Maelstrom

Maelstrom by Peter Watts
(sequel to Starfish)
4.0 Stars

Maelstrom picks up where Starfish left off. Lenie Clarke has survived the nuking of her underwater workplace and has walked out of the ocean onto land, carrying with her the deadly microbe that the nuclear explosion was meant to destroy. In addition to Lenie's storyline, there are three others: the Maelstrom, a quasi-sentient internet; Sou-Han Perrault, a botfly operator who watches what goes on in the populated areas; the "lawbreakers", Achilles Desjardins and Alice Jovellanos, two employees of a Big Brother-like corporation who figure out what is really going on. This is not a quick and easy read, as the story jumps from one arc to the next and back quickly. There is a lot of very interesting science in this story, and some of it is downright scary because it is plausible. This is one sequel that is better than the original novel. Read Starfish, then read Maelstrom.