Rating: 
Summary: Silly and disappointing
Review: This is the first book I've stopped reading in a long time. The characters aren't interesting, and the plot simply isn't engaging. His style is self-important and turgid. Most annoying to me was the silly development of psychological sciences. Bear usually develops computer and physical sciences in a manner that is consistent with current-day knowledge, but he fails to do this with his depiction of psychology. I wouldn't have minded as much if the book was better in other areas.
Rating: 
Summary: neat ideas, not treated
Review: This is the third Bear title that I have read. It is not my favorite. There are many reviews here. I do not agree that there were 'too many' characters. The book was not confusing, the different plot lines simply did not fit together convincingly. Putting the subplots together seemed rather forced and strained. The book touches on many interesting ideas mentioned in other reviews. I get the feeling Bear sat there and said, "Let's see, now I've got to cram this stuff together to make it a book." The characters all wind up together in the Omphalos, but they don't even know each other. It is really forced.My main gripe about this book is not that however. In the Bear books that I have read, I've been very interested in the devlopment and then disappointed in the ending. I do have to disagree with some of the other reviews again, I didn't find the book tedious or slow in the beginning at all. The end was the least interesting part. I wonder what it would be like if Bear would write a book that seriously went into the ideas more superficially encountered here without the baggage of needing explosions and apocalyptic endings?
Rating: 
Summary: Good read, didn't mind the multiple characters
Review: This was a good read and a decent plot. However, if you've already read Queen of Angels and Moving Mars (as I had), the setting, gadgets, technology, etc. won't be anything all that great. The only cool idea (in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way) were what was inside the "Combs" in Bellevue. Worth the price of a paperback. Read this after reading Queen of Angels first, but don't read Moving Mars before you get to this.
Rating:
Summary: A Literary train Wreck
Review: Throughout the beginning of the book, I though the million different plots would eventually run together and be understandable. Wrong. I kept tellin myself "it's slow to start, it will get good around page 100" then it was 200, then 300, then the book was over. Not that all the plots were bad, I like the sentient computer and people sleeping their way to a better tomorrow, but some plots I didn't quite catch on. I even wondered why the techno-whore plot was included. I think it's part of the whole disturbing "aren't i naughty?" trend in modern SF, but that's a different rant. there were, however some good things about this book (hence 2 stars). the reactionary state of Green Idaho was an excellent concept and was underdeveloped. Also, the computer (whose name escapes me) had so much potential too, you could write a whole book on those things alone. In short, not too impressive. there's about five or six books trapped in here that keep bumping into each other and falling over.
Rating:
Summary: Once upon a time Greg Bear was a great writer...
Review: What has happened to Greg Bear? Eon, Blood Music and other novels were the creme de la creme of hard core science fiction. Few other authors had the same breadth of vision and understanding of current trends in science. And now he writes this. Tedious writing about the lives of porn stars, failed marriages and Schwarzenegger style macho men. Who cares about these characters? Where's the up-to-date science fiction gone? All we see is old-fashioned science fiction fare. Maybe if it was cool like the work of Gibson or Stephenson he could get away with old science. What a pity! I hope he gets back to writing the old mind boggling science fiction that he made his name with.
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