This book is so amazingly fascinating for so many reasons. Extended from his short story "A Niche" written in 1994, Watts claims this is his first novel, but the result is an incredible work for even a well published author.

"Starfish" is set in a future that many would see as the obvious sequel to our present; large corporations flourish (without being cyberpunkish), while energy needs and computational power have expanded together dramatically. As a solution to this energy crisis, underwater generators that work off of the geothermal gradient at the sea bottom are installed at tectonically active zones, and teams of maintenance workers are sent to inhabit nearby biospheres.

The short story Watts wrote (available in "Northern Stars, The Anthology of Canadian Science Fiction") basically starts the novel; the isolation and extreme conditions that the workers have to deal with is taken into account by their employers, who seek out those best suited to work the stressful, dangerous, lonely posts. Those chosen are psycologically twisted, which makes their interaction all the more interesting. While Watts's short story was about the psycology of these isolated individuals, his novel binds this with much more, such as the biology of the deep sea, and of the makeup of the corporate mindset. This book has many parallel threads running through it, finishing in so many climactic sequences that the end of the book comes as a disappointment, my only negative feeling about this novel.

If you can stand the... depressing aura that is built up, then I wholeheartedly recommend this book.