Rating: 
Summary: "Darwin's Radio" is a bit antiquated.
Review: This story blows.It's quite mediocre in the extreme. And it's word count could and should have been cut by at least eighty percent. DR runs through the usual paces that a medical thriller runs through: the dull fright, the plethora of technobabble, the cliche persecutions, the plethora of technobabble, the internecine battles with stupid bureaucrats, the plethora of technobabble, and the extremely boring finale. And, finally, the plethora of technobabble. I saw no new moves to this tale at all. In Addition, The ending was extremely anticlimactic and silly. What is this with the evolved kiddies expressing parrotlike behavior and the color changing cheeks of both parents and child? I thought I'd been thrust into another dull and crusty episode of Wild Kingdom for a moment. *yawn* Give these evolved characters each a cracker and shut them up.
Rating: 
Summary: Good read, a little bit manipulative
Review: The story has been done before in science fiction-- what sparks evolution? and what happens to us if a jump begins in our lifetime? Bear uses the characters of a biologist coming off a failed marriage, a disgraced paleontologist, and a government disease specialist to carry the plot that is meant to be an answer to this 'what if'. The approach is fresh, and well-written. My sole complaint was that I felt like he chose a very "good scientist/bad scientist" approach to members of the government and scientific communities and created an artificial kind of opposition that may have made us like his characters better but weakened the lovely complexity that he'd otherwise achieved. I think he could have respected his readers enough to let us make our own judgements without painting the character actions in such big obvious strokes. It's a common failing, but Bear's a good enough writer that seeing it here disappointed me.
Rating:
Summary: This Book Rocks
Review: I have to disagree with the negative critiques. This book was great. I really enjoyed it and it was so much more interesting than any of the medical thrillers out there. Very thought-provoking!
Rating: 
Summary: Mixed experience
Review: As I was reading this book, I felt that this theme had been covered before and was doubtful that Bear could add that much new. However, as I continued reading, I realized that Bear's take on a fairly common theme (disease & elimination of humans) was different and I grew to respect his topic. However, I don't think the overall story & the plot gave enough support to his theme. Darwin's Radio was very interesting at the beginning, less interesting in the middle, and somewhat boring by the time the lackluster ending rolled around. I started getting a little bored when the action shifted from being about science in general and how science is done to being about one relationship. In addition, the entire last quarter of the book felt like a set up for a sequel, which I definitely don't respect. There wasn't a sense of closure from finishing this book. Overall, some good ideas, some well-constructed writing, some hard science balanced with some boring characters, some uninteresting plot lines, and some lackluster relationships.
Rating: 
Summary: Prelude to a great story
Review: Some images come to mind: Cardboard figurues on a board and stale biscuits hurled in a foodfight. This discribes the first 200 pages of Bear's novel. The characters move from one dialogue session to another and the dialogue, while feeling authentic, isn't very rousing. It feels like the characters of tied to a leash of scientific exposition. I mean, sure the science is accurate but a good 100 pages could have been snipped from the novel and a strong, engaging novel would have been left. Once the story does get moving, the novel becomes enjoyable. Bear finally gives his characters legs and lets them run with story. Their emotions start to outpace the science and lead them to a very enticing ending. In short, the novel seems like a set up for an interesting series. I'd like to see sequel. I just hope that it too doesn't get buried in science fact and gets more into the science fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Darwin's Dumb Radio
Review: The preposterous plot barely keeps the reader hanging on long enough to finish this book. Save your money and your time - there are much better books out there that prompt one to think about the earth, our role on it and the future of our species.
Rating:
Summary: He puts the 'Science' into Science Fiction
Review: This is a great book. He really knows how to put the science into science fiction. And believable science too. He is the best 'hard' SF writer around. The characters are very believeable. If I have one problem with the book, it is that the ending seemed a little rushed. But that is a minor quibble. A book to make you go "oooh, now that's possible!!".
Rating:
Summary: Great disappointment
Review: Lost opportunities, that's what I say about this work by Greg, who used to be my favourite author. I used to buy his works on strength that HE wrote it - but I was disappointed this time. Greg has come down a long way since his own nadir of accomplishment in Eon/Eternity days. Here he wants to do a Arthur C Clarke style 'END OF MANKIND as we know it' gambit a la The End of Childhood meets Andromeda Strain, but fails from mishandling of dramatic tension and plot development. His premises are technically brilliant - human evolution encoded into our genes and suddenly progressing explosively. But the reader will be let down by the last 50 pages. The climatic scene is simply not there. No buzz, no high, no intellectual orgasm. Just a bewilderment that "Hey is this IT?"
Rating:
Summary: Good, interesting scientific speculation, weak characters
Review: I've read both the good reviews and bad reviews here -- and find myself agreeing with both. First, the novel's specultions are extremely interesting. I've read a good bit about Neadertals and genetics so from a layman's perspective the story seems entirely plausible. The big debate in anthropology is whether or not Neandertals are a direct ancestor of modern humans or an off shoot similar genetically but not really directly related. They mysteriously went extinct and no one can quite figure out why and this story explains the mystery. Excellent book on the hard SF front. The characters and plot are weak. The novel never really built up an urgency to find "the truth," although it tried, and the characters just didn't seem that plausible. The plotting around 2/3rds of the way through became plodding. The book could have been cut down a few hundered pages and lost nothing. The ending was kind of abrupt. Despite these complaints I thought the book was quite good and well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Evolution in Utopia
Review: I have avoided reading science fiction literature for quite a while, probably due to my education as a scientist. Do you remember the Star Trek (TOS) episode when Spock uses "a theoretical relation between time and antimatter" and lets the warp engines of the "Enterprise" implode? Boy, what a nonsense! So I am wondering what educated biologists might think when they read Greg Bear's "Darwin's Radio". Kaye Lang is a great biologist - but not so successful with the company of her husband, Mitch Rafelson an archaeologist - who had problems due to not being political correct, Christopher Dicken is a "virus hunter". Dicken and other scientists uncover a human retrovirus, predicted and explained by Lang, that obviously leads to miscarriages with pregnant women. Rafelson discovers mummies of Neanderthals in the Alps which also show a similarly puzzling DNA structure. Some genetic mechanism that has been long with the human genes is about to be activated. The biological details presented in the book might make biologists euphoric; I rather take it like Geordi LaForge's waffle when he invents a new tool. The idea behind this is of course very fascinating: A mechanism stimulating leaps forward in the evolution. But let the biological details beside - and the author is wise not to dwell too much on them - the consequences of the symptomes on the society are presented in a thorough and disturbing way. Everybody is afraid because an unambiguous identification of the underlying reason for the miscarriages is not possible. Different groups blame each other, people are close to hysteria, and governmental authorities are taking steps to isolate pregnant women. Woven into this scenario, Bear tells the story of Kaye and Mitch who, of course, make a nice couple in the book. And guess what will happen to Kaye?! The book will probably never be suggested to be read in a classroom for its billiance, but it is gripping, intelligently written, and the plot is interesting. However, there are some moments when the author tries to transmit the emotions of the main figures or the scientific content of the possible scenario where the story looses some speed. I can recommend the book; it is a refreshing summer read.
| 
