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Liked It “Yet another great concept from Greg Bear, accompanied with solid writing. As with a few of Bear's books, the main concept of the plot is sometimes taken too far and stretched too thin that the books would really need a kicker in the end, instead of just tapering away. Other than that usual...” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It “At first I thought it was similar to an episode of the outer limits but and it seemed promising. A good sense of menace and suspense. The author ruined it with mawkish sentimentality and silly science at the end.” see full review » see other reviews » |
Newest Reviews
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“At first I thought it was similar to an episode of the outer limits but and it seemed promising. A good sense of menace and suspense. The author ruined it with mawkish sentimentality and silly science at the end. ”
Michael H wrote this review Thursday, November 12 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Fantastic!”
Jean V wrote this review Wednesday, August 26 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Sci-Fi which succeeds on its idea's, raises pretty common themes of conformity but did present it in a fairly new way..”
Andrew S wrote this review Friday, July 31 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Yet another great concept from Greg Bear, accompanied with solid writing. As with a few of Bear's books, the main concept of the plot is sometimes taken too far and stretched too thin that the books would really need a kicker in the end, instead of just tapering away. Other than that usual complaint, loved it.”
Samuli wrote this review Saturday, July 4 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“In the novel, renegade biotechnologist Vergil Ulam creates simple biological computers based on his own lymphocytes. Faced with orders from his nervous employer to destroy his work, he injects them into his own body, intending to smuggle the 'noocytes' (as he calls them) out of the company and work on them elsewhere. Inside Ulam's body, the noocytes multiply and evolve rapidly, altering their own genetic material and quickly becoming self-aware. The nanoscale civilization they construct soon begins to transform Ulam, then others, until eventually assimilating most of the biosphere of North America. This civilization, which incorporates both the evolved noocytes and recently-assimilated conventional humans, is eventually forced to abandon the normal plane of existence”
Wendy B wrote this review Thursday, April 23 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“As someone working in biology - more specifically genomic technologies - I cannot stand Greg Bear's work (I also read Darwin's Radio). It profoundly misunderstands the sloppy nature of DNA, is way too unrealistic about our ability to engineer biology, and shows a severe lack of intuition for evolution and biology in general. The characters are just props for the (bad) science idea. Also he misspelled "egg yolk" as "egg yoke". Seriously?”
Madeleine Price Ball wrote this review Tuesday, December 30 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“The premise for this book is great and amazingly fascinating. However, the science lingo is a little over the top to make it an enjoyable book to read. I'm sure the science is sound, but I felt like I needed a degree in biology or medicine to understand what it all meant. I generally like hard science fiction, but this one was just too incomprehensible to me and the characters and story sadly didn't make up for it.”
Comrade Charlie wrote this review Wednesday, November 26 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This was a chilling, haunting story for me. A man becomes so obsessed with his technology that he ends up creating a sentient tech that threatens the planet. Ever the altruist, he decides to handle it with his own hands. A true moral tale of sci-fi, one that warranted a much longer story. Great read!”
Brandon A. wrote this review Tuesday, July 29 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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Mark W wrote this review Thursday, April 10 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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