Rating: 
Summary: Human Pawns
Review: I found this only moderately interesting. The physics was mystical, the characters somewhat one-sided, and the plot only moderately captivating. The ethical issues were interesting, but brushed aside in the end.
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing, mysterious and suspenseful
Review: I loved this book. It raises some philisophical questions and gets you thinking. The technology is once again great. Greg bear has turned out a worthy book. It is truly interesting to read all about these people as they develop and choose how to carry out their duty. The book gets off to a quick action-packed start, which isn't typical of Greg Bear, but was a nice change. It drew me in immediately and was a gripping novel. I couldn't put it down. (I think it was a mix of peanut butter and bubble gum) This is a fast read which I highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent sequal
Review: I loved _The Forge of God,_ so I naturally read this book as soon as possible afterwards.This book is excellent, and did not disappoint me. It is sufficiently different in scope that it's hard to believe this is a sequel; it's excellent, but for different reasons. Not only is the science excellent and mind-twisting, the characters and the dilemmas faced them are absolutely wrenching. "Do we destroy these planets, and trillions of lives, or are they innocent?" Once again, Bear's most endearing trait as a writer turns a typical space-opera into a stunning masterwork: he pulls no punches, does not wimp out even once. He makes us face the characters' problems, and they never get to take the easy way out. I personally identified with the character Hans ("Kill em all, God will know his own.") When the crew began to resist his leadership, I nearly choked. I won't say who prevails in the debates of guilty-or-innocent, but suffice to say, this book is an astounding space opera and an astounding moral exploration. Few authors can succeed on both levels.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, But...
Review: I read FOG and AOS several years ago and the story haunts me even today such that I want to reread it (having given the two novels to a friend saying "You gotta read this!") The thing that hooks me is Bear's moral dilemma of innocence playing in the hands of inscrutable forces beyond our comprehension. In FOG, the innocent are the creatures of our planet -- not just human -- who die for no reason or maybe just because they exist. Then in the tail end of AOS, we are given three races of creatures who were a product of the evil race's home planet. In a very memorable scene, Bear lines up the shark like land walker, the stocky biped, and the triangle headed one we saw in FOG who are met by our protagonists. In communicating with these sentient beings, the humans are appalled to see that these (to me lovable) creatures are completely innocent of any wrong doing executed by the evil race (who have become sort of gods who live in the planet and care for it). So in the end the innocents are sacrificed again all to satisfy the unimplacable and unimpeachable Law. I find AOS and FOG terrifying in that it speaks to the fact that it is always the innocent who suffer in war or ecological species extinction. We should all read Bear and contemplate the innocents (plant and animal) who are being brought to the slaughter every day in our planet's ecology and in our lives. I think that is what Bear wants us to comtemplate in my humble opinion. That is what haunts me about these books. Why do the innocent always suffer? Who speaks for them?
Rating:
Summary: Slaughter of the Innocents.
Review: I read FOG and AOS several years ago and the story haunts me even today such that I want to reread it (having given the two novels to a friend saying "You gotta read this!") The thing that hooks me is Bear's moral dilemma of innocence playing in the hands of inscrutable forces beyond our comprehension. In FOG, the innocent are the creatures of our planet -- not just human -- who die for no reason or maybe just because they exist. Then in the tail end of AOS, we are given three races of creatures who were a product of the evil race's home planet. In a very memorable scene, Bear lines up the shark like land walker, the stocky biped, and the triangle headed one we saw in FOG who are met by our protagonists. In communicating with these sentient beings, the humans are appalled to see that these (to me lovable) creatures are completely innocent of any wrong doing executed by the evil race (who have become sort of gods who live in the planet and care for it). So in the end the innocents are sacrificed again all to satisfy the unimplacable and unimpeachable Law. I find AOS and FOG terrifying in that it speaks to the fact that it is always the innocent who suffer in war or ecological species extinction. We should all read Bear and contemplate the innocents (plant and animal) who are being brought to the slaughter every day in our planet's ecology and in our lives. I think that is what Bear wants us to comtemplate in my humble opinion. That is what haunts me about these books. Why do the innocent always suffer? Who speaks for them?
Rating: 
Summary: Space Children with God-like power
Review: I read this book hoping for some closure from the dissatisfying Forge of God. No such luck. I did finish it, even though, as other reviewers have mentioned, the characters were not very sympathetic. Basically a buch of immature kids in a kind of space anarcho-syndiclast commune (ha!) are given weapons of unbelieveable power and fly around destroying star systems, in search of the "killers" that destroyed earth. Oh yeah, there's also a lot of free ..., inconsequential subplots and some attempt at designing a new religion. However, it was reasonably well written, although about twice as long as it should have been, and there's some interesting science, so two stars.
Rating:
Summary: Absorbing and creative study of war and morality
Review: I read two or three science novel a year and am usually disappointed. This book is one of the reasons I keep on looking. This book uses the setting of 80 odd juveniles without parental or moral guidance to explore both the morality of war and the contradictions inherent in any belief system founded on following another's command. It is to the science fiction interstellar war genre what Saving Private Ryan is to conventional war movies. There are no easy answers to the dilemmas posed, and Bear thankfully does not suggest that there are, he merely explores the depths of the problem. Along the way, Bear pushes to their limits two science fiction conventions: interstellar war by advanced civilization and alien intelligence. In this novel, war technology is so advanced that supernovas can be engineered by combatants. And the aliens are so alien that humans are able to communicate with them at all only with help. The implications of both concepts are daunting, but! Bear pushes them through to their natural conclusions. What's even more surprising is that this is a sequel to Forge of God, a novel I found trite by comparison. Characterization is not Bear's strength, but the characters are believable enough to sustain the fascinating story.
Rating:
Summary: Good, But...
Review: I think most of the reviews have pretty much covered this book. I just have a few comments. Bear is a pretty good writer, but to me he's a little like Tom Clancy: great story, but I'd rather read someone else. Anvil Of Stars is my third Bear book, behind Moving Mars (really good!), and Darwin's Radio (mediocre). I decided to skip Forge of God because of the reviews here. AOS is a good story from the beginning (I'm halfway through), but from the start I could feel the writing happening: 20 pages in I knew who would die first, and I knew whom the main character would end up with, and other stuff along those lines. The writing is too obviously formulaic, not in the David Eddings sense, but just in a writing (Checkov's gun in the first act) sense. Also, I'm sure someone has pointed this out, but it is amazing how much he has taken from other writers! He's taken from Orson Scott Card, Vernor Vinge, David Brin, and probably others I haven't read. This in itself is not bad, and is actually great, but it seems kind of blatant: an almost obvious hodge-podge of other people's ideas. If you doubt it, take a look at Card's Ender series (children soldiers), Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep (alien characterizations), Brin's Uplift series (where the Benefactors fit in nicely), and whatever other books other people can think of, and also keep in mind their publishing timelines. But all in all, I like the science (though I don't fully get it), and I like the story, and it keeps me entertained as I watch my infant son.
Rating:
Summary: Read this book
Review: I think the Forge of God is just a prelude to this book, because the juicy ideas are here. This is a wonderful book on ethics, leadership, and sociology disguised as a action packed science fiction thriller. Bear is a great storyteller, and this is the best example of his abilities.
Rating:
Summary: Good, hard, spacefaring sci-fi.
Review: I was somewhat disappointed with the first book, The Forge of God, in part because it was bound to terra firma, and in part because of the weak political intrigue. Fortunately, Anvil is a different sort of animal; it takes the reader from planet to planet, star system to star system, spinning believable struggle-for-power subplots, with a few red herrings thrown in for good measure. At times, however, I had a hard time empathizing with some of the characters: the dialogue simply wasn't powerful enough to convey what Bear was trying to get across. There are several of these literary lapses, when a character would break down emotionally, for no apparent reason (i.e., Theresa, while talking to Martin). The effect is there, but not the cause. These quibbles aside (for Bear can surely write better than this lowly reviewer), Anvil offers believable aliens (David Brinnian, in fact), convincing physics (convincing-sounding, at the very least), cool spaceships, and an appreciation of the grandeur and vastness of space. Some parts remind me of Orson Scott Card's Enders Game. Very well done and addictive to the end. And oh yes, you don't have to read Forge to follow this book; it's self-contained.
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