Blindsight by Peter Watts
reviewed by Alma A. Hromic
Sixty five thousand alien objects burn up to ashes in Earth's atmosphere... and the world holds its breath. For two months, in which nothing happens. And then something, maybe, does -- a half-dead space probe overhears whispers out there in interstellar space, whispers that may or may not be connected with those 65,000 defunct UFOs, whispers that may or may not be aimed at Earth -- but may be aimed, far more frighteningly, at something else, something that might be en route to Earth, intentions unknown.

Behemoth: B-Max and Behemoth: Seppuku by Peter Watts
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
Behemoth opens five years after rifter Lenie Clarke, in an apocalyptic act of vengeance, seeded the deadly microbe Behemoth across a North America already reeling from out-of-control disease and environmental collapse. No living thing has any defense against Behemoth, and the entire biosphere is dying. Elsewhere in the world, governments frantically try to stave off contamination, and wage a losing battle against the destructive cult of the Meltdown Madonna, a dark mythos spawned by Lenie's Typhoid Mary-like odyssey.

Maelstrom by Peter Watts
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
Sequel to his debut novel, Starfish, the story follows Lenie Clarke, emotionally unstable and deeply scarred by memories of childhood abuse as she plots revenge against the vast corporate structure that murdered her friends. She begins a journey across North America, sowing her disease vector as she goes. Ken Lubin, an assassin whose conflicting moral/psychotic impulses are chemically controlled through genetic engineering, is on her trail as is burnt-out botfly operator Sou-Hon Perreault, and Achilles Desjardins, another chemically-controlled operative, this time for CSIRA, the rapid-response agency that confronts and contains the endlessly multiplying disease and environmental crises of a ravaged earth.

Starfish by Peter Watts
reviewed by Neil Walsh
You want gritty? You'll be spitting grit out from between your teeth after this one. It's dark. It's dirty. It's oppressive. It's a helluva first novel. The omnipotent Grid Authority has established facilities to exploit the dangerously unpredictable geothermal power in the Juan de Fuca Rift at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. And they've bioengineered the crew to be able to withstand the pressure and breathe the seawater down there.