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A review by zenandroid
Blood Music by Greg Bear
3.0
Bleh.
It is a good book, i suppose; an excellent book, even.
But I guess it just did not work for me as well as i had hoped.
Maybe i'll come around and change my opinion.
But; to be be perfectly, I can't stand the delivery mechanism of the story's message, the, because as far as I am concerned, that was the end of science-fiction and the start of fantasy, well-written and so on, but not what i came in here for.
Also, as a consequence of this, i felt a bit ... betrayed? i guess, because, well, the premise is sentient micro-organism, and that was *very* interesting,
But this last paragraph is not completely fair I don't think, because blaming the author for my expectations is naïve etc.
I thought the narrativization of this was PHENOMENAL, PHE NO ME NAL, I had this same experience with Inverted World (tho Inverted World was better), especially with regards to the characters, events happened to the characters in just the perfect moments to organically develop the plot.
The characters are very nice, and well written, i am speaking mainly of the three "main" (main?) ones;
- Virgil, the first chapters where he has the affair with Candice did feel a bit weird, but other that that hiccup, you can see the happe of his thought process go from 'i did an amazing thing' to 'i did a horrible thing, actually' and then you almost feel bad for him as it seemed to me as if he realized his folly.
- Speaking of, the way Virgil's mother was handled was really nice, not a lot of screen-time, but packs a huge punch.
- Bernard, at first, he was just a plot tool, but then later in the story, you interact and see more of him, especially when the book recants his memories.
- Suzy my beloved.
There were some characters that did not get a full explanation, and some plot threads were not closed, i think this was intentional, and i think it served the story well.
Overall, my enjoyment of these individual elements of the book were strong throughout the book, but my overall enjoyment was killed at the reveal, probably a pet-peeve of mine, but i think it's a reasonable one, to be honest.
Oh well.
I would recommend this pretty easily, with some caveats to avoid giving off high-expectations.
It is a good book, i suppose; an excellent book, even.
But I guess it just did not work for me as well as i had hoped.
Maybe i'll come around and change my opinion.
But; to be be perfectly, I can't stand the delivery mechanism of the story's message, the
Spoiler
handwavium and the bullshit regarding how consciousness plays an important role in the universe, or the 'hypothesis that are good and fit all previous observations force the universe into a specific shape'-stuffAlso, as a consequence of this, i felt a bit ... betrayed? i guess, because, well, the premise is sentient micro-organism, and that was *very* interesting,
Spoiler
but it was interesting if and only if its consequences were explored in *our* universe, not this alternate universe.But this last paragraph is not completely fair I don't think, because blaming the author for my expectations is naïve etc.
I thought the narrativization of this was PHENOMENAL, PHE NO ME NAL, I had this same experience with Inverted World (tho Inverted World was better), especially with regards to the characters, events happened to the characters in just the perfect moments to organically develop the plot.
The characters are very nice, and well written, i am speaking mainly of the three "main" (main?) ones;
Spoiler
- Virgil, the first chapters where he has the affair with Candice did feel a bit weird, but other that that hiccup, you can see the happe of his thought process go from 'i did an amazing thing' to 'i did a horrible thing, actually' and then you almost feel bad for him as it seemed to me as if he realized his folly.
- Speaking of, the way Virgil's mother was handled was really nice, not a lot of screen-time, but packs a huge punch.
- Bernard, at first, he was just a plot tool, but then later in the story, you interact and see more of him, especially when the book recants his memories.
- Suzy my beloved.
There were some characters that did not get a full explanation, and some plot threads were not closed, i think this was intentional, and i think it served the story well.
Overall, my enjoyment of these individual elements of the book were strong throughout the book, but my overall enjoyment was killed at the reveal, probably a pet-peeve of mine, but i think it's a reasonable one, to be honest.
Oh well.
I would recommend this pretty easily, with some caveats to avoid giving off high-expectations.