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grumpymonday's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
3.0
dejahentendu's review against another edition
dark
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Didn't age poorly, but I did get tired of the "no atheists in foxholes" attitude. It was interesting to have a first contact books ending with humans losing. That was very different for the time. And there were some beautiful human stories along the way. I'll definitely read the 2nd book. The sexism is the built-in cultural type of almost no women in main roles or as highly educated/in power.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, Genocide, Xenophobia, and Confinement
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Death and Death of parent
nasim6413's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.5
acopytopy's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
infinitemugen's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.0
mattwright_'s review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
burns_cheadle's review against another edition
4.0
4 stars: I quite enjoyed it—terrifically exciting plot, interesting characters, and a dynamite conclusion. To say anything more would undoubtedly lean into the realm of spoilers so suffice to say I am looking forward to reading the sequel, [b:Anvil of Stars|464609|Anvil of Stars (Forge of God, #2)|Greg Bear|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388964743l/464609._SY75_.jpg|4283], next.
elwoodradley's review against another edition
5.0
I LOVED this book. Such a fun and entertaining read. The ideas in it are awesome and I love Greg Bears writing style in it. This is my first book by him and I will definitely checking out more soon. The way he writes aliens and the potential end of the world was incredible. Awesome book.
lddecker's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
bennought's review against another edition
3.0
This is a book that starts off slow, but is hard to put down once it really gets going. Unfortunately, to really discuss how I feel about this book, I'm going to need to get into some spoilers. They're clearly noted, so if you'd like to read my other thoughts, just keep an eye out.
One of the things I really liked about this book was how slow it started. So many sci fi novels and thrillers throw you right into the action from the get-go. And while I think action up front can be good, I believe that too often it's used as a crutch by the author to get the reader interested, rather than creating an interesting world or characters or plot (or a combination of any of these three). Greg Bear takes the time to build the world, establish the major players, and provide some background for the events that unfold. Not enough information to necessarily spoil what comes later, but enough to begin investing the reader in the story.
That said, I actually think it would have been better to keep the revelation of the driving forces of the story (keeping this vanilla to avoid spoilers as much as possible) hidden a bit longer, and to have worked in some of the information gathering the characters do into this earlier period. While it was nice to have a lot of the information explained fairly quickly as the characters put the pieces together, I believe that certain sequences (the whole initial piece with the Glomar Explorer, for instance) would have fit much nicer before everyone knew what everything was working towards (even if they still don't know *how* they'll get there).
My only other complaint is that I do feel Bear could have done a slightly better job on the characters. While all of the main characters are endearing and somewhat interesting, none of them are really at all complicated. There was a lot more room to expand on the complexity of these characters, especially given the situations they are placed in, but almost all of them end up being very good people through and through. Actually, the President ends up being one of the most interesting characters in the end, but even that falls a little short of the depth which could have been gone into with the changing sets of advisors and factions. And while I realize that the whole political aspect was not a major focus of the story, that storyline felt ripe for expansion and exploitation.
**Spoilers** Probably what I liked best about this book, though, was how it differed from most other novels about the destruction of Earth and Humanity's exodus into space. Most stories in this genre tend to have Earth destroyed in the initial sequence (or even in the distant past), and the majority of the focus is on what comes next. The vast majority of this book, except the very final pages, depicts the slow destruction of the Earth and Humanity's struggle to come to terms with this fact. The psychological aspect of this novel, and the long playing out of the coming-to-grips with the end of the world, are what really make this stand out.**End of Spoilers**
Overall, a very good book, and one which I would recommend to sci fi fans and others interested in catastrophe thrillers. Very much looking forward to reading the next book in the series and seeing where Bear takes the story.
One of the things I really liked about this book was how slow it started. So many sci fi novels and thrillers throw you right into the action from the get-go. And while I think action up front can be good, I believe that too often it's used as a crutch by the author to get the reader interested, rather than creating an interesting world or characters or plot (or a combination of any of these three). Greg Bear takes the time to build the world, establish the major players, and provide some background for the events that unfold. Not enough information to necessarily spoil what comes later, but enough to begin investing the reader in the story.
That said, I actually think it would have been better to keep the revelation of the driving forces of the story (keeping this vanilla to avoid spoilers as much as possible) hidden a bit longer, and to have worked in some of the information gathering the characters do into this earlier period. While it was nice to have a lot of the information explained fairly quickly as the characters put the pieces together, I believe that certain sequences (the whole initial piece with the Glomar Explorer, for instance) would have fit much nicer before everyone knew what everything was working towards (even if they still don't know *how* they'll get there).
My only other complaint is that I do feel Bear could have done a slightly better job on the characters. While all of the main characters are endearing and somewhat interesting, none of them are really at all complicated. There was a lot more room to expand on the complexity of these characters, especially given the situations they are placed in, but almost all of them end up being very good people through and through. Actually, the President ends up being one of the most interesting characters in the end, but even that falls a little short of the depth which could have been gone into with the changing sets of advisors and factions. And while I realize that the whole political aspect was not a major focus of the story, that storyline felt ripe for expansion and exploitation.
**Spoilers** Probably what I liked best about this book, though, was how it differed from most other novels about the destruction of Earth and Humanity's exodus into space. Most stories in this genre tend to have Earth destroyed in the initial sequence (or even in the distant past), and the majority of the focus is on what comes next. The vast majority of this book, except the very final pages, depicts the slow destruction of the Earth and Humanity's struggle to come to terms with this fact. The psychological aspect of this novel, and the long playing out of the coming-to-grips with the end of the world, are what really make this stand out.**End of Spoilers**
Overall, a very good book, and one which I would recommend to sci fi fans and others interested in catastrophe thrillers. Very much looking forward to reading the next book in the series and seeing where Bear takes the story.