Rating: 
Summary: Greg Bear's best, and that is really saying something
Review: How this novel has been overlooked by so many sci-fi fans, not to mention the Hugo and Nebula awards committees, is beyond me. This is one of the greatest novels of the 20th century in any genre. Read it more than once, and discuss it with your friends (a fair amount of technical knowledge can help you understand some of the more arcane parts, but is not strictly necessary). "Queen of Angels" is a vivid and deeply philosophical novel about how a future society deals with the crime of murder, as seen through the eyes of a policewoman, a psychiatrist, and a poet. Bear is without living equal in his ability to create convincing future worlds and extrapolate the effects of technology on the human spirit. Along the way, he challenges the reader's fundamental perceptions of self, humanity, mental illness, and justice. This book is a good introduction to Greg Bear. It has a more-or-less-sequel, "Slant", which is also very good, although I thought the ending of that book was a little too pat. Fans of end-of-the-world fiction will love his "Forge of God" and "Anvil of Stars", which are better than anything Niven and Pournelle have done. Anything by Bear is guaranteed to be an enjoyable read at minimum, and several of his novels are complex and moving enough to stand with the best fiction of any age. I promise, if you are a thinking person, you will not regret reading this book.
Rating: 
Summary: This Future nightmare is not worth reading
Review: I am a tremendous fan of Greg Bear, but not this time. This book totally misses the mark. I don't care about anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic ideas, disjointed writing
Review: I could not get into this book. The characters did not draw me in and hold me. The language was sometimes confusing and you get these + signs that I never quite got. I read about 100 pages of this and put it down. It may finish stronger but to me it was not worth the time to get there.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely brilliant
Review: I read this book some years ago, and I have come to the conclusion that it is the best book I have ever read. Other reviewers have already explained, and sweetly reminded me, of just what makes this book special. The parallel realisation of a soulless Goldsmith and a soul "ful" AXIS is a central theme to this book I feel. Having said that, I noticed a few bad reviews. I am sure if I had given up after a hundred pages, I might have given it one or two stars out of desparation, but its just the kind of book you have to read to the end, and only then does the true value of this work become clear.
Rating:
Summary: It is a GOOD BOOK, for all of its complexity
Review: Many people might have a hard time reading Queen of Angels because of its complexity, in both style and plot. I, too, found myself struggling at parts, occassionally even putting the book down for days at a time, so that I could fully grasp the images Bear was trying to convey. However, I think his unique way of writing this book did more to elaborate a detailed and incredible world than to alienate the reader. You will either love this book (being able to accept how he is handling his story) or despise it (not wanting to be actively involved in the reading). For those who have read Greg Bear before: this is something different and singular. Don't expect anything similar from any other book he, or anyone else, has written. For those who have not read Bear yet: don't think this is an example of his normal work. Queen of Angels stands alone as a unique and intricate work of art, successfully and intelligently exploring the avenues that it pursues, and is to date, the most amazing science fiction book I have ever read. Any difficulty one might have with accepting that it is not as easily digestable as most other literature must come to the realization that readers of science fiction can't expect to be breastfed all their lives.
Rating:
Summary: Voodoo People ...
Review: Nothing in Bear's previous works prepared me for the nature of this book. In marked contrast to the majority of Bear's novels, Queen of Angels does not deal with speculative evolutionary biology or quantum physics. Yes, it pays to be up to date on the latest articles on nanotechnology and Jungian archetypes, but perhaps more than any other book of Bear's, Queen of Angels is a work that could pass as highly-respected contemporary literature.
The back cover of the edition I own quotes a Washington Post Book World critic saying that Queen of Angels may be the most ambitious book the critic has ever read. I can't say I disagree.
On a surface level the book is a whodunnit, except for the fact that we know who the killer is. Emanuel Goldsmith, a notorious poet, suffers an apparent mental breakdown and slaughters a group of his acolyte friends in cold blood.
Structurally the book contains four threads following the exploits of an equal number of protagonists involved in the murder case. The individual storylines are linked thematically, with only tenuous physical connections established between the main characters; in a move that may alienate some of his regular readers, Bear forces the reader to put the big pieces in place and find the elusive meaning behind it all. It is almost as if Bear is throwing down the figurative gauntlet to see who among his large fan base can handle the one aberration in his oeuvre.
The author deals with his cast without any remorse, reveling in the intimate, embarrassing details of their mundane existence in a style reminescent of James Joyce's 'Dubliners'. Mary Choy, a 'transform' cop formerly white now the blackest black; Martin Burke, a cutting-edge psychotherapist fallen from grace; Richard Fettle, an aspiring if mentally brittle poet; Jill, an Artificial Intelligence without self-awareness: all the main characters try to build a new, sustainable 'self' while carrying some deep psychological fracture within themselves. The eye of a needle awaits every one. Each storyline ultimately ends in partial redemption, but it is only the reader, enjoying a god-like perspective, who can reconstruct the trail of events behind the bloodbath.
Bear's thesis:
Some people may walk through their lives exhibiting all the traits of an intelligent person while still missing true self-awareness, the essential 'I'. Without contact to other intelligences, self-modeling (read: self-awareness) in evolutionary terms can be demoted to excess-baggage status, a quirk of nature. And without full self-awareness, there can be no social responsibility for one's actions regardless of how criminal they may be.
These theories are further explored in Slant, an inferior and loosely-connected sequel to Queen of Angels.
After finishing the book, I spent a full hour contemplating what I had just read while the implications of Bear's theories started to sink in. Trying to pin down my 'thoughts behind the thoughts', analyzing my internal monologue. Searching for clues in a desperate attempt to convince myself that I was truly self-aware and not just some collection of maintenance routines. Queen of Angels had hit me like no other book since.
'I think, therefore I am' - is that admissible evidence in court?
Rating:
Summary: One of the best I've read
Review: One of the best SF books that I have read in a very long time. Bear deals with issues of race, sexuality, gender, body image, justice, and human self awareness in some very complex ways. The historical allusion in the text definitely adds much to the understanding of the characters and the novel as a whole (he references Margaret Sanger, Greek mythology, W.E.B. DuBois, and many others). This is a read not to be missed! I loved this one so much that it has to become a part of my permanent collection.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, but certainly not an easy read.
Review: Queen of Angels, while an exemplary work of science fiction, is hardly a 'light' read. I recommend it strongly, but with certain reservations. Greg Bear excels at creating revolutionary concepts in this novel - but does not excel in explaining the world he's presenting to the reader. Many familar terms are created with completely new meanings in this novel- and throughout the novel they are are inadequately explained -- "combs", "transforms", "hellcrowns", to name a few. Only by extremely close reading to the text and the attitudes implied towards these words by the characters can the reader attempt to discern the meaning of these words in the context of this work. In some ways, Bear assumes a little too much of his average reader and the length to which they are willing to struggle with his strange new world on few clues to the nature of its society. Structurally, the novel is unique in that it tells four stories that are tangentially related, but in extrodinarily different prose styles. Mary, the PD officer's story is told in matter of fact prose. A conflicted poet's story is told in bursts of strange unpunctuated text, much like a stream-of-consciousness. An AI's gradual awakening to self awareness is awash in the wonder of discovery, and the bitterness of loneliness. (And this sideplot could have been a separate novel unto itself, as it encounters the major plotline only in a weak tangent.) And lastly, the psychologist's exploration of a man torn apart from deep psychological wounding and his own crimes against others. Each story is a worthwhile read, but some read far more easily than others. Each chapter alternates between one character and the next in orderly succession. Bear's is a complicated world, and he could have easily doubled the length of this work. As is, the editing of this work has pared it down to such a minimalist extent that many details get lost to the reader when they are not explained adequately. The central mystery of the novel - why would an esteemed poet kill eight of his dearest friends - is enough to keep a determined reader going, however. And Bear rewards that reader with his fantastic vision of the internal workings of a wounded mind, a fully-realized AI's desparate loneliness in deep space. For his concepts, I would gladly give this author five stars. However, the dense text and the effort needed to read it warrant it less than it may otherwise deserve.
Rating:
Summary: As good as, or better than, "Moving Mars"
Review: The reader who is about to pick up "Queen of Angels" should understand one thing about Greg Bear: he writes hard sci-fi (sci-fi which is typically laden with "tech talk"), and he writes the hardest sci-fi probably in existence today. The effect of this can be bewildering to the neophyte, especially considering the variety of his narrators. One of them, while close, is not even human, and that can easily drive away the most committed of readers. However, dear reader, may I suggest that you persist to the end? Bear writes the most satisfying conclusions in sc-fi today, and the ending of "Queen" is among these. The ending, though, is not the best part. Neither is Bear's vision of mid-21st Century Southern California, which can be vexing. What is most fascinating about this novel is the evolution of its characters, and the effects of their modern world upon them. Not even the advanced therapy taken on by Mary Choy, Bear's wunderkind gumshoe, can protect her from the slings and arrows embedded in the human psyche. In fact, the most human character in the novel is Richard Fettle, the vaguely Luddite disciple of Emmanuel Goldsmith, the one whose life is only indirectly touched by technology, and who consequently seems to be able to access his primal self best of all, and who therefore can best understand Goldsmith's motivations most readily. What may intrigue the reader of this novel the most is the "character" AXIS, an artifical intelligence which directs a craft in the exploration of an Earth-like planet around Alpha Centauri, and which may have been constructed too well for its own good. One imagines while reading this what may become of a child who is sent on a similar mission, and the conclusion of insanity makes perfect sense. The contrast between AXIS' increasing skewed observations and portrayal of the overwhelming media coverage of the mission was especially fun for me to read. In "Queen", Bear continues his pattern of forcing his reader in over their heads, and not insulting us by explaining everything, but, rather, allowing us to "swim" and form our own pictures of the action. This pattern can be, at best, off-putting, and, at worst, infuriating, but the result in "Queen" is, in my opinion, well worth the work. Bear understands that in sci-fi, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and thus he has endeared himself to me.
Rating:
Summary: Crime, Punishment, and Still More Punishment
Review: This is the best Greg Bear book I've read. It's not as accessible as BLOOD MUSIC (his other really good one), but in many ways it's more impressive. A reviewer's blurb on the cover of my paperback edition calls it "...possibly the most ambitious novel ever written..." which sounds like the most ridiculous hyperbole, but I wouldn't call it completely off the mark. For some reason, the author wrote several sections in a deliberately obtuse fashion, which forced me to reread the first couple pages of many chapters. I haven't quite figured out the intent behind this literary "technique", but plowing through the difficult parts of this one actually pays off. The novel's obsessive focus on the themes of crime and punishment (mostly punishment), looked at from the perspectives of different characters in different situations, impressed me much the same way Frederik Pohl's novel GATEWAY did (which dealt with the themes of survival and guilt). It really sticks with you after reading it.
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