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Fold Catastrophes

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Pub Date Sep 22 2026 | Archive Date Sep 22 2026


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Description

Science fiction award-winner, flesh-eating-bacteria survivor, and questionably convicted felon Peter Watts (The Freeze Frame Revolution) returns with this long-awaited short fiction collection. Including an unpublished work, Watts posits unlimited brain-computer interfaces, the possibility of life existing inside stars, the hacking of human behavior, and ecological collapse. Also, the healing power of revenge.

“Peter Watts: Never cheerful. Always brilliant.”
—John Scalzi, author of the
Old Man’s War series

What if a weaponized water supply reprograms pattern recognition in the brain, provoking violent rage at the sight of the Google logo? Or an accidental hive-mind creates a global agenda to resurrect itself in the scant seconds between its emergence and dissolution? A steroidal jump gate-building ship attempts to survive passage through a red-giant sun by hiding inside an ice-giant planet. When something is trying to colonize the sun, humans try to stop it. (Spoiler alert: Nobody comes off very well.)

In his newest short fiction, alongside an introduction by Richard K. Morgan, Watts (The Freeze-Frame Revolution) reserves whatever hope he has for whatever comes after humans. 

Science fiction award-winner, flesh-eating-bacteria survivor, and questionably convicted felon Peter Watts (The Freeze Frame Revolution) returns with this long-awaited short fiction collection...


A Note From the Publisher

Peter Watts is a former marine biologist, flesh-eating-bacteria survivor, and convicted felon (in the U.S. at least, although these days, who isn’t?) whose novels—despite an unhealthy focus on space vampires—have become required texts for university courses ranging from philosophy to neuropsychology. His debut novel Starfish was a New York Times Notable Book. His work has been translated into twenty-four languages, has appeared in thirty-six best-of-year anthologies, and has been nominated for sixty awards, winning twenty-three, including the Hugo, the Shirley Jackson, and the Seiun Awards. Watts lives in Toronto with fantasy author Caitlin Sweet.

Peter Watts is a former marine biologist, flesh-eating-bacteria survivor, and convicted felon (in the U.S. at least, although these days, who isn’t?) whose novels—despite an unhealthy focus on space...


Advance Praise

Fold Catastrophes is a fully autonomous delivery system for eleven supersaturated scientific truth-bombs, precision-tooled by one of the sharpest thinkers in modern SF.”
—Alastair Reynolds, author of Halcyon Years

Fold Catastrophes is fascinating and frightening in equal measure. This is science fiction with an edge as dark and sharp as an obsidian blade, written as if by the flickering light of a data center burning in a wasteland of its own creation.”
—Robert Charles Wilson, author of Spin

“Peter Watts’s fiction weaves the human soul into dark glittering tapestries, studded with black holes and exploding stars. They compel you while challenging all your assumptions. Fold Catastrophes will have readers gasping for breath—both in awe, and from its straight up gut punch to the emotions.”
—L.X. Beckett, author of Dealbreaker

“Peter Watts: Never Cheerful. Always Brilliant.”
John Scalzi, author of the Old Man’s War series

Praise for Peter Watts

“If science fiction can really be claimed as a literature of ideas, then Watts is without doubt its premier practitioner.”
—Richard Morgan, author of Altered Carbon

“A new book from crazy genius Watts is always cause for celebration . . . Watts is one of those writers who gets into your brain and remains lodged there like an angry, sentient tumor.”
—io9

“Watts displays a gleefully macabre inventiveness combined with scientific rigour.”
—Nalo Hopkinson, author of Brown Girl in the Ring

“[Watts] asks the questions that the best science fiction writers ask, but that the rest of us may be afraid to answer.”
—Chicago Tribune

“Watts continues to challenge readers with his imaginative plots and superb storytelling.”
—Library Journal

“A hard science fiction writer through and through—and one of the very best alive, a peer of writers such as Neil Stephenson, Allen Steele, and the Three Gregs, Benford, Bear and Egan.”
—The Globe and Mail

“Even when Watts is wrong he is brilliant.”
—Armed and Dangerous

“Watts’s novels blow the mind pretty much on every page.”
—Tor.com

Fold Catastrophes is a fully autonomous delivery system for eleven supersaturated scientific truth-bombs, precision-tooled by one of the sharpest thinkers in modern SF.”
—Alastair Reynolds, author of ...


Marketing Plan

  • Select outreach to leading science fiction and mainstream print/online reviewers
  • In-person events to include regional Canadian venues
  • Print and digital ARC distribution; giveaways on Goodreads and Storygraph
  • Social media promotion including cover reveal, launch event, ongoing Instagram and BlueSky coverage
  • Select outreach to leading science fiction and mainstream print/online reviewers
  • In-person events to include regional Canadian venues
  • Print and digital ARC distribution; giveaways on Goodreads and...

Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781616964672
PRICE $18.95 (USD)
PAGES 352

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Average rating from 9 members


Featured Reviews

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Peter Watts is one of my favorite authors; he exemplifies hard sci-fi and everything I love about this genre. This collection of short stories is excellent and consistent with the themes focused on in most of his novels. In the stories written more recently, he does an excellent job of weaving comments and situations from the current state of the world into them. Many authors struggle to do this well, and he does it brilliantly. It also contains my favorite short story ZeroS, finally in print form. Amazing volume.

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This was an easy five stars for me. Usually with short story collections, there are some gems and some duds and most stories are just okay. I liked all of these and some I even loved. I would happily read each story expanded into a full length novel.

One thing I love most about Watts' writing is that he doesn't underestimate his readers. He doesn't info dump at the start of the story, he doesn't hold your hand or spoonfeed you with explanations. He trusts that you are capable of paying attention and cathing up along the way.

I also very much love his character writing. No one's perfect, but the bad guys arent cartoon villains either. He writes people with complex emotions, people in tough spots making human choices, whether they are the right ones or not. And sometimes that choice is just doing as you're told.

Now, thematically, this isn't a hopeful book. A bit like Black Mirror on steroids. People as a whole are a shitty species and Watts doesn't make it a secret that he doesn't really see a bright future for us. So if you're looking for hope core, maybe look elsewhere.

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This is an excellent collection of short stories by a long-time science fiction writer who I haven't read in a while. In the past I've read Watt's novels and enjoyed them to varying degrees. I wasn't sure what his short fiction would be like, but this collection is full of good ideas well-executed. No regrets here - I recommend the collection to all science fiction readers who like idea-driven stories that still seem current and relevant.

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