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A review by oleksandr
Blood Music by Greg Bear
3.0
This is a ‘big idea’ SF novel, published on the height of the initial cyberpunk fame, but looking more at concepts of AI, sentience, singularity from a different angle – biological. I read it as a part of monthly reading for February 2022 at The Evolution of Science Fiction group. The story was first printed in 1985 and was nominated for both Hugo and Nebula the next year, but lost to [b:Ender's Game|375802|Ender's Game (Ender's Saga, #1)|Orson Scott Card|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1408303130l/375802._SY75_.jpg|2422333] by [a:Orson Scott Card|589|Orson Scott Card|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1294099952p2/589.jpg] in both cases. An interesting fact – it was published by Tor, which currently dominates the award ballot for Hugoes and a lot of whose present supporters don’t like Card’s homophobia (which is pretty bad). Moreover, it was the first Nebula-winning Tor book (and maybe Hugo as well).
The story starts with Vergil Ulam. He is a biologist and works at a bio-engineering version of Silicon Valley. They try to create a chip, based not on silicon and electronics, but on a basis of a bio-cell. He is, like cyberpunk heroes, a genius who makes his own simple bio-computers based on his lymphocytes and trains them to become more and more complex. His superiors learned about his ‘side-project’ and ordered him to eliminate it. He disagrees and takes them from the lab by secretly self-injecting them. As time passes he finds out that his body becomes better and better… but what will be his ultimate payout?
At some moment of the plot, there is a possibility of epidemic spread of modified cells and the response of agencies is much more optimistic than our real COVID-19 situation shows. The book is interesting chiefly on account of the suggested way to singularity, but both prose and characters are mostly flat, serving as decorations for the presented ideas.
I have to admit, this was new of my first SF novel read in English in the early 2000s and then I was seriously impressed by it (at that time most foreign SF translations I’ve read were published before 1972, when the USSR joined copyright laws) – definitely a fresh look. Upon the present re-read, I see more issues and weak places but nevertheless, it is a nice yawn.
The story starts with Vergil Ulam. He is a biologist and works at a bio-engineering version of Silicon Valley. They try to create a chip, based not on silicon and electronics, but on a basis of a bio-cell. He is, like cyberpunk heroes, a genius who makes his own simple bio-computers based on his lymphocytes and trains them to become more and more complex. His superiors learned about his ‘side-project’ and ordered him to eliminate it. He disagrees and takes them from the lab by secretly self-injecting them. As time passes he finds out that his body becomes better and better… but what will be his ultimate payout?
At some moment of the plot, there is a possibility of epidemic spread of modified cells and the response of agencies is much more optimistic than our real COVID-19 situation shows. The book is interesting chiefly on account of the suggested way to singularity, but both prose and characters are mostly flat, serving as decorations for the presented ideas.
I have to admit, this was new of my first SF novel read in English in the early 2000s and then I was seriously impressed by it (at that time most foreign SF translations I’ve read were published before 1972, when the USSR joined copyright laws) – definitely a fresh look. Upon the present re-read, I see more issues and weak places but nevertheless, it is a nice yawn.