TAKE ON VAMPIRES here is one to trump all the rest.These vampires make sense, and they are way more frightening than Count Dracula ever was.

The author clearly understands much of cutting-edge neuroscience, though I think he misses the point about consciousness being inefficient (the central executive delegates to specialized subsystems and does not hamper their short-term reaction speed).And the inter-'personal' relationships maybe don't always work, especially with the protaganist.Quibble, quibble.I'm still thinking about this book.

Disturbing, very disturbing
There are books; they have a beginning, a middle and an end.You read them, put them down and forget them.Then there are BOOKS.They take hold of the mind and won't let go.This is one of them.I won't recount the story, there are much better narrators who have gone ahead.I just wanted to get my impressions down on paper, so they can leave me alone.
If the Establishment read this book and could understand anything from it, it would be banned.It really questions our existence and our version of reality.Our understanding of the world is filtered through our eyes and brain.They are not to be trusted.So-called eyewitness testimony is a joke - we see what we want to see and ignore everything else.Visions, UFOs, religious rapture, it's all explained here.It's all a fairy tale.In struggling to "understand" the world we find ourselves in, we have created a cloud cuckoo land.Yes, it seems real enough, but is it?Or is it one giant mass hallucination?Will we ever know?

for self-styled xenobiologists
...I absolutely tore through this book. An utterly fascinating read; well-done in both its science and its style. Watts makes some clever choices in structuring his narrator (and consequently, the narrative) without it coming across as a gimmick or some other bit of contrivance. So we have this faithful guide working in our favor and a good entry point for the story.

And then he slowly unfurls idea after idea that link together into a shillelagh to bash your brain in. At one moment near the end, I glanced up from the page and said aloud: He's saying that consciousness and self-awareness are metabolically expensive and that if we're lucky, we'll grow out of it. I had several jaw-dropping moments. Like I said, it's a little bit "harder" of a flavor of scifi than I usually get into but this novel just held my attention totally rapt; I was utterly engrossed. And I highly recommend it.

Interesing concept - very poor execution
I bought this book from the description on Amazon.It sounded like a fun and interesting read. First contact books are always interesting and if you throw in a Vampire leading our contact it was very alluring.

The problem is that the description of the book more interesting than the book itself.

The concept that the author is going for is interesting... however he is unable to ever get that complete concept over to the reader even at the end of the book.

The most damaging part of this book is that the character development is horrible and the book is a very difficult read.I found myself trying to keep track of who was who and where they fit into the story.

Without good character writing and without a nicely flowing plot this books fails badly.

I gave it two stars rather than one because the concept was interesting and I did finish the book rather than just tossing it to the side.

Great Sci-Fi, and an interesting take on Vampires
I echo what others have said:this is a smart book, engaging enough to make you work for it, but you don't need a PhD to grok the science.The part that spoke to me most was the evolutionary take on Vampires.How they evolved, their aversion to right angles, their ressurection...it was completely fascinating and convincing. It was a small part of what the book was about, but interesting. Overall -A great read! ... Read more

Book Description
An enormous tidal wave on the West Coast of North America has just killed thousands. Lenie Clarke, in a black wetsuit, walks out of the ocean onto a Pacific Northwest beach filled with the oppressed and drugged homeless of the Asian world who have gotten only this far in their attempt to reach America. Is she a monster or a goddess? One thing is for sure: all hell is breaking loose. This dark, fast-paced, hard SF novel returns to the story begun in Starfish: all human life is threatened by a disease (actually a primeval form of life) from the distant prehuman past. It survived only in the deep ocean rift where Clarke and her companions were stationed before the corporation that employed them tried to sterilize the threat with a secret underwater nuclear strike. But Clarke was far enough away that she was able to survive and tough enough to walk home, three hundred miles across the ocean floor. She arrives carrying with her the potential death of the human race, and possessed by a desire for revenge. Maelstrom is a terrifying explosion of cyberpunk noir by a writer whose narrative, says Robert Sheckley, "drives like a futuristic locomotive."AUTHORBIO: Peter Watts lives in Toronto, Ontario.Download Description
This is a dark, fast-paced, hard SF novel that returns to the story set up in Starfish: all human life is threatened by a disease (actually an early form of life) from the distant prehuman past. It survived in the deep ocean rift where Lenie Clarke and her companions were stationed before the corporation that employed them tried to sterilize the threat with a secret tactical nuclear strike. But Clarke was far enough away that she was able to survive and walk home, 300 miles underwater. As this book opens, Clarke walks onto shore, carrying the potential death of the human race, and possessed by a desire for revenge. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Fantastic sequel to _Starfish_
Peter Watts' _Starfish_ introduced the reader to a fascinating, very well-developed dystopian world, the sometimes wonderful but often frightening world of the mid-21st century. In _Maelstrom_, Watts shows how that world comes to an end.

_Maelstrom_ begins right where _Starfish_ left off. Lenie Clarke and Ken Lubin, "rifters," people modified to work at a deep sea power-generating station (practically cyborgs in some respects), are the sole survivors of an attempt to contain the deadly pathogen dubbed Behemoth, discovered at the deep sea geothermal vent where Bebee Station was located. As the reader learned in _Starfish_, the strange and extremely deadly microorganism lived at that particular vent and was isolated until humans set up shop in its habitat. Aware of the unbelievable risks posed by the microbe, the government of North America used nuclear weapons to destroy the potentially biosphere-ending benthic organism at the end of _Starfish_, hoping to destroy the vent, the station, the rifters, and anything remotely associated with Behemoth. The resulting tsunami and earthquakes - made worse by the very nature of the smart gels assigned to handle the Behemoth problem - killed millions.

Unfortunately, Behemoth was not contained. Not only had it already spread to the North American Pacific coast, it was being carried further inland by Lenie Clark. Quite angry at the betrayals and lies she had been subject to, she journeyed inland to seek answers and revenge of a sort, unfortunately sowing the seeds for North America's if not the world's demise. Wherever she went, she spread Behemoth.

Lenie Clarke became far more successful than she had any right to be, owing to an unusual concentration of forces and alignment of events in her favor, as Clarke became not only a societal force but also a force of sorts in Maelstrom, the whirling, chaotic, violent successor to the modern internet, a place dominated by increasingly intelligent and dangerous "wildlife," rogue computer programs, future descendents of today's computer viruses but much more troublesome. The author's description of the evolution of such electronic organisms and the conditions prevalent in Maelstrom in the mid 21st century were fascinating and chilling. It made me very concerned about my virus protection software on my computer (not that any modern program could hope to prevail against the monsters of Maelstrom)!

Other major players include two members of the "Entropy Patrol," two "'lawbreakers" by the name of Achilles Desjardins and Alice Jovellanos. Given enormous power to react quickly, ruthlessly, and efficiently to mounting global crises, they are information experts, able to interpret, analyze, and quickly act on mounds of data in any field, be it economics, ecology, disaster management, or any other sphere (aided by the fact that they were given incredibly enhanced intellectual reflexes and pattern-matching skills). At first the Entropy Patrol was designed to act quickly and globally in an era of quarantines, diebacks, and crop failures, acting to quickly contain diseases and invasive organisms as they spread over the world as to well as to contend with other things such as global terrorism, they increasingly came to include in their sphere other sources of concern, with the power to instantly ruin millions of lives economically or to even physically end lives with powerful weapons (as long as it served the greater good of course). More powerful than any despot or emperor ever dreamed of being, only one thing stood to keep them in check, a biochemical fix known as Guilt Trip, which prevented `lawbreakers from acting against the greater good. Derived from chemicals used by parasites to control the behavior of their host, Guilt Trip paralyzed anyone with guilt - literally paralyzing them - if they ever sought to do something against the greater good. Guilt Trip was the only way anyone would ever sleep soundly knowing people like Desjardins had such enormous power at their fingertips.

Other players included Sou-Hon Perreault, a botfly operator (botflies are remotely operated flying machines, able to hover or speed to trouble spots and bring to bear as needed a battery of sensors, instruments, and in some cases weapons) and Patricia Rowan as well (a "corpse" - or corporate executive - from the first novel).

An interesting and well-written book, it was a little dark at times though generally never truly disturbing. You can see the large amount of research the author has put into this novel (but not to such an extent that the action drags or characters come off as flat or anything).

Everything that Wm Gibson was supposed to be....
I finished Maelstrom over the weekend. In case you didnt' know, its the sequel to Starfish and number 2 of 4 in the Rifters series. The third and fourth parts are two halves of one book that have been published separately because together it was more than 110,000 words, an obscure number in publishing that means the book can't make enough to be worth publishing alone.

Starfish was one of the more imaginative sciece fiction novels that I've ever read. If you remember the hype that surrounded William Gibson when he wrote Mona Lisa Overdrive, you might also remember how disappointing those books were. More about style than substance.Peter Watts delivers both style and substance in an elegant and beautiful writing style. His books are HARD sci fi. You'll have to pay attention but its very much worth the trip. Watts delivers what Gibson was supposed to...in spades.

Starfish was about adapted humans living in the deep sea vents, mining geologic heat to convert into energy for the world above the waters. They have been modified to be able to live underwater (I want to be one!) and they're psychotic.

Maelstrom picks right up where Starfish ended and turned up the dial about a thousand percent. Wow.What an amazing read!

If you like science fiction, you'll love these books. They are the gold nuggets that we will read a thousand books to try to find. Save yourself the nine hundred ninety nine books and go get this one.

Five stars, which I'm not sure I've ever given before.

Disappointing Sequel
I bought this sequel to Starfish, and to be frank, was disap-
pointed.Narration seemed disjointed, couldn't follow it very
well-may have been too cyber-punk for my tastes.I ended up skipping to the very end to read the conclusion, and it still
disappointed me.I don't think I'll keep it, either, that's how
disappointing it was to me.Too many disaparate strings of the
story just did not seem to be resolved in a satisfying way.Too
cool and too hip a story for me.Needed better editing, perhaps
not enough resolution to keep me interested very much.

An Intriguing Novel from One of Canada's New SF Writers
I inadvertently picked up "Maelstrom" at a local library recently and found it hard to put down. Peter Watts is a splendid, hard science fiction writer whose technological descriptions rival many I've seen from the likes of Gregory Benford and Greg Bear, among others. Unfortunately, his characters are not nearly as well fleshed out as theirs, often resembling one dimensional figures whose existence merely serves to advance the plot. Nor is his writing as lyrical as theirs, which I found rather surprising since one of his acquaintances is Canada's best young writer of science fiction, Nalo Hopkinson. Yet fans of technological science fiction will undoubtedly find "Maelstrom" quite intriguing, even if it only resembles in tone and substance, genuine cyberpunk fiction.

Dark, gritty fiction
First off, if you haven't read Peter Watts' first novel, "Starfish", don't start with "Maelstrom".While this is theoretically a stand-alone novel, the reader unfamiliar with "Starfish" will miss out on a tremendous amount of back-story and character development....

As for "Maelstrom" itself, Watts has easily cleared the high bar he set with his first novel.All too often, sequels are rehashes of old conflict, but that is not the case here at all.Watts takes his already complex characters from the first novel and adds several more layers of texture; at the same time he adds just enough new characters to keep things interesting.These characters are equally well developed, and overall, Watts' writing is even sharper than in the first book.

The writing has to be sharper, because this is a much more complicated novel than the first.While "Starfish" took place in the relatively limited space of a deep ocean outpost, and dealt primarily with human interactions, "Maelstrom" sprawls across the Pacific and North America and a significant portion of the action takes place in cyberspace.Moreover, the plot is significantly more complicated.I don't want to get into it in too much detail, as doing so would ruin much of "Starfish" for those who haven't read it.But the general theme of this novel, like its predecessor, is the impact that the unforeseen consequences of exponentially growing technology can have on humans as a species and on the planet as a whole.In a dystopian setting of environmental havoc and human violence, two new scourges have emerged.One is spawned by nature, the other, inadvertently, by man.The result is a bizarre, but believable synergy that threatens the entire biosphere.It was particularly interesting how Watts explored the nature of consciousness by subtly comparing the burgeoning life of a piece of code with the flawed memories of the main character.

By now you may have guessed that there is a lot of science in this novel, and you'd be right.There is a great deal that is cutting edge, and even more that is purely speculative.Watts makes use of some pretty heavy biology and AI science that may intimidate readers at first blush.It would be a mistake to avoid this novel for that reason because the science is just there to set the stage for the story.If you understand the detail of it, it definitely adds many intriguing twists; but if you only understand it at the surface level, you could still easily follow the story.That's the beauty of Watts as a writer: he's pigeon hold as hard-SF, but the SF is just a means to the end of writing incredibly complex, beautiful characters struggling with problems we can easily empathize with.Finally, Watts has included an appendix discussing the key science in some detail, and also provides a bibliography of sources he used.

"Maelstrom" is an outstanding novel set in a believable, terrifying future.It was undeniably entertaining and I tore through it at a breathless pace.It also left me thinking about technology and its impacts in some new ways.Watts is no technophobe, but he makes a strong point about the lack of responsibility in many arenas of scientific endeavor."Maelstrom" is a must read for anyone who enjoys a great story, rich characters and a thoughtful message. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Peter Watts's first novel explores the last mysterious place on earth--the floor of a deep sea rift. Channer Vent is a zone of freezing darkness that belongs to shellfish the size of boulders and crimson worms three meters long. It's the temporary home of the maintenance crew of a geothermal energy plant--a crew made up of the damaged and dysfunctional flotsam of an overpopulated near-future earth. The crew's reluctant leader, basket case Lenie Clarke, can barely survive in the upper world, but she quickly falls under the rift's spell, just as Watts's magical descriptions of it enchant the reader: "Steam never gets a chance to form at three hundred atmospheres, but thermal distortion turns the water into a column of writhing liquid prisms, hotter than molten glass."

Watts is investigating monsters. Gigantic deep sea monsters, surgically-altered-from-human monsters, faceless jellied-brain computer monsters--which monsters are human, which are more than human, which are less? Watts keeps the story line stripped down to showcase the theme of dehumanization. The anonymous millions who live along the unstable shore of N'AmPac come under threat (a triggered earthquake, and perhaps a disaster that's slower but even more pitiless) from their own dehumanized creations. But Watts is less interested in whether Lenie can save the dry world as in whether she can save herself. In Starfish, Watts stretches the boundaries of humanity up, down, and sideways to see whether its dimensions reveal anything we'd be proud to be a part of. --Blaise SelbyBook Description
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 long-term 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? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (35)

Great Hard Science Fiction
Peter Watts takes his reader to the depths of the ocean and the very edge of the human psche.This hard science fiction book is the first in what was to be a trilogy, but turned out as one of a four part series.Watts brings the reader a fast paced and intrguing look at the future of mankind which as the reader finds hinges on the past of all life on this blue dot.I would highly recommend this book to any science fiction fan.In fact, I have just ordered the other three books in the series.

First-rate science fiction novel, definitely among the best I have ever read
_Starfish_ by Peter Watts is one of the finest hard science fiction books I have ever read. It had many elements of what make a great science fiction novel. It extrapolated an interesting and believable though often surprising future, the science was realistic and well-explained (and in this book was discussed at some length in a final chapter on references) yet the author didn't forget that the book was a novel, not a science textbook, many disparate elements were woven together to form a great story (in this case deepwater biology, plate tectonics, microbiology, artificial intelligence, and psychological trauma), the characters were interesting and well-developed, and the book had that rare quality of making you feel very smart, of allowing you to piece together shocking and developing story elements, the author allowing you to form conclusions, neither watering down something nor going over the reader's head with too much jargon or hard to grasp story logic. Hard to believe that this is the author's first novel! Many science fiction authors don't do nearly as well after years in their profession.

I don't want to say too much about the book's plot as I wouldn't want to spoil it for the prospective reader. I will say that the plot's main setting is unusual and interesting and what originally attracted me to the book; a deep sea geothermal power station on the seafloor of the Pacific Ocean (specifically, Beebe Station, located near the Juan de Fuca Ridge hydrothermal vents). The station is populated by a bio-engineered crew dubbed "rifters," people who had been altered physically and mechanically to able to live and work in such an incredible harsh environment, a realm of crushing pressure, arctic-temperature waters (except around the scalding vents), and alien darkness. The type of people able to live in such an environment is a key plot point of the book and makes for some very unusual and memorable characters.

Though Beebe Station and the rifters are dominant in the book, they are not the only story elements. Other notable characters are Patricia Rowan (a CEO of the Grid Authority or GA, which owns Beebe Station and employs the rifters) and Yves Scanlon (a psychologist who works for the GA), characters which become important later in the novel as events come to entangle the rifters in a mysterious and mounting catastrophe.

I will say the novel has a climatic ending and a sequel was clearly meant from the beginning as there were several loose ends. I am currently reading that very sequel, _Maelstrom_, and find it thus far a worthy follow-up, beginning right where the action left off and exploring further Watt's detailed and interesting (if scary) world.

Science fiction with good characters
This is the best "science fiction" book I have read in a long time.As a female reader, I tire of "Spaceman Spiff" stories and have leaned more toward fantasy._Starfish_ is set in the deepest ocean, an environment as hostile as outer space.The time and place are earth in the near future, seen through a pessimistic lens.There's environmental problems, population problems, corporations have taken over everything, etc.These ideas are not original, nor are they really what the book is about.

_Starfish_'s main character is Lenie Clarke, a courageous woman with a troubled past.She arrives at the underwater outpost Beebe Station, not because it was her life's ambition, but because she has exhausted her other options.Lenie is a complex and extremely well-drawn character.The author did an excellent job creating a character that the reader doesn't identify with, but still develops a great affection for.

As her teammates join her at the station, they each explore their new environment and learn to engage with one another.At Beebe, they are in uncomfortably close quarters.Outside, they have infinite space, but in a medium that is ultimately hostile to their biology.

The conflicts are on several levels.Lenie and the other team members have inner conflicts aplenty.Lenie repeatedly confronts and challenges the deep ocean that is her new home.Finally, the story is framed by a more complex socio-political conflict that Beebe Station, even though it is thousands of feet beneath the surface, cannot escape.

This book stayed in my head for a long time after I read it. _Starfish_ deserves better than a plane trip, but a time when you can pay attention.

So atmospheric, so dark, so good
Lounging around the house, I picked this book up and started it.And then, a few pages into it, I put it down.It scared me.The world that Watts drops you into, right at the beginning, is so strong... so well created.... so evocative....It just gives you chills...Makes you hear every echoing bang and strange creak and feel the terrible pressure overhead.I put this book down and turned on the TV, in fact....Wanted some bright, technicolor, mindless drivel....

But then, two days later, after finding that I was thinking about it...I picked Starfish up again and..... read it straight through.I think I finished it around 3:15am last night (and got three hours of sleep before having to get up for work). This one goes in my list of very, very, very good books.

Again, Watts drops you right in the middle of it and you have to work to figure out what is happening.He assumes the reader has intelligence, which is really refreshing.Yes, there are some tidbits that we've experienced before (Sphere and The Abyss come to mind).But just tidbits.This is so much more.And pretty damn perfect.With one exception (the evil bureaucrat's speechifying explanations near the end). These few paragraphs were kind of jarring -- a simple plot mechanism, when I expected much more from such a skilled writer.

HOWEVER -- this does not detract a lot from my review.The rest of the writing was great, the characters are haunting, and the science folded into the story is fascinating.I can close my eyes and be down there, in the silty darkness with the fragile monsters...

Wow. Congratulations to Peter Watts.
I haven't been this affected by a science fiction book IN A LONG TIME!

Fascinating.....
Starfish delivers a captivating tale.I find it a plausible glimpse into our not so distant future.

I was intrigued as well as a bit terrified of Watts depiction of human beings bio engineered to live on the ocean floor.Terrified, because I placed myself within the characters shoes and I struggled to determine how I would retain my sanity constantly hearing the overwhelming pressure of the hand of the ocean trying to crush my undersea habitat and swimming in total darkness with monsters attracted by the slightest amount of light..

Watts covered all bases by coming up with a believable explanation of how people could face these undersea dangers and still remain "sane".

Add to that not one but two world ending threats as a cliffhanger and you have the makings of a great book.I loved it.

Euftis Emery
Author of Off the Chain
... Read more

Amazon.com
Peter Watts's first novel explores the last mysterious place on earth--the floor of a deep sea rift. Channer Vent is a zone of freezing darkness that belongs to shellfish the size of boulders and crimson worms three meters long. It's the temporary home of the maintenance crew of a geothermal energy plant--a crew made up of the damaged and dysfunctional flotsam of an overpopulated near-future earth. The crew's reluctant leader, basket case Lenie Clarke, can barely survive in the upper world, but she quickly falls under the rift's spell, just as Watts's magical descriptions of it enchant the reader: "Steam never gets a chance to form at three hundred atmospheres, but thermal distortion turns the water into a column of writhing liquid prisms, hotter than molten glass."

Watts is investigating monsters. Gigantic deep sea monsters, surgically-altered-from-human monsters, faceless jellied-brain computer monsters--which monsters are human, which are more than human, which are less? Watts keeps the story line stripped down to showcase the theme of dehumanization. The anonymous millions who live along the unstable shore of N'AmPac come under threat (a triggered earthquake, and perhaps a disaster that's slower but even more pitiless) from their own dehumanized creations. But Watts is less interested in whether Lenie can save the dry world as in whether she can save herself. In Starfish, Watts stretches the boundaries of humanity up, down, and sideways to see whether its dimensions reveal anything we'd be proud to be a part of. --Blaise SelbyBook Description
Peter Watts's first novel explores the last mysterious place on earth--the floor of a deep sea rift. Channer Vent is a zone of freezing darkness that belongs to shellfish the size of boulders and crimson worms three meters long. It's the temporary home of the maintenance crew of a geothermal energy plant--a crew made up of the damaged and dysfunctional flotsam of an overpopulated near-future earth. The crew's reluctant leader, basket case Lenie Clarke, can barely survive in the upper world, but she quickly falls under the rift's spell, just as Watts's magical descriptions of it enchant the reader: "Steam never gets a chance to form at three hundred atmospheres, but thermal distortion turns the water into a column of writhing liquid prisms, hotter than molten glass." Watts is investigating monsters. Gigantic deep sea monsters, surgically-altered-from-human monsters, faceless jellied-brain computer monsters--which monsters are human, which are more than human, which are less? Watts keeps the story line stripped down to showcase the theme of dehumanization. The anonymous millions who live along the unstable shore of N'AmPac come under threat (a triggered earthquake, and perhaps a disaster that's slower but even more pitiless) from their own dehumanized creations. But Watts is less interested in whether Lenie can save the dry world as in whether she can save herself. In Starfish, Watts stretches the boundaries of humanity up, down, and sideways to see whether its dimensions reveal anything we'd be proud to be a part of. --Blaise Selby ... Read more

Customer Reviews (35)

Great Hard Science Fiction
Peter Watts takes his reader to the depths of the ocean and the very edge of the human psche.This hard science fiction book is the first in what was to be a trilogy, but turned out as one of a four part series.Watts brings the reader a fast paced and intrguing look at the future of mankind which as the reader finds hinges on the past of all life on this blue dot.I would highly recommend this book to any science fiction fan.In fact, I have just ordered the other three books in the series.

First-rate science fiction novel, definitely among the best I have ever read
_Starfish_ by Peter Watts is one of the finest hard science fiction books I have ever read. It had many elements of what make a great science fiction novel. It extrapolated an interesting and believable though often surprising future, the science was realistic and well-explained (and in this book was discussed at some length in a final chapter on references) yet the author didn't forget that the book was a novel, not a science textbook, many disparate elements were woven together to form a great story (in this case deepwater biology, plate tectonics, microbiology, artificial intelligence, and psychological trauma), the characters were interesting and well-developed, and the book had that rare quality of making you feel very smart, of allowing you to piece together shocking and developing story elements, the author allowing you to form conclusions, neither watering down something nor going over the reader's head with too much jargon or hard to grasp story logic. Hard to believe that this is the author's first novel! Many science fiction authors don't do nearly as well after years in their profession.

I don't want to say too much about the book's plot as I wouldn't want to spoil it for the prospective reader. I will say that the plot's main setting is unusual and interesting and what originally attracted me to the book; a deep sea geothermal power station on the seafloor of the Pacific Ocean (specifically, Beebe Station, located near the Juan de Fuca Ridge hydrothermal vents). The station is populated by a bio-engineered crew dubbed "rifters," people who had been altered physically and mechanically to able to live and work in such an incredible harsh environment, a realm of crushing pressure, arctic-temperature waters (except around the scalding vents), and alien darkness. The type of people able to live in such an environment is a key plot point of the book and makes for some very unusual and memorable characters.

Though Beebe Station and the rifters are dominant in the book, they are not the only story elements. Other notable characters are Patricia Rowan (a CEO of the Grid Authority or GA, which owns Beebe Station and employs the rifters) and Yves Scanlon (a psychologist who works for the GA), characters which become important later in the novel as events come to entangle the rifters in a mysterious and mounting catastrophe.

I will say the novel has a climatic ending and a sequel was clearly meant from the beginning as there were several loose ends. I am currently reading that very sequel, _Maelstrom_, and find it thus far a worthy follow-up, beginning right where the action left off and exploring further Watt's detailed and interesting (if scary) world.

Science fiction with good characters
This is the best "science fiction" book I have read in a long time.As a female reader, I tire of "Spaceman Spiff" stories and have leaned more toward fantasy._Starfish_ is set in the deepest ocean, an environment as hostile as outer space.The time and place are earth in the near future, seen through a pessimistic lens.There's environmental problems, population problems, corporations have taken over everything, etc.These ideas are not original, nor are they really what the book is about.

_Starfish_'s main character is Lenie Clarke, a courageous woman with a troubled past.She arrives at the underwater outpost Beebe Station, not because it was her life's ambition, but because she has exhausted her other options.Lenie is a complex and extremely well-drawn character.The author did an excellent job creating a character that the reader doesn't identify with, but still develops a great affection for.

As her teammates join her at the station, they each explore their new environment and learn to engage with one another.At Beebe, they are in uncomfortably close quarters.Outside, they have infinite space, but in a medium that is ultimately hostile to their biology.

The conflicts are on several levels.Lenie and the other team members have inner conflicts aplenty.Lenie repeatedly confronts and challenges the deep ocean that is her new home.Finally, the story is framed by a more complex socio-political conflict that Beebe Station, even though it is thousands of feet beneath the surface, cannot escape.

This book stayed in my head for a long time after I read it. _Starfish_ deserves better than a plane trip, but a time when you can pay attention.

So atmospheric, so dark, so good
Lounging around the house, I picked this book up and started it.And then, a few pages into it, I put it down.It scared me.The world that Watts drops you into, right at the beginning, is so strong... so well created.... so evocative....It just gives you chills...Makes you hear every echoing bang and strange creak and feel the terrible pressure overhead.I put this book down and turned on the TV, in fact....Wanted some bright, technicolor, mindless drivel....

But then, two days later, after finding that I was thinking about it...I picked Starfish up again and..... read it straight through.I think I finished it around 3:15am last night (and got three hours of sleep before having to get up for work). This one goes in my list of very, very, very good books.

Again, Watts drops you right in the middle of it and you have to work to figure out what is happening.He assumes the reader has intelligence, which is really refreshing.Yes, there are some tidbits that we've experienced before (Sphere and The Abyss come to mind).But just tidbits.This is so much more.And pretty damn perfect.With one exception (the evil bureaucrat's speechifying explanations near the end). These few paragraphs were kind of jarring -- a simple plot mechanism, when I expected much more from such a skilled writer.

HOWEVER -- this does not detract a lot from my review.The rest of the writing was great, the characters are haunting, and the science folded into the story is fascinating.I can close my eyes and be down there, in the silty darkness with the fragile monsters...

Wow. Congratulations to Peter Watts.
I haven't been this affected by a science fiction book IN A LONG TIME!

Fascinating.....
Starfish delivers a captivating tale.I find it a plausible glimpse into our not so distant future.

I was intrigued as well as a bit terrified of Watts depiction of human beings bio engineered to live on the ocean floor.Terrified, because I placed myself within the characters shoes and I struggled to determine how I would retain my sanity constantly hearing the overwhelming pressure of the hand of the ocean trying to crush my undersea habitat and swimming in total darkness with monsters attracted by the slightest amount of light..

Watts covered all bases by coming up with a believable explanation of how people could face these undersea dangers and still remain "sane".

Add to that not one but two world ending threats as a cliffhanger and you have the makings of a great book.I loved it.

Euftis Emery
Author of Off the Chain
... Read more

Book Description
Lenie Clarke-amphibious cyborg, Meltdown Madonna, agent of the Apocalypse-has grown sick to death of her own cowardice.For five years (since the events recounted in Maelstrom0, she and her bionic brethren (modified to work in the rift valleys of the ocean floor) have hidden in the mountains of the deep Atlantic. The facility they commandeered was more than a secret station on the ocean floor. Atlantis was an exit strategy for the corporate elite, a place where the world's Movers and Shakers had hidden from the doomsday microbe szlig;ehemoth-and from the hordes of the moved and the shaken left behind. For five years "rifters" and "corpses" have lived in a state of uneasy truce, united by fear of the outside world.But now that world closes in. An unknown enemy hunts them through the crushing darkness of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. szlig;ehemoth- twisted, mutated, more virulent than ever-has found them already. The fragile armistice between the rifters and their one-time masters has exploded into all-out war, and not even the legendary Lenie Clarke can take back the body count.Billions have died since she loosed szlig;ehemoth upon the world. Billions more are bound to. The whole biosphere came apart at the seams while Lenie Clarke hid at the bottom of the sea and did nothing. But now there is no place left to hide. The consequences of past acts reach inexorably to the very floor of the world, and Lenie Clarke must return to confront the mess she made.Redemption doesn't come easy with the blood of a world on your hands. But even after five years in pitch-black purgatory, Lenie Clarke is still Lenie Clarke. There will be consequences for anyone who gets in her way-and worse ones, perhaps, if she succeeds....szlig;ehemoth: Seppuku concludes the final act (begun in szlig;ehemoth: szlig;-Max) of Peter Watts's chilling and powerful Rifters series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Satisfying ending to an intriguing series
Peter Watts concludes his _Rifters_ saga in the fourth and final volume, _Behemoth: Book Two: Seppuku_. Watts had written that he originally planned a trilogy but that changes in the publishing industry had forced him to divide his rather large final volume into two novels, but that he was fortunate to have a good breaking point between the two books and two resulting novels that were different in scope. It seems to have been a good choice, as while _Behemoth_Book One_ focused nearly entirely on the undersea refuge of the corpses and rifters (along with our old friend Achilles Desjardins), _Book Two_ spent no time there at all but instead allowed the reader a tour of a post-Behemoth North America, a taste of international politics, and of course the end game between Lenie Clarke, Ken Lubin, and Achilles (and a new character that the book introduces, a physician by the name of Taka Ouellette).

Overall I found it satisfying. The post-apocalyptic world we got to see was believable and interesting though wasn't perhaps as well-explored as what we got to see in _Maelstrom_. We were shown much more of the sick and sadistic pleasures of Achilles. While never really entering "torture porn" territory, the reader is left with a sense of disquiet (at least this one was) about how far the author would go in that regard. I didn't think it gratuitous, as this was a fundamental aspect of Achilles' character and of what had happened to him regarding his conscience, but it still nonetheless made me a bit uncomfortable at times (and makes me wonder just what the future holds for some forms of entertainment, given the evolution of horror films and the continual apparent need for succeeding films to outdo one another, a point I think the author was trying to make).

I liked the ending, it had two interesting twists I really enjoyed and didn't devolve into what it could have been (one character simply killing another, story over). The world at the end of the novel is fundamentally different and not necessarily a world without hope. It is also a world that would be interesting to see explored in a later novel.

I would like to express my displeasure at this series being out of print despite its recent age (_Seppuku_ came out in 2004). That is a real shame, as it is a worthwhile and interesting series, an excellent addition to the end of the world sub-genre of science fiction as well as probably the finest novel to ever handle the deep sea and ocean themes. The series overall was well researched (the author himself was a marine biologist) and had well-developed characters, a fascinating setting, and was an intriguing exploration of developing trends in our world.

Some images aren't worth seeing
I loved Starfish.I appreciated the smart science (hey, gotta love SF with bibliographies!); I found the world riveting and the characters well-drawn.But I cannot, in good conscience, recommend this book.The sequence of sexual sadism, which stretches on for chapter after excruciating chapter, is simply too visually explicit to be worth experiencing.It's an image I just didn't need, and one I can't get out of my head.It includes an eroticized clitoridectomy, for goodness sake.For me, that sequence overshadows everything else in the book, and however much you may want to see the resolution of issues raised in the other books, be sure you're willing to have that image stuck to your eyeballs before you buy or read this volume.

ugh, don't bother
The first book, "Starfish" was amazing, just a great read. This last book is horrible! Confusing, pointless, and extremely degrading, I wish I had never read it. I agree whole heartedly with "aisian film c" above! The rape and torture of one of the more sympathetic characters is what really pushed this book into the crapper for me.

Behemoth
An anaerobic microbe from the deep sea may have delivered the coup de grace to an already struggling mid-21st century world.

It makes more sense to me to review the whole series when it's one story -- so here goes.

I was very surprised to find that the mass market editions of these books are out of print -- even as the final hardcover has only just been released. I can't understand why this series wouldn't get more support, because in my opinion it has everything that successful science fiction needs. Watts incorporates big, shiny ideas -- and the deep-sea biology is a wonderful original touch. The books include a high level of action and tension and, pleasantly unusually for "idea" SF, are strongly character-driven. And the characters are tormented enough for anyone.

There are flaws. At times, the plot is unclear, and while I like the pivotal role played by ignorance and misunderstanding, at times an irritating back-and-forth plot dynamic (Seppuku is a cure, no it isn't, yes it is) appears. Characterization, while overall excellent, at times seems over the top -- it's not entirely clear why *everyone* is so messed up, and the stupid bickering between the Rifters and the corporates in Atlantis left me with sympathy for neither side. I was put off by the apparent indifference of the characters to the impending destruction of Earth's whole ecosystem -- but then, they're selfish and profoundly damaged people, and creating sympathy for them in the reader's mind does not seem to have been Watts' priority. I would have found the aforesaid destruction more effective had it been shown more clearly.

But, despite all these quibbles, I think this series is really good SF, and I highly recommend it.

Satisfying conclusion to a fascinating series
First off, for those of you haven't already read "Behemoth: B-Max" (at least) you will definitely want to do so before tackling "Behemoth: Seppuku".For reasons that the author explains in the first volume, they constitute one book that was split into two due to pressures in the publishing issue.This novel does not stand alone, and will make no sense without reading the previous volume.Furthermore, there are two other volumes in the series "Starfish" and "Maelstrom" and while each entry stands on its own fairly well, reading the books in order would definitely be the approach I would recommend.

For those of you who are new to the series, here is a brief synopsis that should tell you whether or not these books are for you.Essentially, the story arc is about evolution: human, animal and electronic.By mixing a blend of biology, computer science and chaos theory, author Peter Watts has created a near future Earth where man is simultaneously at the height of his powers and walking the knife's edge of total ecological failure.In an effort to maintain the high standard of Western living mankind has turned to deep sea geothermal power to meet their energy needs.Miles below the ocean, specially engineered humans culled from the dregs of society maintain these power plants.However, what no one could have expected was that they would encounter an organism that would unleash an apocalypse.Part hard science-fiction, part post-apocalyptic, the first two books represent a genuinely original voice in the genre.

For those of you who have been eagerly awaiting "Seppuku" rest assured the ending is eminently satisfying.Given the two volume approach, it is difficult to offer much in the way of plot details without providing spoilers, but I can say that after the somewhat broader focus of "Maelstrom" and "B-Max" the story has gone full circle and boiled back down to the most perverse trinity of characters one is likely to find: Lenie Clarke, Ken Lubin and Achilles Desjardins.As the three engage in a power-play in which no one's motivations are clear and the fate of the world hangs in the balance, action takes precedence over thought, to sometimes disastrous effect.Nonetheless, the science and technology which has so defined this series is on ample display and is as prescient as ever.

Of particular note, I found the conclusion to be perfectly enigmatic.This is post-apocalyptic fiction, and a happy ending would have been wildly out of place, but Watts' conclusion recognizes this without being entirely bleak.In this regard, his novel owes more to "Alas, Babylon" with it's open ended conclusion, than the superb, but utterly fatalistic "On the Beach".

To say more would risk huge spoilers, so suffice it to say "Sepukku" is every bit the conclusion I was hoping for.Watts has combined hard science fiction and post-apocalyptic fiction and taken both in new and exciting directions.If you're a fan of the series, you'll be glad at the way it ends; if you're intrigued by this review, grab "Starfish" and start from the beginning.

Jake Mohlman
... Read more

Book Description
tarfish lit the fuse. Maelstrom was the explosion. But five years into the aftermath, things aren't quite so simple as they once seemed . . . Lenie Clarke-rifter, avenger, amphibious deep-sea cyborg-has destroyed the world. Once exploited for her addiction to dangerous environments, she emerged in the wake of a nuclear blast to serve up vendetta from the ocean floor. The horror she unleashed -an ancient, apocalyptic microbe called behemoth-has been free in the world for half a decade now, devouring the biosphere from the bottom up. But she has learned something in the meantime: she destroyed the world on false pretenses. Now, rifters and the corporate elite who created them cower at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, hiding from a world in its death throes. But they cannot hide forever: something lethal has found them in the depths. Something which has either violated the laws of physics to follow them here, or arisen from treachery within their own ranks. Suddenly, the rifters and their one-time masters remember that they are enemies. And the only thing standing between them is a woman with the blood of a world on her hands ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Not Free SF Reader
According to Watts, this is one of those American split the book in two deals.Not having read the earlier two as yet, what I would characterise this as most like would be 'Revelation Ocean' rather than 'Revelation Space', with that everybody is out to get everybody type of feel with the Ultras.

You have here modified humans whose brains work differently, opposed to their wealthy creators, and crazy viruses, both organic and machine affecting everyone.

Interesting, though. Maybe a 3.75, because this is not yet finished, as two of the architects of the mess go back up to the ground to see if they can finish things off.

Life after Behemoth?
If _Maelstrom_ showed how the world ended, in _Behemoth: Book One: B-Max_, the reader gets to see what life is like after it is all over, at least among some of the survivors.

For the most part, the world of the _Starfish_ novels (the _Rifters_ trilogy, though technically the third book had to be split into two books for publishing reasons) has shrunk to a single location for this novel, a community established at the end of _Maelstrom_ (if community is the word one would use), a sometimes-friends, more-often-enemies collection of rifters and corpses located at the bottom of the mid-Atlantic Ocean. The corpses in desperation had established an underwater city that they hoped was going to make them not only safe from Behemoth (though they also had medical fixes to make themselves immune to Behemoth) but also any reprisals by a spastic, presumably dying world that was lashing out at both old foes and those presumed to be responsible for the world-ending plague. The rifters, lead by Lenie Clarke and Ken Lubin, found the corpses, at first with thoughts to exact revenge, but instead gradually were forced to work together by various circumstances, chief among them the facts that they were isolated from the rest of the world and were unsure who outside their underwater domain was left alive (and afraid to go looking thanks to the both incredibly hostile electronic lifeforms called Lenies and also a real fear of reprisals from nations and powers outside of North America).

Much of the action centers on the swirling politics of the Mid Atlantic Ridge community, largely from the point of view of the rifters, though there was a thread on the spiraling descent into completely amoral evil of the enormously powerful Achilles Desjardins. Readers from _Maelstrom_ will recall that not only is he free from Guilt Trip he is free from guilt of any kind, yet he still possesses the incredible powers of a `lawbreaker, needed now more than ever (and the powers that be are still completely unaware of his changed mental status). Though they weren't too graphic, I will say the chapters exploring the mind of Desjardins were pretty intense and somewhat disturbing, though some of it was a building sick dread, based on information the author gave to the reader bit by bit, and part of it was my imagination of what happened next after the book's focus switched back to the rifters and corpses.

I didn't think the book was quite a strong as either _Starfish_ or _Maelstrom_ and some of the stridently one-note political attitudes of some of the rifters got tiring and too much time spent at the underwater city made the setting feel a bit claustrophobic (though it did really help drive home themes of the rifters' and corpses' isolation and the destruction of the world). I also felt Watts could have developed some of the corpses a bit more, though as the books are really about the rifters that is understandable. Still, a good book and it held my interest. I am reading book two of _Behemoth_ at the moment and am enjoying it greatly.

ultra dark and gritty action-packed thriller
Five years have passed since a vengeful cyborg Lenie Clarke released Behemoth on the world destroying everything in it path as the microbe is eating up matter.Digital monsters add to the pandemic devastation using Clarke as a rallying cry to devastate survivors through what is left of the Internet.Meltdown Madonna cults dedicated to Clarke pledge mass suicide as they rule alongside deadly war lords on the surface.

However, on the ocean floor, Lenie Clarke has learned the truth that her grudge was built on a false premise.As the altered rifters and the technoindustrial corporate executives hide in fear in Atlantis on the ocean floor of the Midatlantic Ridge, the grim reaper comes for them.Only Lenie Clarke can save the few, but first she must face the consequences of what she wrought for she knows she can never achieve salvation as she can not wash the blood from her hands even with water everywhere.

As with STARFISH and MAELSTROM, BEHEMOTH: B-MAX is an ultra dark and gritty action-packed thriller yet the tale as with the first two books is character driven especially by Lenie.The story line moves forward at a current faster than most science fiction novels, but contains irony throughout as Lenie learns the truth and like Lady Macbeth cannot simply wash the blood from her hands.Though B-Max is book one of a two book conclusion , this is a well written gripping entry, but fans of post apocalypse thrillers would be better served by waiting a few months for the release of the climatic novel and then read all four books in succession.

Harriet Klausner

Exciting sci-fi!
Not only was this book believable and its characters eerily recognizable, in regards to such tense people in our own reality, but it compliments virtually every other sci-fi available, from the space operas like "Starship Troopers", "2001", "2010", "Rendezvous with Rama", "Advent of the Corps", but incorporates the high tech level of cyberpunk like "Neuromancer", "Prey", "Snow Crash", "Cyber Hunter", and many more. Great read!

The best so far!
Before I can review the content of Peter Watts' "Behemoth: B-Max" there are two facts I need to mention.The first is that it represents the third book of a trilogy, and I would strongly recommend one tackle the first two volumes ("Starfish" and "Maelstrom") before reading this one.The second is that "Behemoth" should be one six hundred page book, but because of trends in the publishing industry it's being published as two separate volumes.The author is completely forthright about this fact, and I believe him when he says that this was not his preferred method of publication.Because of this approach, precious little is resolved in this first volume; so if you aren't a fan of cliff hangers, you might want to wait until "Behemoth: Seppuku" is published in late 2004/early 2005 to read this volume.

For those of you who are new to the series, here is a brief synopsis that should tell you whether or not these books are for you.Essentially, the story arc is about evolution: human, animal and electronic.By mixing a blend of biology, computer science and chaos theory, Watts has created a near future Earth where man is simultaneously at the height of his powers and walking the knife's edge of total ecological failure.In an effort to maintain the high standard of Western living mankind has turned to deep sea geothermal power to meet their energy needs.Miles below the ocean, specially engineered humans culled from the dregs of society maintain these power plants.However, what no one could have expected was that they would encounter an organism that would unleash an apocalypse.Part hard science-fiction, part post-apocalyptic, the first two books represent a genuinely original voice in the genre.

All that said, "Behemoth" represents another superb piece of writing by Watts; it contains all the tension and fascinating science of the earlier volumes, but also displays his increasing talent.The structure of the book is more sophisticated and subtle than the previous volumes, and I say this not to criticize the earlier books, but to highlight the strengths of this one.

Set five years after the events of "Maelstrom", "Behemoth" finds the remaining rifters and the surviving North American elite living in an uneasy truce on the floor of the Atlantic.Presumably safe from the disease that is ravaging the rest of the world, they have managed to come to an accommodation that allows everyone to live and let live.Foremost among the rifters are Lubin, the one time spy, and Lenie Clarke, the Meltdown Madonna herself.Opposite them is Patricia Rowan, their one time nemesis and sometime ally.Alone, they might have formed a shifting but stable triangle; however, their constituents, particularly the more militant rifters, force a situation that is never far from open warfare.This dichotomy is beautifully executed by Watts, and represents a shift in his approach.Where much of the tension in the prior two books was environmental, in "Behemoth" he has created a human drama that surpasses its astonishing location.

In contrast from the fragile existence on the ocean floor, the reader is presented with the contrast of Achilles Desjardins, the human god who fights chaos for the CSIRA.While occupying perhaps only a third of the book, these chapters are the most powerful.Consisting only of Achilles' thoughts, history and worldview, they paint a comprehensive portrait of one of the most powerful men on Earth.Perhaps most remarkable is that Watts makes him despicable and sympathetic at the same time, all while keeping him something of an enigma.

Given the fact that this is the third book of a trilogy, and further given the split nature of the title, any more attempts at a plot summary would risk grave spoilers.Simply put, it is science fiction as it should be written.Watts uses his setting as a means to consider our slow suicide as a species in the form of ecological decay, and the complex, and ultimately unknowable workings of the mind.He separates himself from much of what is on the market by injecting humanity and pathos into his writing; his world, no matter how brilliantly conceived and executed, is a means to a greater end.This stands in stark contrast to other "hard" SF novels which exist solely to cram technical information into a fictional setting while ignoring such fundamentals as plot and characterization.

What is perhaps most engaging about Watts' books is that he has made the mundane unique and terrifying.No one gives much though to the web as an environment, but he sees an electronic landscape filled with predators and prey.Most of us think of the ocean as the beach, but Watts reveals a world every bit as alien as the surface of another planet.Finally, his attention to detail is superb, without being overwhelming.Watts' world is replete with history, but much of it is only alluded to; this creates a world that is weighed down by history, and a novel that isn't.An excellent example of this detail is his web site.I can't post the URL here, but a simple web search will turn it up.There one can find mountains of what one might call "side-story" it doesn't fill in any gaps per se, but it does further flesh out the Earth of the 2050's.

If you're a fan, a probably have said more than I needed to to sell you on this book.However, if you are new to the series, I hope I have managed to pass on the incredible originality and superb writing Watts has to offer.This is a trilogy that is unique in my experience, and "Behemoth" represents the best contribution thus far.This is definitely not one to be missed.

Enjoy!

Jake Mohlman ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Shadow of the Osprey
Great follow-up to Cry of the Curlew!Couldn't put the book down and am now anxiously awaiting the completion of the triology.Peter Watt is one of the best writers I have encountered.He has a way of capturing your attention from the first page to the last. ... Read more

Book Description
In this collection of short stories from best selling author Peter Watts, enter strange new worlds that defy the imagination. Journey to the depths of the ocean floor with genetically engineered human beings ... push the boundaries of life with a scientist obsessed with death ... and watch as sentient gaseous entities offer destruction and salvation to the human race. Nine stories make up this stunning new collection from a rising talent in the field of Science Fiction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

darn tootin best dictionary on the Old West ever!
Normally, I am not a big fan of Westerns, either novels or movies (or TV series or even really non-fiction works either), but I couldn't resist this book. This almost 400 page work details exhaustively any Western term, definition, piece of equipment, animal, plant, or slang you could ever want to have defined.

Some examples? Sure! Many slang terms are defined. Above my huckleberry means basically out of one's control. A granger was a settler or farmer, as opposed to a cattleman. A soiled dove is a prostitute. A grub pile is cooked food; a meal. A mockey is a wild mare.

Watts details more than fun to read slang though. He has some fairly extensive definitions as well. You learn that the term ghost town was probably never even used in the 19th century for instance. There is a nice map and defintion for cattle trail, showing the route of the Chisolm Trial, the Shreveport Trail, and others. There is more cattle and horse related terms than you ever imagine, from entries on castration to hot-bloods to peggers to under-bits. There is an extensive discussion of stampedes, particularly on how they relate to writers of fact and fiction.

Many defintions are accompanied by 19th century style illustrations or rarely photographs, often showing equipment such as pole fences, chuck wagons, soddies, and mantillas and animals and plants such as elks, prickly pears, heelers, grizzly bears, and burros.

So if you have even a slight interest in the Old West, rattle your hocks and get this book! It's a mother lode of terminology, fits for fans of the history of the Old West or of novels and movies set in it.

Watts has done an admirable job.
Peter Watts' stated purpose was to create a guide for the readers of Western Americana - to identify the words and phrases used in the Old West during the period 1850-1900.He furnishes the "how" and"why" of standard range words such as: roping, brands, saddles,trail drives, and so forth.

Watts faced several obstacles in thepreparation of this book.A major obstacle was separating words, whichoriginated in the writings and communications of the twentieth century,from those which were actually used on the western frontier.Watts freelyadmits he wasn't always successful in separating genuine words from admixedand adulterated words.

Another problem was the discovery that 19thcentury records, diaries, et. al., listing eyewitness' accounts ofhistorical events, contained an abundance of misspelled or inaccurate wordsand phrases.Watts offers little help in proper pronunciation becausethere is no way of knowing how some words were pronounced by people longdead.In their lifetimes, the western pioneers heard variouscolloquialisms, sometimes incorrectly, and often mangled words and theirmeaning when making conversation or when keeping diaries and other records.

Another factor was the polygot population inherent on theAmerican frontier.Anglo- Saxons brought English and Celtic words to theUnited States, some of which were further influenced by the speech andpronunciation used by Africans, Spaniards, and people of French descent. Gold seekers from Europe, American Indians, Metis, Dutch, Swedes, Swiss,and many other races also contributed to the words and phrases usedthroughout the Old West.

Cattle range words generally originated with theMexican vaquero. These words were changed, twisted, and combined withEnglish by the American Cowboy into the range language often used today. Language grows healthy and powerful with the infusion of words from thevarious strata of a society and this held true in frontier America.Wattscontends the educated class causes a language to lose its rich taste, itscontact with all the people, and its very means of renewal unless lowerclass words are continually being added.

This book is incomplete but notby design.It was an impossible task to capture every frontier word andphrase; however, Watts has done an admirable job under the circumstances. He used reliable sources such as Andy Adams and Ramon Adams, used a numberof dictionaries, and read the works of western fiction writers Wister,Haycox, Grey, L'Amour, Short, et al., in order to identify crucial wordsused in the Old West.

This is a pretty good book which will prove ofimmediate value to readers interested in Western Americana.Watts' book isas complete and as accurate as time and circumstances have allowed. ... Read more

Book Description
Word count: 1103. ... Read more

Book Description
Two million copies of Peter Kelder's 1939 edition of the Eye of Revelation have been sold. This is Kelder's "lost" 1946 Edition, reprinted for the first time with incredible new information about Mantram Mind Magic and the Power of "Aum." ... Read more

Amazon.com
While Microsoft Site Server is a powerful and productive way to build commerce sites, the breadth of the suite's features make it tough to get an immediate handle on the product. Professional Site Server 3.0 is a definitive guide that serves as both a tutorial to Site Server's features as well as an implementation guide.

The authors--a group of experts inside and outside Microsoft--address all of the installation issues, followed by how to manage content and users. Case studies show how to integrate various Web technologies with Site Server and how to deploy public and private commerce sites.

Each section is well-organized and includes plenty of code examples and architectural diagrams. The writing isn't cluttered with formatting gimmicks but is rather a straightforward presentation of essential material. Though developers of all stripes should be able to handle the content, the book is best suited to those already experienced in Microsoft IIS and ASP development.

If you develop Microsoft Web sites, you should investigate Site Server. If you use this powerful tool, you should definitely have this guide on your shelf. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered: Server/network configuration, security, personalization, membership, administration, content management, site analysis, online storefronts, pipelines, and business-to-business solutions.Book Description
The Web is a fast-changing, fast-growing environment, and there are ever-expanding opportunities for businesses to take advantage of. However, producing Web-based solutions in a feasible time-scale is often a challenge. Any Web solution for a business is likely to incorporate a number of different technologies: dealing with data access, mailing, and so on. Applications that draw on all these different technologies can become very complex, but the demands of the Web mean that such applications should also be flexible and scalable. As more and more people become connected to the Internet, and businesses put larger portions of their operations online, your Website may well experience higher volumes of traffic than originally bargained for, and it's essential that your site can keep up with increases in demand.

In this sort of environment, starting from scratch in building a complex, scalable site can be an expensive task. Site Server 3.0 gives you a head start in putting your site together, and building a scalable configuration. Site Server, in essence, is a collection of tools that cover a huge range of functionality: content management, searching and indexing, setting up membership for your site and then personalizing content for those members, and analyzing usage patterns on your site, to name but a few of the options available. With Site Server 3.0 Commerce Edition you also have all the tools to create and maintain an online store.

You may not want to use every tool provided with Site Server, or implement every feature, but if you are trying to develop an integrated, dynamic site then Site Server can save you having to start from square one. This book provides an introduction to installing, configuring, and using Site Server, and will help you get the most out of it for your Web site. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

Best of all Site Server books
This Wrox book is on of the most comprehensive works on Site Server. It's a great companion to Site Server membership and personalization (Wrox as well). This book gives you detailed views of code samples sites andimportantly (which no other book or MS documentation does) gives you anarchitecture view of the asp, COM objects, the pipeline and IIS. The bookcovers both the Knowledge Management edition and Commerce Edition of SiteServer. The case study in chapter 23 is very good and as usual Wrox has thesource code on their site you can down load. If you get this book don't getSite Server Commerce edition 3.0 also from Wrox, you wont need it!

Better than the rest, but still lacking....
Professional Site Sertver 3.0 from Wrox is the best book that I have read that explains overall what is going on under the hood of SS 3.0.SS is a complex piece of software that integrates with many other MS Back Officesolutions, particulalry IIS 4.0 and SQL Server 7.0. The problem is you willneed more information than what they give you here due to the complexity ofthe toolset and configurations.

Ultimately, you will be interested inbuying Wrox's Site Server Personalization and Membership to get a morethorough understanding of this critical component. This is a good exampleof how in depth the material converage should be for each of SS'scomponents.

Last word: This is a great book for now, but ultimately itwill leave you in a pinch for more detailed information as you traverseyour installation and configuration. Additionall, it lacks coverage in thedesign of truly scalable enterprise e-commerce architecture using SS, andthe interoperability of third-party modular components, say, for instance,if you want to integrate an accounting system, or a different orderfulfillment software, or transcation processing outside of MS Wallet (e.g.Transact).

It would be a huge boon to the people using this if publisherswould get on the trail of the hottest technology since NT, and publish somein depth Site Server books based on the modularity of its design. Hoping toencompass all of the feature sets in a 1000 page bookwill leave youfeeling like a kid in a candy store with only a nickle in his pocket. -ch

Not as good as many say
I'm working on setting up a corporate intranet web site that will use Site Server primarily for Content Management, Search and Analysis. The book does not adequately explain the process for setting up this type of site. TheMembership Server installation is not fully explained and you will probablyend up using Access as your database. The example sites that ship with theproduct are not much help either. The section "Creating a FrontPagePublishing Site" is also lacking necessary detail for this scenario.They try to cover way too much material in one book. Also, there are somany different ways to set up Site Server that you could have a book thissize just to cover that topic. Only small sections of this book have beenhelpful. I'm thinking that when I finish this project I'm going to write myown book.

Wonderful book!
Organized very well, written good and covers a lot. I just can't agree with those who purchasing 1000 pages book and expecting to get the whole world, in it. If you don't want to read the Help you never gonna find yourway around. This book gives you a little bit more that just hitting F1.Personally I don't want to buy a book that covers what I already got inMSDN this book does that pretty good. wrox keep up the good work!

Awesome
I was in bad need of a good book on Site Server Commerce Edition. My search ended when i found This Book.My rating was based on1. Style of Presentation 2. Author's knowledge on the subject 3. Material Covered ... Read more