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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
I have now read two books by Greg Bear, and they both went the same way. They started out good and kept me interested, cranked it up to amazing in the middle and gave me eyestrain, and then became a big pile of facepalm at the end which made me drop my ranking.
The book starts out with what I felt was a very familiar sort of story: a scientist injects himself with modified cells and begins to experience beneficial effects like advanced healing, heightened senses, youthful energy, yadda yadda. I actually went on a short pilgrimage to try to figure out when this style of story was first used, but with this book coming out in 1985 it might actually have been one of the first. But that was kind of moot because a few chapters later the story had changed completely.
It moved from there into a pandemic story, and then into full blown post-apocalyptic descriptions. My favourite kinds of books are stuff involving science, medicine, pandemics, post-apocalyptic wastelands... this book had it all for me so maybe I was a bit biased, but my god it was so good.
Then I got to the end and... nngh. I don't know. It just totally lost me. Everything I know about quantum physics comes from entertainment media and likely not accurate at all, but it was a little eyerolling for me even taking it from an entertainment perspective. There were long pages full of completely unnecessary reminiscing, which I guess was supposed to mean more to me but I just didn't care about the characters enough to give a shit. Then there was a long section where the characters argued about the plausibility of what was happening, which almost came across as the author providing a laundry list of all the things that were wrong with it, as if to preempt the inevitable pedantic naysayers.
But the first 3/4 or so of the book was absolutely worth my time. I'm trying to decide if I should take on another Greg Bear book next. I'm pretty sure I did this exact same thing last time... I was halfway through the book and thinking "holy shit I'm going to read every single thing this guy has written", then I got to the end and went "...." and moved on to something else. Hrm.
The book starts out with what I felt was a very familiar sort of story: a scientist injects himself with modified cells and begins to experience beneficial effects like advanced healing, heightened senses, youthful energy, yadda yadda. I actually went on a short pilgrimage to try to figure out when this style of story was first used, but with this book coming out in 1985 it might actually have been one of the first. But that was kind of moot because a few chapters later the story had changed completely.
It moved from there into a pandemic story, and then into full blown post-apocalyptic descriptions. My favourite kinds of books are stuff involving science, medicine, pandemics, post-apocalyptic wastelands... this book had it all for me so maybe I was a bit biased, but my god it was so good.
Then I got to the end and... nngh. I don't know. It just totally lost me. Everything I know about quantum physics comes from entertainment media and likely not accurate at all, but it was a little eyerolling for me even taking it from an entertainment perspective. There were long pages full of completely unnecessary reminiscing, which I guess was supposed to mean more to me but I just didn't care about the characters enough to give a shit. Then there was a long section where the characters argued about the plausibility of what was happening, which almost came across as the author providing a laundry list of all the things that were wrong with it, as if to preempt the inevitable pedantic naysayers.
But the first 3/4 or so of the book was absolutely worth my time. I'm trying to decide if I should take on another Greg Bear book next. I'm pretty sure I did this exact same thing last time... I was halfway through the book and thinking "holy shit I'm going to read every single thing this guy has written", then I got to the end and went "...." and moved on to something else. Hrm.
Weird, intelligent, novel, fascinating. A classic scifi deserving of it's accolades. Very, very much a scifi book. Much enjoyed.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Dans ce roman, tout commence assez bien pour se finir mal, horriblement mal. Et encore, quand je dis que tout commence assez bien, il faut être réaliste, le savant de la première partie de ce roman ne peut être assimilé qu’à un seul archétype : le savant fou. Et c’est sans doute la seule chose qu’on puisse reprocher à cette formidable extrtapolation de Greg Bear : partir d’un archétype. D’un autre côté, le propos de cette anticipation réaliste n’est pas là. Il est tout simplement de partir d’un scénario cohérent de développement de nanomachines pour explorer toutes les conséquences d’un ou deux dérapages dans leur utilisation. Et de ce point de vue, ce roman est à mon sens une réussite majeure. En effet, en partant de cette amérique contemporaine dont les images nous sont connues, il aboutit rapidement à une Terre(1) profondément transformée. Il y a toutefois un point gênant. Car à trop vouloir se concentrer sur les métamorphoses, l’auteur en oublie qu’un bon roman nécessite des personnages auxquels le lecteur peut s’identifier. Ces personnages ne peuvent évidement pas être les nanomachines, ni même le savant du début (dont j’ai bêtement oublié le nom). Il semble que dans la seconde partie, Bear s’attache un peu plus aux pas d’un des financiers du projet de recherche sur les nanomachines. ce personnage n’est toutefois pas le héros de ce roman, ce qui provoque, à mon avis, une légère frustration. Ou tout au moins qui a provoqué chez moi une petite frustation, rapidement oubliée dans le cataclysme que ce roman peut provoquer. Car le cataclysme n’est pas seulement dans yn qvfcnevgvba qr gbhf yrf unovgnagf (bh cerfdhr) qrf HFN, il est aussi dans une transformation de la vision qu’un peut avoir du monde et des différents modèles pouvant l’expliquer. C’est peut-être même là le point clé de ce roman. En effet, si la description des nanomachines est largement documentée et argumentée, le moteur de ce roman n’est pas la quête de ces machines pour une domination du monde, mais l’incompatibilité pouvant exister entre leur vision du monde, incompatibilité qui pourrait provoquer yn sva qr abger cnegvr qr y’haviref. C’est ce point, découvert dans le roman par un scientifique et les nanomachines, qui en précipite visiblement la conclusion, mais aussi, sans doute, de manière souterraine la plupart des rebondissements. Et c’est ce point qui fait de ce roman une lecture indispensable pour bien comprendre à quel point la science-fiction est une littérature mature, capable de partir de prémisces hautement scientifiques pour en déduire des conséquences philosophiques structurantes.
(1) Et j’insiste sur le fait que ce n’est pas simplement le continent américain qui change, même si l’Eurasie ne change pas physiquement.
(1) Et j’insiste sur le fait que ce n’est pas simplement le continent américain qui change, même si l’Eurasie ne change pas physiquement.
Kul och spännande men lite magstark på sina håll. Tyckte dock den tappade lite mot slutet.
Nauseating to read because 2020, but mind-blowing and gripping. Took so many wild turns, and in terms of style felt like it could have been written yesterday.
I totally did not understand this book but I enjoyed reading it. I often wonder how writers can visualize something so scientific and complex and then put it into words. Visually, this novel is complex and stunning.
Had read some of his work that he had written in Asimov's Foundation series, enjoyed that so picked this up and really enjoyed this too. Good plot
Great exploration of biotech, biochips and intelligence.
I had read the Analog short-story (which was great on its own) and the novella takes it further, not necessarily in a great direction, sometimes stretching credulity but interesting nonetheless.
A solid, enjoyable scifi book.
I had read the Analog short-story (which was great on its own) and the novella takes it further, not necessarily in a great direction, sometimes stretching credulity but interesting nonetheless.
A solid, enjoyable scifi book.