Rating: 
Summary: Keep out of reach of the clinically depressed
Review: Bear, a writer of hard science fiction with an impressive track record, crosses the blurry line into the techno-thriller novel for a novel with more than a passing resemblance to his own "Blood Music" (1986). Both science and prose style are adeptly handled, no complaints there. Unfortunately the plot he traces out is unrelentingly dark, except on those occasions when it becomes even darker. Science fiction fans who find a book's characterization at fault sometimes refer to the Eight Deadly Words -- these, when uttered by a reader, are "I don't CARE what happens to these people." This novel is more a case of "I wish I HADN'T cared what happened to these people." Because it's not good.
Rating: 
Summary: Incoherent
Review: Very possibly the worst book I have ever read. The first fifty or so pages are fine, though the the writing is cloy and glib. The author seems to believe you can explain complicated science with a few lines of techno-jargon and the reader will be satisfied. I don't think so. In fact, I wondered how much of what he was saying was true, and how much of this drivel was the product of poor research. Anyway, shortly after the lead character goes on a deep sea dive with a fellow who has a bacterially-induced psychotic attack, the story takes a deep dive into 300 pages of murk. It became a personal challenge to finish the book. I could only read about 10 pages at a time--the story is disjointed and incoherent, jittery and borderline schizophrenic. Making matters worse, about halfway through the author chooses to begin switching narrators, alternating from then on, a very bad tactic, as it confuses an already confused story. I had no idea who was "good" or "bad." Sure, ambiguous characters can be interesting, but here the ambiguity is not a matter of contrast but one of ill-definition. The later scenes are almost funny--especially the one in Manhattan featuring a zombified Stalin sitting in a tomato juice solution and after that the heroes (I think they were heroes) storming a ship like paratroopers seizing a nightmarish Love Boat. Also reference is made to chaos in Washington featuring suicides and plague-like conditions. So far fetched, these ideas would be rejected by a B-movie screenwriter. And in the most bizarre twist of all, near the end, the author incorporates references to the recent, disputed Presidential election, as if, before the close, he had to pierce the "third wall" of narration to get a point in. I had the feeling the author, by that time, hard worked up a lather of contempt for the reader, or maybe just the task of writing. Well, that's certainly how I felt about reading this book. Horrible!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Densely written chiller
Review: This book, like many of Bear's, does not suffer fools gladly. The protagonist is a little hard to identify with at first, but as the plot unfolds, you begin to identify with his puzzlement, his desire to learn what is really going on. I really liked the end of the book although some people grouse because he does not tie it all up nice and neat. Some parts of the book are down-right chilling, and the overall tone of the book is quite cautionary. Do we really want the people who have given us concentration camps and the atom bomb to have power over our genes? Final verdict: A good chiller that should give conspiracy theorists fits.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Thriller with a dead ending
Review: Greg Bear does some great work. Vitals is a powerful thriller. It's intense, somewhat scary and really makes you think. The reason it only gets 3 stars is that the ending is pathetic. There isn't a conclusion so much as the author saying, "OK, I'm done, you can go about the rest of your life now." It's worth the time to read it, just don't bother with the last five or so pages. It really ruins the power that developed in the whole novel.
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent twists and turns -- creepy
Review: I am used to intelligent biology-based excitment from Greg Bear, but I didn't expect the rollercoaster of twists and turns that he served up in Vitals. It was creepy and I did not put it down until I was done.
Rating:
Summary: Ending not worth the effort
Review: I really wanted to like this book. I saw Greg Bear live (he gives great book-tour presentations; not to be missed!) and was really interested after seeing his presentation. Also, the biotechnology stuff is very well done, clearly explained, and very interesting.
Unfortunately, the story is not very interesting. The characters are confusing, and the plot has an odd flow. Bear tips his hand about what is going on pretty early, and so you keep expecting some twist on that story as you plod through the middle. At the end, things are left in a very ambiguous state, with the main narrator just kind of wondering what happened, and not really sure. Since you aren't sure either, you kind of wonder why you wasted your time reading the last half of the book. Plus, Bear switches narrators a couple times during the book. The transition is disjointed, and gives the impression of a novel that needed an additional round through the editing cycle.
Rating:
Summary: I don't think I am smart enough for this book
Review: Well, what can I say? I have read many of Bear's other works and have found them all readable and enjoyable. In many of his other works, he deal with a lot of hard science, but despite this, it has always been presented in a way that allows someone not versed with the subject to follow along. This is not the case with 'Vitals'. I kept saying 'huh?' throughout the book, whenever it started in on the science. Like I said, I don't think I am smart enough for this book. In some cases it read more like a text book than it did a novel. As far as the story is concerned, I liked many parts, but the conspiracy was so complex, that by the end, I was just reading to finish the book, and hoped that it made sense to me. It didn't.
Rating:
Summary: Great Idea but Poor Execution
Review: This was a very gripping and frightening book that ultimately fell apart. I'd read Bear before--both _Darwin's Radio_ and _Blood Music_--so I had high hopes for this book and they were largely met, for about the first 3/4 or so of the book. Ultimately, though, the book does NOT come to a satisfactory conclusion. Nothing is resolved and the main character is just adrift. And this doesn't read like the set-up for a sequel. It's just a disappointing non-ending. And that's sad, because Bear's idea here, that the same bacteria/genes which might hold the secret to immortality are also the key to mind control, is pretty well-developed, with some pretty dark, horrifying hints as to what the Soviets, who stumbled upon the secret 70 years ago, were doing with it. I liked the characters and felt that there was plenty of intrigue to the book, but I sure would have appreciated a conclusion that wrapped things up a bit more.
Rating:
Summary: Waste of effort...
Review: Compared to Bear's other works, this is a relatively short novel, yet I had a hard time finishing it, nonetheless. He seems to have taken Arthur C. Clarke's example and written a story readable in a few hours, lacking depth in story and characters, just because a book with his name on it will probably sell. I can't believe the author of incredible works like Queen of Angels and The Forge of God would bother to put out a half-assed effort like this. Ultimately dissapointing. I've just bought my last Bear hardcover.
Rating:
Summary: Huh?
Review: My first thought upon finishing the book was "can't this guy end a book?" Far-fetched premise, wholly unbelievable characters, and bad guys who can't make up their minds about how bad to be. I doubt I'll read any more by Bear.
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