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Maelstrom (Rifters Trilogy) by Peter Watts
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Peter Watts Edition: Hardcover Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published) Published: 2001-10-19 ISBN: 0312878060 Number of pages: 384 Publisher: Tor Books
Book Reviews of Maelstrom (Rifters Trilogy)Book Review: Fantastic sequel to _Starfish_ Summary: 5 Stars Peter Watts' _Starfish_ introduced the reader to a fascinating, very well-developed dystopian world, the sometimes wonderful but often frightening world of the mid-21st century. In _Maelstrom_, Watts shows how that world comes to an end.
_Maelstrom_ begins right where _Starfish_ left off. Lenie Clarke and Ken Lubin, "rifters," people modified to work at a deep sea power-generating station (practically cyborgs in some respects), are the sole survivors of an attempt to contain the deadly pathogen dubbed Behemoth, discovered at the deep sea geothermal vent where Bebee Station was located. As the reader learned in _Starfish_, the strange and extremely deadly microorganism lived at that particular vent and was isolated until humans set up shop in its habitat. Aware of the unbelievable risks posed by the microbe, the government of North America used nuclear weapons to destroy the potentially biosphere-ending benthic organism at the end of _Starfish_, hoping to destroy the vent, the station, the rifters, and anything remotely associated with Behemoth. The resulting tsunami and earthquakes - made worse by the very nature of the smart gels assigned to handle the Behemoth problem - killed millions.
Unfortunately, Behemoth was not contained. Not only had it already spread to the North American Pacific coast, it was being carried further inland by Lenie Clark. Quite angry at the betrayals and lies she had been subject to, she journeyed inland to seek answers and revenge of a sort, unfortunately sowing the seeds for North America's if not the world's demise. Wherever she went, she spread Behemoth.
Lenie Clarke became far more successful than she had any right to be, owing to an unusual concentration of forces and alignment of events in her favor, as Clarke became not only a societal force but also a force of sorts in Maelstrom, the whirling, chaotic, violent successor to the modern internet, a place dominated by increasingly intelligent and dangerous "wildlife," rogue computer programs, future descendents of today's computer viruses but much more troublesome. The author's description of the evolution of such electronic organisms and the conditions prevalent in Maelstrom in the mid 21st century were fascinating and chilling. It made me very concerned about my virus protection software on my computer (not that any modern program could hope to prevail against the monsters of Maelstrom)!
Other major players include two members of the "Entropy Patrol," two "'lawbreakers" by the name of Achilles Desjardins and Alice Jovellanos. Given enormous power to react quickly, ruthlessly, and efficiently to mounting global crises, they are information experts, able to interpret, analyze, and quickly act on mounds of data in any field, be it economics, ecology, disaster management, or any other sphere (aided by the fact that they were given incredibly enhanced intellectual reflexes and pattern-matching skills). At first the Entropy Patrol was designed to act quickly and globally in an era of quarantines, diebacks, and crop failures, acting to quickly contain diseases and invasive organisms as they spread over the world as to well as to contend with other things such as global terrorism, they increasingly came to include in their sphere other sources of concern, with the power to instantly ruin millions of lives economically or to even physically end lives with powerful weapons (as long as it served the greater good of course). More powerful than any despot or emperor ever dreamed of being, only one thing stood to keep them in check, a biochemical fix known as Guilt Trip, which prevented `lawbreakers from acting against the greater good. Derived from chemicals used by parasites to control the behavior of their host, Guilt Trip paralyzed anyone with guilt - literally paralyzing them - if they ever sought to do something against the greater good. Guilt Trip was the only way anyone would ever sleep soundly knowing people like Desjardins had such enormous power at their fingertips.
Other players included Sou-Hon Perreault, a botfly operator (botflies are remotely operated flying machines, able to hover or speed to trouble spots and bring to bear as needed a battery of sensors, instruments, and in some cases weapons) and Patricia Rowan as well (a "corpse" - or corporate executive - from the first novel).
An interesting and well-written book, it was a little dark at times though generally never truly disturbing. You can see the large amount of research the author has put into this novel (but not to such an extent that the action drags or characters come off as flat or anything).
Summary of Maelstrom (Rifters Trilogy)An enormous tidal wave on the west coast of North America has just killed thousands. Lenie Clarke, in a black wetsuit, walks out of the ocean onto a Pacific Northwest beach filled with the oppressed and drugged homeless of the Asian world who have gotten only this far in their attempt to reach America. Is she a monster, or a goddess? One thing is for sure: all hell is breaking loose.
This dark, fast-paced, hard SF novel returns to the story begun in Starfish: all human life is threatened by a disease (actually a primeval form of life) from the distant prehuman past. It survived only in the deep ocean rift where Clarke and her companions were stationed before the corporation that employed them tried to sterilize the threat with a secret underwater nuclear strike. But Clarke was far enough away that she was able to survive and tough enough to walk home, 300 miles across the ocean floor. She arrives carrying with her the potential death of the human race, and possessed by a desire for revenge. Maelstrom is a terrifying explosion of cyberpunk noir by a writer whose narrative, says Robert Sheckley, "drives like a futuristic locomotive."
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