A review by mjfmjfmjf
Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear
4.0
A re-read for the Powell's SF Book Group in Exile. I got to this book a little later than I planned, so had to push the reading speed. And at first that was a challenge. It is definitely hard science fiction. But I've read a bunch of genetics, dna, anthropology and was able to muscle through - so this ended up being a 2 day read - well 36 hours.
Writing near-future hard science fiction that ages well is probably impossible. There's almost no way to get the science right. And for something like this book, in which the science is pretty unlikely.
And yet in the end this book was brilliant and interesting, full of possibilities. And with scary echoes of what it's like to be in a pandemic and with odd government responses.
I remember the sequel as being quite different but also quite good. So re-reading that goes on the list.
Writing near-future hard science fiction that ages well is probably impossible. There's almost no way to get the science right. And for something like this book, in which the science is pretty unlikely.
And yet in the end this book was brilliant and interesting, full of possibilities. And with scary echoes of what it's like to be in a pandemic and with odd government responses.
I remember the sequel as being quite different but also quite good. So re-reading that goes on the list.