PETER WATTS IS AN ANGRY SENTIENT TUMOR: REVENGE FANTASIES AND ESSAYS delivers a collection of rants and essays, potentially ranging from climate change to colonoscopies to cats, but really, who knows what might might come from the eclectic mind of Peter Watts.

Which of the following is true?

• Peter Watts is banned from the U.S.
• Watts almost died from flesh-eating bacteria.
• A schizophrenic man living in Watts’ backyard almost set the house on fire.
• Watts was raised by Baptists who really sucked at giving presents.
• Peter Watts said to read this book. Or else.

In these unpredictable essays and revenge fantasies, Hugo Award-winning author, former marine biologist, and angry, sentient tumor, Peter Watts is the savage dystopian optimist that you can’t look away from. Even when you probably should.

Watt’s himself chimes in on his No Moods, Ads or Cutesy Fucking Icons blog:

My suggestion was simply “Revenge Fantasies”, but apparently in the #MeToo era such a phrase, in isolation, is too evocative of “revenge porn”. I believe the whole sentient tumor thing was originally coined by Analee Newitz.

As titles go, I admit that it rocks.

I’m surprised to be bringing this up so early. I don’t even know what the collection is going to contain— Tachyon gave me a ballpark word count and I sent them over twice that, leaving them to decide what makes the cut.

A few months back Tachyon‘s Jacob Weisman pitched me the idea of an essay collection. My initial reaction was, I suspect, similar to yours: In God’s name, why?  My essays are already available; I’ve been writing them on this very ‘crawl for somewhere around 15 years now. I’ve been writing them for Nowa Fantastyka over in Poland. I’ve even done occasional prestige gigs at places like Aeon and The Daily (generally when someone far hotter than me is struck with flesh-eating disease, and the media needs a memoir from someone who isn’t currently in a medically-induced coma). Hell, even my lectures are sprinkled online here and there.

But apparently THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION continues to do well (so they tell me, anyway), and so did BEYOND THE RIFT in its day (which also packaged old wine in new bottles to good effect, now that I think of it). So Tachyon is interested in keeping me out there. And if John Scalzi can get away with anthologizing his blog posts, why not me? (I’m a lot less virtuous than Scalzi, of course. Hopefully at least some will regard that not as a bug, but a feature.)

The book has already garnered some international excitement as evident from the Russian site VK.

Tachyon Publications will publish a collection of Peter Watts articles and essays entitled “Peter Watts Is An Angry Sentient Tumor: Essays and Revenge Fantasies” I really hope that the collection in Russian will also be released.

Translation from Russian courtesy of Google

For more info on PETER WATTS IS AN ANGRY SENTIENT TUMOR: REVENGE FANTASIES AND ESSAYS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Elizabeth Story

For more info on THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Elizabeth Story

For more info on BEYOND THE RIFT, visit the Tachyon page

Cover art by Hugh Sicotte
Design by Elizabeth Story