Rating: 
Summary: Great opening, too technical middle, interesting conclusion
Review: The first chapter really hooked me, and the following early chapters kept me going, but then I felt buried in all the biological details. I kept plodding through anyway, and as the ending became more involved with the individual character's fates, my interest level picked up again.The concept is great, and the general plot, though somewhat predictable, makes it worth plodding through. The concept of a retrovirus which causes miscarriage and a second pregnancy with a poor infant survival rate is chilling. And this novel would have been much more of a thriller if we had been spared such thorough biological speculation. However, the sequel was, in my humble opinion, quite a bit more readable and worth reading, so for that reason, I do recommend reading this one first.
Rating: 
Summary: enervating plotline
Review: I'm sorry. I usually like Greg Bear, but this book was obviously intended to be a "product" as much as a novel. It's inflated with needless chit-chat, dull description and flat characters who really have little to do with the main storyline. I tried to be patient, but he lost me at page 100. I'm glad I took it out of the library and didn't spring for it.
Rating: 
Summary: Review of DARWIN'S RADIO
Review: DARWIN'S RADIO held me spellbound and made me a little frightened at the idea that something in our genes could "wake up" after thousands of years and change the human race. His suspenseful story of evolving humans is continued in DARWIN'S CHILDREN. In both books Bear beautifully combines the suspense with science (understandable and necessary), with politics (often more frightening than the science), with strong, well-drawn characters, and with an underlying flavor of religion. Both are thought-provoking. I highly recommend BOTH books to our readers.
Rating:
Summary: Dynamite Greg Bear Novel
Review: I saw this book in hardback when it first came out several years ago and wanted it but just couldn't afford it at the time. It stayed in my mind over the years and when I heard Greg Bear was putting out the sequel "Darwin's Children" soon, I knew I had to get the original. When it arrived I dug in and finished it in a couple of days. The strangest thing was that at the moment that I began reading it, I was also teaching about viruses to my honors biology students. Here I was discussing bacteriophages, lysogenic and lytic infection cycles and there it was in the book. We had not long ago finished a unit on evolution. We were discussing how bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) can transport genetic material from one bacteria to another and it changes the bacteria. This story just fit in beautifully with all that was in my mind at the moment. I've added this book to my suggested reading list for students. It's that good! While the idea of viruses driving human evolution is the fictional aspect of the book, the rest of Mr. Bear's research is dead on... and at no point does he make it boring when he brings in the actual science behind evolution or viruses. I'm saving up my pennies because I wont be able to wait for "Darwin's Children" to make into paperback.
Rating:
Summary: Boooooooring
Review: Very talky, slow-moving and WAY too long. The central idea is interesting but not enough to carry a 500+ page book. Much of the action, such as it is, takes place "off-camera", being reported by characters or summarized briefly instead of being depicted. The collapse of society amidst paranoia about an unknown disease could have made for a gripping thriller but instead it is treated as incidental. The characters are a bit better realized than in some of Bear's previous novels though not by much. On the other hand the flow of thought-provoking ideas which made many of his earlier novels enjoyable seems to have dried up here. Very disappointing.
Rating: 
Summary: Good science
Review: I really liked the science in this book. Not many science fiction novels handle biochemistry and genetics well but this one did. I was less impressed with the anthropology and did not really get how the ice man fit in. His discovery seemed like such a coincidence with the rest of the story. The characters were simple but entertaining. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: The road to hell is paved with good intentions....
Review: Fits the story...and the book itself. The premise is facinating- and since it's already been expounded on multiple times i'll skip it--and the writing, though challenging with the sheer volume of science Bear masterfully weaves into the story, is quick and engaging. If the first third of the book tends to drag its only because the reader may have to double back to figure out what the hell was just said as characters are spewing the necessary jargon that establishes the crisis.
However, the book picks up quickly , fleshing out some interesting if not unusal characters (the brainy but beautiful biologist, the rebel "bad boy" but sensitive anthropologist, the meglomaniacal "evil" scientist) and the end will leave you wanting more. Unfortunately, the characters (and their descriptions) are the major stumbling block to true enjoyment. In the first ten pages, two female characters (including the aformentioned brainy beauty heroine) are described first by their legs, lips or other physical attributes... which wouldn't be a problem if Mitch, Augustine and male company were described first as brawny, scrawny or otherwise instead of. Not a mamoth sin, to be sure, but runs the risk of placing the book in stereotypical sci-fi land(that is: written by, for, and about men). Not to say that Bear is sexist in general, just appearing to excercise the annoying behavior that makes a lot of women steer clear of the genre.
The second hitch comes with the gushy romance squeaked out of a near apocalyptic cautionary tale about being too sure of what we think we 'know' about evolution. Danielle Steele Bear is not. Not even close. Which would be a good thing except what occurs between Kaye and Mitch seems foolish, irresponsible and rediculous considering the cirumstances. Hard to imagine Kaye getting all gushy about Mitch when the next paragraph describes women getting beaten and killed for having the virus' second 'unexplained' pregnancy. I would like to think even Steele would know better. The romance is hurried, and used more to advance the plot (allowing the reader to follow a herod's birth from start to finish) than to show two characters reaching out to one another in crisis and not very satisfing (mitch comparing Kaye's body to the now dead Tilde during their first sexual encounter is a real low point--the clod). I'm not asking for a fairytale, but since the romance itself is a bit far fetched, at least give us something to hang onto (no pun intended). The whole romance thing leaves this reader with the sneaking suspicion that if Michael Crichton and Sandra Brown had a love child, Darwin's Radio would be it. Three stars out of five for a faciniating premise, good science and some not-so-hot romance.
Rating:
Summary: Romance Novel, some science
Review: I loved the science part, Bear does some wonderful explanatory work based on the latest research in genes, retroviruses, "god in the machine", "junk dna", etc., plus he makes it interesting by rolling it in Jerry Springer sauce! I really recommend people read it for just for the science. I wish he'd gone more into it.
Where he lost steam. After a lifetime of going through the supermarket checkout line and seeing the Human Nature as it is in Star, National Enquirer, etc., you would know that people would be lining up to get the latest version of Human 3.0 babies----be the first on the block with the newest, improved babies!!! God knows we do everything & anything to get perfect kids so far. And with the Pop, CyberPunk, Punk, Goth Scene, Heavy Metal Scene, white trash, neo-hippies, bikers everywhere, how could anybody tell who is mutated or just "expressing themselves". Gee, has anybody ever gone to a country western bar? Human 3.0 would pass into the population unnoticed, just slap some glitter & polyester on it. Plus, how many parents do you currently know that are in complete denial about their kids?
Also, it seems that this virus made all the lawyers and ACLU on the planet go to sleep. This is litigation nirvana, and the threat of mass harrassment would die on the vine, much like our present attempts to even deal with terrorists in this country. You better have a good lawyer if you even try to check id on some unknown person wearing ethnic facial coverings, so Humans 3.0 can do as they dang well please.
Romance: speaking as a female, I am irritated by infantile, flouncing, spoiled adult Shirley Temples. The two characters seemed to throw off their dignity to roll around, and shoot out a kid ala Jerry Springer, & live in terror afterwards. It'd be more in their original natures to want to help more people than that and assist all the families and kids that are in trouble with the government plus adopt abandoned 3.0 babies. The romance seemed lamely cobbled together, almost like it was required, much like the naked scenes in NYPD Blue, alien and unlikely to happen. It woulda been more romantic if she'd been impregnated by somebody else, then he developed a longterm burning yearning, and eventually wooes each other over.
Rating:
Summary: Starts Off Strong Finishes Weak
Review: The premise of this book sounded very interesting, and having read Greg Bear before, I was excited to give "Darwin's Radio" a try. The idea behind the book is that evolution does not occur in gradual changes over many eons of life. Instead, when the human race feels a pressured it evolves in a giant leap. This is an exciting idea because it gives a good explanation to missing links in man's evolution. A dormant virus, called SHEVA, is buried within our genome passed on down from generation to generation. Suddenly, the virus becomes active and expresses itself, which infects both men and women, but causes flu like symptoms and spontaneous abortions in females. Enter our hero, Kaye Lang, a researcher who hypothesized the existence of such viruses in our genome. It turns out that she is correct, and becomes the leading expert on the disease. The novel starts off as a deep bio-thriller, but it never follows through in delivering the goods. About halfway through the book, the science takes a back seat to politics, and it becomes a book about the government trying to control this strange new outbreak. There were several times that Bear brought up something that could have led to an interesting conclusion, but chose not to follow it. I felt that his characters started to take the path of least resistance and disappointed me for the last third of the book. I'll probably read the sequel to finish the story. I do like the way Bear writes, and when I was involved with the reading at the beginning of the book, the story was great. I don't see this book as science fiction or a bio-thriller, and was disappointed when he finally came to the conclusion that it wasn't going to be either.
Rating:
Summary: Darwin's Radio, an Excellent Theory
Review: Mitchell Rafelson, an anthropologist, Kaye Lang, a microbiologist, and Christopher Dicken, a "virus hunter," are all trying to put together an evolutionary puzzle full of new discoveries and mystery. It all starts with the discovery of a retrovirus nicknamed SHEVA that is found within the DNA of humans. Scientist begin relating SHEVA to a new sickness called Herod's Flu, which is plaguing only pregnant women. Herod's causes the women to miscarry babies that don't look anything like babies and with or without sexual contact the women are pregnant again shortly afterward. Also, in Russia, there have been discoveries of mass graves containing women, also pregnant with mutated fetuses, and their partners. But possibly more significantly, a mummified Neanderthal couple and their "different" baby are found in the Alps. These are all clues for what is in store for the human race. Through lots of hard work and the help and criticisms of the rest of the scientific community, Mitch, Kaye, and Chris piece the puzzle together and figure out what the next step is for humans. I don't like cyberpunk. I don't really even like science fiction. But I do like science, and I loved this book. It is a wonderful read. I was hooked after finishing the first chapter. It is completely evident that Greg Bear put a great deal of effort into researching this book. The authenticity of this book makes it incredibly believable and so easy to become totally engrossed in it. If you are interested in reading Darwin's Radio, and are worried you won't follow the scientific terminology, don't. There is a glossary of terms proceeding the story, which I might suggest you glance through first if you're not at least slightly familiar with biological terminology. Despite the scientific terms, it is very easy to read and follow, which adds to the unable-to-put-it-down quality. In the book, the chapters alternate from Kaye to Mitch to Chris, until the story lines start to fall together. At some points I got so interested, I found myself skipping chapters to continue on with the story I was involved in.
Darwin's Radio gives another possibility to the existing theories of evolution/ creation. That's what makes it a wonderful read. Its a mystery, its an alternative theory in one of the greatest controversies our society faces, and it is absolutely gripping. If you love science, and even if you don't, I would highly recommend you read this book. You will not be disappointed with it.
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