ßehemoth: ß-max by Peter Watts. I couldn't wait indefinitely for the book(s) to come in paperback so I went ahead and got the hardcover. Oh well, more money for Watts. I was pleasantly surprised by this book, expecting it to be one of those sequels that can't live up to its predecessor. Watts goes back to the roots, which is good because while Maelstrom was good it wasn't as good as Starfish. One thing I am left wondering though is what is inside Peter Watts' mind? They say that good writers write what they know (though that rule might be waived somewhat for sci-fi and fantasy authors) and he certainly is a good writer, so is there some dark secret that Watts has? I mean he's a marine biologist that wrote a great novel that takes place on the bottom of the ocean, so clearly he's drawing from some personal knowledge. But why might all of his main characters be sadists and/or masochists? Maybe I'm just reading too much into this, troubled characters are more interesting after all, but I dunno, the detail he goes into seems a bit too much for mere character research.