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Summary: A fascinating premise: the next stage of human evolution.
Review: Is humanity evolving at the present time? If so, how, and into what? This book takes a stab at asking and answering these questions, and it does so in a very plausible way. What would be the effect on our modern society if it became clear that "Human 3.0" was arriving? That is the basic premise of this novel.The last book I read that examined the subject of human evolution in a modern context was A.E. Van Vogt's "Slan" which is now a dated classic. I am not a big Greg Bear fan because I find his written prose to be obtuse and his story lines usually hard to follow. "Darwin's Radio" contains these shortcomings. Nevertheless, the novel's fascinating premise, intelligent scientific speculation, and gritty realism more than makes up for these shortcomings. There seemed to be some Political Correctness going here, by the way. The women characters are all masterful, and the men are all subordinate. Whatever. My main criticism of this book is that it ended at the most interesting part: the coming of "Human 3.0." What now? What will be the effect upon modern society? This book is well worth your time, despite being a rather hard slog at times.
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Summary: A Good read, but not spectaculer.
Review: This book have a interesting premise, and interesting characters. The story revolves around a cellular presence named SHEVA and how its discovery and spread could change the evolutionary history of human kind. The main characters of the book are all very well developed and draws you to their emotional and physical crisis. The problem with this book is that it feels "lose" and the plot disconnect itself during the middle of the book. The ending is not exactly a satisfying closure but acceptable. I felt like this is one of the few Sci-Fi books that I am more focus on the characters than the dangerous setting.
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Summary: The Genome as Evolution's Escapehatch
Review: Bear deserves a pat on the back for positing a new deity to control human evolution-the Genome as master designer. Through Kaye Lang, his heroine, he presents the Genome as a self aware entity able to incorporate the environment in steering the direction of evolution. Like earlier versions of God the controlling mechanism is beyond the view of even the smartest minds, be they scientific or secular. In his story the designer within the genome interacts with the environment to determine which mutation will benefit mankind as a species. The result of this are the births of viable babies with 52 chromosomes instead of the normal 46. The metaphor of Darwin's radio tries to illustrate the control mechanism hidden within the genome that tunes into the next evolutionary waystation. It is fine to prate on about evolution but what directs the mutations within the chromosome. What man sees with his tunneling microscopes does not reveal the controlling mechanism. What the biochemists in the story could not explain was whether the observed mutations were a disease to be wiped out or an advance in man's abilities. This story exposes where the secrets of a mutated gene must lie. To understand what is secretly occurring within the genes one would require a frame, a "paragene." As a paralanguage may be used to explain a language a paragene would be required to explain the mutations of that gene. It becomes evident that such clarifications are beyond our view and must remain hidden within the quantum realm. With this in mind it was clear that Bear failed to pursue the investigation to any plausible conclusion. What began as a legitimate search for answers Bear steers into the muck and mush of an emotional quagmire. At story's end Bear leaves his main investigators caught up in their parenthood-shows Kaye Lang as the "Eve" of a new species. The reader only sees them tearing down the highway toward Mexico to escape detection and incarceration of their dear new species daughter in an internment camp. Some take this ending as Bear's setup for a sequel but I think the author just ran out of steam.
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Summary: Evolution by jerks?
Review: For those unfamiliar with evolutionary theories, there are two contesting ideas about the process. One is Charles Darwin's gradual thesis - successive generations change imperceptibly until a new species emerges. The other is "punctuated equilibrium" - long periods of stasis interrupted by sudden modifications resulting in new lifeforms. The latter, introduced by Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge - Jay Niles in Bear's book - has received a new, fictional boost in this compelling novel. Greg Bear has found out why the rise of modern humans in the paleoanthropological record. It's because a virus-like manifestation of our DNA causes immense changes in the genome. Discovering this, in a world where viruses such as AIDS makes rampant, high-velocity changes in its genome, is a formidable task. Bear has restored a strong scientific base to "science fiction" where it has languished too often in the hands of the inept. He merges good biology with a strong assessment of a society under extreme stress. The characters are often buffeted by forces inadequately understood. The chief protagonist, Mitch Rafelson, opens the story as an acquisitive villain, his greed tempered by a desire to prove himself a valid researcher. On the feminist side [a must in today's fiction] is Kaye Lang - her married name which takes over forty pages to reveal - is also a scientist. Her work, unblemished, is considered Nobel material. Bringing these two together requires some convoluted machinations, but Bear manages to bring it off after a suicide and bureaucratic ineptness lead to the inevitable. They're an oddly matched couple, but two lonely people in the hands of a talented writer can overcome indominable odds. Especially when confronted by a powerful common enemy. The story rests on how bureaucracies respond to stress. In this case the stress is dealing with a virus striking only women. Why are so many American [and other nationalities, but we'll get to that later] conceiving but losing embryoes? Worse, why is it happening in tandem, with second pregnancies in many cases not the result of sex? Bear takes us through the workings of many of America's health agencies, their workings and their personnel as the story unfolds. The image is far from encouraging, but not overdrawn. Chris Dicken, a functionary in one of these hierarchical satrapies, is caught up in a search for truth while
struggling to maintain his position. Bear draws Dicken as well, if not better, than the rest of his characters. His situation is complicated by his desire for Kaye, and Bear gives us a quality picture of a man beset by immense contradictions. In Dicken, Bear gives us a real picture of hubris, a portrait untrammeled by false ethics or marred by unconvincing powers. Bear's scientific credentials provide a rare solidity to his fine story line in this book. If there's a flaw, it's in his failure to invoke some mention of world reaction to this phenomenal crisis. Since most of the characters find occasion to watch the news, it's almost astonishing that foreign reaction, particularly in the "Third World" is omitted altogether. What is astounding is his utter failure to relate conditions in Africa. That continent, after all, is the home to modern humanity. Its population contains the highest genetic diversity. If clues were to be found to explain what might be happening in America in the novel, that would be the place to find them. It's a very "American" book, looking deeply inward while ignoring the remainder of the planet. Brief forays into the former Soviet Georgia, Mexico, and, indirectly, Austria don't redeem this flaw. However, one can forgive this lapse in the face of a gripping story, realistic portrayals and the compelling finale. Bear is worth all his awards.
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Summary: Speculative science, not science fiction.
Review: Darwin's Radio is a real eye-opener about molecular biology, evolution, and the condition of the human race, not just the human race of the present or the early humans who were the immediate descendants of the hominids, but the human race as it may soon become in the future. Bear himself, after researching the book, "came away with an unshakable sense that evolutionary biology is about to undergo a major upheaval--not in the next few decades, but in the next few years"! In a powerful and exciting narrative, Bear explores just this sort of evolutionary upheaval, as SHEVA, a retrovirus, begins to attack women, causing them to miscarry at three months, while, at the same time, causing them to begin spontaneously a new, ostensibly fatherless, pregnancy within a month. Kaye Lang, a highly respected molecular biologist, and Mitch Rafelson, a disgraced anthropologist, are involved in research to contain SHEVA, studying DNA and its coding, various immune responses to bacteria and viruses, genetic mutations, and the possibility that SHEVA is not a new phenomenon at all. As the virus starts to spread and thousands of women find themselves infected, public safety is endangered, riots occur, shootings result in deaths, and the government starts to panic, requiring SHEVA-infected women to register their pregnancies, and their second stage babies, if delivered alive, to be turned over to the government. Bear does a masterful job of depicting both the personal traumas and the petty jealousies which surface when people in power recognize that a genuine emergency can also provide opportunities for personal advancement. Conflicts on both the personal and professional level are astutely presented and heighten the tension and immediacy of the SHEVA crisis. Remarkably, Bear never reduces issues or individual behavior to the level of black and white, carefully preserving the grays which are involved in all ethical and moral inquiry. The science here is dense and challenging to someone (like me) who is not a scientist, but the human story and its implications for the future are so clearly presented and intriguing, that I became thoroughly engrossed in the possibilities of new directions in evolution.
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Summary: Greg Bear does it again
Review: First he wrote Blood Music...a truly great read and now Darwin's Radio. In light of all the news regarding the changing nature of our understanding of human evolution, Bear shows himself to be amazingly prescient. Darwin's Radio is a fantastic read, a a book that will make you think about where we came from and more importantly where we are going...as a species.
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Summary: Demanding but Worthwhile Science Fiction
Review: As behooves a man who has written a sequel to Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series, Greg Bear explores not just the personal but also the societal effects of his science fiction premises. SLANT was an astonishing dissertation on the effects of nanotechnology and Bear showed Hari Seldon-esque prescience in its depiction. In Darwin's Radio he turns from man-made to natural evolution. He takes his readers on a journey through the trauma a particular step of punctuated evolution causes, questioning whether the stresses of modern life have activated a virus to destroy us or have created a new species to replace us. The story primarily follows three particular individuals: a disgraced anthropologist, an up-and-coming biologist, and a researcher for the CDC. Through their eyes we see not only the personal effects of this evolution but also the greater societal ones as groups are pitted against other groups--Native Americans, various scientific cliques, right-wing politicians, assorted religious groups, and women's rights activists among others. Bear's observations are often dark and seem quite likely accurate--after all, who wants to be replaced as a species? While this topic has been treated before (A. E. Van Vogt's Slan is perhaps the most notable example, and of course the comic series X-Men), Bear takes us back to the moment of conception itself, so to speak, and uses a very believable, highly science-rich contemporary approach. Many readers will undoubtedly balk at the quantity of the science and some may find themselves mired in over-explanation. Bear does include a glossary at the end, but there is no table of contents or any other indication that it is there, and those of us leery of looking at the back so that we don't spoil the ending won't find it until it's too late. Other readers have complained about the quality of the characterizations, and while I thought that they were mostly convincing, there were a few pages where the writing seemed somewhat awkward. In particular, the scene where the three main characters meet for the first time was stilted and unreal--although the characters were supposed to feel ill at ease with one another, the way this was conveyed was the least effective writing in the book. But these minor quibbles aside, Darwin's Radio is a terrific, albeit challenging read; not for those looking for light entertainment. Taken on its own terms the reader will find it stimulating, thought provoking, and thoroughly worthwhile.
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Summary: Evolution can be great fiction
Review: Not often does science provide the ambiance for great fiction but Greg Bear's Darwin's Radio does just that. Saltation or gradualism separate many evolutionists and the genetic debates often get lost in lack of physical evidence either way. This novel puts the debate into a fast moving science not-so-much fiction story. The ending is a little weak but some may find even this a good thing in that the author allows the reader to take the reins and finish the story themselves. A small included debate about scientists and their struggle with the science ignorant public is done very well. This novel may be difficult for folks who did not do well in Biology 101 but it is well worth the effort. If you like Cook's medical mysteries you'll love this one.
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Summary: Sci-Fi (not fantasy or future social fiction)
Review: This is the sort of science fiction that use to win the Hugo and Nebula Awards until the fantasy, socially-correct crowd started stacking the vote for writers like Kim Stanley Robinson.
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Summary: much potential, but ...
Review: the premise is intriguing, and the technology a bit much at times. a better editor would have made for a better book. key characters pop in and out and must be waiting in the wings for a sequel.
it is hard to trust the science from an author who presents pediatricians as the specialists who deliver babies and constantly has the scientists with doctoral degress being addressed as "Mrs." or "Mr."
the ending does collapse - perhaps leaving the reader wanting more, perhaps just disappointing me that transformation of the parents was less explored.
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