Peter Watts

Watts is a marine biologist with a doctorate who spent years on marine mammals before science fiction, and the biology shows: Blindsight sends a crew including a resurrected vampire against an alien intelligence and argues that consciousness may be a maladaptive accident. In 2009 he was beaten and pepper-sprayed by American border guards while leaving the United States, then convicted of obstructing them, a felony carrying the risk of two years; he was fined and not imprisoned. In 2011 he nearly died of necrotising fasciitis. He gives his novels away free on his own site.