Book Series Guide

Peter Watts · novel sequence

Rifters books in order

A near-future sequence about genetically modified geothermal workers and the ecological threat of the organism known as the betahemoth.

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Reading order

Only reading orders present in the catalog are shown. Optional novellas and companion works can be hidden without changing the underlying sequence.

Publication order

  1. 1
    Starfish

    Book 1 · novel · 1999

    Civilization rests on the backs of its outcasts. So when civilization needs someone to run generating stations three kilometers below the surface of the Pacific, it seeks out a special sort of person for its Rifters program. It recruits…

  2. 2
    Maelstrom

    Book 2 · novel · 2001

    An enormous tidal wave on the west coast of North America has just killed thousands. Lenie Clarke, in a black wetsuit, walks out of the ocean onto a Pacific Northwest beach filled with the oppressed and drugged homeless of the Asian world…

  3. 3
    βehemoth: β-Max

    Book 3 · novel · 2004

    Starfish lit the fuse. Maelstrom was the explosion. But five years into the aftermath, things aren't quite so simple as they once seemed... Lenie Clarke--rifter, avenger, amphibious deep-sea cyborg--has destroyed the world. Once exploited…

  4. 4
    βehemoth: Seppuku

    Book 4 · novel · 2005

    Hiding out with her fellow cyborgs and their surviving creators for five years, Lenie Clarke is horrified when they are discovered by the doomsday microbe Behemoth, a situation that forces Lenie to take responsibility for her role in…