Greg Bear

[Bad-example]

I know there are at least a few Greg Bear readers here, so I thought I would give a heads up about Greg Bear's newest novel, Dead Lines. I just reserved a copy from my local library so I can't review it myself yet, but here is the review from Amazon:

"In this taut ghost story set in the California of everyone's dreams-and nightmares-from Hugo and Nebula winner Bear (Darwin's Children), anything-goes hardcore porn films have blasted softcore screenwriter Peter Russell's career. The horrifying abduction and murder of his young daughter has destroyed Russell's marriage; his best friend has just died; and Joseph Weinstein, the reclusive sugar daddy who employs Russell as a dogsbody, seems to be descending into senility. Worse follows. In pursuit of financial security, Russell sells Weinstein on "Trans," a seductive new gadget promising unlimited instant broad-band communication, and all too soon reaching out and touching via Trans even wakes the dead, whose path to the hereafter is now so clogged with spam and unlimited phone calls that they return to haunt the living. Bear's ability to incorporate scientific concepts into tightly woven, fast-paced story lines reaches menacing new proportions here, because it draws on that nagging suspicion that the ubiquitous, innocent-appearing cell phone may really be killing off its users. By deftly extrapolating that doubt into everyone's most dreaded fears-loss of job, loss of friends, loss of children-Bear reanimates the old story of Faust, who sold his soul for unlimited knowledge and power, hinting ominously that the price of rampant technology may be dearer than we think."

This looks like a pretty major departure from his earlier works. Anyone out there read it yet?

[Bad-example]

I just finished reading this.

While fans of Bear will likely be less than happy with this ghost story, it is still better than most of the dreck from Koontz and King. Greg Bear is a competent storyteller and I think Dead Lines is well worth your time if you are into the genre.

[Mr. Wednesday]

So Bear is returning to his roots as an author? (CF Psychlone)

I have a lot of Bear books and generally like his stories, but I think his endings tend to be weak.

[Chief Rum]

Heh...I loved Psychlone back in the day, but I haven't seen it in print in forever. That book scared the crap out of me when I read it. Completely different style of read than Bear's math-heavy scifi stuff.

If he writes something like that again, I don't think that's a bad idea (Psychlone had an interesting underlying concept as well).

CR

[Bad-example]

Originally Posted by Mr. Wednesday

So Bear is returning to his roots as an author? (CF Psychlone)

I have a lot of Bear books and generally like his stories, but I think his endings tend to be weak.

Ah yes, I forgot about Psychlone. I don't recall liking that one very much.

An interesting observation regarding Bear's endings being weak. I would agree to an extent. I would say his better novels...Eon/Eternity, Forge of God, Bloodmusic...even Moving Mars all have pretty satisfying endings. As far as his lesser works though, your criticism is valid.

I think one of Bear's greatest skills as a writer lie in his ability to blend hard science into his stories without getting bogged down or confusing the reader. Dead Lines didn't really have much science...but his easy-to-digest style did make it a decent read, even in a genre I don't really like.

[Mr. Wednesday]

Moving Mars ends very well, I think, and as I recall Darwin's Radio did well too. Actually, I can't pick any of them that I'd single out as particularly disappointing, I just remember there being more than one that I enjoyed the story but didn't think it came to a satisfying conclusion.

I picked Psychlone up at a Borders (trade paperback) within the last three or four years. I just checked the book, and I didn't find anything that would help me narrow it down further. One interesting thing I did note about it, Bear is also credited for the cover design on the book.

[Bad-example]

I also found a new book published 2/04 from William Gibson, Pattern Recognition. The review from Amazon:

The first of William Gibson's usually futuristic novels to be set in the present, Pattern Recognition is a masterful snapshot of modern consumer culture and hipster esoterica. Set in London, Tokyo, and Moscow, Pattern Recognition takes the reader on a tour of a global village inhabited by power-hungry marketeers, industrial saboteurs, high-end hackers, Russian mob bosses, Internet fan-boys, techno archeologists, washed-out spies, cultural documentarians, and our heroine Cayce Pollard--a soothsaying "cool hunter" with an allergy to brand names.

Pollard is among a cult-like group of Internet obsessives that strives to find meaning and patterns within a mysterious collection of video moments, merely called "the footage," let loose onto the Internet by an unknown source. Her hobby and work collide when a megalomaniac client hires her to track down whoever is behind the footage. Cayce's quest will take her in and out of harm's way in a high-stakes game that ultimately coincides with her desire to reconcile her father’s disappearance during the September 11 attacks in New York.

Although he forgoes his usual future-think tactics, this is very much a William Gibson novel, more so for fans who realize that Gibson's brilliance lies not in constructing new futures but in using astute observations of present-day cultural flotsam to create those futures. With Pattern Recognition, Gibson skips the extrapolation and focuses his acumen on our confusing contemporary world, using the precocious Pollard to personify and humanize the uncertain anxiety, optimistic hope, and downright fear many feel when looking to the future. The novel is filled with Gibson's lyric descriptions and astute observations of modern life, making it worth the read for both cool hunters and their prey.

[Crapshoot]

Moving Mars ended wonderfully, from my perspective- it was certainly a unique concept, which in Sci-Fi, is quite an achievement.