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sunflower cycle

February 25, 2020

The really good PETER WATTS IS AN ANGRY SENTIENT TUMOR is funny, scathing, and depressing as f*ck

Rick Klaw blog beer rants and books, Peter Watts, peter watts is an angry sentient tumor, review, sunflower cycle, the antisocial socialist, the freeze frame revolution

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)

January 25, 2018

Happy 60th birthday to the extraordinary Peter Watts

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized au-delà du gouffre, beyond the rift, birthday, Peter Watts, sunflower cycle, the freeze frame revolution

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
award-winning shorter works have been collected in Ten Monkeys,
Ten Minutes (2001), BEYOND
THE RIFT (2013), the Polish Odtrutka na optymizm (2013),
and the French Au-delà du gouffre (2016).
For the Spring 2000 issue of On Spec, Watts produced the
frontispiece “Alien Intents.”

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
late this year in THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION.

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

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

Cover by Elizabeth Story

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

Cover art by Hugh Sicotte

Design by Elizabeth Story