Thus adapted, Lenie can swim in the deep waters of the Juan de Fuca Strait, performing maintenance on a power plant that steals the abundant geothermal energy of the seabed. But no amount of scientific tinkering can adapt a rifter's mind to the pressures of deep-sea living, with its constant threat of sudden death. The Juan de Fuca Strait is particularly dangerous, because along with the usual hazards--water pressure, industrial accidents and earthquakes--the sea life has grown to gigantic proportions. Fish that are less than a centimeter long elsewhere in the ocean grow as large as Lenie herself near the Fuca Strait, and the behemoths survive by devouring everything that moves.
As Lenie and her work partner prepare the power station, it becomes clear that they are experimental test subjects. The company that hired them is willing to risk their sanity to answer a critical question: what sort of person can best deal with the dangers and loneliness of life on the rift? Lenie, with a long history of abuse and an intense dislike of human contact, would seem to be the perfect candidate for a crack-up. In fact, she is just what the company is looking for.
Crushing reality
Starfish is a first novel by Canadian writer Peter Watts, and it's a pleasing combination of hard SF and solid storytelling. A marine biologist, Watts knows the Pacific seacoast well, and he brings readers right into the eerie world of the Beebe power station, with its giant fish and psychotic staff. His characters are trapped in many ways--by the tons of water above them, by their psychological limitations, and by the arbitrary and menacing actions of the company that created them. This creates a dark and intensely claustrophobic atmosphere, which is very nearly the novel's true protagonist.
Among the rifters, Lenie's character is the most sympathetic, hardly a surprise considering that her peers are child molesters and failed suicides. Her development from an utterly passive victim into the de facto leader of the rifters is well handled and intriguing. Another treat in Starfish is the lack of narrative trustworthiness--as the rifters become paranoid about the company's plans for them, readers are left wondering if this is a justified reaction or merely a new manifestation of the group's psychosis.
Watts runs into trouble, though, when he brings the surface world into play. Integrating the deeply self-focused milieu of the rifters with a melodramatic save-the-world storyline, he bleeds off much of the novel's power when he provides a break from the crushing day-to-day reality of the seabed. He also weakens the book's hold on readers by revealing the nefarious plans of the company. By the time attention returns to the rifters, it is too late. There is considerably less impact in watching them play out the endgame once the seabed's mystery has been clarified.
Despite these flaws, Starfish is a worthwhile choice for readers interested in oceanography or who enjoy science-oriented SF.
More than anything, Starfish is like the Alien films, but without any truly likable characters. -- A.M.
