The Things is such a brilliant re-imagining of John Carpenter's The Thing. I remember reading it a long time ago before becoming familiar with his work, then re-discovering it after reading Blindsight, and of course it makes perfect sense for him to write this story.

I have not read the Rifter series, is it as good as his other books?

The Rifters trilogy (quadrilogy?) is kind of rough. They were his first published novels, and there's a kind of awkward gear-shift between the previously published material (much of the first novel was a fixup of "A Niche" and other short stories) to newly written content.

There's some interesting stuff in there -- if you've previously read the Firefall novels you'll recognize some early versions of ideas and motifs which he develops more fully in the later series -- but ultimately I'd describe it as skippable.

I think Starfish is really, really good, but it also has some serious rough patches. I think the sequel is not great, but it has some excellent highlights. I did not read the 3rd book and probably won't.

The thing for me is that I absolutely loved reading a book set at the bottom of the ocean in crushing darkness. I'd give Starfish a try unless that sounds horrible to you. While it doesn't get fully resolved, I think it actually comes to a pretty neat ending on its own that gives you room to keep thinking about it (and really, that's true of lots of great literature).

TBH I gave up on book 1 of the Rifters. :-(

Loved Blindsight, loved the Things, but DNF B-Max.