Slant

Rating:
Summary: Turgid, contrived, almost unreadable
Review: Lost opportunities, that's what I say about this work by Greg, who used to be my favourite author. I used to buy his works on strength that HE wrote it - but I was disappointed this time. Greg has come down a long way since his own nadir of accomplishment in Eon/Eternity days. A sad waste of money and time. The premise is OK, but the story poorly developed, the characterization cardboard and unbelieveable, the plotting almost non-existent.

Rating:
Summary: Confusing--an effort to read
Review: Reading "Slant" is like one of those nightmares where you're struggling to run but your legs don't seem to work. The book is terribly confusing. Right from the first page, I had the uncanny feeling that the book was missing the first several chapters. There were so many fictional words like "yox" and "nanotech" and "INDAs" that I quickly got lost just trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Worse, Bear divides the book into five or six parallel plots involving completely unrelated characters. Although he manages to weave the plots together at the end, his effort is too little, too late.

Rating:
Summary: Confusing--an effort to read
Review: Reading "Slant" is like one of those nightmares where you're struggling to run but your legs don't seem to work. The book is terribly confusing. Right from the first page, I had the uncanny feeling that the book was missing the first several chapters. There were so many fictional words like "yox" and "nanotech" and "INDAs" that I quickly got lost just trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Worse, Bear divides the book into five or six parallel plots involving completely unrelated characters. Although he manages to weave the plots together at the end, his effort is too little, too late.

Rating:
Summary: Complex, slow to start, best for hard-core sci-fi readers
Review: Slant Greg Bear Reviewer: Morgan C. Eldred

Slant is a hard read even for hard core sci-fi readers. However, this in no way means that this is not a good read - it is. If you want to see how the electronic world of the future might be like, this provides a plausible example.

I think that Mr. Bear has reached the enviable position in his career where he can actually write an occasional book which gives us a glimpse of what the near future might be like, instead of writing a strictly commercial novel.

Mr. Bear's future is scary, because like 1984, it is already happening. Due to dependency on electronic media, while our privacy is guaranteed by law, the law folk can obtain audio, visual, and written records of our most intimate moments - 24 hours a day - if you are wealthy. May be a good statement against being too wealthy in the future.

What slows Slant down is the amount of time it takes for the characters and situations to be defined/described before they ever start to interact. If you are a working person who can afford the luxury of 20-40 pages per day after work, house stuff, etc., it literally takes days of reading before the plot even begins to unfold. In fact, if Mr Bear was not the author, I probably would have tossed it into the "not worth the trouble to read" box.

Once the plot began to come together towards the middle of the book, it became interesting and absorbed my attention.

If you are a reader that likes a fast start and a lot of action, steer clear of Slant. If you are a reader who likes thought provoking, though hard to read, sci-fi, grab it. At least it has an end to it, unlike D. Gerrold's unfinished War Against the Chtorr series, which is the closest comparison I can think of in terms of pacing.

Rating:
Summary: Great Sequel
Review: Slant is a great followup to Queen of Angels. I wish I'd known that when I read it. I ended up reading this book first. Even though I read them in the wrong order, they were still great. If I had to choose, I'd have to say that Slant is the better of the two.

Rating:
Summary: confusing
Review: The most confusing book i had ever tried to read. The characters and storyline changes with every turn of the page. It is hard to follow, and I've found myself going back several pages to remember the story of one or another of the characters. The only intriguing part was the ideas of the future and its enviroment.But its not worth the effort you put in just trying to read this damn thing.

Rating:
Summary: This is one of Greg Bear's best works
Review: This book is so prescient it's scary. Greg is dead on in many techno-prophecies, particularly in how technology may change and challenge humans.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting ideas, rich background, but pacing is off.
Review: This book starts off like a rousing sequel to "Queen of Angels," but fails in midstream as it becomes mired in a static, slow-developing plot situation. The future society Bear developed in "Queen of Angels" and revisits here is rich and lushly described, and the characters are well realized for the most part, but for me, the suspense buildup was really spoiled by that 75 or so pages where not all that much happens.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, and riveting.
Review: This is a wonderful sequel to Queen of Angels. It is much better, and a great read. The book is suspenseful and entertaining. You have no idea how the plot will unfold until it does, and when it does it will blow you away. The cutting-edge technology Bear dreams up is by far the best in this, his latest, book. I spend long minutes pondering the reality-based technology he talks about, and all that stuff in the Omphalos with the nano...well, WOW! I love all books Greg Bear, and I especially loved this one. Thanks Mr. Bear for yet another terrific read.

Rating:
Summary: You know how some books are great and engaging right away?
Review: This is not one of those books. I bought the electronic edition of it... - and was sorely dissapointed. I've made it through about the 1st third of the book and now I've given up. The plot is as loose as overcooked spaghetti, the constant references to fake texts pompous and self-important, and the characters are stiff and wooden. Furthermore, the history and technological particulars of this future world are not at all made clear to you in any semblance of good science fiction exposition. I'm really dissapointed because I kept hearing such good stuff about Greg Bear, but frankly I'm quite underwhelmed. I was so dissapointed that I wanted to write a bad review of the book over at Peanut Press - but they don't have a customer review section, so I came here to do it.