A review by stephen_coulon
Blood Music by Greg Bear

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

It's a story about a genetically engineered intelligence that sets out to take over the world. I’ve been fascinated with Telhard de Chardin’s idea of the “noosphere” for decades, ever since reading about it in Tom Wolfe’s essay “Sorry, but Your Soul Just Died” (1997). I set out reading this novel cold, with no inkling of its contents other than knowing that Bear takes a rather “out there” approach to crafting his plots in that he pushes popular sci-fi concepts to their absolute extremes. So it was a nice surprise to discover the imagined noosphere that anchors this novel, especially seeing as it was published nearly 20 years before noospherics became popular following 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘹 films. There’s not much humanity to connect to in this tale, and Bear’s prose isn’t exactly artistic, but the book’s central conceit is absorbing enough to make this a thought provoking science fiction romp that veers off into unexpectedly shocking directions.