The Freeze Frame Revolution

By: Peter Watts
Location: FIC WAT
Genre:  Science Fiction


Bottom Line: If you love a sci-fi that makes you really think, but is also full of action, this is one you won't want to miss! - Shannon


She believed in the mission with all her heart.
But that was sixty million years ago.

How do you stage a mutiny when you're only awake one day in a million? How do you conspire when your tiny handful of potential allies changes with each shift? How do you engage an enemy that never sleeps, that sees through your eyes and hears through your ears and relentlessly, honestly, only wants what best for you?

Sunday Ahzmundin is about to find out.

Every time I read Peter Watts, I find myself looking up words that I had no idea existed. I like to think of myself as a pretty smart guy, and Watts' books blow a hole in that idea every single time. I love them despite this. Or maybe because of it. It is a joy to see someone work at the very top of their game and make it look so effortless. Watts invents whole worlds to support his stories and novels, and they are so well-engineered that they are practically invisible, humming along quietly in the background.

In this novella, a crew member on a billion-year mission deep into the galaxy decides that she wants to quit. But to do that, she'll have to outwit the ship's artificial intelligence in the brief spans when she's awakened from hibernation. It takes decades of planning over centuries of travel, and yet somehow Watts makes it all feel urgent and taut. It's impossible not to root for the characters even though their onboard computer really only wants the best for them (within mission parameters, of course). Though it all, Watts makes the alien seem familiar and leads you to empathize with people stuck centuries in the future. But this is what good fiction does: it explores what it means to be human, even in the strangest and most extreme of circumstances.- Christopher Farnsworth- Goodreads.com