New Releases by Peter Watts

Science fiction award-winner, flesh-eating bacteria survivor, and somewhat questionably convicted felon Peter Watts returns with this long-awaited short fiction collection. Including an unpublished work, Watts posits unlimited brain-computer interfaces, the possibility of life existing inside stars, the hacking of human behavior, and ecological collapse. (Also, the healing power of revenge.) What if a weaponized water supply reprograms pattern recognition in the brain, provoking violent rage at the sight of the Google logo. Or an accidental hive-mind creates a global agenda to resurrect itself in the scant seconds between its emergence and dissolution? A steroidal jump gate-building ship attempts to survive passage through a red-giant sun by hiding inside an ice-giant planet. When something is trying to colonize the sun, humans try to stop it. Spoiler alert: Nobody comes off very well. In his newest short fiction, alongside an introduction by Richard Morgan, Watts (The Freeze-Frame Revolution) reserves whatever hope he has for whatever comes after humans. In light of his stories and recent events, it is difficult to fault that assessment.

Il était une fois un couple d’amoureux qui se promenait au crépuscule et se querellait. « Inutile, c’est ce que tu es, dit la fille. Tiens, je pourrais créer un homme en tout point aussi valable que toi à partir de deux rimes et d’une pincée de clair de lune. – Il me plairait de te voir essayer », répondit son compagnon. La fille tendit la main vers la brillante lune argentée tout juste levée au-dessus des collines. Elle recueillit une poignée de clair de lune, qu’elle entrelaça de deux rimes, et laissa le tout s’envoler. Alors un homme se tint là, vêtu d’une veste aussi pourpre que le crépuscule, avec des boutons aussi argentés que la lune. Il ne resta pas assez longtemps pour que le couple ait le temps de s’émerveiller, les précédant bientôt sur le chemin, marchant, dansant et sautillant entre les haies, loin devant, jusqu’à gagner le village... Jo Walton, Trois contes du crépuscule

Terre. 2096. Une intelligence extraterrestre s’est manifestée au genre humain. Un premier contact sans suite : si le Thésée a été envoyé dans les tréfonds obscurs du nuage d’Oort en quête de réponses, les communications avec le vaisseau sont depuis perdues. Sur Terre, la situation tient du désastre : réchauffement climatique et effondrement de la biodiversité ont mis l’humanité à genoux. Mais quelle humanité ? Certains ont fui dans des paradis numériques, d’autres explorent de nouveaux états de conscience. Et puis il y a Daniel Brüks, humain non augmenté, vrai fossile vivant, exilé dans le désert d’Oregon pour en étudier la faune et la flore altérées. Brüks, embarqué malgré lui dans une équipée folle aux côtés d’un militaire inconsolable, d’une pilote vindicative, de moines bicaméraux et d’une vampire, monstruosité ramenée du fond des âges par le génie génétique. C’est le début d’une fuite éperdue jusqu’au cœur brûlant du Système solaire, là où ce qu’il reste de cette humanité fracturée pourrait bien faire face à l’impensable...

This ebundle includes: Blindsight, Echopraxia, and The Colonel. From Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell award-nominated author Peter Watts, Firefall is a far-future, science fiction saga of first contact with an alien species at the edge of the solar system–and of the evolution of humanity into a myriad of subspecies. Blindsight: Two months since the stars fell. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune''s orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever''s out there isn''t talking to us. So who do you send to force introductions with unknown and unknowable alien intellect that doesn''t wish to be met? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won''t be needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there. Pray they can be trusted with the fate of a world. They may be more alien than the thing they''ve been sent to find. Echopraxia: Daniel Bruks is a living fossil: a field biologist in a world where biology has turned computational, a cat''s-paw used by terrorists to kill thousands. Taking refuge in the Oregon desert, he''s turned his back on a humanity that shatters into strange new subspecies with every heartbeat. But he awakens one night to find himself trapped on a ship bound for the center of the solar system. Their pilgrimage brings Dan Bruks, the fossil man, face-to-face with the biggest evolutionary breakpoint since the origin of thought itself. The Colonel: Colonel Keaton is in trouble. His wife has retreated into a virtual heaven and his son remains missing after joining an extrasolar mission to track down an alien race. He is presently tasked by his superiors with the threat assessment of hived human intelligences, one of which successfully attacks a compound under his watch. Now, one of the strongest hive minds in the world approaches Keaton with an offer that could completely change his world. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The European Astrobiology Institute presents 54 SF Stories and Science Essays on life, from microbial to macro, from automatic to sagacious. Each story is followed by an essay illuminating the scientific underpinnings of the story.

Six jours avant qu’il n’y ait plus d’argent, Méduse se prit un bon coup de pied au cul d’Encelade. Les thermistances embarquées enregistrèrent un pic soudain — 80°, 90°, 120° —, que suivirent un soubresaut du fond marin et un violent choc latéral sur la sonde. Il y eut un flash lumineux. Un océan incroyablement bouillant. Un fond marin rocheux basculant comme une table renversée par un géant furieux. Le canal se tut. La télémétrie se propagea dans l’obscur océan alcalin. Des relais amarrés à la sous-croûte captèrent ces chuchotements, qu’ils amplifièrent et transmirent. Cent quatre-vingts kilomètres plus loin à l’horizon, Euryale — accrochée par en dessous à la glace comme une énorme balane métallique — sépara le signal du bruit et le fit remonter à Stheno par un câble qui traversait six kilomètres de croûte regelée. Les mains orientées en porte-voix vers l’horizon fracturé, Stheno cria en direction de la Terre. Peter Watts Test d’écho

An unabridged collection spotlighting the best hard science fiction stories published in 2020 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster. Aliens, who believe that observing the stars causes dark energy, freeze intelligent beings to prevent the end of the universe in "Salvage," by Andy Dudak. In "You and Whose Army?," by Greg Egan, a hive mind is disturbed when one of four neurally linked brothers unexpectedly breaks his connection. Creatures that feed on time threaten Earth in "Time''s Own Gravity," by Alexander Glass. In "Brother Rifle," by Daryl Gregory, a Marine receives a brain implant to help him deal with a brain injury that has left him void of feelings and unable to make decisions. A married couple discover that their adopted daughter had been genetically modified before birth in "Invisible People," by Nancy Kress. "Tool Use by the Humans of Danzhai County," by Derek Künsken, is an epic story of a man and his illegitimate daughter separately trying to revolutionize AI and bioengineering from rural China. In "How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobučar," by Rich Larson, a high-tech gene art heist in a future Spain is undertaken by a professional thief more interested in revenge than money. The obituary for an AI provides a list of advice for other advanced AIs in "50 Things Every AI Working with Humans Should Know," by Ken Liu. In "A Mastery of German," by Marian Denise Moore, a biotech company is concerned with the ethics of passing memories between people as it develops this capability. Human explorers struggle to survive in the deadly, primeval forest of an alien planet in "Eyes of the Forest," by Ray Nayler. In "Beyond the Tattered Veil of Stars," by Mercurio D. Rivera, a scientist creates a virtual world so other species can evolve and solve humankind''s problems in the real world. An ancient polymorph constructed being, fleeing a failed utopia, returns to a familiar world to find an old friend in "Bereft, I Come to a Nameless World," by Benjamin Rosenbaum. In "When God Sits in Your Lap," by Ian Tregillis, a fallen angel in a noir-like Los Angeles is hired by a man to persuade his wealthy mother to leave her new husband and keep his aerospace empire inheritance intact. An AI helps a family cope with the death of its father in "Mediation," by Cadwell Turnbull. In "Test 4 Echo," by Peter Watts, a damaged, semi-independent component on an autonomous undersea drone on Enceladus shows signs of emerging consciousness.

This collection highlights 20 stellar space operas published over the past 20 years by top-notch authors of the science fiction genre. A soldier fights for survival behind enemy lines, on an alien vessel, thousands of light-years from Earth in "On the Orion Line," by Stephen Baxter. A man aboard a ship in deep space wakes up from biostasis at the wrong time in "The Days Between," by Allen M. Steele. An astronaut in a damaged balloon struggles to survive 800 meters above the surface of a sea on Titan in "Slow Life" by Michael Swanwick. Two rival space-faring cultures vie for influence over the people of a forgotten human world in "The Third Party," by David Moles. One thousand people, aboard five generation starships, leave the Sol system to flee an enemy that threatens to destroy their way of life in "Mayflower II," by Stephen Baxter. Modified combat troops must deal with recalcitrant settlers on a planet being attacked by hostile aliens in "Bright Red Star," by Bud Sparhawk. Programmed military doppelgängers continue to carry out their missions long after the Quiet War''s end in "Dead Men Walking," by Paul McAuley. Mathematicians seek to learn more from a civilization, on another planet, that spent three million years doing math in "Glory," by Greg Egan. Human diplomats must deal their own cultural biases while dealing with two representatives from warring factions on a newly discovered planet in "Saving Tiamaat," by Gwyneth Jones. Space pirates haul in booty aboard a living spaceship that doesn''t quite smell right in "Boojum," by Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette. The constable in a settlement on a planet full of the tombs of a long-vanished alien race befriends a woman who researches dangerous hive rats in "City of the Dead," by Paul McAuley. A dying young man on a treasure hunt tries to save a world that''s devoid of gravity and lit by artificial suns in "The Hero," by Karl Schroeder. An eternal, aboard a slower than light ship, is woken to investigate an unexplained signal emanating from the area of the ship''s next stargate construction site in "The Island," by Peter Watts. An alienated teenager, in a domed iron city on a planet where a fundamentalist revolt is brewing, seeks to uncover her enigmatic tutor''s long-held secret in "The Ice Owl," by Carolyn Ives Gilman. A woman recalls a childhood train journey, on a planet with a permanent dayside and a nightside of eternal darkness, to see a captured specimen of the Nightmare race in "Weep for Day," by Indrapramit Das. Peculiar mating rituals and divergent evolution have developed on a lost colony that has been out of contact with the rest of humanity in "Someday," by James Patrick Kelly. An aristocrat''s trip to Venus, in search of her disgraced brother, is memorialized by papercuts of flora native to the planet in "Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathagan," by Ian McDonald. An enemy of the revolution, on a colonized planet, uploads a digital copy of himself into the body of a braindead boy in an attempt to escape off-world in "Jonas and the Fox" by Rich Larson. Set in the author''s Machineries of Empire universe, an undercover agent infiltrates a space station to recover the crew of a lost ship in "Extracurricular Activities," by Yoon Ha Lee. And finally, the captain of a dustship musters her crew to escape from a trap set by Hunter-Killers in a game of cat and mouse amid the rings of a giant planet in "By the Warmth of Their Calculus," by Tobias S. Buckell.

With over fifty unpredictable, scathing, hilarious, and more-than-occasionally moving essays about science, politics, family, pop culture, religion and more, Peter Watts — Hugo Award-winning author, former marine biologist, and “angry sentient tumor” (via Annalee Newitz, author of Autonomous) — shows why he is the savage dystopian optimist whom you can’t look away from ... even when you probably should. [STARRED REVIEW] “Irreverent, self-depreciating, profane, and funny, showcasing a Hunter S. Thompson–esque studied rage and dissatisfaction with the status quo combined with the readability and humor of John Scalzi.” —Booklist 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’s 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. With Watts''s infamous penchant for blunt, honest, and deep reflection, these retrospective essays provide a view inside his head and even into his heart.

Asante part en hurlant. L’enfer est une chambre de réverbération pleine de cris, d’eau de mer et de chocs métalliques. Des ombres monstrueuses passent sur les cloisons, de la lumière verte ondule et s’entrecroise sur la moindre surface. Telles des créatures qui surgissent d’un lagon brillant, les Sahilites émergent du puits central en ouvrant le feu : le milieu du corps de Rashida explose en une brume sombre, sa moitié supérieure tombe sur le pont. Kito est toujours en train de se traîner vers le fusil à harpon sur le séchoir... comme si un vieil outil de pêche pouvait repousser ces monstres avec leurs flingues, leur air comprimé et leurs petites cartouches qui s’enfoncent loin dans votre chair avant de vous montrer l’effet sur vos intestins de la libération de cinq cents atmosphères. Asante a moins que ça. Il n’a que ses poings... Peter Watts ZeroS

“This—THIS—is the cutting edge of science fiction.” —Richard K. Morgan, author of Altered Carbon How do you stage a mutiny when you''re only awake one day in a million? How do you conspire when your tiny handful of potential allies changes with each job shift? How do you engage an enemy that never sleeps, that sees through your eyes and hears through your ears, and relentlessly, honestly, only wants what''s best for you? Trapped aboard the starship Eriophora, Sunday Ahzmundin is about to discover the components of any successful revolution: conspiracy, code—and unavoidable casualties. Note from the publisher: The red letters in the print edition (highlighted letters in the e-book) indicate special bonus content.

Nous sommes les hommes des cavernes. Nous sommes les Anciens, les Progéniteurs, les singes qui érigent vos charpentes d’acier. Nous tissons vos toiles, construisons vos portails magiques, enfilons le chas de l’aiguille à soixante mille kilomètres/seconde. Pas question d’arrêter, ni même d’oser ralentir, de peur que la lumière de votre venue ne nous réduise en plasma. Tout cela pour que vous puissiez sauter d’une étoile à la suivante sans vous salir les pieds dans ces interstices de néant infinis...

An unabridged audio collection of the “best of the best” science fiction stories published in 2014 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster. In “Marielena,” by Nina Allan, an immigrant is haunted by his past, as well as his present and future, in a disturbingly mean-spirited near-future England. A convicted serial killer is sentenced to “rightminding” to cure his neurological disorder that resulted in the sociopathic murdering of thirteen women in “Covenant,” by Elizabeth Bear. “The Magician and LaPlace’s Demon” by Tom Crosshill, follows a powerful AI that discovers the existence of magic and then prosecutes a vendetta against the magicians who grow more powerful as their numbers dwindle. In “Sadness,” by Timons Esaias, a man strikes back, as best he can, against the powerful aliens who conquered Earth long ago. In “Amicae Aeternum,” by Ellen Klages, a young girl shares her last morning on Earth with her girlfriend before boarding a generation starship. “Red Lights, and Rain,” by Gareth L. Powell, is a blend of sci-fi and vampire-hunting lore in which the vampires are made, not born. In “The Sarcophagus,” by Robert Reed, the maintenance cyborgs of the Great Ship encounter a stranded spacer in a derelict lifesuit from a long ago ship. “In Babelsberg,” by Alastair Reynolds, showcases a robot whose account of the dead colonists recently found on Titan are challenged by another AI. In “Passage of Earth,” by Michael Swanwick, a coroner gets a taste of the Earth invaders’ superior intelligence while dissecting a giant worm-like alien. Finally, in “The Colonel,” by Peter Watts, Colonel Moore tries to assess the capabilities of the hived human intelligences that have attacked a compound under his command.

Ich denke, also bin ich. Eines Tages werden rätselhafte Signale aus den Tiefen des Alls aufgefangen. Ein Erkundungsschiff wird losgeschickt, um der Sache auf den Grund zu gehen. Man hofft auf eine friedliche Begegnung mit den Außerirdischen, ist aber auch für andere Eventualitäten gerüstet. Doch dann stehen die Astronauten plötzlich einem Wesen gegenüber, so fremdartig, dass es mit menschlichen Maßstäben nicht zu fassen ist ...

A follow-up to the Hugo Award-nominated Blindsight, Echopraxia is set in a 22nd-century world transformed by scientific evangelicals, supernatural beings and ghosts, where defunct biologist Daniel Brüks becomes trapped on a spaceship destined to make an evolutionary-changing discovery.

In a world ravaged by the apocalyptic microbe ßehemoth, amphibious cyborg Lenie Clarke must confront the consequences of her past and the enemies that hunt her in the crushing depths of the ocean. Lenie Clarke—amphibious cyborg, Meltdown Madonna, agent of the Apocalypse—has grown sick to death of her own cowardice. For five years (since the events recounted in Maelstrom), she and her bionic brethren have hidden in the mountains of the deep Atlantic. Atlantis, the facility they commandeered, was more than a secret station on the ocean floor. It was an exit strategy for the corporate elite, a place where the world''s Movers and Shakers had hidden from the doomsday microbe ßehemoth—and from the hordes of the moved and the shaken left behind. For five years "rifters" and "corpses" have lived in a state of uneasy truce, united by fear of the outside world. But now that world closes in. An unknown enemy hunts them through the crushing darkness of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. ßehemoth—twisted, mutated, more virulent than ever—has found them already. The fragile armistice between the rifters and their one-time masters has exploded into all-out war, and not even the legendary Lenie Clarke can take back the body count. Billions have died since she loosed ßehemoth upon the world. Billions more are bound to. The whole biosphere came apart at the seams while Lenie Clarke hid at the bottom of the sea and did nothing. But now there is no place left to hide. The consequences of past acts reach inexorably to the very floor of the world, and Lenie Clarke must return to confront the mess she made. Redemption doesn''t come easy with the blood of a world on your hands. But even after five years in pitch-black purgatory, Lenie Clarke is still Lenie Clarke. There will be consequences for anyone who gets in her way—and worse ones, perhaps, if she succeeds... Behemoth: Seppuku concludes the final act (begun in ßehemoth: ß-Max) of Peter Watts''s chilling and powerful Rifters series. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

From the author of Blindsight comes Peter Watts''s sci-fi adventure story "The Colonel," an action-packed Tor.com Original Colonel Keaton is in trouble. His wife has retreated into a virtual heaven and his son remains missing after joining an extrasolar mission to track down an alien race. He is presently tasked by his superiors with the threat assessment of hived human intelligences, one of which successfully attacks a compound under his watch. Now, one of the strongest hive minds in the world approaches Keaton with an offer that could completely change his world. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Better . . . Stronger . . . Faster . . . The doctors rebuilt Hugo Award-winning editor Neil Clarke and made him a cyborg. Now he has assembled this anthology of twenty-six original cyborg stories by Greg Egan, Madeline Ashby, Elizabeth Bear, Peter Watts, Ken Liu, Robert Reed, Yoon Ha Lee, and more!

Skillfully combining complex science with finely executed prose, these edgy, award-winning tales explore the always-shifting border between the known and the alien. The beauty and peril of technology and the passion and penalties of conviction merge in stories that are by turns dark, satiric, bold, and introspective. A seemingly humanized monster from John Carpenter’s The Thing reveals the true villains in an Antarctic showdown. An artificial intelligence shields a biologically-enhanced prodigy from her overwhelmed parents. A deep-sea diver discovers that her true nature lies not within the confines of her mission but in the depths of her psyche. A court psychologist analyzes a psychotic graduate student who has learned to reprogram reality itself. A father tries to hold his broken family together in the wake of an ongoing assault by sentient rainstorms. Gorgeously saturnine and exceptionally powerful, these collected fictions are both intensely thought-provoking and impossible to forget.

MANHATTAN IS UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT. THEY’RE NOT FROM AROUND HERE. Welcome to the Big Apple, son. Welcome to the city that never sleeps: invaded by monstrous fusions of meat and machinery, defended by a private army that makes Blackwater look like the Red Cross, ravaged by a disfiguring plague that gifts its victims with religious rapture while it eats them alive. You’ve been thrown into this meat grinder without warning, without preparation, without a clue. Your whole squad was mowed down the moment they stepped onto the battlefield. And the chorus of voices whispering in your head keeps saying that all of this is on you: that you and you alone might be able to turn the whole thing around if you only knew what the hell was going on. You’d like to help. Really you would. But it’s not just the aliens that are gunning for you. Your own kind hunts you as a traitor, and your job might be a bit easier if you didn’t have the sneaking suspicion they could be right. . . .

Lenie Clarke a survécu à l''explosion nucléaire qui a détruit la station des abysses dans laquelle elle travaillait. De retour sur la côte américaine, elle découvre les ravages du tsunami qui a laissé sans domicile des millions de gens. Parqués derrière un immense mur par les autorités militaires, ils sont maintenus sous contrôle grâce à des tranquillisants administrés à leur insu. Dans le chaos ambiant, personne ne remarque Lenie, personne ne sait quel danger elle représente : porteuse de la bactérie Behemoth, elle est susceptible d''anéantir la vie sur terre. Mais bientôt, la jeune femme est repérée par Maelström, cette entité pensante et indépendante qu''on appelait autrefois Internet...

Hugo and Shirley Jackson award-winning Peter Watts stands on the cutting edge of hard SF with his acclaimed novel, Blindsight Two months since the stars fell... Two months of silence, while a world held its breath. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune''s orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever''s out there isn''t talking to us. It''s talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route. So who do you send to force introductions with unknown and unknowable alien intellect that doesn''t wish to be met? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won''t be needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there. Pray they can be trusted with the fate of a world. They may be more alien than the thing they''ve been sent to find. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.