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Darwin's Radio #1
Darwin's Radio
“Virus hunter” Christopher Dicken is a man on a mission, following a trail of rumors, government cover-ups, and dead bodies around the globe in search of a mysterious disease that strikes only pregnant women and invariably results in miscarriage. But when Dicken finds what he’s looking for, the answer proves to be stranger—and far deadlier—than he ever could have imagined. Something that has slept in human DNA for millions of years is waking up.
Molecular biologist Kaye Lang has spent her career tracing ancient retroviruses in the human genome. She believes these microscopic fossils can come to life again. But when Dicken’s discovery becomes public, Lang’s theory suddenly turns to chilling fact. As the outbreak of this terrifying disease threatens to become a deadly epidemic, Dicken and Lang must race against time to assemble the pieces of a puzzle only they are equipped to solve—an evolutionary puzzle that will determine the future of the human race . . . if a future exists at all.
Molecular biologist Kaye Lang has spent her career tracing ancient retroviruses in the human genome. She believes these microscopic fossils can come to life again. But when Dicken’s discovery becomes public, Lang’s theory suddenly turns to chilling fact. As the outbreak of this terrifying disease threatens to become a deadly epidemic, Dicken and Lang must race against time to assemble the pieces of a puzzle only they are equipped to solve—an evolutionary puzzle that will determine the future of the human race . . . if a future exists at all.
448 pages, Paperback
First published May 4, 1999
773 people are currently reading
8257 people want to read
About the author
Greg Bear
231 books2,097 followersGreg Bear was an American writer and illustrator best known for science fiction. His work covered themes of galactic conflict (Forge of God books), parallel universes (The Way series), consciousness and cultural practices (Queen of Angels), and accelerated evolution (Blood Music, Darwin’s Radio, and Darwin’s Children). His last work was the 2021 novel The Unfinished Land. Greg Bear wrote over 50 books in total.
(For a more complete biography, see Wikipedia.)
(For a more complete biography, see Wikipedia.)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 988 reviews
June 19, 2012
So I keep on reading Bear novels, feeling disappointed, waiting a while, then rinse and repeat.
This time I've clarified why I am so ambivalent about this guy: he has fascinating ideas then writes dull books about them. The premise here is an extreme example. Our "junk" DNA turns out to be a collection of emergency rapid-response evolutionary accelerators - and the emergency response has just been triggered. Cue mysterious pregnancies, peculiar facial mutations and a really big scientific mystery that turns very political very fast. The detail is very convincing - Bear did a heap of research.
But here's the problem: almost every event of a dramatic nature happens off-stage and the middle part of the book, between the initial scientific drama and the political nightmare at the end bogs down severely.
There is a theme of the disaster that occurs when science gets forced into the political arena; you only have to look at the climate change debate to know how that goes. It is very realistically handled but develops too slowly. I am reminded of Kim Stanley Robinson. Several of his works deal with science and internal and external politics and how real science is done and I can't help thinking a more interesting novel would have resulted if he had started with the same material.
I acquired Darwin's Children without realising that it was a sequel and then picked up this book subsequently. I will probably read Darwin's Children at some point, since it is lying around and because it really ought to cut to the chase, with the background already painted in with excessive attention to detail but I shall try to resist the urge to buy any more Bear novels regardless of how interesting the premise sounds...
This time I've clarified why I am so ambivalent about this guy: he has fascinating ideas then writes dull books about them. The premise here is an extreme example. Our "junk" DNA turns out to be a collection of emergency rapid-response evolutionary accelerators - and the emergency response has just been triggered. Cue mysterious pregnancies, peculiar facial mutations and a really big scientific mystery that turns very political very fast. The detail is very convincing - Bear did a heap of research.
But here's the problem: almost every event of a dramatic nature happens off-stage and the middle part of the book, between the initial scientific drama and the political nightmare at the end bogs down severely.
There is a theme of the disaster that occurs when science gets forced into the political arena; you only have to look at the climate change debate to know how that goes. It is very realistically handled but develops too slowly. I am reminded of Kim Stanley Robinson. Several of his works deal with science and internal and external politics and how real science is done and I can't help thinking a more interesting novel would have resulted if he had started with the same material.
I acquired Darwin's Children without realising that it was a sequel and then picked up this book subsequently. I will probably read Darwin's Children at some point, since it is lying around and because it really ought to cut to the chase, with the background already painted in with excessive attention to detail but I shall try to resist the urge to buy any more Bear novels regardless of how interesting the premise sounds...
September 19, 2015
The first time I read this I felt horrified and dazed for weeks. I still consider this a masterpiece of horror/sci-fi. The characters are somewhat memorable, but more memorable is their pain; indeed, the pain of the whole world was felt in the back of my mouth, preparing it rise up from my stomach, up the pipe, out the maw, to hang onto my lip and smack me thrice on my face, wink, and then jump off to slither under the door-jam and horrify someone else.
Don't get me wrong, this is a pure sci-fi novel, but no sci-fi affects me as much as the types that are just as facile in other genres. This one does and gleefully so. I may not know that much about biology, or enough to tear Bear apart, but I followed his arguments and treatment and was amazed at the way he pulled a rabbit out of the junk DNA.
I've been a fan of Greg Bear's work for many years, and I thought I had really loved works like Eon and Legacy, and then I was amazed by Queen of Angels and then I was jumping up and down with Moving Mars. His short story collection of Tangents still makes me sit in awe. Still, all of these books paled in comparison with Darwin's Radio.
I have to say one thing: I cried uncontrollable tears at no less than three times during this novel. I cannot give higher praise.
Don't get me wrong, this is a pure sci-fi novel, but no sci-fi affects me as much as the types that are just as facile in other genres. This one does and gleefully so. I may not know that much about biology, or enough to tear Bear apart, but I followed his arguments and treatment and was amazed at the way he pulled a rabbit out of the junk DNA.
I've been a fan of Greg Bear's work for many years, and I thought I had really loved works like Eon and Legacy, and then I was amazed by Queen of Angels and then I was jumping up and down with Moving Mars. His short story collection of Tangents still makes me sit in awe. Still, all of these books paled in comparison with Darwin's Radio.
I have to say one thing: I cried uncontrollable tears at no less than three times during this novel. I cannot give higher praise.
March 8, 2017
Cu toate că am rătăcit o vreme printre termenii din genetică, paleontologie și virusologie, premisa cărții a fost chiar fascinantă:
Foarte bine scrisă și jonglând cu eleganță între știință și ficțiune, cartea lui Greag Bear este o combinație reușită de hard science-fiction, thriller și analiză psihologică a modalității în care societatea răspunde la noutate, la apariția unei specii noi. M-a înspăimântat reacția oamenilor la lucrurile pe care nu le pot controla, felul în care teama învinge rațiunea, instinctele preiau controlul iar dorința de supraviețuire eclipsează orice urmă de compasiune sau bun simț.
Foarte bine scrisă și jonglând cu eleganță între știință și ficțiune, cartea lui Greag Bear este o combinație reușită de hard science-fiction, thriller și analiză psihologică a modalității în care societatea răspunde la noutate, la apariția unei specii noi. M-a înspăimântat reacția oamenilor la lucrurile pe care nu le pot controla, felul în care teama învinge rațiunea, instinctele preiau controlul iar dorința de supraviețuire eclipsează orice urmă de compasiune sau bun simț.
February 17, 2023
I really enjoyed this book by Greg Bear positing an evolutionary event in a dystopian landscape. Two groups of scientists find proof that nature is preparing to evolve its most astounding success, homo sapiens sapiens, but will this change wipe out the "old" mankind? We don't get a final answer to this question because this is the first of a two-part series (I have not yet read Darwin's Children), but instead, we get an exciting, fast-paced narrative as various puzzle pieces come together in understanding and dealing with the change. There is a huge political dimension to the story that raises the stakes and which uses the "mankind becomes infertile" trope in a unique way. I felt it was a compelling book and I enjoyed it as much as Moving Mars.
I caught myself wondering if Bear’s suppositions about RNA messengers was somewhat prescient in how we build vaccines to combat COVID-19 like the Pfizer and Astro-Zenica ones. Maybe someone more versed in genetics could speak to that?
I caught myself wondering if Bear’s suppositions about RNA messengers was somewhat prescient in how we build vaccines to combat COVID-19 like the Pfizer and Astro-Zenica ones. Maybe someone more versed in genetics could speak to that?
January 7, 2016
An excellent idea sadly marred by poor writing, the impression is that Greg Bear came up with a great idea for a novel, researched it and then decided to tell everyone look at what I have learned.
The main problem is the there is a distinct clumpiness to the story a few pages of story followed by look at what I learned today, a rushed ending just as the book begins to take shape.
It borderlines on being turgid. If we look at Andy Weir's The Martian, which is undeniably a well written novel, it contains a excellent balance of science and storytelling that makes the book a pleasure to read in quiet an addictive way.
this book became so leaden in the middle that I took time out and read Weird Things Customers Say In Book Shops by Jen Campell and Fifty Sheds of Grey By C. T. Grey for some light relief and begun reading How The French Won Waterloo (Or Think They Did) by Stephen Clarke.
NO this book does not inspire me to read the sequel, Darwin's Children or any of his other work, in fact this was purchased in 1999 and now I think perhaps it should have been left on the shelf for another seventeen years.
The main problem is the there is a distinct clumpiness to the story a few pages of story followed by look at what I learned today, a rushed ending just as the book begins to take shape.
It borderlines on being turgid. If we look at Andy Weir's The Martian, which is undeniably a well written novel, it contains a excellent balance of science and storytelling that makes the book a pleasure to read in quiet an addictive way.
this book became so leaden in the middle that I took time out and read Weird Things Customers Say In Book Shops by Jen Campell and Fifty Sheds of Grey By C. T. Grey for some light relief and begun reading How The French Won Waterloo (Or Think They Did) by Stephen Clarke.
NO this book does not inspire me to read the sequel, Darwin's Children or any of his other work, in fact this was purchased in 1999 and now I think perhaps it should have been left on the shelf for another seventeen years.
April 12, 2010
I did not enjoy this book in the slightest.
I probably should have seen it coming, what with the very first sentence of the very first chapter likening the color of the sky backdrop of the alps to 'a dog's pale crazy eye'. Even when, on the very next page, Bear described a frozen waterfall as 'a gnome's upside-down castle' I thought oh, this won't be so bad.
I was wrong. Dead wrong.
First, let's talk about geek talk. I'm a big fan of Michael Crichton, and as such I expect a book's geek talk to be nicely interwoven into the regular dialog and not be too over the top for me, as a non-scientist, to handle. An author needs to be very talented to accomplish this, and he must also be able to understand the importance of dumbing it down a notch (but not too much!) and definitely not going on for pages upon pages.
Which is what Bear does. He just won't stop. I ended up skimming the sections where the geek talk occurred because it was simply that boring.
It should also be pointed out that Bear actually namedrops Michael Crichton in the middle of the book. Only, instead of handling it with class Crichton's cast as a celebrity spokesperson for the Evil Corporation who wants to kill babies. Nice.
Then there's the offensive bits.
First, we're informed that if you study Science you too can be rid of your silly belief in God! A few premed courses will leave you happily content and 'dubious of' your 'religious upbringing' (page 390). Lovely.
Following that, there's a scene where someone compares being forced to sign up for a national database to the persecution of the Jews during WWII. It came off as really tasteless, and I definitely reacted to it, but I figured that maybe it was just a case of bad wording?
Then came this:
"They stared at me in the market," Kaye said. "I felt like a leper. Worse, like a nigger." (page 516)WHAT IN THE WORLD?! With the deliberate emphasis and everything! My face went all D: because HOLY HELL you did not just state that being black is worse than having a chronic disease which can cause permanent damage to your face and make your limbs turn numb and/or diseased!
Then comes the blow to my taste as a reader, because the last fifty pages of the book is all about Kaye and her mutant baby pregnancy and the birth of said mutant child, who they name Stella Nova because Stella and Nova both mean ~star~.
Oh, and yeah, the baby can speak from birth, is telepathic, is the most beautiful thing ever and has pretty spots of colors on her cheeks and in her eyes that can change color like so:
Stella Nova sent waves of fawn and gold over her cheeks... (page 505)Also, she grows and develops with super human speed. I felt like I was reading Twilight .
I could mention the blandness of the stereotypical main female character (who's trapped in a man's world and cries a lot) and the boring main male lead, but I figure that's a given.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 2, 2016
An interesting look at what might possibly be the next stage of evolution. Greg Bear's Hugo nominee is a wonderful mix of scientific and political thriller as well as a study of human reactions and relationships. Beautifully laid out and written in an interesting manner.
After I finished this book I sat back and thought, my god, I know all about viruses and diseases and retroviruses now. Greg Bear does not dumb down the science to make sure his audience gets it, instead he explains everything several times in innovative ways to make sure the reader comprehends the importance of his storyline. The science in this book is complex and believable, compelling and worthy. While I am generally a physics and chemistry lover, the biology and molecular sciences portrayed in Darwin's Radio excited me. These aren't the same biology principles I was bored with in high school, these are full out edges of possibility, dangerous and life-changing sciences.
The principle behind this book is that subspeciation and thus, evolution, is actually a function of biologically engineered retroviruses- retroviruses with networks to tell when a mutation is working and when one is failing. While it is generally speculative science, it is very grounded in modern principles which are explained throughout the novel as well as in a primer at the end.
Well worth a read! This scifi book breaks the boundaries of simple outbreak thriller into the bounds of political intrigue and romance.
(I started rereading this, but couldn't bring myself to finish it for some reason. There is an obvious change in narrative about 4/5th of the way through the book that really jarred me, where they start a road trip and it switches from science-driven narrative to meandering emotion-based drama. I just wasn't in the mood for that, but I still think overall this book is a winner.)
After I finished this book I sat back and thought, my god, I know all about viruses and diseases and retroviruses now. Greg Bear does not dumb down the science to make sure his audience gets it, instead he explains everything several times in innovative ways to make sure the reader comprehends the importance of his storyline. The science in this book is complex and believable, compelling and worthy. While I am generally a physics and chemistry lover, the biology and molecular sciences portrayed in Darwin's Radio excited me. These aren't the same biology principles I was bored with in high school, these are full out edges of possibility, dangerous and life-changing sciences.
The principle behind this book is that subspeciation and thus, evolution, is actually a function of biologically engineered retroviruses- retroviruses with networks to tell when a mutation is working and when one is failing. While it is generally speculative science, it is very grounded in modern principles which are explained throughout the novel as well as in a primer at the end.
Well worth a read! This scifi book breaks the boundaries of simple outbreak thriller into the bounds of political intrigue and romance.
(I started rereading this, but couldn't bring myself to finish it for some reason. There is an obvious change in narrative about 4/5th of the way through the book that really jarred me, where they start a road trip and it switches from science-driven narrative to meandering emotion-based drama. I just wasn't in the mood for that, but I still think overall this book is a winner.)
November 13, 2024
This. Is. Science. Fiction.
At least the way I want it— full of playful creativity, science and broad societal statements and long lsting almost consequences and real science!
This story features Chris D a “virus hunter” who teamd up with a molecular biologist to track down a new virus that seems to affect only pregnant women vausibg miscarriage. When suddenly people begin to report the victims having new and unexplainable symptoms that are being covered up by the government….
I am just so high on this book 📖 It must have just hit me at the right time but I loved this one!!
At least the way I want it— full of playful creativity, science and broad societal statements and long lsting almost consequences and real science!
This story features Chris D a “virus hunter” who teamd up with a molecular biologist to track down a new virus that seems to affect only pregnant women vausibg miscarriage. When suddenly people begin to report the victims having new and unexplainable symptoms that are being covered up by the government….
I am just so high on this book 📖 It must have just hit me at the right time but I loved this one!!
December 10, 2019
Let's hark back to the halcyon early 2000s, when Bill Cosby might have starred in a PSA about a disease outbreak intended to calm the frightened public, when the scientific community might have accepted that an ancient virus was the evolutionary catalyst for Homo sapiens to subspeciate from Homo neanderthalensis in one generation, before we got a better handle on how screwed up the hominid family tree really is.
I read the sequel Darwin's Children about a decade ago and only recently realized I completely missed out on the first book in the series. In my admittedly foggy recollection, the sequel was a more enjoyable read which I zipped through within a couple days. As for Darwin's Radio, this is an imaginative, sweeping technothriller epic with a cast of fascinating characters and exhaustively researched, brilliant (if outdated) plot. So why was it such a slow, plodding experience compared to the sequel?
I'd say this one is simply a bit too long. There are a few chapters that get bogged down in trivial details or irrelevant background scenes that felt like the perfect spot to put the book down for a while. Barring these slow sections, the narrative flows like more of a page-turner, though there is also a disconnect with some unexplained fantasy mysticism grafted on top of meticulously researched hard science.
As one tends to find in thrillers featuring global disasters, the action cuts between the POV scenes of various scientists and government officials in order to maintain suspenseful pacing. Kaye Lang is a brilliant molecular biologist caring for a mentally ill husband while researching endogenous retroviruses (ancient diseases encoded in our own DNA). Mitch Rafelson is the maverick pariah of anthropologists, discredited for stealing prehistoric remains from a Native American tribe. And Christopher Dicken is a lonely, driven "virus hunter" at the CDC, investigating the pathogen responsible for "Herod's Flu," a mysterious epidemic causing miscarriages in pregnant women around the world.
Kaye's paper predicting the very sort of dormant retrovirus linked to the epidemic puts her in the spotlight. Public hysteria reaches a fever pitch as an entire generation of babies is in peril. (This is where Bill Cosby enters the picture.)
Mitch discovers the mummified remains of a Neanderthal couple with symptoms of Herod's Flu who appear to be the parents of a modern human fetus. He is convinced these mummies can prove this is not a disease, but the next step in human evolution. Unfortunately, he gets locked out of his own discovery and shunned by the scientific community.
One section of the book that needed trimming is a protracted climb in the Alps where Mitch searches for the Neanderthal cave while navigating a love triangle with mountaineers Tilde and Franco. This was an interminably tedious account of every single step and foothold while climbing a mountain, peppered with lots of mountaineer jargon for every imaginable type of geological formation and equipment. Either Greg Bear is an expert mountaineer, or he researches like a demon. Maybe this part was like porn for readers who are pro mountain climbers, but as a layperson I was bored to tears and ready to gouge my eyes out.
As you might expect, the storylines of Kaye, Mitch and Christopher collide in a huge revelation and it appears the fate of humanity lies in the hands of our protagonists. Overall it's an enjoyable read, but in hindsight I wish I had skimmed some of the sluggish sections.
I read the sequel Darwin's Children about a decade ago and only recently realized I completely missed out on the first book in the series. In my admittedly foggy recollection, the sequel was a more enjoyable read which I zipped through within a couple days. As for Darwin's Radio, this is an imaginative, sweeping technothriller epic with a cast of fascinating characters and exhaustively researched, brilliant (if outdated) plot. So why was it such a slow, plodding experience compared to the sequel?
I'd say this one is simply a bit too long. There are a few chapters that get bogged down in trivial details or irrelevant background scenes that felt like the perfect spot to put the book down for a while. Barring these slow sections, the narrative flows like more of a page-turner, though there is also a disconnect with some unexplained fantasy mysticism grafted on top of meticulously researched hard science.
As one tends to find in thrillers featuring global disasters, the action cuts between the POV scenes of various scientists and government officials in order to maintain suspenseful pacing. Kaye Lang is a brilliant molecular biologist caring for a mentally ill husband while researching endogenous retroviruses (ancient diseases encoded in our own DNA). Mitch Rafelson is the maverick pariah of anthropologists, discredited for stealing prehistoric remains from a Native American tribe. And Christopher Dicken is a lonely, driven "virus hunter" at the CDC, investigating the pathogen responsible for "Herod's Flu," a mysterious epidemic causing miscarriages in pregnant women around the world.
Kaye's paper predicting the very sort of dormant retrovirus linked to the epidemic puts her in the spotlight. Public hysteria reaches a fever pitch as an entire generation of babies is in peril. (This is where Bill Cosby enters the picture.)
Mitch discovers the mummified remains of a Neanderthal couple with symptoms of Herod's Flu who appear to be the parents of a modern human fetus. He is convinced these mummies can prove this is not a disease, but the next step in human evolution. Unfortunately, he gets locked out of his own discovery and shunned by the scientific community.
One section of the book that needed trimming is a protracted climb in the Alps where Mitch searches for the Neanderthal cave while navigating a love triangle with mountaineers Tilde and Franco. This was an interminably tedious account of every single step and foothold while climbing a mountain, peppered with lots of mountaineer jargon for every imaginable type of geological formation and equipment. Either Greg Bear is an expert mountaineer, or he researches like a demon. Maybe this part was like porn for readers who are pro mountain climbers, but as a layperson I was bored to tears and ready to gouge my eyes out.
As you might expect, the storylines of Kaye, Mitch and Christopher collide in a huge revelation and it appears the fate of humanity lies in the hands of our protagonists. Overall it's an enjoyable read, but in hindsight I wish I had skimmed some of the sluggish sections.
September 21, 2008
The first 200 pages or so of this book are incredibly engaging and interesting. I wasn't put off by the science talk, though there was too much of it -someone who truly understood it would probably find a lot of holes in it, and someone who didn't get it beyond the basics didn't really need to read so extensively about it- but after the first half, the book starts taking a plunge south. I stopped caring about the characters at some point in the middle, the female lead turning into quite a trope by the the end, the ending was completely unsatisfying and left a bunch of story lines hanging, plot holes and rambling side stories that never saw any closure. It was like Bear got tired of writing the story and just wanted to finish it, so he glossed over a lot of the things he had so carefully set.
The sad part is that the concept is great and the human side of the thriller is very compelling, but once you start noticing the vices in the story, it kind of goes downhill from there.
Total clothes fetish, by the way. What it is with describing every piece of garment??
The sad part is that the concept is great and the human side of the thriller is very compelling, but once you start noticing the vices in the story, it kind of goes downhill from there.
Total clothes fetish, by the way. What it is with describing every piece of garment??
October 20, 2014
As warned by a friend, the ideas here are pretty fascinating -- the book might be fifteen years behind in terms of science, but there's nothing inherently ridiculous about the idea based on the scientific knowledge of the time -- but the actual narrative is pretty deadly boring. Some of the writing is just... why would you let that slip past, editor? Hard SF isn't just about the cool ideas: there has to be some element of execution there as well, or there's no point in writing it as a novel -- there'd be a non-fiction audience for speculation about the future too, undoubtedly.
It's pretty unfortunate, since Bear did the work here in setting up the world, figuring out the details, making A lead to B without a gap in logic. Unfortunately, the prose is flat, most of the characters likewise, and isn't there a song with lyrics that go I don't care a lot? Because it's in my head right now.
It's pretty unfortunate, since Bear did the work here in setting up the world, figuring out the details, making A lead to B without a gap in logic. Unfortunately, the prose is flat, most of the characters likewise, and isn't there a song with lyrics that go I don't care a lot? Because it's in my head right now.
March 17, 2019
Leído en 2004.
6/10. Media de los 5 libros leídos del autor : 6/10.
Otro representante de la CF Hard, una de las figuras de los 80. Tiene varios Nébula y Hugo. De los que he leído me quedo con “Vitales” o “Marte se mueve”. La galardonada “Reina e los ángeles”, toda vuestra, me pareció un bodrio.
Y este pues me aburrió. Buena idea, desarrollo malo y tal vez muy interesante para forofos de la evolución/biología. Ya digo que yo me aburrí más que otra cosa.
6/10. Media de los 5 libros leídos del autor : 6/10.
Otro representante de la CF Hard, una de las figuras de los 80. Tiene varios Nébula y Hugo. De los que he leído me quedo con “Vitales” o “Marte se mueve”. La galardonada “Reina e los ángeles”, toda vuestra, me pareció un bodrio.
Y este pues me aburrió. Buena idea, desarrollo malo y tal vez muy interesante para forofos de la evolución/biología. Ya digo que yo me aburrí más que otra cosa.
June 24, 2010
3.5 stars. Excellent concept and great science highlight this very good "hard" SF story.
Winner: Nebula Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Nominee: Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Nominee: Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Nominee: John W. Campbell Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Winner: Nebula Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Nominee: Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Nominee: Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Nominee: John W. Campbell Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
August 25, 2014
I really liked this book. The author obviously researched the subject matter thoroughly, and there was a good balance of science and engaging plot line. I found it to be an easy and fun read, and I will definitely be reading more books by this author in the future.
September 6, 2022
Si te lees 4 ó 5 artículos del International Journal of Genetics & Genomics, probablemente te diviertas lo mismo, y quizá hasta aprendas algo.
Vaya tocho de especulación científica, lento y sin ritmo. Es el anti-thriller.
Ya podían haberle pasado el manuscrito a Robin Cook para sugerir algunos cambios, darle unas cuantas vueltas a los personajes y un poco de emoción a la novela. Y ya que estamos, recortar doscientas o trescientas páginas.
Una novela eterna, pero en el mal sentido.
Si le doy 2 estrellas es por no ponerla al nivel de la biografía de Belén Esteban, o Cocina fácil con Jorge Javier.
Vaya tocho de especulación científica, lento y sin ritmo. Es el anti-thriller.
Ya podían haberle pasado el manuscrito a Robin Cook para sugerir algunos cambios, darle unas cuantas vueltas a los personajes y un poco de emoción a la novela. Y ya que estamos, recortar doscientas o trescientas páginas.
Una novela eterna, pero en el mal sentido.
Si le doy 2 estrellas es por no ponerla al nivel de la biografía de Belén Esteban, o Cocina fácil con Jorge Javier.
October 8, 2020
Maybe this book and I got off to a bad start. I had no idea what it was about, and when I started reading about this guy stuck in a frozen land and none of the names were recognizable I thought the guy was on a distant planet that was mostly frozen. Then there started to be some kind of semi-related creatures discovered, and I thought they must be aliens, and was Darwin’s Radio something broadcasting through space? Then it finally became clear this was all taking place on Earth and everyone involved so far was a scientist. So maybe this story is interesting, and I feel gypped only because I thought the story was going to be one thing and then it was completely different.
This is actually a pretty standard hard science fiction novel, if Kim Stanley Robinson and Carl Sagan are any guide:
500+ pages? Check.
Long page count because all kinds of plodding details of committees and decisions and policy are discussed? Check.
You can see the point coming for hundreds of pages and it’s kind of a slog to wait for the characters to finally see it too? Check.
An intimate look at the not-as-exciting-as-you’d-think-even-in-fiction daily lives of scientists? Check.
Political decisions that don’t make a ton of sense? Check.
Unfortunately, not all of the phenomenon being imagined here makes sense or pays off (weird thick skin masks?). The love triangle is kind of good, except that it takes a hard left turn and ends with a gratuitous bombing (less satisfactory than you would think). I think hard science fiction that takes place on Earth just isn’t my thing.
This is actually a pretty standard hard science fiction novel, if Kim Stanley Robinson and Carl Sagan are any guide:
500+ pages? Check.
Long page count because all kinds of plodding details of committees and decisions and policy are discussed? Check.
You can see the point coming for hundreds of pages and it’s kind of a slog to wait for the characters to finally see it too? Check.
An intimate look at the not-as-exciting-as-you’d-think-even-in-fiction daily lives of scientists? Check.
Political decisions that don’t make a ton of sense? Check.
Unfortunately, not all of the phenomenon being imagined here makes sense or pays off (weird thick skin masks?). The love triangle is kind of good, except that it takes a hard left turn and ends with a gratuitous bombing (less satisfactory than you would think). I think hard science fiction that takes place on Earth just isn’t my thing.
April 13, 2020
Frighteningly dull. Perhaps the most pointless succession of words ever committed to the page.
The blurb at the back of the book, the concept is quite interesting. Unfortunately, this is it in terms of plot. All of this detail is established around page 50 or so.
What happens in the monstrous, monstrous morass that follows? Absolutely fuc*ing nothing.
Allegedly, this is a story about a pandemic. In it, the characters sit in meeting rooms talking about things in broad concepts. Reading it is like sitting in those meetings at work that you want to leave. Despite this being a global pandemic, all we get is a mealy-mouthed gesture of academics talking. If what is required for 'hard sci-fi' is this...well, it's just mean spirited. Most of the time, the academics are talking about research funding and room bookings. I couldn't even make it up. It's literally like reading the minute's of your 9-5 pointless job. BUT IT'S REAAL, EDMUND! IT'S REAAL LIFE! If this is real life, I'd rather be dead.
The ultimate tell-talk-tell-talk-tell. AND NO SHOW! Somewhere around the 400 page mark, one of the characters looks into a microscope AND DISCOVERS SOMETHING NEW!! Whilst I was amused by how naff a gesture this was, the grasping-at-straws...something...something...is...happening...
What does the pandemic do? It makes more babies.
Tragic.
Why didn't I give it up? At around the 300 page, as if the author has realised how aggressively soporific his book is, people start rioting.
Yes, that's right. People are rioting about a pandemic. Eaeargh.
There's some issue with abortion that could have been interesting. But since this is the most boring disease ever invented, I'm not entirely sure why they don't just have the babies.
Why did I keep going? Well, I thought that the riots might mean anything. But it's indicative of this sludge of a book that the riots all happened 'off-camera', in the end amounted to nothing (they stopped), and the riots themselves WERE ENTIRELY DESCRIBED THROUGH MEETINGS.
Pass me a doughnut. Preferably one with cyanide. Not 'Darwin's Radio' cyanide, cyanide that actually does something.
Then the president gets blowed up. So what? Why? Exactly.
Then two characters have a relationship and the last torrid mile of this ridiculous book is reached. Another character is 'heart broken', and the woman feels bad for him, as if any aspect of their relationship that wasn't two office workers talking. Again, like anything of import that happened in this book, the burning question WHAT ON EARTH IS EVERYBODY SO WORKED UP ABOUT?
So, there's some domesticity at the end. It's really boring. But at least it's something.
I genuinely felt that this was aggressively dull, and by that I meant that I felt like the author was so keen on writing a 'serious book', they were forcing mundanity, worse than that, down my throat.
It's a book that literally made me consider stopping reading entirely.
The blurb at the back of the book, the concept is quite interesting. Unfortunately, this is it in terms of plot. All of this detail is established around page 50 or so.
What happens in the monstrous, monstrous morass that follows? Absolutely fuc*ing nothing.
Allegedly, this is a story about a pandemic. In it, the characters sit in meeting rooms talking about things in broad concepts. Reading it is like sitting in those meetings at work that you want to leave. Despite this being a global pandemic, all we get is a mealy-mouthed gesture of academics talking. If what is required for 'hard sci-fi' is this...well, it's just mean spirited. Most of the time, the academics are talking about research funding and room bookings. I couldn't even make it up. It's literally like reading the minute's of your 9-5 pointless job. BUT IT'S REAAL, EDMUND! IT'S REAAL LIFE! If this is real life, I'd rather be dead.
The ultimate tell-talk-tell-talk-tell. AND NO SHOW! Somewhere around the 400 page mark, one of the characters looks into a microscope AND DISCOVERS SOMETHING NEW!! Whilst I was amused by how naff a gesture this was, the grasping-at-straws...something...something...is...happening...
What does the pandemic do? It makes more babies.
Tragic.
Why didn't I give it up? At around the 300 page, as if the author has realised how aggressively soporific his book is, people start rioting.
Yes, that's right. People are rioting about a pandemic. Eaeargh.
There's some issue with abortion that could have been interesting. But since this is the most boring disease ever invented, I'm not entirely sure why they don't just have the babies.
Why did I keep going? Well, I thought that the riots might mean anything. But it's indicative of this sludge of a book that the riots all happened 'off-camera', in the end amounted to nothing (they stopped), and the riots themselves WERE ENTIRELY DESCRIBED THROUGH MEETINGS.
Pass me a doughnut. Preferably one with cyanide. Not 'Darwin's Radio' cyanide, cyanide that actually does something.
Then the president gets blowed up. So what? Why? Exactly.
Then two characters have a relationship and the last torrid mile of this ridiculous book is reached. Another character is 'heart broken', and the woman feels bad for him, as if any aspect of their relationship that wasn't two office workers talking. Again, like anything of import that happened in this book, the burning question WHAT ON EARTH IS EVERYBODY SO WORKED UP ABOUT?
So, there's some domesticity at the end. It's really boring. But at least it's something.
I genuinely felt that this was aggressively dull, and by that I meant that I felt like the author was so keen on writing a 'serious book', they were forcing mundanity, worse than that, down my throat.
It's a book that literally made me consider stopping reading entirely.
September 3, 2023
“Maybe it was the world that was screwy, that set traps and snares and forced people to make bad choices.”
"Darwin's Radio" is a thought-provoking and scientifically rich novel that delves into the realm of genetics and evolution. Greg Bear, known for his hard science fiction, weaves a complex and engaging narrative that explores the consequences of a stunning scientific discovery: the emergence of a new human subspecies
"Darwin's Radio" is a thought-provoking and scientifically rich novel that delves into the realm of genetics and evolution. Greg Bear, known for his hard science fiction, weaves a complex and engaging narrative that explores the consequences of a stunning scientific discovery: the emergence of a new human subspecies
July 13, 2008
There is a marvelous skinny book inside this sluggish fat monster longing to get out: no more than 200 pages, please!
Its at times like these that I understand the True Value of Reader's Digest Condensed Books. Trim it down by half, cut out the turgid subplots, the rambling characters who drift in and out!
And yet started so well ... taut and crisp, it tingled the curiosity and fired the imagination ... only to spiral down into ever increasing, never ceasing scientific ramblings and soap opera sub plots.
Half way through I had lost sympathy for the characters, and that separate analytical part which I like to suspend when reading mysteries and science fiction started to pick holes and make unflattering commentary. So I speed read the monster grabbing bits of paragraphs here and there until the final. dissatisfying chapter and it's lame epilogue ...
And he most dissatisfying part of all is that I could see the makings of a fabulous story in here, with great science and a really interesting twist on evolution.
damn.
Read at your peril.
Its at times like these that I understand the True Value of Reader's Digest Condensed Books. Trim it down by half, cut out the turgid subplots, the rambling characters who drift in and out!
And yet started so well ... taut and crisp, it tingled the curiosity and fired the imagination ... only to spiral down into ever increasing, never ceasing scientific ramblings and soap opera sub plots.
Half way through I had lost sympathy for the characters, and that separate analytical part which I like to suspend when reading mysteries and science fiction started to pick holes and make unflattering commentary. So I speed read the monster grabbing bits of paragraphs here and there until the final. dissatisfying chapter and it's lame epilogue ...
And he most dissatisfying part of all is that I could see the makings of a fabulous story in here, with great science and a really interesting twist on evolution.
damn.
Read at your peril.
September 17, 2019
Como ciencia ficción le falta sentido de la maravilla y como thriller le falta emoción, en todo caso la premisa es interesante, los personajes están medianamente bien perfilados y la historia es sólida.
He disfrutado el libro aunque hay partes que me han costado más que otras, por otro lado aunque la novela aguanta por sí sola, al final resulta obvio que queda mucha historia que contar.
He disfrutado el libro aunque hay partes que me han costado más que otras, por otro lado aunque la novela aguanta por sí sola, al final resulta obvio que queda mucha historia que contar.
December 29, 2008
A CDC disease chaser discovers a virus that seems to be asymptomatic in everyone but pregnant women, and mass graves in Georgia (the country) and a newly discovered family of forty thousand year old mummies suggest this isn’t the first outbreak. And our heroes -- that CDC disease hound, a successful biologist, and an anthropologist with questionable ethics -- begin to suspect it isn’t an outbreak at all.
Okay, so it’s not actually a ‘read a textbook instead’ science fiction book. I mean, the science is pretty cool -- endogenous retroviruses as an evolutionary vector, which is a pretty awesome explanation for the whole “yes but how does it work?” problem of punctuated evolution. And the writing is effective and observant, if a bit clumsy sometimes. Ooh, and there are actual people in this book, with actual people emotions and actual people foibles and actual people joys.
But -- you knew it was coming -- I really didn’t like it much. I think it’s that I hate hate hate people who are willfully wrong -- they’ve chosen a path, and okay yeah it’s becoming clear they’re wrong, but hell if they’ll do anything about it. And this book is full of them. I’m sort of torn, actually, because the descriptions of just what scientists and politicians would do faced with a disaster like this one are actually pretty accurate. It’s not a pretty picture, as well it shouldn’t be. But it’s exactly the sort of mess that drives me nuts on a personal level, and it all left a bad taste in my mouth.
That, and there’s something really awry with the pacing here. And some weirdness on the boy-girl front I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I hear Bear’s short fiction is more exciting. Hope so.
Okay, so it’s not actually a ‘read a textbook instead’ science fiction book. I mean, the science is pretty cool -- endogenous retroviruses as an evolutionary vector, which is a pretty awesome explanation for the whole “yes but how does it work?” problem of punctuated evolution. And the writing is effective and observant, if a bit clumsy sometimes. Ooh, and there are actual people in this book, with actual people emotions and actual people foibles and actual people joys.
But -- you knew it was coming -- I really didn’t like it much. I think it’s that I hate hate hate people who are willfully wrong -- they’ve chosen a path, and okay yeah it’s becoming clear they’re wrong, but hell if they’ll do anything about it. And this book is full of them. I’m sort of torn, actually, because the descriptions of just what scientists and politicians would do faced with a disaster like this one are actually pretty accurate. It’s not a pretty picture, as well it shouldn’t be. But it’s exactly the sort of mess that drives me nuts on a personal level, and it all left a bad taste in my mouth.
That, and there’s something really awry with the pacing here. And some weirdness on the boy-girl front I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I hear Bear’s short fiction is more exciting. Hope so.
September 7, 2007
Darwin’s Radio is a pleasure for someone who loves hard science fiction, as I do. Here’s the premise: SHEVA, a retrovirus long-buried in our genes, suddenly awakens and begins to attack pregnant women, forcing them to miscarry after three months. But that’s just the beginning – after the miscarriage, these same women spontaneously become pregnant again, this time developing a fetus that’s not quite human. The federal government, led by the science establishment, after first denying the truth, then begins pressing parents to turn over their strange children to the government.
This premise just blew my mind; it’s creative, believable and terrifying. The science was complex and I referred to the glossary, included at the back of the book, several times. As I progressed through the pages, I was reminded of Beggars in Spain, Nancy Kress’s wonderful story. Both novels explore the rapid evolution of humanity into another species, although Greg Bear, unlike Kress, makes humanity involuntary travelers on the journey.
My major complaint is the slow pace. Too much time was spent on a romance between the two major characters. Even more frustrating was the endless politics between and among the scientific community and their patrons. Although Darwin’s Radio is science fiction and not a techno-thriller, more action – yes, a little violence, too – would have strengthened the brew.
The bottom line: a slightly flawed but thought-provoking tale.
This premise just blew my mind; it’s creative, believable and terrifying. The science was complex and I referred to the glossary, included at the back of the book, several times. As I progressed through the pages, I was reminded of Beggars in Spain, Nancy Kress’s wonderful story. Both novels explore the rapid evolution of humanity into another species, although Greg Bear, unlike Kress, makes humanity involuntary travelers on the journey.
My major complaint is the slow pace. Too much time was spent on a romance between the two major characters. Even more frustrating was the endless politics between and among the scientific community and their patrons. Although Darwin’s Radio is science fiction and not a techno-thriller, more action – yes, a little violence, too – would have strengthened the brew.
The bottom line: a slightly flawed but thought-provoking tale.
August 13, 2010
Maybe it's just because I'm an evolutionary biologist, but this book stretched my suspension of disbelief to the breaking point. When something unbelievable happens in a science-fiction book, the author can take one of two approaches: either quickly handwave it with technobabble and move on to focus on the consequences of the event, or foreground the explanation based on reasonable extrapolations of current science. The author tried to do the latter, but his "explanation" made all the sense of a handwave.
I also found the author's attitudes toward women, particularly the bodily autonomy of women, to be troubling. What happens to the women in this story is a violation of their bodily autonomy: they become pregnant against their wishes. Being disgusted and horrified by this pregnancy is a perfectly normal and understandable reaction. However, by the end of the book, the women who are frightened and repulsed by their unwanted pregnancies and the offspring created of same are vilified, while those who embrace pregnancy and motherhood are celebrated.
Not to mention that the children produced by these pregnancies, who are supposed to be yay and wonderful and the next step in human evolution, are just plain creepy.
I also found the author's attitudes toward women, particularly the bodily autonomy of women, to be troubling. What happens to the women in this story is a violation of their bodily autonomy: they become pregnant against their wishes. Being disgusted and horrified by this pregnancy is a perfectly normal and understandable reaction. However, by the end of the book, the women who are frightened and repulsed by their unwanted pregnancies and the offspring created of same are vilified, while those who embrace pregnancy and motherhood are celebrated.
Not to mention that the children produced by these pregnancies, who are supposed to be yay and wonderful and the next step in human evolution, are just plain creepy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 21, 2020
This book was quite a mixed bag. It’s very hard science. There’s also a lot of politics. And it reads like a best seller science thriller, almost like a cross between Michael Crichton and James Patterson. I didn’t care for the first three hundred fifty pages. There were several times I wanted to put the book down, but I was reading this for my book club in exile, so I plowed through. Fortunately, the last hundred fifty pages were much better. There was less science and more thriller. And I finally began to care about the main characters. The premise is good: a pandemic which activates genes causing the next phase of human evolution. I just didn’t think the book lived up to all the hype I had heard. It was nominated for a bunch of awards, winning the Nebula in 2000.
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Come visit my blog for the full review…
https://itstartedwiththehugos.blogspo...
July 29, 2008
I liked it. I started it as an audiobook for a long weekend drive up to Eugene and I liked it enough to check out the book and finish reading it once I got back-I thought about finishing it through the cds but that would have taken too long and I HAD to know what would happen. It's really like two books in one. The first part has lots of science and a slower pace, then the book starts to go down an entirely different and unexpected path, raising some interesting ethical issues along the way. The ending was a little disappointing since it wasn't an ending as much as a teaser for the sequel...makes me wonder if he wrote it with a movie franchise in mind.
September 28, 2012
This sci-fi "thriller" never really worked for me. The basic premise -- there is a virus that allows the human genetic code to undergo a massive change to a higher lifeform -- provides a reasonable basis for the novel, but as a story it never comes together.
The details of the new virus slowly emerge, as more people become infected and scientists start to study it. Instead of building dramatically in the novel, it gets slowly dished out with enough hints as to where it is going that I started to feel as though I had read each detail three times. Ultimately, I just stopped caring.
The characters started off seeming relatively interesting, but no one in the book acted like a real person. The widespread riots and reactions in the book seemed ridiculous to me, and the main characters faced no bigger enemies than bureaucracy and their own indecision.
When a sci-fi epidemic book is more mundane and less dramatic than any number of books that tell true stories of viral outbreaks, why waste your time?
The details of the new virus slowly emerge, as more people become infected and scientists start to study it. Instead of building dramatically in the novel, it gets slowly dished out with enough hints as to where it is going that I started to feel as though I had read each detail three times. Ultimately, I just stopped caring.
The characters started off seeming relatively interesting, but no one in the book acted like a real person. The widespread riots and reactions in the book seemed ridiculous to me, and the main characters faced no bigger enemies than bureaucracy and their own indecision.
When a sci-fi epidemic book is more mundane and less dramatic than any number of books that tell true stories of viral outbreaks, why waste your time?
March 6, 2011
Actually 3.5, were that possible on GoodReads.
I really enjoy science fiction with lots of science, and especially evolutionary concepts, so this book appealed to me immensely in theory. In practice, I found myself skipping huge amounts of text so I could move the plot along. The science behind the concept was intriguing and well developed, but the rest of the story dragged on longer than I thought necessary. For those who like their scifi with indepth descriptions of every character and their every action, the book would find a higher rating.
This is definitely science fiction, packed with terminology and lab work. But Bear did a good job making it accessible to non-scifi buffs with the glossary and diffusion of the science throughout the human interest portion of the story. Personally, I preferred the science portion, finding the relationships a little shallow and quick to form.
I do look forward to reading the sequel, to find out more about the new species of human.
I really enjoy science fiction with lots of science, and especially evolutionary concepts, so this book appealed to me immensely in theory. In practice, I found myself skipping huge amounts of text so I could move the plot along. The science behind the concept was intriguing and well developed, but the rest of the story dragged on longer than I thought necessary. For those who like their scifi with indepth descriptions of every character and their every action, the book would find a higher rating.
This is definitely science fiction, packed with terminology and lab work. But Bear did a good job making it accessible to non-scifi buffs with the glossary and diffusion of the science throughout the human interest portion of the story. Personally, I preferred the science portion, finding the relationships a little shallow and quick to form.
I do look forward to reading the sequel, to find out more about the new species of human.
June 7, 2020
A re-read for the Powell's SF Book Group in Exile. I got to this book a little later than I planned, so had to push the reading speed. And at first that was a challenge. It is definitely hard science fiction. But I've read a bunch of genetics, dna, anthropology and was able to muscle through - so this ended up being a 2 day read - well 36 hours.
Writing near-future hard science fiction that ages well is probably impossible. There's almost no way to get the science right. And for something like this book, in which the science is pretty unlikely.
And yet in the end this book was brilliant and interesting, full of possibilities. And with scary echoes of what it's like to be in a pandemic and with odd government responses.
I remember the sequel as being quite different but also quite good. So re-reading that goes on the list.
Writing near-future hard science fiction that ages well is probably impossible. There's almost no way to get the science right. And for something like this book, in which the science is pretty unlikely.
And yet in the end this book was brilliant and interesting, full of possibilities. And with scary echoes of what it's like to be in a pandemic and with odd government responses.
I remember the sequel as being quite different but also quite good. So re-reading that goes on the list.
December 22, 2022
I read this because it sounded like it had to do with Stephen Jay Gould's punctuated equilibrium theory, one of my favorite topics in evolution. It did a little, but it also turned out to be a good book -- premise is that the part of the DNA that we think is useless is actually ready to create a new species when the environment receives a lot of stress.
December 29, 2018
Fascinating hard Sci-Fi speculation on what a new state of evolution might be like. Parts of his microbiology descriptions were a bit heavy but the plot was interesting enough you could breeze through the overly complicated passages and easily stay with the story. I see there's a sequel but I'm thinking I don't feel the need to see anything else happen with this particular story.
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