Rating: 
Summary: Darwin's Legacy
Review: I've been a fan of Greg Bear for sometime, it started, I think, with Eon. Like Orson Scott Card, another favourite, Bear writes stories about people, draped over a science fiction setting, driven by the same emotions as us all. In that regard, Darwin's Children doesn't disappoint; there's no escaping Mitch and Kaye's love for their daughter and each other, tested as it may be. After finishing Darwin's Radio, I was hesitant to pick up the sequel. I found Darwin's Radio to be cluttered with genetics 101 to the point of losing the story. Darwin's Children doesn't make that mistake. It finds a better balance of story and science. I read on the web that the book will soon be turned into a movie, which surprises me, as there's very little in the book that would seem attractive to Hollywood. It's a great read that gives pause. Enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: Republicans?
Review: Not really a review, just a reaction to that idiot who raves about anti-republicanism. Wow, this is proof-positive of what we 'liberals' are talking about. And instead of taking the book to the dump, why not just burn, it as your soulmates in pre-WWII Germany did!!! The parallels between Bush and Hitler become more compelling every day!
Rating: 
Summary: The Death Throes of a Formerly Healthy Career
Review: Prior to 1997, Greg Bear had written some of the best big-concept hard sci-fi in the genre. For some reason, after the publication of Slant, he decided he was through with sci-fi, and went on to write more accessible works. And accessible this is! Once you get past the concept that there exists a group of mutant children who talk to each other with their freckles, you've got a run-of-the-mill medical mystery clearly aimed at mass-market acceptance.
Regardless of what you think of Mr. Bear's career direction (i.e., striving to become the next Michael Creighton or Robin Cook), Darwin's Children has a large number of faults with the prose itself.
First off, the book is just flat-out boring. There are no new or interesting ideas presented above what was introduced in Darwin's Radio. Likewise, the book's few major events could have been compressed into a volume about one-third the size. However, plenty of space is given over to turgid descriptions of people's outfits and clumsy inner monologues. There is a limit to how many times you can read "They've taken my child!" before the intended effect wears off.
What's worse is that the book devotes entire chapters to politics and political wrangling. If reading about testifying in front of congressional subcommittees sounds exciting, this might be the book for you.
On the other hand, characterization is kept to a minimum. Almost all the characters in the book are wooden, and by the end of the novel you're left with - at best - apathy towards them. However, one protagonist (Kaye) is such a selfish princess that you'll wish you could reach through page and slap some sense into her.
Perhaps the book's biggest flaw is the injection of religion / mysticism into the storyline. It would appear that Mr. Bear has "found God" - or at least had some profound religious experience in real life - and wants to make sure you know it. The "can't we all just get along" ending is also rather heavy-handed and serves as a perfect anticlimax to this sad volume.
Do yourself a favor, and pick up a copy of Wil McCarthy's excellent "Lost in Transmission" for some great ideas and fresh storytelling. Or go back and read "Eon" or "Anvil of Stars" again - reading Darwin's Children will only serve to disappoint.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Radio was pretty good (3 or 4 stars), but I was very disappointed with Children. It seemed to be hastily thrown together to meet a deadline.
The book has three parts. In the first section, the evil government has suspended civil liberties for the Virus Children and their families. I did not buy it, and did not appreciate the political ranting. Then the second part was three years later and it seemed like what happened in the first part made no difference. So then why did he write about it?
Mitch helped make some farfetched discoveries at a dig. Kaye learned how viruses work, and had a spiritual awakening. None of that seemed to have any effect on resolving the story. The situation with the Sheva children seemed to resolve itself based on a change in the political cycle. The whole story seemed pointless.
I would have rather learned more about the Children and their new social structures. How will they learn to adapt to the outside world? Will there be conflict between the Shevites who were raised by old human families and those who lived together?
How will the second generation babies be different? How will the general public learn to live with the new humans?
Greg Bear, you wrote the wrong book. I didn't want to read your paranoid story of the evil (Republican) government. I wanted the Children.
Rating:
Summary: Boring, Disjointed and Over-rated
Review: The sequel to the considerably better Darwin's Radio lacks much of interest - the injection of recent understandings of the possible role(s) of viruses in evolution aside. The topic matter at hand truly could lend itself to very interesting story-telling, but in this text Bear does not seem to push hard enough. What it lacks is a penetrating insight needed to take expository texts into the realm of worthwhile fiction. Also, I think that a chief problem in the plot arcs is that they do not cohere very well. Much is left out and context is often absent, with the result for me being that I really didn't follow the story - as it were - too closely. I found myself skipping/skimming over large portions of the text. The "science is good" in the text, sure, but the "science is good" also in Scientific American. In the SF genre, good science absent good ploting means, ultimately, a less fruitful yield. What perhaps irks me the most is that the actual payoff of the text is so asymmetrical with the tout & hype. Put another way, if this is considered "masterful" science fiction, then we are in a dark period of science fiction writing. My view is that the science fiction genre, emblazoned as it used to be with irreverance and occasional iconoclastic brilliance, is now almost completely subject to creativity-dampening strictures of political correctness. Bear's work is almost a monment to P.C. in writing. Put anoyther way: P.C. and S.F. are utterly incompatible. Since the publishing industry will not publish those texts which do not jibe with current notions of what's P.C., and since the American readership is evidently so docile and easily pleased, then we may predict an extended dark age for the SF genre. However, to give Bear proper credit for not being completely P.C., he does engage the issue regarding the peopling of the Americas. This contribution to the discourse alone made me bump Bear's work up from two to three stars. All praise be the vestigial remnants of independent thought!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Solid science with believable charactors
Review: This is a great and involving novel. If you skip Darwin's Radio and read this book first it is like seeing "Aliens" before seeing "Alien". The story works but it totally gives away the previous plot.
This book takes a deep look at American society when a new minority enters into it. And as history shows us we react poorly. Expecially in the light of current (post 9/11) events I think the book shows how we react as a group, even though we choose to think of our selves as enlightned. I think Bear really drove that point home. I especailly liked the reaction of the Shivites to their situation, reminisant of concentration camp behavior? Would we do anything different?
The charactors were believable, in fact I am sure you know people just like them.
I also loved the fact that this booked ended. I am way sick and tired of 3+ volume series that leave you hoping the author will not die before he finishes his story. If you liked this book read "Vitals" by Gregg Bear, and "The White Plague" by Frank Herbert
Rating:
Summary: Could have been happy with just Darwin's Radio
Review: This sequel tells the story of Kaye's daughter up to about 16 years of age. The new species of man Bear creates proves to be not all that different. There are new social interaction possibilities, and new english phrases, but they really aren't that much different. This makes it not that interesting. Additionally, the more group focus of the new species leaves the individual characters seeming disinterested or plain.
If you liked Darwin's Radio - I would suggest you leave it at that, and use your imagination instead of reading this.
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