Rating: 
Summary: Clever ideas and decent writing aren't enough
Review: This book starts with a bang and has a number of strong action scenes. McCarthy's writing is fine, and he certainly has no shortage of interesting ideas. But I kept getting stuck and putting the book down, partially because it was hard to get engaged with the characters. I persevered through to the end, hoping for a climax that would redeem the initial promise, only to be disappointed. One moment they are in the midst of a raging battle, outcome uncertain, faced with a difficult moral choice; then a few pages later all is resolved and we're in an epilogue worlds away. What was the rush?
Rating: 
Summary: Wilted Flower
Review: This book was a disappointment to me. I like to LEARN from anything I invest the time to read. Bloom had a subject more suitable to a short story. Stretched out to novel length, it needed more technological depth, and characters that were more like John Irving's, and less like Tom Clancy's. It definitely had it's moments, but not enough to sustain me through the hours it takes to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Fastest-paced book I ever read
Review: This high-tech adventure has few slow spots and speeds through mysteries, plots, counter-plots, and politics. I want to revisit this scary but eerily probable future of humanity. Character development is slightly less than ideal, especially for the supporting characters, but universe-creation is well-done. The book is short, and could have benefitted from some "fleshing-out" so that we could feel we know the people as well as we got to know their universe.
Rating:
Summary: A really good story and universe, but underdeveloped.
Review: This is a really great book. The premise of the story and the universe it is set in is really interesting. Definately worth reading, but I should have waited for the paperback. I wish the universe had be explored more thoroughly, more time spent on developing the characters.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: This is the first new speculative-science novel that I have read in five years. It was worth the wait. I recommend this book to anyone who used to read science fiction, but stopped when there was nothing left worth looking at.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning
Review: This one was stunning, I stayed up late to finish it last night. In the not so distant future tiny nano machines have reduced the inner solar system planets to gooey soup. Humanity sits cowering in the asteroid belt and the moons of Jupiter. Saved by their own nano-immune response machines. The powers that be want a mission to Earth, but why, and who stands to benefit (or lose) the most? Great sci-fi, a speedy action-packed plot, and fantastic characterisations made this a gripping read.
Rating:
Summary: Fitfully Paced
Review: This story had some good ideas, but was too fitfully paced. That is, there was too much there for 300-odd pages. The final (and predictable) confrontation had to be resolved in about 100 words. This is nobody's magnum opus.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best novels about the potential of nanotechnology
Review: Until Wil McCarthy wrote _Bloom_ Greg Bear's _Blood Music_ was the best grey goo novel about the consequences of nanotechnology run amok. Now _Blood Music_ has some competition. _Bloom_ is full of neat ideas that are well extrapolated into the future, the beginning of the novel grabs you and hooks you right into the story. I have to give this novel four stars instead of five, while the ideas are neat the characterization is not as good as Bear's in _Blood Music_ or Walter Jon Williams in _Aristoi_ (the definitive novel about the positive possibilities of nanotechnology).
Rating:
Summary: Nanotechnology: Proceed, But With Caution!
Review: Well, I suppose with several novels depicting nanotechnology (the science of manipulating individual atoms into perhaps useful devices) in a favorable light, there needed to be a well written novel illuminating the hazards, and Wil McCarthy has done just that. Imagine a nightmare world where humanity has fled the inner solar system due to nanotechnology getting out of control and multiplying, devouring everything on earth and the nearby planets, eating people, dirt, rocks, anything. Humanity has tenuous footholds in the asteroid belt, some moons of Jupiter, and Saturn's moon Titan. These humans use their Immunity to fend off the stray mycora (Microscopic machines) that would bloom and eat everything around them if not stopped. These mycora are able to evolve and reprogram themselves, and they populate interplanatary space in addition to the inner planets, their area of habitation includes only the warm inner solar system, so far. It is in this scenario that has the ship Louis Pasteur dispatched into the inner solar system to investigate the 'mycosystem' which is the area inhabited by the mycora. Most of the book is written in the first person narrative of the mission reporter and historian John Strasheim. I found the plot reasonably well executed, as were the characters. However, to my taste I thought the part about how the mycora had evolved into complex forms was a bit far fetched, and I can't say more here without being a spoiler. Nanotech is something that will someday be very handy in our everyday lives, but as with most technology has it's good and bad sides. This novel examines the dark side of this technology and how we must be very careful as we proceed with it. At the end of the novel there is an interview with Wil McCarthy.
Rating:
Summary: McCarthy shows promise
Review: What I found to be so different about this book was its perspective. As a shoe maker and journalist, the main character lends a touch of humanity to a book that could have wallowed in too much technology. Scenes at the asteroid settlement were wonderfully descriptive and funny. However, with a couple of exceptions, the characters were not as well developed as I would have liked. I liked the premise of the ending, but the execution seemed too quick, and was a jarring halt to the carefully constructed suspense that had me reading at breakneck speed. Some of the gadgets described, such as the tickle capacitor enabling the captain to have a sense of humor (however imperfect!) were amazingly creative. McCarthy has a unique voice, and will be one to watch.
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