A former marine biologist and according to the US Department of Homeland Security, a convicted felon and terrorist, Peter Watts’ acclaimed debut novel Starfish (1999) was named a New York Times Notable Book. He followed that success with the next three volumes of the Rifters series: Maelstrom (2001), Behemoth: B-Max (2004), and Behemoth: Seppuku (2005). Blindsight (2006) has become a core text in diverse undergraduate courses ranging from philosophy to neuropsych. The sidequel Echopraxia appeared in 2014. Crysis: Legion (2011) novelized the game Crysis 2.

His numerous shorter works including the Shirley Jackson Award-winner “The Things” (2010) have been collected in Ten Monkeys, Ten Minutes (2001), BEYOND THE RIFT (2013), the Polish Odtrutka na optymizm (2013), the French Au-delà du gouffre (2016), PETER WATTS IS AN ANGRY SENTIENT TUMOR (2019), and the Russsian Революция в стоп-кадрах (2021). For the Spring 2000 issue of On Spec, Watts produced the frontispiece “Alien Intents” as well as cover to Firefall (2014), which collected Blindsight and Echopraxia.

Starting with the Hugo Award-winning “The Island” (2009), Watts began the Sunflower Cycle about the voyage of a jump gate-building ship Eriophora. Their stories continued in “Hotshot” (2014), “Giants” (2014), and 2018′s acclaimed THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION.

All of us at Tachyon wish the amazing Peter a happy birthday!