Starfish (1999) by Peter Watts
I heard about this book and author from Olman's review. He recommended this novel which is the first in a trilogy by Peter Watts, a Canadian sci-fi writer and marine biologist.
This turned out to be an awesome find in the science fiction genre. The premise is that in some unspecified future a megacorp is building geothermal power generation complexes along the faults off the coast of NA. They man these facilities with small staff that are retrofitted to live for long periods of time at the bottom of the ocean. They are also taken from a number of extreme backgrounds - rapists, bullies, pederasts, etc.
The story is told primarily from the perspective of a few of these submariners in one complex. They appear to be slowly changing, possibly going insane but definitely losing the will to be anywhere but under the ocean.
The ending of the novel was somewhat abrupt but this book is the first in a trilogy. I will be checking out the second one at some point in 06.
No comments:
Post a Comment