Peter Watts (author)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Peter Watts
Peter watts fulbeskuren.png
Peter Watts' acceptance speech at the 2010 Hugo Awards ceremony
Born 1958
Occupation Writer
Nationality Canadian
Period 1990–Present
Genres science fiction
www.rifters.com

Peter Watts (born 1958) is a Canadian science fiction author and marine-mammal biologist.

Contents

Career [edit]

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, published split in two for commercial considerations.[1] 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 was released in October 2006 and was nominated for a Hugo Award. The novel has been described by Charles Stross thus: "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."[2] Watts is currently writing two novels: Sunflowers[3][4] and Echopraxia, a "sidequel" about what happened on Earth during Blindsight.[5]

Watts has made his novels and some 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."[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. 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. More recently, he has been recruited[7] 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".[8]

The creative director of Bioshock 2 has cited Watts's work as an influence on that game.[9]

Personal life [edit]

In December 2009, Watts was detained at the US/Canadian border by American border guards performing a reportedly random search of the rental vehicle he was driving. Watts is alleged to have assaulted a Customs Officer and was turned over to local authorities to face charges. According to a border patrol officer, the authorities used pepper spray to subdue Watts after Watts became aggressive toward officers.[10] According to Watts, he was assaulted, punched in the face, pepper-sprayed and thrown in jail for the night.[11] 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.[12] In April 2010 he was given a suspended sentence, and a fine.[13] However, due to immigration laws,[14] Watts' felony conviction prevents him from re-entering the United States.[15]

In February 2011, he contracted the rare disease necrotizing fasciitis in his leg, which he has blogged about on his website.[16]

He married fellow author Caitlin Sweet in August 2011.[17]

Bibliography [edit]

Novels [edit]

Rifters trilogy [edit]

  1. Starfish (July 1999, Tor Books, ISBN 978-0-312-86855-0) (available online)
  2. Maelstrom (October 2001, Tor Books, ISBN 978-0-312-87806-1) (available online)
  3. βehemoth (published in two volumes) (available online)

Others [edit]

Collections [edit]

Short stories [edit]

  • "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 Island" (The New Space Opera 2, 2009)
  • "The Things" (Clarkesworld Magazine, January 2010)
  • "Malak" (Engineering Infinity, edited by Jonathan Strahan) January 2011

Awards and critical reception [edit]

"Whenever I find my will to live becoming too strong, I read Peter Watts." [20] -- James Nicoll, SF critic.

"The Things":

The Island:

Blindsight

  • Nominated for the 2007 Hugo Award for Best Novel (official announcement)
  • Nominated for the 2007 Campbell Award[22]
  • Nominated for the 2007 Locus Award for Best SF Novel[22]
  • Shortlisted for the 2010 Geffen Award
  • Won the SFinks Prize (by Polish s-f oriented quarterly magazine "SFinks") for Best Non-Polish Language Novel for the 2008.

Starfish:

  • Nominated for the 2000 Campbell Award[23]

A Niche:

Notes [edit]

  1. ^ Jonas, Gerald (March 20, 2005). "Science Fiction: Across the Universe". The New York Times. Retrieved March 19, 2010. 
  2. ^ Stross, Charlie (January 31, 2006). "Trivia: Who are the business people?". Retrieved December 14, 2009. 
  3. ^ Watts, Peter (January 23, 2008). "Stop me if you've heard this one before.". Rifters.com. Retrieved March 19, 2010. 
  4. ^ Watts, Peter (January 14, 2008). "A Farewell to "Gerbils"". Rifters.com. Retrieved March 19, 2010. 
  5. ^ Watts, Peter (February 11, 2008). "Petepourri". Rifters.com. Retrieved March 19, 2010. 
  6. ^ Watts, Peter (January 24, 2009). "Rip-Off Alert". Rifters.com. Retrieved March 19, 2010. 
  7. ^ Watts, Peter (July 16, 2009). "Please Stand By for an Important If Ultimately Uninformative Announcement". Rifters.com. Retrieved March 19, 2010. 
  8. ^ "Nanosuit Brochure" (PDF). Crynet Systems.  (page 7)
  9. ^ Plant, Michael (1 February 2010). "BioShock 2: The interview". The Independent (London). 
  10. ^ Rushowy, Kristin (December 13, 2009). "War of words ends in author's arrest at border; Toronto science fiction writer accused of assault following 'altercation' at U.S. border crossing". Toronto Star. Retrieved March 19, 2009. 
  11. ^ Watts, Peter (December 11, 2009). "Not the Best of Possible Worlds.". Rifters.com. Retrieved March 19, 2010. 
  12. ^ "Watts guilty of Blue Water Bridge assault". Port Huron Times-Herald. March 19, 2010. Retrieved March 19, 2010. [dead link]
  13. ^ Nickle, David (April 26, 2010). "Peter Watts is Free". The Devil's Exercise Yard. 
  14. ^ "Aggravated Felonies and Deportation". TRAC immigration web site. 2006. 
  15. ^ Ashby, Madeline (April 27, 2010). "Sometimes, we win.". Tor.com. 
  16. ^ Watts, Peter. "Flesh Eating Fest '11". 
  17. ^ Watts, Peter. "He Said/She Said". 
  18. ^ The Island and Other Stories at Goodreads
  19. ^ Peter Watts - Beyond the Rift cover art and synopsis reveal at Upcoming4.me
  20. ^ Watts home page
  21. ^ http://www.locusmag.com/News/2010/09/2010-hugo-awards-winners/
  22. ^ a b "2007 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2011-12-22. 
  23. ^ "2000 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2011-12-22. 
  24. ^ "1992 Aurora Awards". The LOCUS Index to SF Awards. Retrieved March 19, 2010. 

External links [edit]

Authority control
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Watts_(author)&oldid=555453221"