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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
This was going too slow for me. Characters didn't have teeth and I reached the halfway point and realized I don't care what happens. Just like in Footfall, earth's leadership selects a science fiction author as an advisor to determine the course of the fight for humanity. Are these self insert characters?? Make it make sense lol.
Excellent! Best book that I've read lately. Have the sequel queued on my Kindle :-)
This is a tough one. Forge of God came very close to a DNF for me. The characters are flat and act in very unbelievable ways. Government officials act like it's amateur hour - no professionalism of any kind. The dialogues are clunky more often than not.
And then, about 50% into the book, it somehow "clicked" for me. As the story unfolded I just couldn't stop reading. In the end Greg Bear must have done something right with Forge of God. It's kind of like with Asimov: there are a lot of shortcomings, but the ideas are great and keep you turning the pages.
And then, about 50% into the book, it somehow "clicked" for me. As the story unfolded I just couldn't stop reading. In the end Greg Bear must have done something right with Forge of God. It's kind of like with Asimov: there are a lot of shortcomings, but the ideas are great and keep you turning the pages.
adventurous
informative
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was the rare book I didn't finish. The book slowly moves towards the Earth's, and I am guessing here, eventual destruction. And about 1/2 through, I decided that I really didn't mind if all the characters perished with the Earth.
In short, this book is a boring apocalypse.
I wish that I had read this book 15 years ago. Back then I had lower standards. It does a good job of presenting some compelling scientific ideas, like self-replicating space probes and the concept that the earth can be thought of as an organism which will might eventually be spread by humans acting as a sort of seed or spore. Another point in its favor is that this book is at least as scientifically plausible as any other Science-Fiction I've read in the last decade.
However, I didn't much enjoy the book's actual writing. The pace was slow, the action indirect, and the characters dull. The way the author speculated technology would develop (with desktop computers but no cell phones) is occasionally distracting, but quaint. Worst of all the women in this story were emotionally-hyperactive but otherwise flat inert accessories. Even women who were supposed to be brilliant scholars or influential career politicians did nothing except in relation to men. In the author's defense, the men were equally tired cliches.
I wish that I had read this book 15 years ago. Back then I had lower standards. It does a good job of presenting some compelling scientific ideas, like self-replicating space probes and the concept that the earth can be thought of as an organism which will might eventually be spread by humans acting as a sort of seed or spore. Another point in its favor is that this book is at least as scientifically plausible as any other Science-Fiction I've read in the last decade.
However, I didn't much enjoy the book's actual writing. The pace was slow, the action indirect, and the characters dull. The way the author speculated technology would develop (with desktop computers but no cell phones) is occasionally distracting, but quaint. Worst of all the women in this story were emotionally-hyperactive but otherwise flat inert accessories. Even women who were supposed to be brilliant scholars or influential career politicians did nothing except in relation to men. In the author's defense, the men were equally tired cliches.
I'd probably give this book 3.5 stars but Goodreads (where this review originates) doesn't allow half stars, so I'm giving it four, since I lean more toward that than three.
This 1987 novel is dated politically (set in 1996 but not foreseeing the collapse of the Soviet Union) and technologically (it predates the Internet so a lot of data in the story is gathered and stored on fancy optical disks) but otherwise feels fairly fresh nearly thirty years later.
The plot is a downer--mysterious aliens arrive to destroy Earth--and the resolution, such as it is, is a bit abrupt because the story continues in the 1993 follow-up, Anvil of Stars. But The Forge of God is more about the journey than the destination, as Bear unfolds what begins as a galactic mystery and ends with humanity reduced to a murmur in the great vastness of space.
The story almost feels like two different tales stitched together. There's the initial mystery and scientific investigation--a moon of Jupiter disappears and months later strange artificial rock formations appear in Death Valley and other spots around the world. The leading characters are geologists and there is much speculation before an alien appears out of one of the formations with a dire warning that Earth is doomed, destined to be torn apart by a fun bunch described as "planet eaters." The latter part of the story chronicles the months leading up to what appears to be the end of the world as we know it (and no one feels fine), with a plan by the mysterious but apparently beneficent warning aliens to cobble together the remnants of the world in order to create some aspect of it elsewhere.
These two halves also stand apart with distinct tones. The first half is filled with politics, scientific theorizing, investigation and generally lots of "big picture" stuff, while the second half zooms in on some of the characters and becomes more personal, following them as they grapple with a seemingly sealed fate. Bear does a good job transitioning from the big picture to a more intimate one, capturing the despair--and faint hope--as the last days of the story (and possibly the planet) play out.
If you like a good doomsday scenario supported by credible science, a chilling answer to the Fermi paradox, and have always wanted geologists to be the leads in a novel, The Forge of God comes recommended. My only regret is I didn't research ahead of time to find out it was part of (an admittedly very short) series, so I know feel obligated to read the sequel, to find out how it all turns out (until the inevitable sequel after that one).
This 1987 novel is dated politically (set in 1996 but not foreseeing the collapse of the Soviet Union) and technologically (it predates the Internet so a lot of data in the story is gathered and stored on fancy optical disks) but otherwise feels fairly fresh nearly thirty years later.
The plot is a downer--mysterious aliens arrive to destroy Earth--and the resolution, such as it is, is a bit abrupt because the story continues in the 1993 follow-up, Anvil of Stars. But The Forge of God is more about the journey than the destination, as Bear unfolds what begins as a galactic mystery and ends with humanity reduced to a murmur in the great vastness of space.
The story almost feels like two different tales stitched together. There's the initial mystery and scientific investigation--a moon of Jupiter disappears and months later strange artificial rock formations appear in Death Valley and other spots around the world. The leading characters are geologists and there is much speculation before an alien appears out of one of the formations with a dire warning that Earth is doomed, destined to be torn apart by a fun bunch described as "planet eaters." The latter part of the story chronicles the months leading up to what appears to be the end of the world as we know it (and no one feels fine), with a plan by the mysterious but apparently beneficent warning aliens to cobble together the remnants of the world in order to create some aspect of it elsewhere.
These two halves also stand apart with distinct tones. The first half is filled with politics, scientific theorizing, investigation and generally lots of "big picture" stuff, while the second half zooms in on some of the characters and becomes more personal, following them as they grapple with a seemingly sealed fate. Bear does a good job transitioning from the big picture to a more intimate one, capturing the despair--and faint hope--as the last days of the story (and possibly the planet) play out.
If you like a good doomsday scenario supported by credible science, a chilling answer to the Fermi paradox, and have always wanted geologists to be the leads in a novel, The Forge of God comes recommended. My only regret is I didn't research ahead of time to find out it was part of (an admittedly very short) series, so I know feel obligated to read the sequel, to find out how it all turns out (until the inevitable sequel after that one).
Its not clear to me why this book won so many awards. Its a pretty generic science fiction story with the added bonus of all sorts of premise holes. To start with, I can think of no logic for a civilization to develop an autonomous, planet-destroying machine that serves no purpose. It's not a weapon. It only creates more autonomous, planet-destroying machines from the rubble of the destroyed planets. What exactly is the purpose? Then, if you are creating an autonomous, planet-destroying machine, why would it need to come equipped with weird decoys that fuck with the inhabitants' minds just before destroying the planet? The whole thing makes no sense. Also, the character development is terrible.
I really enjoyed the first 3/4 of this book and then it went a little off the rails for me. There was just so much going on and it seemed to lose its footing as well as the charm of most of the characters. For example, who cares about what Edward did in the end? (I really disliked the entire Yosemite story line, it was so annoying.) And why did Authur become an angry asshole when he was so mild mannered for almost the whole book? I kinda wish the whole thing had gone in a different direction. I don’t think I’ll read any more in this series but I might try something else by Greg Bear. For the most part I enjoyed the writing style.
Apropros of nothing, I bookmarked an excerpt that I found very interesting in light of the pandemic:
“Diseases that used to help regulate ecosystems have suddenly become stimulants. We’re working hard to control all the diseases that harm us, and in doing so, we’re understanding life itself, and coming to understand Gaia. So Gaia uses diseases to stimulate and instruct. Is it any real coincidence, you think, that in the twentieth century, we’ve been hit by so many retrovirus and immune system epidemics? We can’t solve *these* epidemics without understanding life to the nth degree.”
Apropros of nothing, I bookmarked an excerpt that I found very interesting in light of the pandemic:
“Diseases that used to help regulate ecosystems have suddenly become stimulants. We’re working hard to control all the diseases that harm us, and in doing so, we’re understanding life itself, and coming to understand Gaia. So Gaia uses diseases to stimulate and instruct. Is it any real coincidence, you think, that in the twentieth century, we’ve been hit by so many retrovirus and immune system epidemics? We can’t solve *these* epidemics without understanding life to the nth degree.”