- Mass Market Paperback: 512 pages
- Publisher: Tor Science Fiction; First Edition edition (Jun 15 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0812524829
- ISBN-13: 978-0812524826
- Product Dimensions: 17.1 x 10.8 x 2.9 cm
- Shipping Weight: 245 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,861,802 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
This is the sequel to Greg Bear's popular Queen of Angels, and, like most of this award-winning author's works, it's a stunner. Bear is right at home with the computer and nano technologies that underlie his near-future society. With most of the world's ills having been cured by nanotech, humanity is free to turn its explorations inward, to the mind. Advanced therapies have all but eliminated emotional imbalance, and things have never been better. But when public defender Mary Cho begins investigating a double-murder, she uncovers the truth: all of the high tech is failing, and things will never be worse.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
YA?In the sixth decade of 21st-century America, violence has been eradicated and advanced therapies have relieved the suffering of the emotionally unstable. It is almost a sane and perfect world. But when Public Defender Mary Choy is called in to investigate the grizzly death of two prostitutes who were illegally transforming themselves with nano-technology (plastic surgery of the future), and an epidemic of "fallbacks" and suicides occurs as people who had gone through therapy revert to their previous states, Bear begins a complex tale that offers a vision of a society in which "dataflow" rules. The entertainment business, particularly pornography, has gone virtual, militia sympathizers and neo-Luddites are isolated in the separatist republic of Green Idaho, and the most advanced artificial intelligence in the world, Jill, is hacked by an unknown AI that is perhaps the creation of a vast conspiracy. Weaving in multiple plots, this sequel to Queen of Angels (Warner, 1994) adeptly shows the potential effects of new technology on our imagined future. Young adults will enjoy both the practical and philosophical underpinnings of this intriguing world in which bathroom fixtures diagnose illnesses, virtual film stars of the past are guests at 21st-century galas, and happiness and even the stability of society depends on nano-monitors imbedded in the soul.?Pat Bangs, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
Omphalos dominates Moscow, Green Idaho. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Omphalos dominates Moscow, Green Idaho. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting vision with cardboard characters,
By A Customer
This review is from: Slant (Hardcover)
I have always liked Bear, so was very disappointed with this novel. The premise is interesting, the sci-fi vision is intriguing, but the characters were not developed. I just did not care about them or their individual stories. This book felt like a collage of snapshots, not a story.
5.0 out of 5 stars
TURNS DYSTOPIA ON ITS HEAD,
By Worldreels (MANKATO, MN) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Slant (Mass Market Paperback)
Greg Bear outdid himself with this one. He turned what appeared to be headed for another dystopia on its head and managed to salvage a rather happy ending. His creative ingenuity salvaged the so-so plot-his content definitely outshone the package. The comparison of the human brain to colonies of bacteria was stunning-how the mind operates by using molecular language. His story shows how the shape of society may rely on its language, e.g., being "happy" or being "rich" can become a kind of drug and staying so can stifle initiative.Bear's levels of conflict rise as high into the sky as his Omphalos, a utopian temple turned sour. His character Schnee has combined the neural nets of bees, wasps, ants and bacteria laden loam to create an ultimate biological computer capable of spreading prions of infectious RNA material throughout the globe-an ultimate biological weapon. Her tourette like virus, while forcing victims to utter obscenities also makes their brains work faster. Schnee sought revenge on and recognition from her old boss Nathan who had discounted her ideas. AI Jill, a conventional computer, finds herself in a death struggle with AI Roddy, a biological computer. Every character he uses either has an opponent or is engaged in a fierce struggle for their own identity. We've heard of the quantum computer, the molecular computer, the DNA computer but who has even thought of a bacterial computer? And no writer gives a better model of how data flow can create designs to makes nanotechnology work. Bear seems to rip a crack in the biosphere-noosphere and peer into the future. Futuristic ideas abound-his speaker Torino explains how the earth has become a gigantic single cell. And as man creates self aware AI computers man's own personality is subject to fragmentation. All in all, enough new ideas to make Bear a trailblazer for future writers.
5.0 out of 5 stars
/,
By R. Sundquist (Madison, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Slant (Mass Market Paperback)
I can't believe I haven't reviewed this on here yet! Slant is one of my top-five favorites. I read it while I was camping in rainy Door County, and I averaged a hundred pages a day (it usually takes a week to do that much). It was totally engrossing. Sure, the plot wasn't overloaded with suspense or action or anything like that (until the climax, when things speed up a little), but the density of the near-future world that Bear creates is incredible. The words he invents, the language he uses to describe things, all the references to other books and people such as "Alive Contains a Lie" by Kiss of X (a book that one of Slant's character's is reading), and the realistic, every-day characters made me feel like this novel was actually taking place in the future.The plot deals with a group of rich snobs using nanotechnology to reverse medical and psychological therapy and create chaos in America; the policewoman, a self-aware AI, and a psychiatrist who become involved; a team of saboteurs seeking to infiltrate and destroy Omphalos, the group's giant headquarters; a middle-class family, and a prostitute, who are also entangled. The book moves at a steady, reasonable pace which adds to the realism. There are no action heroes (or even regular heroes) - everyone is a normal person who becomes imbroiled in strange events. The science, while complex, is written clearly and concisely, and never gets in the way of characters or story. Bear's five or six plots only come together loosely towards the end of the book, but are strongly tied together thematically. As for the ending, which other reviewers have complained about, it didn't bother me. I guess I don't care much for endings anyway -my own fiction supports that. Some of the plots are left to come to their own conclusions, or for the reader to decide. This is another part of the realism I experienced - in real life there is no explosive climax to every "episode" of our lives, everything just keeps on moving. This is a fascinating book, and I will gladly read it a third time as soon as I have the opportunity.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
