Eon

Rating:
Summary: Bear's Opus
Review: First let me place a disclaimer: In my humble opinion, Greg bear is the best Hard SF writer writing in english today.

Eon is Bear's masterwork. The story is monumental in its scope and his characters are fully-fleshed unlike the cardboard cutouts that populate much of the Hard SF genre. The descriptions of Thistledown and the race of humans populating it leave me breathless. The fracturing of humanity into political/social groupings (Geshels, Naderites, etc...) in response to the extreme high-tech environment is very believable. This is his best so far...

Rating:
Summary: Why Eon ?
Review: I can't find a single reason why! This is a boring book, with a mediocre plot -- and the author hasn't seemed to have gotten his science together. The characters however, are well sketched and the people are very much there,but one important lack in the book is that whenever the details become important, they are either simply not there, or we get jargon. Very unsatisfying.One the whole, i should have slept instead of reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: Dont Bother
Review: This is such an obvious rehash of Clark's Rendevous With Rama, and not written half as well. Rock orbits earth, mission sent to investigate, herione is kidnapped, strange aliens encounters, etc., etc.

Character development is pretty thin also and there's a lot of technological jargon about singularities, etc. Fine if you're into the theory of black holes and such, but doesn't do much to move the store along.

Get the Rendevous With Rama series instead.

Rating:
Summary: About as heartwarming as a textbook
Review: Decent sci-fi. Okay book. Eon's initial cold war setting reminded me of its pre-cyberpunk (for better, for worse) origins. Greg's concepts are very good, but the characters I could care less about. I did not get a good sense of story arc and some of the people just sort of go away. When they do, you don't miss them. The book opens. Stuff happens. The book ends. It is a shame to waste such good sci-fi concepts in such a dull setting.

In short, when the book ended, I did not really care. Sometimes you never want a book to end, sometimes you can't wait. Sometimes you don't care either way. This is one of those books.

Rating:
Summary: Read it...it's a fun ride.
Review: My only regret about this book is that I didn't acquire sooner. This book's imperfections coupled with its grand scale are an accurate reflection of humanity. Compelling concepts, characters in conflict with themselves and eachother, and an interesting ending all make this book a great read.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent read!
Review: This book turned me into a Greg Bear fan - a great read because it keeps the reader moving, and the story never gets stuck in a rut...

Rating:
Summary: Not too bad
Review: It's unfortunate that the characters aren't real gripping (at least to me). The conflicts are a bit chintzy, and I'd really have a hard time with it if I didn't get some fun ideas along with them. OK - the superspace thing and the level of complexity that they reach are kind of unconvincing, but at least it's a reasonable attempt to project on the future something as incomprehensible to us as the commonplace of today would be to those of a millenium before. Too bad the characters were lacking - the rest was great. Maybe spread the ideas over a few books, though - there is only so much you can put in and maintain the book as more than a forum for strange sci-fi plotlines. Don't go into this book looking for edification of the soul.

Rating:
Summary: This book was beyond EXCELLENT
Review: At first I needed to read a book for my senior thesis so I chose "EON". Not interested in what book I chose i grabbed "EON". However, this feeling chaged over time. It ended up that "EON" was a trip through humanities greatest falws and its greatest moments. The book starts out strong and continues to grow even stronger. The story line was perfect and the multiple stories was an ingenious idea. The very imagination needed to create such a novel is beyond brilliant. I will soon read "ETERNITY" and hope to enjoy it as much as I did "EON".

Rating:
Summary: My favorite novel ever-- Science Fiction or not
Review: This book should have been called "Opus" and not Eon. It is the greatest piece of fiction that I have read, and I read about 60 books a year.

It has all of the elements that could be hoped for in a Novel. Plot, suspense until the last page, complex characters in a complex universe.

In terms of speculative fiction, it has it all: hard science, incredible imagination, alternative history, ponderings about our future evolution, and more. Read it.

Rating:
Summary: Very good sci-fi
Review: Eon could possibly be one of the most imaginative works of science-fiction ever conceived this far. The concepts are breath taking and the story-line, although monotonous at times, is one of the richest ever told. The concept of the Way will blow your mind away, and that's just half of it! The other concepts, such as the plasma tube and uploading minds into a computer, reconstruction of human bodies and gatways to other universes, are simply amazing, the last hundred or so pages are worth the Book's length! Highly recomended.