Peter Watts

Peter Watts is a Canadian science fiction author and marine-mammal biologist.

His first novel "Starfish" (2000) introduced Lenie Clarke, a deep-ocean power-station worker physically altered for underwater living and the main character in the sequels: "Maelstrom" (2001), "Behemoth: β-Max" (2004) and "Behemoth: Seppuku" (2005). The last two volumes comprise one novel, published split in two for commercial considerations. [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/20/books/review/020JONASL.html?scp=1&sq=peter+watts+fiction&st=nyt The New York Times > Books > Sunday Book Review > Chronicle: Science Fiction: Across the Universe ] ] "Starfish", "Maelstrom" and "Behemoth" comprise a trilogy usually referred to as "Rifters" after the modified humans designed to work in deep-ocean environments.

His latest book "Blindsight", released October 2006, has been described by Charles Stross thus: "Imagine a neurobiology-obsessed version of Greg Egan writing a first contact with aliens story from the point of view of a zombie posthuman crewman aboard a starship captained by a vampire, with not dying as the boobie prize." [http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/296494.html?thread=2957102]

Watts is currently writing two novels: "Sunflowers" [http://rifters.com/real/2008/01/stop-me-if-youve-heard-this-one-before.html] [http://rifters.com/real/2008/01/farewell-to-gerbils.html] and "State of Grace", a "sidequel" about what happened on Earth during "Blindsight" [http://rifters.com/real/2008/02/petepourri.html] .

Watts has also been the Supervising Writer on the animated science fiction film and television project strange frame.

Watts has made his novels and some short fiction available on his website under Creative Commons licence.

He also worked briefly with Relic Entertainment on one of the early drafts of the story that would eventually, years later, become "Homeworld 2". However, the draft Watts worked on bears little resemblance to the one used for the released game.

Bibliography

Novels

* Rifters Trilogy
*# "Starfish" (1999) ( [http://www.rifters.com/real/STARFISH.htm available online] )
*# "Maelstrom "(2001) ( [http://www.rifters.com/real/MAELSTROM.htm available online] )
*# "Behemoth: β-Max and Seppuku" (2004/2005) ( [http://www.rifters.com/real/Behemoth.htm available online] )
* "Blindsight" (2006) ( [http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm available online] )

Collections

* "Ten Monkeys, Ten Minutes" (2000)

Short stories

* "A Niche" (1990)
* "Nimbus" (1994)
* "Flesh Made Word" (1994)
* "Fractals" (1995)
* "Bethlehem" (1996)
* "The Second Coming of Jasmine Fitzgerald" (1998)
* "Home" (1999)
* "Bulk Food" (2000) with Laurie Channer
* "Ambassador" (2001)
* "A Word for Heathens" (2004)
* "Mayfly" (2005) with Derryl Murphy
* "The Eyes of God" (2008)

Awards

The novel "Blindsight" was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel of 2007 ( [http://www.nippon2007.us/hugo_press_release.html official announcement] ) and was longlisted (on the preliminary ballot) for the Nebula Award in January 2008 ( [http://www.sfwa.org/awards/2008/NebPrelim2007.html preliminary ballot] ).

His short story "A Niche" tied with "Breaking Ball" by Michael Skeet for the Aurora Award in 1992.

Notes

External links

* http://www.rifters.com – personal website
** http://www.rifters.com/real/newscrawl_2007.htm – old weblog
** http://www.rifters.com/real/crawl.htm – new weblog
* [http://trashotron.com/agony/columns/2004/07-06-04.htm 2004 Interview at The Agony Column]
* [http://www.sfdiplomat.net/sf_diplomat/2007/02/interview_peter.html 2007 interview] at SF Diplomat
*