Starfish [Paperback]

The potential reader should have already gathered from the other reviews that this is not the book for you if you want some feel-good escapist fiction.

In case you haven't, let me repeat the point. _Starfish_ is a lot of things, but uplifting isn't one of them. It's a disturbing realistic look that plays on the notion of what we reap when we create survivors. Someone said here that the book features a world where criminals are sent to the bottom of the sea to work-- but the criminality of the people is incidental. The conceit of the book is that all of these people are survivors of horrific abuse, and as such have developed the ability to live in environments that are less than nurturing. In the end, that ability to survive is exactly what works against the government that can no longer control its project.

What's good about the book?
The diction is crisp and the writing style is clean and biting. The characters and politics underwater are well-formed and believable. It avoids unnecessary drama while still keeping the reader's interest.

Whý not five stars, then?
The plotting (particularly around Behemoth) feels a little bit like a first novel. I was much less interested in the Great Threat To Humanity than I was in the lesser issues. I'd also argue that it is hard to keep unrelenting bleakness from feeling a bit flat at times-- a little bit of sweetness by way of contrast now and again would have gone a long way.

Despite any reservations, I'll definitely read the next book in the series & will look forward to doing so.

The characterization in Starfish is sparse, almost reducing people to their respective dysfunctions. It's an interesting take, especially when the rifters fall into relationships based on their histories and their damaged psyches, knowing full well the consequences but are somehow unable to stop themselves. The book ponders what it means to be human, and at what point we cease to be human, but leaves the final decision up to the reader.

A lot of the story focuses on how the rift slowly changes the "rifters" who live and work down there. Some of them lose what semblance of humanity they once had, going wild and leaving the rift to survive in the depths of the ocean. Which, of course, brings up questions about the nature of humanity and whether these people were better off before or after the rift changed them.

There were some unanswered questions left at the end of the book, but as this is the first of three books, I'm assuming most of these are explored in future volumes. The setup at the end gives a nice transition to the next book, with an equal sense of doom and intrigue. (Actually, that's probably the best way to describe the mood throughout the entire story.)

The viewpoints changed frequently, and some of the narrating characters were otherwise very minor. It always confuses me when an author does this, since I want to be reading about someone I care about, not Joe Schmoe who popped in and asked the protagonist if she wanted a hamburger two chapters previous. As a general rule, a lot of head hopping doesn't open up the story, it dilutes it.

Even with the dilution, though, this was a powerful book, and I was driven to keep going until I could turn the last page. This is the first book Peter Watts published, but he manages to skip most of the "new writer" issues. It'll be interesting to see where he takes the consecutive books, and I think I may have to find out.

I confess that, based of the cover description, I was expecting some sort of deep-sea adventure populated by weird creatures and who knows what else. That's not what this is. Instead, it is a two-part tale populated by weird human creatures "modified" to live in a deep-sea environment so they can monitor geothermal power plants built on the San Juan de Fuca Rift. Forget all the documentaries you've seen showing strange, glowing deep-sea creatures. They're here, but they're mentioned only in passing and play almost no role in the story.

The first part of this tale focuses on the "misfit" crew that has been "modified" to live in the depths of the ocean. Lenie Clarke is the de facto crew leader, but she is as troubled as the rest. There is plenty of tension here but not much real action. Psychological tension builds, however. As time goes on, these people become stranger and stranger as they adapt to their environment and each other in unanticipated ways.

The second part of the story exposes what is going on above the surface. Here, the reader discovers the hidden agendas that drive the experiment in human adaptation going on at the ocean floor, as well as the unforeseen threat that has changed everything, making the crew itself a danger that must be either contained or destroyed.

This is an interesting tale, full of novel ideas and off-beat characters. But, despite the different environment, the humans and their creations are the strangest creatures here. And the most dangerous. If you're looking for fast-paced adventure, this isn't it. But if you want scifi with some "depth", something thought-provoking, STARFISH might do the trick for you. It wasn't the most fun I've ever had reading scifi, but it was better than average. Give it a try.