Darwin's Children

Rating:
Summary: sub plots and occasional plot
Review: Read Darwin's Radio before picking up the sequel, otherwise, you'll totally lost. As it is, the reader needs to pay attention to keep up with what's going on in this book.

The idea of new offshoot in human evolution is fascinating. However, there are so many subplots that main story gets lost. The writing is crisp and engaging, the sub plots interesting, but then they just get dropped.

I wouldn't dismiss it, but it isn't something for the top of the list either.

Rating:
Summary: Worth reading for its thought-provoking subject but flawed.
Review: The "Darwin's Radio--Darwin's Children" novels had the potential to be truly great science fiction. In these novels, Greg Bear speculates about the future of human evolution as well as its possible mechanism. I freely admit that some of Bear's science was over my head, however, he does manage to explain much of it in a clear fashion that is often quite interesting.

Let me begin by saying that I enjoyed "Darwin's Children" and read it in a long afternoon. However, it disappoints the reader due to nonexistant character development, a murky and essentially nonexistent plot, a storyline that jumps around more than an old 78 rpm record, intrusive political preaching, and a strange tendency for all of the strong (physically and mentally) characters to be women and all of the men to be eunuchs.

Instead of focusing on the basics, like character development, plot, and a clear storyline, Bear inexplicably starts taking subtle jabs at conservative politics. An ill patient's body "is like a body run by House Republicans..." The novel's portrayal mistreatment of the evolved children by the Government is a not very subtle allegory of post-911 anti-terrorism measures. This would be OK if there was a storyline and plot (authors are entitled to push their ideologies--that's part of what writing is for) but there just isn't. The novel (if that's what it was) simply describes what is happening to the evolved children and a couple of their parents. The story is murky and erratic.

In the "Kim Stanley Robinson" tradition, all of the strong characters in this novel are women. Every single one. The men are a form of 21st century eunuch--these chaps tend to follow along behind their women, care for the children, and mostly stay out of the way. In this novel you will find women "standing guard," running huge multinational companies, being cops, running Congress, and leading all scientific discovery. Hey, I'm all for equal rights, but where did the men go and what happened to them? I guess the same thing that happened in the Robinson Mars novels. They shrank and disappeared.

Now, Bear plainly seems to have decided to speculate about human evolution rather than write a novel, which might have been OK, except that Bear does not do a very good job telling us what the evolved people are really like. We learn that they communicate by smell a lot, and that women are in control among them (naturally) but that's about it. Are they more intelligent? Do they live longer? Are they physically more healthy? We never really learn.

Not that it matters all that much, but I found the notion that the evolved humans communicated alot by smell to be unlikely. This is a trait many animals have (a dog's sense of smell is literally a million times more acute than a human's) and I personally am unconvinced that this retrograde trait is something humans are evolving towards. But I digress.

An interesting read, but this novel and its prequel could have been much more had Bear paid more attention to the traditional jobs of the novelist: plot, storyline, and character development.

Rating:
Summary: Not As Good As "Darwin's Radio"
Review: This book is not as interesting as "Darwin's Radio". Nor is it as well-written. In "Darwin's Radio", we get a nice picture of how evolution might work and how it might affect the general population. (Everyone is scared and bewildered.) The protagonists are running. The science fiction tells us how viruses play a more basic role in the evolution than anyone suspected. Once an evolutionary change starts, it sets off a genetic competition for advantage and control. That, of course, should scare the pants off any non-evolved person.

"Darwin's Children" picks up several years later and is basically the same story. Except now the "virus" children (or "Shiva" children) are kept in concentration camps. The children are dying from some strange disease that is again frightening the living daylights out of everyone. The fear -- reasonable it seems to me, in spite of the author's preaching -- is that the strange,gene-altering disease will infect and kill normal (non-evolved) humans. Are we afraid of SARS? Sure! Would we be reasonable to be afraid of a virus that not only gives us very strange children, but kills them, too, and maybe us? You bet!

In "Darwin's Children" the sci-fi begins about half way through the book and it is good. The first half of the book is the author's stab at political fiction. In this genre, the author very weak.. The first half of the book can be skipped with no loss.

For example, in the first half of the book, it is not scared and bewildered reasonable people who are chasing the protagonists, but "the Republicans", "Rush Linbaugh", "Fox Multimedia News" and "the evangelists". This tells us of the author's political naivete, which also can be gleaned from his imaginings of what the next step of human evolution might be. He is strongly disposed towards group action, a sort of genetic socialism, based on pheromones. It is run by women, of course, all of whom are strong and clear-headed, while the men are bewildered and weak. We also learn that "traditional cultures", described as Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, and Pakistanis are "more accepting" of Shiva children. In reality, of course, this is about as likely as the Taliban recognizing lesbian rights. The point with all this political fantasy is, of course, that America sucks and that even cultures which produce Wahabists and terrorist imams are preferable. Most of his audience won't think so. A kind editor would have steered the author gently back to sci fi.

Early in "Darwin's Children", we visit a concentration camp for Shivite children. The description goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on. And on and on and on! About as interesting as reading a dictionary.

Towards the end of this book, we get into a problem with disbelief of the fictional reality, always fatal to good sci-fi. Mitch, our weak father-figure, waits in a "dingy" motel in "Central" California for his wife Kay to join him to search for Stella, their Shiva daughter. Kay is going to arrive in "a couple of hours" at the airport in Las Vegas; Mitch is going to pick her up. But not unless he has a supersonic car! Vegas is several hundred miles from Central California. Then, a local delivery man turns up who knows where Mitch's daughter is hiding because he makes frequent deliveries at the camp of the Shivite children. It is an area called Stannis Lake in "old growth". The description makes clear it is hidden deep in the woods, probably the redwoods, which is what "old growth" means in California. Stannis Lake is probably fictional and from the story's description is likely located in the Sierras near Mt. Lassen or perhaps the redwood forests on the Mendocino Coast in Northern California. The problem here is that all of these locations are several hundred miles from Central California. Why would a local delivery man be making regular deliveries several hundred miles from his store? Unexplained. How can Mitch meet Kay at an airport several hundred miles away from Central California in a "couple of hours"? Unexplained. The problem here is that when one is writing good science fiction, one must be exquisite with details of the known facts in order to give verisimilitude to the sci fi facts. (See, for example, "The DeVinci Code" by Dan Brown.) Bear stumbles badly on this aspect of his writing.

After the book's end, the author adds a warning. Here he explains how hard he worked to write a good sci fi thesis, that he checked his ideas with friends in the bio sciences, and has given knowledgeable speculations. That is all to the good, but in well-written sci fi, it is unnecessary. In well-written sci fi, the story line and dialogue give this sort of information. For example, in the TV series "Star Trek", in one episode a character unfamiliar with teleportation approaches the teleporter pad with a crewman. He sees two large, water heater-like structures near the pad and asks what they are. The crewman, in passing, says they are "Heisenberg compensators." In this casual remark, we are told that teleportation is a pure fantasy under our best-known and most accurate mathematical model of reality. That's good writing!

Finally, the plot of this work is weak and wandering. The characters receive far less development than is their due. And the basic thing we learn about the next step in evolution is that it results in very cooperative humans (they form into sort of tribes, who sniff each other a lot). They can also influence humans with their directed odors. (Of course, most of us unevolved humans have done that a few times, too!)

This book full of unfulfilled potential. Unfortunately, there are better books out there for your money.

Rating:
Summary: Solid science with believable charactors
Review: This is a great and involving novel. If you skip Darwin's Radio and read this book first it is like seeing "Aliens" before seeing "Alien". The story works but it totally gives away the previous plot.
This book takes a deep look at American society when a new minority enters into it. And as history shows us we react poorly. Expecially in the light of current (post 9/11) events I think the book shows how we react as a group, even though we choose to think of our selves as enlightned. I think Bear really drove that point home. I especailly liked the reaction of the Shivites to their situation, reminisant of concentration camp behavior? Would we do anything different?
The charactors were believable, in fact I am sure you know people just like them.
I also loved the fact that this booked ended. I am way sick and tired of 3+ volume series that leave you hoping the author will not die before he finishes his story.

If you liked this book read "Vitals" by Gregg Bear, and "The White Plague" by Frank Herbert

Rating:
Summary: The Virus Children is a teriffic idea. Very well written!
Review: This is one of the best science fiction novels I've read. It is thrilling and intellectually charged. It's no standalone, though. The plot and characters are certainly independent of the previous novel, but the background in Darwin's Radio is essential to nonbiologists trying to understand what's going on. The plot is superb as well as the characterizations. Geneticist Kaye Lang, archeologist Mitch Rafelson and their daughter, Stella Nova, have been hiding from an increasingly repressive U.S. government that wants to put the so-called "virus children" in what are essentially concentration camps. Eventually, the family is captured, and when Mitch resists he's arrested on a trumped-up charge of assaulting a federal officer. You become so thrilled and caught up in the plot that you want to speak out to the characters to help them in some of the situations. This is an excellent novel, and the writing is superior in the sci-fiction genre. Highly recommended read and a definite library keeper.

Rating:
Summary: Could have been happy with just Darwin's Radio
Review: This sequel tells the story of Kaye's daughter up to about 16 years of age. The new species of man Bear creates proves to be not all that different. There are new social interaction possibilities, and new english phrases, but they really aren't that much different. This makes it not that interesting. Additionally, the more group focus of the new species leaves the individual characters seeming disinterested or plain.
If you liked Darwin's Radio - I would suggest you leave it at that, and use your imagination instead of reading this.

Rating:
Summary: Read the Caveats first...
Review: While Bear attempts to justify his bizarre evolution mechanism in the caveats at the end of the book, anyone familiar with the darwinian explanation (eg. have read Dawkins) will find it quite ridiculous. Rather than a story of interesting insight, I found it a wandering and self-serving; more like a bad non-fiction work. Perhaps if he had included even more explanation it would have been more believable. But perhaps that would have just made it worse non-fiction.

If you feel you MUST read this book, do youself a favour: read the first chapter or two, then the caveats (they reveal nothing not covered in the first few pages).

Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment¿ what a book this could have been
Review: Why you should read this:

Many of the devoted fans of Bear who read with relish Darwin's Radio will eagerly look forward to buying this book. For them, it will be a very quick and, perhaps in some ways, satisfying read. It will answer certain questions about "what happened next" and could even leave room for yet a third novel. It is otherwise a harmless novel that will not enlighten but not irritate a reading audience(...)

Rating:
Summary: Evolutionary stresses
Review: Writing a trilogy presents writer and reader alike with a dilemma. The writer must try to make each book, especially the middle book, stand alone. Yet he must also carry the underlying narrative through the story and lead to the final volume. Readers, particularly new ones, must take the risk that the second volume is worth the investment in time and money. Bear marginally succeeds in making this book stand on its own merits by giving us sufficient background threads as the story progresses. Thankfully, he doesn't use tedious flashbacks to achieve this end. Reprises are helpful to the new reader, but can be hopelessly boring to someone who's read a first volume. This compelling speculation on how evolution might work carries over from the previous volume, Darwin's Radio. It isn't necessary to have read the first volume, but it simplifies the understanding of the characters.

In this sequel, the life of the new generation of SHEVA "virus children" is portrayed. The children discover what it means to be "different" in American society. They learn how vicious a reaction to the different can become. The SHEVA children are shunted out of sight in camps the Nazis would have envied. Among these children growing up in such an environment is Stella Nova, offspring of two of the key figures in the earlier book. Like the other children, she remains a fugitive, even when living at home. Children as outcasts is one of the greatest forms of tragedy, and Bear is adept at the portrayal.

Bear weaves the feelings of both child and parent with sensitive skill. Isolation of the SHEVA children, as it's done with other children in similar situations, results in a new identity. New feelings and a new language develop both from the children's isolation and from talents their genetic heritage grants them. They have powerful senses of smell - they use pheromones as a form of communication. These all combine to create a fresh sense of community in the children. They form "demes" - an incipient social structure. How will the new groupings relate with the previous society is a question Bear opens, but doesn't resolve. Partly this is due to the SHEVA children's youth. Although some are close to maturity, the new arrangement is only beginning. Self-awareness of differences, however, is strong. Stella Nova forcefully declares to her parents, "I'm not like you!".

As outlandish as this may sound, Bear's science foundation for this story is impeccable. While he's careful in a "Short Biological Primer" at the end of the book to identify what's known and what is speculation, it's clear nothing here is implausible. The results of an extensive literature search permeates the book - sometimes in overwhelming detail. Do we really need to know how many different compounds can be used to re-hydrate a mammal?

That specious criticism aside, there is much value to be gained reading Bear's "middle volume" in this trilogy. The social issues are combined with business concerns and, of course, the political realm. What will be the legal position of children tucked away in concentration camps? More to the point, what is the mental make-up of the new children? One of the major characters provides a hint through a series of epiphanies she experiences. There seems to be a strong need for speculative fiction writers to re-introduce us to gods, and Bear is following this pattern both in the plot and in a "Caveats" essay concluding the book. It is mildly astonishing that such an issue is likely to form the basis for the third book. However, the question is left dangling so precipitously at the end, it must be resolved somehow. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa,