Peter Watts, Behemoth: B-Max

Behemoth: B-Max

Peter Watts

Tor, Jul 2004, $24.95, 300 pp.

ISBN: 0765307219

Five years have passed since a vengeful cyborg Lenie Clarke released Behemoth on the world, destroying everything in its path as the microbe is eating up matter. Digital monsters add to the pandemic devastation using Clarke as a rallying cry to devastate survivors through what is left of the Internet. Meltdown Madonna cults dedicated to Clarke pledge mass suicide as they rule alongside deadly warlords on the surface.

However, on the ocean floor, Lenie Clarke has learned the truth that her grudge was built on a false premise. As the altered rifters and the technoindustrial corporate executives hide in fear in Atlantis on the ocean floor of the Midatlantic Ridge, the grim reaper comes for them. Only Lenie Clarke can save the few, but first she must face the consequences of what she wrought for she knows she can never achieve salvation as she can not wash the blood from her hands even with water everywhere.

As with STARFISH and MAELSTROM, BEHEMOTH: B-MAX is an ultra dark and gritty, action-packed thriller yet the tale as with the first two books is character driven especially by Lenie. The storyline moves forward at a current faster than most science fiction novels, but contains irony throughout as Lenie learns the truth and like Lady Macbeth cannot simply wash the blood from her hands. Though B-Max is book one of a two book conclusion, this is a well-written, gripping entry, but fans of post-apocalypse thrillers would be better served by waiting a few months for the release of the climatic novel and then read all four books in succession.

Harriet Klausner