Asian environmental correspondent for the Guardian, Watts travels to the four corners of China, from the southwest Himalayan region, rebranded as “Shangri-la” to attract tourists, to Xanadu (Shangdu) in Inner Mongolia, exploring how Beijing is balancing economic growth with sustainability and whether China will “emerge as the world’s first green superpower” or tip our species “over the environmental precipice.” What he finds is both hopeful and disturbing. Wildlife refuges, rather than focusing on biodiversity, breed animals for meat and traditional remedies like black bear bile. The city of Ordos plans to build a huge wind farm and solar plant, but these benefits are offset by its coal-liquification mine, “an environmentalist's worst nightmare” of greenhouse gases and water exploitation. The Chinese dictatorship, envied by other nations for its ability to enact environmental changes without the slow democratic process, turns out to be ineffective, with power lying with developers and local bureaucracies. Readers interested in global warming will appreciate the firsthand information about China, and Watts’s travels are so extensive and China is changing so fast, some material is likely to be fresh and new even for Sinologists.

Lacey Hillcrest of Pensacola, 50 years old and a devout Pentecostal, had been diagnosed with inoperable lymphatic cancer and given six months to live. Five years later she was still alive. She attributed her survival to a decorative silver-plated cross received from her sister, Gracey Balfour.

On the morning of 27 June, Mrs Hillcrest and her sister patronized the Museum of Quackery and Pseudoscience, owned and managed by one Linus C. Velikovsky, where she got to know about placebo. Within a month she was dead.

The charge against Mr Velikovsky was negligent homicide.

„Ślepowidzenie” w genialny sposób na nowo definiuje historię o pierwszym kontakcie. U Petera Wattsa obcy nie są ani cudacznie przebranymi ludźmi, ani kompletnie niezrozumiałymi czarnymi monolitami — są czymś nowym, o wiele bardziej bulwersującym, zmuszającym nas do wyciągnięcia dość nieprzyjemnych wniosków co do natury świadomości. Gdy przestaniesz o tym myśleć, poczujesz ciarki na plecach!

A story of the not-too-distant future, and the exploitation of the geothermal resources of the deep Juan de Fuca Rift in the Pacific by multinational corporations. Unfortunately, all the volunteers who are surgically altered for employment at the bottom of the ocean are psychotic.

Anne Watts groeit op in een dorpje in Wales in de jaren veertig. Tegen de conservatieve verwachtingen van haar vader in, volgt ze een opleiding tot verpleegkundige en vroed vrouw. Daarna meldt ze zich aan bij de kinderrechten organi satie Save the Children. Annes grote droom om in het buitenland te werken wordt vervuld als ze wordt ingezet tijdens de Vietnam-oorlog. Niets uit haar opleiding heeft haar voorbereid op de hel waarin ze belandt, maar Anne stort zich op haar werk en verpleegt iedereen die de poorten van het hospitaal weet te bereiken: kinderen met afgerukte ledematen en zwaargewonde, getraumatiseerde soldaten. Anne realiseert zich dat ze nooit meer terug naar Wales kan: ze heeft haar roeping gevonden. Ze reist de hele wereld over om mensen te helpen; naar de Killing Fields in Cambodja en naar het Saoedi-Arabië van de Eerste Golfoorlog. In Ik kies voor de mensheid vertelt Anne niet alleen haar inspirerende levensverhaal, maar laat ze ook haar patiënten aan het woord. En tussen al het leed zoekt en vindt Anne steeds weer schoonheid en hoop.

EDITORIAL REVIEW: **Civilization rests on the backs of its outcasts. **So when civilization needs someone to run generating stations three kilometers below the surface of the Pacific, it seeks out a special sort of person for its Rifters program. It recruits those whose histories have preadapted them to dangerous environments, people so used to broken bodies and chronic stress that life on the edge of an undersea volcano would actually be a step up. Nobody worries too much about job satisfaction; if you haven't spent a lifetime learning the futility of fighting back, you wouldn't be a rifter in the first place. It's a small price to keep the lights going, back on shore. But there are things among the cliffs and trenches of the Juan de Fuca Ridge that no one expected to find, and enough pressure can forge the most obedient career-victim into something made of iron. At first, not even the rifters know what they have in them—and by the time anyone else finds out, the outcast and the downtrodden have their hands on a kill switch for the whole damn planet... **Peter Watts** lives in Toronto, Ontario. **A *New York Times* Notable Book of the Year** Civilization rests on the backs of its outcasts. So when civilization needs someone to run generating stations three kilometers below the surface of the Pacific, it seeks out a special sort of person for its Rifters program. It recruits those whose histories have preadapted them to dangerous environments, people so used to broken bodies and chronic stress that life on the edge of an undersea volcano would actually be a step up. Nobody worries too much about job satisfaction; if you haven't spent a lifetime learning the futility of fighting back, you wouldn't be a rifter in the first place. It's a small price to keep the lights going, back on shore. But there are things among the cliffs and trenches of the Juan de Fuca Ridge that no one expected to find, and enough pressure can forge the most obedient career-victim into something made of iron. At first, not even the rifters know what they have in them—and by the time anyone else finds out, the outcast and the downtrodden have their hands on a kill switch for the whole damn planet. "No one has taken this premise to such pitiless lengths—and depths—as Watts . . . In a claustrophobic setting enlivened by periodic flashes of beauty and terror, the crew of Beebe Station come across as not only believable but likeable as they fight for equilibrium against their own demons, one another, their superiors and their remorselessly hostile surroundings."—***The New York Times*** "A powerful first novel . . . A savage, bitter, and often blackly comic vision of the near future . . . Watts has rendered a character whose emotional complexity demands our respect. . . . [The ending] is both startling and oddly satisfying in its earned nihilism. A terrific debut from an author we will be seeing again."—***Edmonton Journal*** "Watts’ true enemy is human stupidity, the sort of thing that turns children into walking disaster zones, treats adults as interchangeable things, insists that unchecked fertility is a Good Thing, and blindly trusts that our artificially intelligent creations must share our priorities. As Watts develops that point, he tells an absorbing tale set in a bizarre world and hinging upon intriguing technology. He's done his homework well, and it shows."—***Analog*** "Burdened by exploding population, the world turns to geothermal energy from vents thousands of feet under the ocean. The vents are explosive and unpredictable, sending bursts of superheated steam randomly into a nightmare world of transparent fish, 50-foot tube worms, and oddly fragile sea monsters whose teeth shatter when they bite. To survive at such depths, the crews of deep-sea power plants must be modified to withstand the pressure, ‘breathe’ water, and see in a darkness illuminated only by phosphorescent creatures. The necessary mental modification isn't easily done; indeed, only the already emotionally damaged--battered women, paranoid ex-spies, child molesters—won't turn psychotic from it. One crew’s members struggle among themselves at first, but soon discover strange satisfaction in their isolated world and insight into their troubled lives. A subtle paranoia is everywhere, however, from the cramped station quarters to the office of the corporate psychiatrist who selected the crew. The hidden threat behind this unease isn't revealed until nearly the end, but the dark universe of the sea bottom and rich characterization captivate to the last page. Watts makes a brilliant debut with a novel that is part undersea adventure, part psychological thriller, and wholly original."—**Roberta Johnson, *Booklist*** "Near/medium-future deep-sea endeavor, from a Toronto-resident newcomer. To tap the energy of ocean-floor hydrothermal vents, the powerful Grid Authority sets up a power station in the Juan de Fuca Rift west of Seattle. Humans, physically modified to be able to live and work underwater without the restrictions of diving equipment, will maintain the facility. Of these volunteers (sex criminals, psychopaths, wife-beaters, and child molesters: their alternative is brainwashing), some can't adapt to the crushing, claustrophobic environment. Others brim with suppressed violence. Gerry Fischer takes to eating the local wildlife and never returns to the station. Lenie Clarke suspects that all the members of the group have been deliberately mentally damaged so they won't want to leave. But the Rifters develop a telepathic awareness of each other's thoughts and feelings. On the surface, meanwhile, smart gels—jelly-like intelligent neural networks—run most of the equipment and are slated to replace the Rifters, who refuse to return to the surface. The Grid Authority learns that the Rifters, and all deep-water life-forms, harbor an archaic non-DNA microorganism, ßehemoth, that would destroy all DNA-based life if it reached land. At the same time, Lenie discovers on the ocean floor a nuclear bomb operated by a smart gel; it will trigger a devastating earthquake should ßehemoth escape. Problem is, nobody at the Grid Authority understands how the smart gels evaluate information. What if the gels prefer ßehemoth to orthodox life-forms? . . . Fizzing with ideas, and glued together with dark psychological tensions: an exciting debut."—***Kirkus Reviews*** "In the near future, energy comes from the geothermal waters of the deep ocean, but the cost of providing power for the surface has a price--the sanity of the physically modified humans ("rifters") who live in an alien and dangerous environment. Watts's first novel elegantly captures the isolation and claustrophobia of the lightless ocean depths, smoothly blending psychological suspense with high-tech sf adventure. Large libraries should consider adding this to their sf collections."—***Library Journal*** "Set in the early 21st century, Watts's debut describes a future when the search for energy leads to the tapping of geothermal sources deep in the ocean, as in the Pacific's Juan de Fuca Rift, near Canada's Northwest coast. The maintenance workers of the dangerous underwater power plants are selected for their psychotic tendencies, which enable them to forget their previous lives on dry land, and are then surgically altered to survive the intense pressure of the sea's abyssal depths. These changes, which render the workers amphibious, also leave them less than well equipped to face the threat of powerful, archaic bacterialike creatures that proliferate at the ocean bottom and use human hosts to carry them upward to dry land, where their superior DNA could render our species obsolete. The human resistance to these life forms is described with a great deal of explicit violence and graphic language, as well as well-orchestrated paranoia that recalls the classic SF tale ‘Who Goes There?’ Watts’s characterizations aren't strong but, as in Arthur C. Clarke's *The Deep Range*, the underwater setting and the technology employed there function as characters in their own right, and quite vigorously. The novel's pacing is excellent, making this, overall, a good bet for beach reading."—***Publishers Weekly*** "There are enough provocative ideas in *Starfish* to suggest that Watts does his homework and thinks things through, and enough skill at scene and dialogue writing to convince us that he's a fine craftsman"—**Gary K. Wolfe, *Locus*** "An interesting, entertaining, and, best of all, promising debut novel."—**Don D’Ammassa, *Science Fiction Chronicle*** "I read *Starfish* in several large gulps. The story drives like a futuristic locomotive. It's a hypnotic read, somber and compelling. Best thing I've read in a long time. Peter Watts is an author to watch for."—**Robert Sheckley** "Peter Watts delivers—solid, inventive hard SF about the deep sea, but as we've never seen before. This moves like the wind."—**Gregory Benford, author of *Cosm*** "With gritty action and realistic science, Peter Watts brings to life a dark and vivid world."—**David Brin** "Peter Watts bathes a gonzo, hopeless pessimism reminiscent of Philip K. Dick or Joanna Russ in the cold, edgy light of hard science fiction á la Benford, Bear, or Tiptree. In Starfish, Watts creates in his protagonist a poetry of dysfunction which is angry and eerily redemptive, and which makes compelling, almost compulsive reading."—**Jane Dorsey**

Anne Watts groeit op in een dorpje in Wales in de jaren veertig. Tegen de conservatieve verwachtingen van haar vader in, volgt ze een opleiding tot verpleegkundige en vroed vrouw. Daarna meldt ze zich aan bij de kinderrechten organi satie Save the Children. Annes grote droom om in het buitenland te werken wordt vervuld als ze wordt ingezet tijdens de Vietnam-oorlog. Niets uit haar opleiding heeft haar voorbereid op de hel waarin ze belandt, maar Anne stort zich op haar werk en verpleegt iedereen die de poorten van het hospitaal weet te bereiken: kinderen met afgerukte ledematen en zwaargewonde, getraumatiseerde soldaten. Anne realiseert zich dat ze nooit meer terug naar Wales kan: ze heeft haar roeping gevonden. Ze reist de hele wereld over om mensen te helpen; naar de Killing Fields in Cambodja en naar het Saoedi-Arabië van de Eerste Golfoorlog. In Ik kies voor de mensheid vertelt Anne niet alleen haar inspirerende levensverhaal, maar laat ze ook haar patiënten aan het woord. En tussen al het leed zoekt en vindt Anne steeds weer schoonheid en hoop.

Combining complex science with skillfully executed prose, these edgy, award-winning tales explore the shifting border between the known and the alien.

The beauty and peril of technology and the passion and penalties of conviction merge in narratives that are by turns dark, satiric, and introspective. Among these bold storylines:

• A seemingly humanized monster from John Carpenter’s 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 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; and

• 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.

What do you do with a "wife" who is more man than you can handle?

The FBI and local law enforcement are attempting a mutually beneficial crime stopping partnership. Rookie Agent Chris Tarpington and Detective Vin Pilk team up to prototype the new alliance. How better to bust a ring of drug dealing suburban house wives than to go undercover-way undercover, as a married couple.

Though Chris reluctantly gets in touch with his feminine side, he quickly finds ways of making his sexy partner squirm. And Vin is definitely squirming, but will he run toward or away from his faux wife? As the investigation heats up, inter-agency cooperation takes on a whole new meaning.

Two months since sixty-five thousand alien objects clenched around the Earth like a luminous fist, screaming to the heavens as the atmosphere burned them to ash. Two months since that moment of brief, bright surveillance by agents unknown.

Two months of silence, while a world holds 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 on an intelligence with motives unknown, maybe unknowable? Who do you send to meet the alien when the alien doesn’t want to meet?

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, so compromised by grafts and splices he no longer feels his own flesh. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won’t be needed, and the fainter one she’ll do any good if she is. 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, a conduit through which the Dead Center might hope to understand the Bleeding Edge.

You send them all to the edge of interstellar space, praying you can trust such freaks and retrofits with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they’ve been sent to find.

But you’d give anything for that to be true, if you only knew what was waiting for them…