Praise for The Freeze-Frame Revolution
A Publishers Weekly Book of the Week
A Goodreads Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy title of Jan-August 2018
1000 Year Plan 2018 Recommended Reading List
Locus Recommended Reading List
2018 SCKA Award nominations
The Nowa Fantastyka Prize for "Best Foreign Book"
“This is definitely vintage Watts—outstanding, exciting, and terrifying.”
—Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother and Walkaway
“The Freeze-Frame Revolution is a delicious morsel of hard science fiction . . . The setup of the book is irresistible, and the science is high-concept, but the story is driven by Sunday’s relationships and her conviction in herself and her companions.”
—Washington Post
“The latest from Watts (Blindsight, 2006) packs a significant punch into a small package.”
—Booklist
“[STARRED REVIEW] In this short, tight novel that contains vast science-fictional speculation, the human crew of the construction ship Eriophora spends 66 million years building interstellar wormhole gates, so they have lots of time to ponder issues of purpose. Sunday Ahzmundin, on a quest to find a missing crewmate, has to deal with another coworker, Lian, who is traumatized after the ship is damaged by one of the “occasional demons” that pop out of newly opened gates. Dropping in and out of suspended animation as scheduled by the Chimp, the AI that runs the ship, Sunday begins to uncover the secrets behind Lian’s subsequent death and the disappearances of other crew members, learning what hides beneath the ship’s closed and rigidly structured society. Watts (Echopraxis) puts the concept of humanity under the knife, teasing out how Chimp’s programming and Sunday’s loyalty can both tie them together and set them at odds. Watts pits the drive toward success against the need for connection, leading to an ending as open and as expansive as the universe. SF fans will love this tale of bizarre future employment and genuine wonder.”
—Publishers Weekly [ A Staff Pick / Best Summer 2018 Read]
“The Freeze-Frame Revolution (Tachyon), the shortest and latest novel from Canadian Peter Watts, is as brilliant and enticingly acute as any of his earlier and longer work.”
—Seattle Review of Books
“Part thriller, part hard-SF vision, part existential nightmare . . . impressive and intriguing.”
—Locus
“Darkness and awesome technology lurk in Peter Watts’new book, The Freeze-Frame Revolution.”
—Vernor Vinge, author of A Fire Upon the Deep
“Peter Watts blows my mind every single time.”
—Kelly Robson, author of Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach
“[STARRED REVIEW] Entertaining and provocative, brilliant and ambitious, The Freeze-Frame Revolution is compelling science fiction with heart.”
—Foreword
“The Freeze Frame Revolution is the purest driven high concept SF . . . as vivid and carnal and profane as the headiest of high-end literature.”
—Richard Morgan, author of Altered Carbon
“It's science fiction on a grand scale, covering countless millennia and light-years. It's a story that doesn't leave the reader comfortable, and it's terrific. But if you wanted comfortable, you wouldn't be reading anything by Peter Watts.”
—MT Void
“Watts takes familiar-seeming SF tropes and accelerates them towards lightspeed, until they become something chillingly other. A gripping tale where galactic timescales collide with biology and age-old human dilemmas.”
—Hannu Rajaniemi, author of Summerland and The Quantum Thief
“Fast, rich, and cool—The Freeze-Frame Revolution fascinates!”
—Greg Bear, author of Eon and Take Back the Sky
“A savvy, fast-paced, vivid mix of humans way off-planet, pounding biology, robotics, cyberpunk, and even music. That's right, everything you've come to expect and enjoy from Peter Watts, and maybe a little more. This is one of his best—short, unforgettable, highly recommended.”
—Paul Levinson, author of The Plot to Save Socrates and The Silk Code
“In The Freeze-Frame Revolution, Peter Watts takes us millions of years into the future and hundreds of light-years away, where an isolated fragment of humanity must confront exotic physics, unfathomable entities, and the unforeseen consequences of their own technologies. But it is a profoundly human story about people, people not unlike us, under inescapable stress. A brilliant, thoughtful story bursting with radical ideas.”
—David D. Levine, author of the Andre Norton Award-winning Arabella of Mars trilogy
“A gripping story of a deep human future—the dependent relationship between human and AI tangles and grows with the delicious creep of suspense to the very last page. Watts is a poet when it comes to science. A pleasure to read.”
—Justina Robson, author of Keeping it Real
“The Freeze-Frame Revolution is a slow-motion rebellion as heart-stopping as any roller coaster ride and will delight readers across the science fiction spectrum. It was a joy to read and I found myself unable to put it down once I got started.”
—K. B. Wagers, author of Before the Throne and the forthcoming Farian War trilogy
“Peter Watts is a triple threat: exacting hard science extrapolation, an imagination that runs hot enough to give you contact burns, and a gift for thrusting his characters in situations that will expand the mind while shattering even the most guarded of reader hearts. In The Freeze-Frame Revolution, he puts a handful of fragile human beings into a mind-bending, explosive and utterly inhuman situation, and lights a ten-thousand year fuse. Unforgettable!”
—A. M. Dellamonica, author of Indigo Springs
“The most protracted battle of the minds ever—human vs machine. Brilliant.”
—David Marusek, author of Upon this Rock and Counting Heads
“Peter Watts has created a sci-fi work of art where every word is refined and has a purpose. I highly recommend this work to lovers of science fiction.”
—Infinite Text
“I’m a big fan of author Peter Watts, and this novella The Freeze-Frame Revolution doesn’t disappoint. Interesting characters, fascinating science, and just great storytelling.”
—The Best Sci Fi Books
“Watts, undoubtedly, is a genius.”
—Medium
“Very highly recommended, dark, hard science fiction.”
—She Treads Softly
“Sunday’s voice—Watts’s prose—is jagged, hip, entrancing, smart, literate and funny.”
—Paul Di Filippo, Locus
“Peter Watts certainly knows how to keep you on edge . . . The Freeze-Frame Revolution is a fascinating novel.”
—Strange Alliances
“Watts is an original thinker and a bold storyteller, here at the top of his considerable form. This is one of the year’s best science fiction odysseys.”
—Intergalactic Medicine Review
“The Freeze-Frame Revolution marks the triumphal return of Peter Watts . . . Definitely one of the speculative fiction titles to read in 2018.”
—Fantasy Hotline
“The Freeze-Frame Revolution by Peter Watts is without a doubt one of the more engaging and original science-fiction stories I have read recently.”
—Bookwormex
“This is a masterpiece of science fiction and has sold me that I need to read all Peter Watts that I can get my hands on.”
—Postcards from a Dying World
“The Freeze-Frame Revolution is an incredibly intelligent book with extremely in-depth characters and a story-line that actually makes you think, and it’s a book that when I read it, the entire time I'm just thinking "this is what science fiction looks like.”
—The Reading Life
“The Freeze-Frame Revolution is a slim book, but a fascinating read.”
—Geek Dad
“A masterpiece in its own right. It’s complex, detailed, impactful . . . I would recommend it to any science fiction lover.” 4.5/5 stars
—The Curious SFF Reader
“Seriously clever and rigorous hard sci-fi about the difficulties of planning a political revolution.”
—Caustic Cover Critic
“5/5 stars. Awesome hard SF.”
—Lela E. Buis, author of Competitive Fauna
