In two separate posts, THE ANTISOCIAL SOCIALIST praises PETER WATTS IS AN ANGRY SENTIENT TUMOR.

Anyway, the essays. Peter Watts? Not a happy guy. Which is understandable as I’m 3/4 through the book and his brother and father have died, two of his cats died (described, of course, in the sort of visceral detail and grief that only a biologist-turned-author can manage), he’s contracted flesh-eating disease, he accidentally dissolved a toad in Drano, and the world is ending. This is what I mean about maybe not being the right thing for me to read right now.

This said, it’s really good.

THE ANTISOCIAL SOCIALIST

Pretty much what I said last week—funny, scathing, and depressing as fuck.

THE ANTISOCIAL SOCIALIST

While looking back over their reads of 2019, BEER RANTS AND BOOKS were remind how much they enjoyed Peter Watts’ THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION and wanted to explore more of the Sunflower Cycle. So far, they’ve reviewed two of the stories: “Hotshots” and “The island” (The latter appears in the BEYOND THE RIFT)

Moving on from that, what I enjoyed most about this particular work was its psychological profile of Sunday and the very long view of it takes of human development from the perspective of people about to become outside observers. There was also an interesting look at technology here as well, specifically at its uses and limitations and what room these leave for human action and agency in an age of highly advanced artificial intelligence. There was a whole lot of this content packed into a mere 23 pages and that was definitely more than enough to inspire me to read on!

Book Review: Hotshot, by Peter Watts (Sunflower Cycle)

I’ll keep this post short and sweet and close by saying that this was an absolutely brilliant short and one that I highly recommend.  That this story managed to pack so much depth into such a small amount of space is truly amazing and something that must be read to truly appreciate.

Book Review: The Island, by Peter Watts (Sunflower Cycle)