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Summary: So Many Reviews
Review: After reading many of the large number of reviews for this book, I wonder how people with supposedly the same genome can have such extremely different opinions. Some love it and some hate it. Maybe we are suffering already from some genetic abnormalities that have been missed by science fiction writers. How can anyone like a book where the genetic abnormality is babies with no heads or that make eggs that make second babies in the mother's womb before they abort??? I wish the book was much better plotted and written and with better molecular and developmental biology.
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Summary: Very nice combination of biology, politics and humanity
Review: The ideas presented in this book are simply mind-blowing. It offers a very provocative explanation of the punctuated equilibrium theory of evolution. To fully appreciate everything presented in this book, it helps to have at least a basic biology background. The book also explores the politics involved in the biotech industry and what the personal motives of a select few can do to the policies and practices of an entire nation. I love how the book doesn't only focus on the biology but chooses to display all of its ideas through the characters. The characters could have been better developed but the main point of this book is the idea of evolution. The characters are simply a means to display greg bear's idea. They're sort of like a real-world example of sorts. So maybe it's fitting that the characters are somewhat flat. Read this book if you're at all interested in evolution.
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Summary: Whoo! There's going to be a sequel, someone said?
Review: I haven't read much in this area. I've read several Robin Cook books, but otherwise, Andromeda Strain is the last book of this type I can remember reading.I've since read more of Bear's stuff, and I was surprised how different all three books were. A medical thriller, a typical SF-Moving Mars, and a fantasy about the elf like Sidhe- Songs of Earth and Power. They were all good, though. Well. Back to this book. I loved reading it. Though from the limied knowledge of biology I have, the medical plot sounded extremely unlikely. However, Bear presented it in away that managed to let me at least suspend disbelief and treat the characters as if what they were saying was valid-- and for all I know, it could have been. However, I had a sorta suspicion at parts that perhaps he was somewhat BSing his way through. ;) So. Good book. And aside from the medical plot, the characters are pretty neat too, though I wish more time had been spent on some of them.
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Summary: Great sc-fi mystery book . . . sequel forthcoming!
Review: Awesome concept and great storytelling! I read it straight through in 1 day! (It reminded me a little of X-files and Virus.) I only gave it 4 stars, because 5 stars are reserved for books I want to keep forever. This doesn't mean that everyone shouldn't read it!!! ;-) P.S. According to a recent interview, the author said that #2, "Darwin's Children" is indeed forthcoming . . . YIPEE!!! :-)
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Summary: Excellent story of the next step in evolution
Review: Mitch Rafelson, an anthropologist in disgrace for putting science before political correctness, makes an astonishing discovery in an icy cave high in the Austrian Alps: a mummified Neanderthal family. Christopher Dicken, a field investigator working in the Republic of Georgia for the CDC, has stumbled on the mass grave of the victims of a governmental biological coverup. Kaye Lang, a biologist specializing in retroviruses, is discovering that ancient diseases coded into our DNA are being reactivated, but by what? And Mark Augustine, a top medical administrator in the U.S. government, is faced with what may be the most virulent plague of all time. This is science fiction with a capital "SCIENCE," full of the jargon of evolutionary biology and biochemistry. Such a subject could be confusing, but Bear, as usual, handles it very well. All the characters -- even the minor ones -- are nicely developed and the extremely complex and erudite plot is very well thought out. You'll have to work to follow what's going on, but he even includes a brief biological "primer" and a glossary. This one may be even better than _Blood Music._
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Summary: Slow beginning, sometimes flaky, but overall very good.
Review: Amazon recommended this book to me after reading Tess Gerrisen's _Gravity_. I generally take these recommendations with a grain of salt, so I checked out the author. Greg Bear is also responsible for a sequel to Asimov's _Foundation_ series. So I picked this book up as a sort of "test run" before reading Foundation 2. It was a little bit of effort to slog through the first sixty or so pages. Bear starts off kind of slow, with seemingly irrelevant details. In the end, the beginning does pretty well turn out to be irrelevant, but aids in fleshing out some of the characters a little better. The science of the book is mostly sound, and the plot is certainly gripping. I wasnt really sure what was going to happen until the very end, and I was reasonably happy with the way things turned out. Overall, the book was enjoyable from both a Science Fiction standpoint, and from a more general fiction standpoint (the characters are likeable and well developed, and the plot takes a meandering course through well defined and interesting conflicts). There are some elements that detract from the book however. Every so often, you will read something and think "gee, that sounds like a book I read in high school." Bear lapses into moments (chapters I dare say) of seemingly "immature" writing. The language literally changes to something much less dense and less interesting. The good news is there are only a few of these. The other element from the book I disagreed with was his overwhelming need to portray the book as a love story. In general, if I want a love story, I know where to find it, and I don't want it intermingled with my Science Fiction books. I'd recommend this book to just about anyone.
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Summary: Very Interesting
Review: I like the book and the idea, specially since I love Hard SF and SF which has to do with archeology, anthropology......and stuff like that, I have to say I like the book without the girl-boy love story and also the end i found it horrible, I was aware of how it was gonna end, i had the hope I was wrong and some very sinister end for Homo Sapiens would come up but that was not the case, I mean they will have a hard life moving around but Homo-Superior? I am afraid that analysts would not agree with Bear that Humans are somehow evolving for the better, I think homo-sapiens is migrating towards Homo-Inferior..........unfourtunatelly, this is the first novel I read from Greg Bear, I have read short stories in Antologies by him , I have read BAxter and others and I think I liked BAxter better but only in TimeShips, I did not like Time-Manifolds, I also read "Artifact" by Benford, which again had aGreat idea but the end the Minos-Bull idea i could not swallow..ANyway I love SF, like all of you and at least we have these intelligent writers who write something we can read...... I give this story 4 stars but keep in mind I love dark, sinister ends and dont like to mix Love and SF...so it is quite possible that you may find that this book deserves a 5 stars rating....... bye bye.....and keep reading......I lve to read.. Hey has any of you read "The Eryx".....that is one of my all time favorites stories which involves space-archeology.......and a good sinister end........
:O)
Rating: 
Summary: Not for Me
Review: The ideas presented in Darwin's Radio are really profound. That there could be a gene in the human genome that actually CONTROLS human population was just an idea that completely intrigued me. Having read a previous Greg Bear work, I felt for sure that Darwin's Radio would be just as good. I was horribly disappointed. The characters in Darwin's Radio are about as lifeless and two-dimensional as the paper the story was printed on. Their personal problems are run-of-the-mill, and their dialogue with each other was, at best, incoherent. In order to fully understand Darwin's Radio, a PhD in Genetics is recommended, if not required. The science in the book is so incredibly REAL, that I found myself totally lost, even though I have had some genetics experience in high school biology class. Toward the end of the book, I realized that a lengthy glossary graced the back of Darwin's Radio. It was very helpful in defining a few things, but who really wants to be continuously flipping between glossary and text while reading a story? Although I found the anthropoligical aspects of the plot very interesting, the rest of the story was nothing but scientific rambling and horrible characterization. Perhaps I'll return to Darwin's Radio when I get my masters in genetics. This is definitely a book for anyone looking for REAL science in a science fiction novel.
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Summary: Darwin's Radio
Review: Even though Darwin's Radio is a very interesting story I think it's barely worth four stars. The book takes place only a few years into the future. During the first half of the book the reader is introduced to Sheva, a virus that causes women to miscarriage. Sheva isn't just a regular virus, but one that has been around for a long time and is found in our DNA. While many people think it is a potentially catastrophic virus, a small number of scientists believe it is a code for evolution. It is exciting and a little scary to see how people react to the 'outbreak.' Between domestic abuse, martial law, and talk about concentration camps for women carrying Sheva babies, Bear creates a world in turmoil.
For much of the book Darwin's Radio is a page-turner, but it seems to fizzle out at the end. The conclusion isn't a bad one, but it seems to drag out a little. The book is very easy to get into and I was interested in the story throughout the book.
Darwin's Radio goes into great technical detail that I found interesting, but some readers might find it boring or confusing. Bear explains topics so it's not too difficult to understand the scientific issues, but if it doesn't interest you then you may feel lost. I think that Bear's Slant does a better job forming believable characters. For example, one character in Slant is important in the first half of the book, but it seems he was out of place towards the end. Besides the fascinating topic of viruses and evolution Bear talks about areas of religion, paranoia and politics. If you liked Slant or if evolution interests you Darwin's Radio may be right for you.
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Summary: Darwin's Radio review
Review: Darwin's Radio takes a bold approach at explaining human evolution from a remarkably believable scientific standpoint. The story follows a gifted microbiologist, Kaye Lang and her efforts to explain the presence of a retrovirus that has been dormant in the human genome for ten thousand years. Kaye believes that she has found the HERV, or Human Endogenous Retrovirus, responsible for causing human evolution. Her struggle to face a scientific community who opposes her work also parallels her personal struggles to find love where she least expects it.
Bear clearly did his homework for this one, and after reading this novel, I'd swear he was a microbiologist. Bear successfully explains human evolution through the eyes of the scientists who discover its secrets, and at the same times professes the need for social change in our world. In the midst of much technical jargon, Bear develops complex characters just as intricate as his ideas about human evolution, keeping the novel fast paced and on a human level. If you are a reader who likes to be challenged with thoughts and ideas outside the normal boundaries of thinking, than this novel should be your next pick.
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