Rating: 
Summary: Darwin's Radio
Review: Ever since Darwin, humans have believed mainly one evolutionary idea. Greg Bear's novel, Darwin's Radio, throws a monkey wrench into the traditional thinking machine. Dealing with a contradictory hypothesis to Darwinian synthesis called punctual speciation, Bear gives readers something to ponder, to think about, and to fear.Beginning with an ancient discovery high in the Alps, then following the trail of a plague-like retrovirus named SHEVA, Bear uses true biological evidence in an approach that is best adapted to the scientific reader or a political one. A problem with science today is that it has hopped into bed with politics and readers are able to clearly see this problem as it manifests itself throughout the pages of Darwin's Radio. I personally was quite impressed with the presentation of evolutionary ideas portrayed in this book, which now seem all too real and expected to arrive soon. The main problem with Darwin's Radio is length. Bear presents his ideas and makes his points clear, yet continually repeats them into redundancy, causing a careful reader to, at points, get frustrated with the reiteration. However, these minor annoyances are slight when considering the novel as a whole. Darwin's Radio is an excellent read and a stunning eye-opener into both human nature and body.
Rating: 
Summary: The worst I ever read
Review: I almost tossed Darwin's Radio, but finally I was able to end this torture, i.e., get rid off Bear's book. The main idea, I must admit that; is charming, but It was so ill developed chapter after chapter that finally It fades at the end to an big nonsense. The plot is terrible. In fact, all those descriptions out of place reminds me of a 15 year old teenager script. Most of them interrupted the normal flow of ideas, arguments, facts, and the
history development. Also the birth and loves scenes were so bad written that they lack any trace of reality. The book has also a lot of characters heading to nowhere. I must
admit this is one of the worse written books I ever read. Besides, the abuse of the idea of 'paradigm' in science theory
development is terribly bad used and It shows how little knowledge Bear has about progress in science. I am not going to talk about current trends in epistemology but the way he uses Kuhn proposal for science progress would make Kuhn himself wake up from the death. Also, I am part of the science comunity for almost five years and Bear description about science workers, science politics, etc. is far from reality. Don't buy it, better boy "Blood Music" the same idea in short.
Rating: 
Summary: Predictability
Review: Oh well, in reading some of the other reviews stating that this book was way too technical for the layman, I can tell you that it's way too predictable for someone with the relevant technical knowledge. I knew what was going on from the time that the bodies were discovered in that cave, and that was very early in the book. The book took no surprising turns and the main protagonist was insufferable. Although I have greatly enjoyed some of Bear's other works such as Blood Music, I can't say I enjoyed this one much.
Rating: 
Summary: A hard science thriller and a real page turner.
Review: A really good book. Darwin's Radio is a hard science thriller and a real page turner. The subject matter (how evolution may have ocurred) and the science (DNA, viruses, HERV) would be exciting in themselves, but in this case the science wound up in a first class thriller with lots of political intrigue. Although it was perhaps a bit too neat at times, most of the story seemed all too real, like it was from tommorrows headlines (I wish). BTW, although not explicitly stated in this book, there are lot's of problems with Darwin's theory of evolution. This book presents one possible (fictional) explanation. None-the-less, if you are walking around with your head in the clouds saying you believe in Evolution (with a capital E), I recommend doing some research into what we now know are serious issues with Darwin's theories. In principal they are a step in the right direction, but certainly no answer in themselves.
Rating:
Summary: What a Downer!
Review: I am a recreational, lifelong science fiction fan. I've read fantasy, soft and hard science fiction and can appreciate the way that a good sci-fi writer can sift through worlds or concepts built on a solid scientific concept that continues to spin out to a plausible conclusion through the writer's imagination. I don't have to get the warm fuzzies to enjoy a good read -- that's for cowards. But all that said, I can't remember when I last read a book that left me so depressed and wishing I had left it on the shelf. The Handmaiden's Tale provides a similar strain of story, where women and men become trapped socially, psychically and physically because human reproduction has ceased to function as naturally as nature intended. But while the Handmaiden's Tale was provocative, Darwin's Radio just left me depressed and down. My recommendation: if your prescription for mood elevating drugs has expired, stay away from this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Thick rambling book containing thin gripping book
Review: There are subplots all over the place, but the main stream is this: Something in human DNA is evolving within a generation and changing not only the offspring but the parents. That part is fascinating and the science is crackling. Alas, some of the subplots have dangling ends and sloppy thinking. An example: One main character's husband apparently suicides, disappearing on a small boat. A few pages later she says that his body was found and it was in such bad shape "they identified him by his wedding band." Whoa! If you want a character like that to be really dead, you ID him by his dental charts. So the reader keeps waiting for the husband's reappearance. He stays gone. In the last 50 or so pages, the book goes magical after the birth of the evolution-jumped baby, who can speak from birth. She's fascinating, but the book too soon cuts away to an end that semaphores "wait for the sequel." Not a bad idea.
Rating:
Summary: Darwin's Radio
Review: I enjoyed this book immensely; I simply could not put it down. Bear has done an excellent job at taking a few more exotic theories on evolution, and demonstrating what they would look like in action, all wrapped up inside a few compelling intertwined stories, creating an emotional attachment to the whole treatment. The science is fairly hard, the characters are fairly complex, and I found the story as a whole to be fairly charming. This rates as a favorite of mine among Bear's works.
Rating:
Summary: punctuated equilibrium, punctuated brilliance
Review: Hard science, fascinating premise and interesting developments combine to make an interesting book that is probably a bit too long and a little long on a human relationship story that is a bit of a snooze. The fundamental premise - a real, live instance of punctuated equilibrium running amok - is fascinating as a concept and convincingly related. However, the real-life drama that runs throughout it is overblown and not that interesting (the love story is unconvincing). I disagree with other reviewers --- the ending is thought-provoking and had me returning to it several times.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent "hard" Sci-Fi
Review: This is an excellent "hard" Sci-Fi novel. Although it was far more technical than Slant or Forge of God (the other Greg Bear novels I've read) I didn't find it hard to understand the physical anthropology or molecular biology plot details. However, the book isn't perfect. The romance between two main characters is contrived, and the story's ending is slow and somewhat anti-climatic. Still, the science, and how society reacts to it, is fascinating. I'm hoping Bear writes a sequel to tell us what happens next.
Rating:
Summary: Great premise, left me wanting for more...
Review: My only complaint about this otherwise good hard sci-fi is that it ended too soon - why didn't we get to the good part about what these new people are going to be like? I felt like I waited the whole book for the 'good part' only to have that be a total of about 3 pages. It's too bad, because with just even one more chapter it could have been outstanding. I don't agree that this is Bear's best. While he is certainly getting better I felt that the Eon and Anvil of Stars were much better books. If you are looking for another book like those 2 you are going to be dissapointed by this one. Maybe there's going to be a sequel and I'll finally get my wishes...
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