Behemoth: Seppuku (Rifters Series, #2) by Peter Watts

From the Publisher

Lenie Clarke-amphibious cyborg, Meltdown Madonna, agent of the Apocalypse-has grown sick to death of her own cowardice.

For five years (since the events recounted in Maelstrom0, she and her bionic brethren (modified to work in the rift valleys of the ocean floor) have hidden in the mountains of the deep Atlantic. The facility they commandeered was more than a secret station on the ocean floor. Atlantis was an exit strategy for the corporate elite, a place where the world's Movers and Shakers had hidden from the doomsday microbe ßehemoth-and from the hordes of the moved and the shaken left behind. For five years "rifters" and "corpses" have lived in a state of uneasy truce, united by fear of the outside world.

But now that world closes in. An unknown enemy hunts them through the crushing darkness of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. ßehemoth- twisted, mutated, more virulent than ever-has found them already. The fragile armistice between the rifters and their one-time masters has exploded into all-out war, and not even the legendary Lenie Clarke can take back the body count.

Billions have died since she loosed ßehemoth upon the world. Billions more are bound to. The whole biosphere came apart at the seams while Lenie Clarke hid at the bottom of the sea and did nothing. But now there is no place left to hide. The consequences of past acts reach inexorably to the very floor of the world, and Lenie Clarke must return to confront the mess she made.

Redemption doesn't come easy with the blood of a world on your hands. But even after five years in pitch-black purgatory, Lenie Clarke is still Lenie Clarke. There will be consequences for anyone whogets in her way-and worse ones, perhaps, if she succeeds...

ßehemoth: Seppuku concludes the final act (begun in ßehemoth: ß-Max) of Peter Watts's chilling and powerful Rifters series.

The New York Times - Gerald Jonas

This bare-bones synopsis cannot convey the complex moral calculus that Watts embodies in his ambitious tale of conscience deferred. Everyone involved in the harrowing denouement is both wounded and culpable. And, very much to the point, even readers may feel complicit when they find themselves sympathizing with characters who have been responsible for as many as a billion deaths.

Publishers Weekly

In Canadian author Watts's intense, beautifully written conclusion to his Rifters trilogy (after 2004's Behemoth: a-Max), Lenie Clarke, the near-psychotic, bio-engineered woman who loosed the deadly organism known as aehemoth on an already environmentally compromised world, resurfaces from the ocean's depths to discover who's behind continuing efforts to destroy all life on Earth. Together with Lubin, a bio-engineered man who's a highly efficient killer, Clarke discovers an America that has been devastated, not just by Behemoth but by attacks from heavily fortified, high-tech enclaves whose rulers will stop at nothing in a futile attempt to contain the out-of-control organism. Worse still, the battle is apparently being led by Achilles Desjardins, a murderous psychopath who has slipped the protective psychological programming that once kept his darker impulses under control. Aided by Taka Ouellette, a guilt-ridden, second-rate physician, Clarke and Lubin strive desperately to unravel the secrets of both Behemoth and Seppuku, its even more dangerous mutation. Like some adrenaline-charged fusion of Clarke's The Deep Range and Gibson's Neuromancer, Watts's trilogy represents a major addition to early 21st-century hard SF. Agent, Donald Maass. (Jan. 5) FYI: As an author's note explains, this is the second half of aehemoth, which was split in two by the publisher against Watts's wishes. The trilogy should be read in order, starting with 1999's Starfish. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Five years after unleashing the doomsday microbe Behemoth on the world and causing death on an apocalyptic scale, cyborg Lenie Clarke attempts to redeem herself by confronting and defeating the runaway microbe. This sequel to Behemoth: B-Max completes the third volume of Watts's hard-science Rifters trilogy (Maelstrom; Starfish). Memorable characters and action-packed scenes of high drama and taut suspense make this a good choice for sf collections. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Fourth entry in Watts's postapocalyptic "trilogy" begun with Starfish (1999), although the author does warn us: "Stop right there! This is not a complete novel . . . If you haven't read Part 1 (ssehemoth: ss-Max), you should do so before embarking on this book." The advice is sound. Nonreaders of Part 1 will grasp, eventually, that ssehemoth, an archaic non-DNA microorganism from the deep oceans, has invaded the land, devastating the defenseless modern-DNA ecology. In North America, some communities shelter behind elaborate barriers, hoping to keep the organism at bay; outside, healers like Taka Ouellette visit the infected areas, relieving what afflictions they can. Behind the scenes, sadistic, megalomaniac Achilles Desjardins-his conscience was erased by a rogue computer program-orchestrates affairs electronically and biologically to suit his personal depravities. Rifters Lenie Clarke and Ken Lubin, newly arrived from the undersea realm of Atlantis, wander the devastated landscape, trying to make sense of what they see, wondering whether Seppuku, a counter-plague, will actually destroy ssehemoth or make matters even worse. The commendable aspects of this: Watts's thorough research renders the details vivid and telling, and he shows significant signs of developing into a true stylist. The drawbacks: a plot that (even granted that this is only half a book) undulates without a backbone; worse, the basis for what plot there is comes down to sexual torture, whose scenes, presented unsparingly, many readers will find utterly repellent. For the nonce, heed the author's warning. For the future, Watts has to decide whether to write SF or horrific porn: the mix doesn't work.

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