Peter Watts (author)
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Peter Watts | |
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Peter Watts' acceptance speech at the 2010 Hugo Awards ceremony
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Born | [1] | 25 January 1958
Occupation | Writer |
Nationality | Canadian |
Alma mater | |
Period | 1990–present |
Genre | Science fiction |
Notable works | Blindsight |
Spouse | Caitlin Sweet |
Website | |
rifters |
Peter Watts (born 1958) is a Canadian science fiction author and former marine-mammal biologist.
Contents
Career
His first novel Starfish (1999) reintroduced Lenie Clarke from his 1990 short story, "A Niche"; Clarke is a deep-ocean power station worker physically altered for underwater living and the main character in the sequels: Maelstrom (2001), βehemoth: β-Max (2004) and βehemoth: Seppuku (2005). The last two volumes comprise one novel, but published split for commercial considerations.[2] Starfish, Maelstrom and βehemoth comprise a trilogy usually referred to as "Rifters" after the modified humans designed to work in deep-ocean environments.
His novel Blindsight, released in October 2006, was nominated for a Hugo Award. The novel has been described by Charles Stross as follows: "Imagine a neurobiology-obsessed version of Greg Egan writing a first contact with aliens story from the point of view of a zombie posthuman crewman aboard a starship captained by a vampire, with not dying as the boobie prize."[3] Echopraxia (2014) is a "sidequel" about events happening on Earth and elsewhere concurrent with the events in Blindsight.[4]
Watts has made some of his novels and short fiction available on his website under Creative Commons license. He believes that doing so has "actually saved [his] career outright, by rescuing Blindsight from the oblivion to which it would have otherwise been doomed.[5] The week after [he] started giving Blindsight away, sales tripled."[6]
In addition to his novels and short stories, Watts has also worked in other media. He was peripherally involved in the early stages of the animated science fiction film and television project Strange Frame.[7] He also worked briefly with Relic Entertainment on one of the early drafts of the story that would eventually, years later, become Homeworld 2. However, the draft Watts worked on bears no resemblance to the one used for the released game.[6] More recently, he has been recruited[8] by Crytek as a writer and art consultant on Crysis 2. Technological elements from Blindsight have been referenced in the fictional Crysis 2 "Nanosuit Brochure".[9]
The creative director of BioShock 2 has cited Watts's work as an influence on that game.[10]
Personal life
Watts obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in 1980 and a Master of Science degree in 1983, both from the University of Guelph, Ontario. He obtained his Ph.D from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC from the Department of Zoology and Resource Ecology in 1991.[11][12]
In December 2009, Watts was detained at the US/Canada border by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) performing a reportedly random search of the rental vehicle he was driving. Watts is alleged to have assaulted a CBP Officer and was turned over to local authorities to face charges. According to an officer, the authorities used pepper spray to subdue Watts after Watts became aggressive toward officers.[13] According to Watts, he was assaulted, punched in the face, pepper-sprayed and thrown in jail for the night.[14] The officer later admitted in court that he had punched Watts. A jury found Watts guilty of obstructing a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer. He faced a maximum sentence of two years in prison. Watts blogged about his sentence saying that because of how the law was written, his asking: "What is the problem?" was enough to convict him of non-compliance.[15] In April 2010 he was given a suspended sentence, and a fine.[16] However, due to immigration laws,[17] Watts' felony conviction prevents him from re-entering the United States.[18]
In February 2011, he contracted the rare disease necrotizing fasciitis in his leg, which he has blogged about on his website.[19]
He married fellow Canadian author Caitlin Sweet in August 2011.[20]
Bibliography
Novels
Rifters trilogy
- Starfish (July 1999, Tor Books, ISBN 978-0-312-86855-0)
- Maelstrom (October 2001, Tor Books, ISBN 978-0-312-87806-1)
- βehemoth (published in two volumes)
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- βehemoth: β-Max (July 2004, Tor Books, ISBN 978-0-7653-0721-7)
- βehemoth: Seppuku (December 2004, Tor Books, ISBN 978-0-7653-1172-6)
Firefall series
- Blindsight (October 2006, Tor Books, ISBN 978-0-7653-1218-1)
- Echopraxia (August 2014, Tor Books, ISBN 978-0-7653-2802-1)
- Firefall (August 2014, Head of Zeus, ISBN 978-1-7840-8046-4). Omnibus edition of Blindsight & Echopraxia.
Others
- Crysis: Legion [Paperback], released on 22 March 2011. Novelization of the game Crysis 2
- The Freeze-Frame Revolution [Tachyon Publications, 12 June 2018]
Collections
- Ten Monkeys, Ten Minutes (November 2002, Tesseract Books, ISBN 978-1-895836-74-5)
- Beyond the Rift (2013)[21]
Short stories, novelettes, and novellas
Sunflower cycle
The Sunflower series of stories concerns the voyage of a jumpgate-building ship named Eriophora:[6][22]
- "The Island" (The New Space Opera 2, 2009)
- "Hotshot" (Reach for Infinity, 2014)[23]
- "Giants" (Clarkesworld Magazine, September 2014)
- The Freeze-Frame Revolution (2018, Tachyon Publications)
Others
- "A Niche" (Tesseracts, 1990)
- "Nimbus" (On Spec, 1994)
- "Flesh Made Word" (Prairie Fire Magazine, 1994)
- "Fractals" (On Spec, 1995)
- "Bethlehem" (Tesseracts 5, 1996)
- "The Second Coming of Jasmine Fitzgerald" (Divine Realms, 1998)
- "Home" (On Spec, 1999)
- "Bulk Food" (On Spec, 2000) with Laurie Channer
- "Ambassador" (Ten Monkeys, Ten Minutes, 2002)
- "A Word for Heathens" (ReVisions, 2004)
- "Mayfly" (Tesseracts 9, 2005) with Derryl Murphy
- "Repeating the Past" (Nature Magazine, 2007)
- "The Eyes of God" (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume 2, 2008)
- "Hillcrest v. Velikovsky" ("Nature Magazine", 2008)
- "The Things" (Clarkesworld Magazine, January 2010)[24][25]
- "Malak" (Engineering Infinity, edited by Jonathan Strahan, December 2010)[26][27][28]
- "Firebrand" (Twelve Tomorrows, 2013)
- "The Colonel" (Tor.com, 29 July 2014)
- "Collateral" (Upgraded, 2014)
- "Colony Creature" (2015)
- "ZeroS" (Infinity Wars, edited by Jonathan Strahan, September 2017)
Awards and critical reception
"The Things"
- Finalist 2010 Parsec Award for Best Speculative Fiction Story (Short Form)
- Nominee 2010 BSFA Award for Best Short Story
- Winner 2010 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Short Story
- Nominee 2011 Hugo Award for Best Short Story
- 3rd Place 2011 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award
- Finalist 2011 Locus Award for Best Short Story
"The Island"
- Won 2010 Hugo Award for Best Novelette[29]
- Nominee 2010 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award[30][better source needed]
- Nominee 2010 Locus Award for Best Novelette[31]
Blindsight
- Nominee 2007 Hugo Award for Best Novel [32]
- Nominee 2007 Campbell Award[33]
- Nominee 2007 Locus Award for Best SF Novel[33]
- Winner 2008 SFinks Prize (by Polish SF-oriented quarterly magazine SFinks) for Best Non-Polish Language Novel
- Shortlisted 2010 Geffen Award
- Winner 2014 Tähtivaeltaja Award[34]
- Winner 2014 Seiun Award for Best Translated Novel[35]
Starfish
- Nominee 2000 Campbell Award[36]
"A Niche"
- Tied with "Breaking Ball" by Michael Skeet for 1992 Prix Aurora Award[37]
See also
References
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- ↑ Peter Watts – Beyond the Rift cover art and synopsis reveal Archived 12 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine at Upcoming4.me
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- ↑ Locus Online: The Website of The Magazine of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Field
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found., 28 May 2010
- ↑ 2010 Locus Awards Finalists Archived 12 June 2014 at the Wayback Machine – Locus Online
- ↑ Official announcement. Archived 3 October 2008 at WebCite
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- ↑ Sokeanäkö sai tieteiskirjojen Tähtivaeltaja-palkinnon
- ↑ 2014 Seiun Award Winners
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External links
- Pages containing links to subscription-only content
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- Canadian science fiction writers
- Canadian biologists
- Canadian male novelists
- Canadian male short story writers
- Living people
- 1958 births
- 21st-century Canadian short story writers
- 21st-century Canadian male writers
- Creative Commons-licensed authors