Hegira [Paperback]

Without question, Greg Bear has been one of science fiction's best writers and prose stylists for decades. He has successfully written everything from hard core space opera to cyberpunk and fantasy. Here in "Hegira", he successfully combines elements of fantasy and space opera in a terse, riveting tale about the life-long search of the secrets behind the obelisks and the enormous world that is Hegira, inhabited by several intelligent civilizations, including humans, who have forgotten their interstellar space travel origins. Bear's prose is as finely crafted as an early Samuel Delany novel in this little gem of a novel. "Hegira" was well worth reading; without a doubt it is a splendid example of Greg Bear's early work.

This sci-fi fantasy by Greg Bear makes for good enough escapist reading, but while it's fairly entertaining and imaginative, it really has nothing else to recommend it. As the title suggests, the story follows three men on an extended trek across a vast planet, not so subtly named "Hegira". One of the main plot threads focuses on the question of what they're searching for, and what they'll do when they find it, but the payoff doesn't nearly live up to the long journey that precedes it. Bear creates an interesting geography, and a couple of mildly interesting social orders, but there really isn't much that could be called new. There's very little science, and the more creative ideas aren't really explained very well and come off as mere fantasies. Younger readers (say, mid-teens) should find this novel a quick, easy read, and may be intrigued by its imaginative setting, but it's doubtful that they'll understand the story's resolution any better than this reviewer did. This book's greatest strength is that the main characters are fairly well drawn (at least for a science fiction/fantasy) - Bar-Woten fleeing from his murderous past, Barthel worshipfully following Bar-Woten, and Kiril searching for his soul mate - but it's a pity Bear didn't find better use for them than simply journeying across this enormous planet. Another weak point is the treatment of female characters. Few as they are, they function entirely as objects of male desire, and seem to have no will or even life of their own: not exactly a useful lesson for young minds. In summary, some good characterizations and a fairly interesting setting simply aren't enough to carry this novel all by themselves; there's too little conflict, too little action, and too little plot. Perhaps no one will hate this novel, but it's hard to believe anyone will really love it, either.

It's a shame the three characters didn't really spring to life until the final quarter of the book. Before then I just couldn't connect with their emotions and motivations. Maybe because only one of the three characters acts on motive at all (though still very vaguely hinted to the reader), the two others are merely dragged behind. So the characters failed to immerse me for the most part of the book, which leaves the story. Unfortunately there's nothing happening much. Although it's mainly a story about a long journey, there's very little of chase and evade. Which leaves the frequent and detailed depictions of landscapes and cultures. Interesting, but just not enough.