Mariposa [Mass Market Paperback]

I have just finished reading two Greg Bear books: City at the End of Time, and Mariposa.
Mariposa is the better book; a tightly plotted political thriller. City at the End of Time is just awful: amorphous and bloated, it makes little sense, and the ending provides no satisfaction at all.
The books share a common trait, though; they are both inferior retreads of previous Bear works.
City at tne End of Time is very similar to the his alternate reality fantasy from the 80's about the young wizard. The second book, The Serpent Mage, is about a world whose foundations are fallling apart and need a new creation to be saved. City has basically the same plot, but with a ridiculous many-worlds pseudo-quantum physics underpinning. Just as in Serpent Mage, the fate of the world lies with "breeds" who have unusual and unexpected powers. The old gods in Serpent Mage have the names of the gods of earth, while in City they are called Typhon, Sangmer, et. al.
Mariposa reads like Queen of Angels, with similar plot devices and even some of the same characters.
The themes---about how technology, computers and medicine will unleash new and sometimes dangerous capabilities, are interesting, but Mariposa says nothing that wasn't said better in Queen of Angels.
Also, like Queen of Angels, Mariposa falls apart near the end with a completely unbelievable, operatic weaving together of the storylines in the book.

By itself, Mariposa is not bad. It's just so disappointing to find a talented and interesting writer with nothing new to say. He could have skipped this one and City and we'd all think the better of him.

Mariposa by Greg Bear is a story laden with complexities. There are a lot of characters of and a lot going on. It's one of those books where you have to mentally keep track of who is where and what's happening. This only adds to the mystery and suspense of the story, allowing you to exercise your brain while enjoying it all. Basically the government is on the verge of financial collapse and the various security agencies are competing against each other for survival. There is also a rogue computer and a hand full of people coping with the fact that the eugenics treatment used to save them is turning some of them into psychopaths. It's like reading four books at the same time, though everything is well connected and the randomness of events keeps the suspense tuned on high throughout the story. The science is especially well handled with real, almost real and yet to come, all seamlessly melded together, leaving you to wonder which things are already developed and what is yet to come.

Mariposa (2009) is the second SF novel in the Quantico series, following Quantico. In the previous volume, FBI agents followed the intelligence into Saudi Arabia, searching for the biologicial weapons. They moved through the Haj while looking for the carrier trucks. Amidst death and destrution they found the vehicles and OWLs dropped from the sky.

In this novel, Alicia Kunsler is Deputy Director of the Bureau East. She maintains her office in the almost deserted Quantico.

Rebecca Rose was a Special Agent in the Bureau. She is now on an indefinite furlough as she recovers from PTSD -- posttraumatic Stress Disorder -- from the Mecca mission.

William Griffin is a Special Agent of the Bureau. He was also on the Mecca mission.

Fouad Al-Husam is a Special Agent of the Bureau. He is descended from Egypian heritage and was also on the Mecca mission.

Jane Rowland works for Spider/Argus, a recently created agency that monitors the flow of data. She was on the Mecca mission.

Edward Benjamin Quinn is Vice resident of the USA. He had served as an officer in Iraq before entering politics.

Nathaniel Trace is a computer geek. He is one of the Turing Seven programmers working for Mind Design. He had developed PTSD in combat within Arabia Deserta.

Chan Herbert is director of Mind Design and boss of the Turing Seven. Known as the Quiet Man, he led the effort to develop the Jones series of competers, a new and better type of data processubg machine.

Terence Plover is a researcher who realized that seroprixoline -- an antiicancer drug -- might also benefit persons suffering from PTSD. Price underwrote studies with the drug.

Axel Price is the CEO of Talos -- a personnel training company -- and other related ventures.

In this story, Quinn killed his wife and then went upstairs to read to his daughter. The Secret Service soon arrived to take him away. Now the homocide is national news.

Trace in staying at the ziggurat in Dubai where he is programming some of the Jones 2.0 at the heart of MSARC -- Mutual Sreategic Asseet Recovery and Control -- system for the International Financial Protection Corporation. He is experiencing something strange, including lessing of affect and vivid perceptions.

Trace takes a sedative and lies down, but the effects continue. Then he gets a phone call from the Quiet Man, who asks him where he is and whether Talos knows his location. Trace tells the the Quiet Man about his weird feelings and Chan suggests that they are the results of the Mariposa treatments. Then he orders Trace to leave Dubai immediately.

Trace arrives in Californa using the name Robert Sangstrom. The Quiet Man suggests that he meet with Plover at the COPES security conference in the LA conference center. So Trace calls Plover.

Kunsler sends Griffin to check on Plover. When he arrives at the house, it and eleven others are only blackened shells. The fire had killed Plover's wife, but his body was not found within the house.

Rowland arranges for a brief but powerful ripple of net inactivity -- a thirty-second denial of service -- for the Talos Corporation. A federal agent -- code name Nabokov -- will be breaking into the Talos infranet at that time. The action had been coordinated by Kunsler at Bureau East.

Fouad is Narbokov. As a linguistice instructor at Tolos, he arranges to be on the infranet at the time of the loss of service. He enters a maintenance ID to take control of the network. He downloads tetrabytes of data into prochines within his blood.

When he backs out of the session, Fouad walks into a situation in the halls of the tower. Security is trying to take down a programmer -- Nick Elder of the Turing Seven -- and failing. Nick is using hysteric strenth, super reactions and enhanced awareness to defeat the guards. Fouad decides to stand aside and let security handle the situation.

Rebecca is scheduled to make a presentation at COPES. Trace passes his information on to her. Then a bomb explodes in the conference center and Trace helps to locate Rebecca.

When Rebecca is released from the hospital, she has an interview with the President. She is assigned the investigation of Quinn. She and her aides delve deeply into the public files, but Rebecca gets the most crucial information through the files from Trace and from Plover himself.

This tale digs into the effect of Mariposa in the treatment of PTSD. Although it relieves the immediate symptoms, it eventually produces the side effects experienced by Quinn, Rebecca, the Turing Seven and others within this story.

The backgound of this story has the USA in a world of hurt. There are many issues that could be addessed in a sequel. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Bear fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of political disasters, economic depression, and law enforcement.

-Arthur W. Jordin

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