Rating: 
Summary: Good Early Bear
Review: Some readers might take issue with the author's concept of bioengineering leading to posthumanity instead of nanotechnology. But remember, this book was written before K. Eric Drexler published "Engines of Creation" and well before Robert L. Freitas began describing nanomedicine. While Bear's book does not use the term Singularity - again, this is nearly a decade before Vernor Vinge's famous 1993 speech - it does contain a moving depiction of just such an event. "Blood Music" is remarkably far-sighted and it's also a ripping good yarn.
Rating: 
Summary: Eerie.
Review: With an apocalyptic vision at its heart, Blood Music is escapist reading with high drama, though its excitement has been somewhat muted by time and the magnitude of the real events which have transpired since its publication in 1985. Here a genetic experiment goes awry, and the whole world is endangered. When Vergil Ulam, a cross between Dennis-the-Menace and a stereotyped nerd, is fired from his job, he takes his private research with him--by injecting himself with intellectual lymphocytes, cellular computers, which he has developed. Not unexpectedly with Vergil, things go wrong, and these cells take over his body and eventually spread wildly, endangering the whole world.Though only seventeen years have passed since its publication, the book feels old-eerily so. Gene therapy is now a reality. The Soviet Union, which here rattles its nuclear sabers in an effort to dominate the world, seems like a very old enemy. Strangely, a number of particularly vivid scenes here take place in a ravaged World Trade Center, images so similar to the present reality that I found them painful to stumble upon in a piece of light fiction. Suzy McKenzie, a lonely survivor in New York, sets up home in the World Trade Center lobby, and Bear's descriptions of her explorations through the desolate upper floors and of the collapse of one of the towers conjured up nightmarish images for me which Bear could never have foretold and which some readers may wish to avoid. Bear's narrative is fast-paced and suspenseful. With an acute sensibility and eye for detail, Bear creates stark images. His characterizations of Vergil and Suzy are often touching, however, and the dialogue between Vergil and his mother will bring smiles to the faces of many parents. Structurally, the novel is very loose, with characters who come and go, and ultimately the novel feels almost as chaotic as Bear's vision of devastation. Bear's immense potential, obvious here, finds its true fulfillment in his later, more carefully controlled, novels.
Rating:
Summary: "Blood Music" gets under your Skin
Review: As a recent convert to hard science fiction, and someone who was never really into reading fiction much at all, I can nevertheless recommend Bear as an intelligent, thought-provoking author. Some reviewers complain that he kills off so many interesting characters without resolution, but I think this approach actually contributes to the theme of the book. While not as important as another of Bear's bio-fictions, "Darwin's Radio," "Blood Music" is a fast and entertaining read through a world gone *seriously* awry. When the bacteria started talking, I couldn't stop smiling. (One part of the book that new readers should be warned of: there is a scene takes place inside the World Trade Center. It was actually pretty difficult for me to read, as Bear put his characteristically strong research skills into that section, and described the stairwells, etc, with excruciating accuracy.)
Rating:
Summary: Unique concept draws you in
Review: This is an interesting variation on the biodisaster thriller.
A scientist creates blood cells that are able to think, but when they get loose what they think is that they'd like to change the world. This novel is intriguing, but some of its more human aspects tend to be watered down at the end. However, the concept is brilliant, and well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Predictable, or is it?
Review: I am a big fan of Greg Bear, but only recently got around to reading Blood Music. Okay, there's one big nit here. Bear knows a lot more about biology than computability, so the "intelligent cells" idea is not very plausible. Adding computational theory to the science, including how DNA could be similar to a Turing maching would have made it work better, but there are some important speed issues that would have to be dealt with. But, if you get past that and accept the Asimov "big lie" idea and get on with the book, this is a fabulous read. What I really liked is how well Bear set me up. The first half of the book sets up what you know is going to happen. It's all completely predictable. Then, Bear tosses a massive wrench into the works, doing the unexpected again and again. I realized that, had this been a Stephen King novel, my predictions would have been right, but Bear is better than that and has a much larger imagination. What follows is an expansion of the story to Bear-sized proportions (and if you've read much Bear, you know how big that can be). I highly recommend this book to people who like their science fiction to include more science and less (or no) magic.
Rating:
Summary: A terrific story that loses focus
Review: The difficulty with evaluating this unusual novel lies in a structural peculiarity - Bear has really written two different novels here, featuring different main characters who are responding to what are very much radically different situations. The first half of this book is the story of Vergil
Ulam, a secretive research scientist developing microscopic biological computers who stumbles onto something much more than he bargained for. The focus is clearly on Vergil, his personal struggles with his employers, his mother, and his own social ineptitude. Readers will watch with fascination and horror as Vergil opens a biological Pandora's box, and wonder just how he's going to get out of the mess he's created. But it seems Bear wanted to go beyond Vergil's problems to the story of the nanotech beings themselves, so he wrote another (virtually) separate story describing the nanites spread, and after the auspicious beginning, this second half is a considerable disappointment. The point of view shifts away from Vergil to a number of different characters, some of whom were bit players in the first part, but many of whom are introduced for the first time in the second half. Plus, there's a lot of jumping around between these characters, each having something to show us (although it's often very little), but none of them ever becoming a strong enough central character to hold this part of the book together, leaving this second half painfully unfocused, and almost entirely disconnected from the characters and events of the first half. Recapping, the first half of this book is tightly written and powerful, with a strong central protagonist whose motivations and character are carefully delineated. Bear includes enough scientific background to make his plot plausible, and given recent technological breakthroughs in nanotechnology, his story doesn't seem half as wild as it must have been 15 years ago.
Gripping and suspenseful, this first 'sub-novel' easily deserves a 5 star rating, but the latter section is hardly worthy of a masterpiece. Rambling, unfocused, and extrapolating way over his head, Bear leaves us with a hopelessly ambiguous ending that seriously undercuts the story - like reading a mystery that never reveals the solution. Overall, this is one very intense novel with a slow second act and no third act to speak of. The 3 star rating is an attempt to reflect the duality of this volume, which is really anything but average.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting variant on biodisaster thriller.
Review: A sloppy scientist creates blood cells that are able to think and alter their enviroment, which is the human body. Things get hairy when the little devils get loose and begin infecting the world. Most of this novel is intriguing, but it falls apart at the end (no pun intended), but the ideas and concepts (especially in light of recent nanotech advances) make it worth reading once or twice. Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: The best book I've read in three years!
Review: This incredible book has it all: hard science, a *very* realistic
premise, excellent scientific methodology, and a superb ending.
I read an average of 20-30 books a year; my preference is mainly
non-fiction. For a guy like me to say that this is the best book
I've read of 100 (90 non-fiction, 10 fiction) means that I'm
not slinging hyperbole around. _Blood Music_ is a truly
remarkable read; it required that I read it very slowly and
then re-read it a couple of days later. You can make it an
easy read or a thoughtful one. There is *not one* hole in Bear's
scientific reasoning!
Rating:
Summary: nightmarish and inspiring
Review: This is another one of those hard scifi novels that has it all: some new scientific discovery (the creation of intelligent cells and what unexpected things they do) and very very good and unusual characters. Also, Bear takes his time, enticing the reader with clues and tidbits about what is going to happen as things appear to be changing so fundamentally that mankind will end. The ending is also a surprise, and does not disappoint: so often you get to the end and think, "that's all it is?" This is inner space at its very best. You won't be disappointed by this one. Get it.
Rating:
Summary: A fun read. But not a classic.
Review: I read this book in a day (well a day and night). It was interesting and fun enough to keep me reading it but I did skip over some of the philosophizing and techno - babble passages to keep the story moving. One thing that occurred to me immediately is the beginning of the book where he experiments on himself. Wasn't that the same Beginning premise in the "Swampthing" movie from 1980? After that the rest of the book is "Invasion of the body snatchers" with john carpenters "the thing" morphing effects. It also recalls the post apocalypse stories from the seventies where there's only a few human survivors wandering around a wasteland. It was all just very familiar. But there are good parts. There are interesting characters such as Suzy the slow girl, the big Swedish twins and of course Virgel, the dangerously clever ding-dong who starts it all. And some of the horror passages are genuinely creepy and disturbing. I felt the ending was a cop-out though. Mr. Bear just starts babbling about a bunch of abstract concepts and descriptions and then the books over. I think he was trying to convey something about the whole earth evolving. Again, it was very similar to that awful ending in Kubricks 2001. Personally, I didn't feel that I should have to rack my brain to make sense out of it so I just breezed over it and took it at face value- "Okay, Whatever". Basically, it was a fun read, which is an admirable enough quality. But I wouldn't call it a classic.
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