Slant

This apparently is a sequel to his previous novel Queen of Angels, which I read so long ago that I don't remember any specifics of the plot other than the bare basics, which didn't help me at all when reading this novel. However, it doesn't really matter because while I think they share the same future and some of the characters, everything else is different and I imagine both works can easily stand alone. In this particular book, Bear postulates a world where most problems have been solved and people have turned to improving their minds, undergoing therapy to smooth over all disorders and so on, making society a not too unpleasant place to live. Of course, there's a problem or we wouldn't have much of a story. Bear doesn't take the easy way out, kicking off the first part of the story by introducing a number of characters who don't have any connection other than the fact that we know their plots are all going to intersect somehow, or else they wouldn't be in the same book. But by doing so he gives us a crosssection of this future society, from the rich people railing against what they see as a regression, to the people working in the entertainment industry (where people immerse themselves more and more), to the police keeping it together, to the therapists who have to ensure we all don't go crazy. And little by little, he starts to show things falling apart at the seams, as each character gets a tiny piece of the puzzle and are drawn together, as we finally see the extent of the plan and what some people will do to make society more in their own image. For me the book works better in the beginning, when we're exploring the society and all the little quirks of it. Yes, it's not as dense as Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar but not much is, and Bear sprinkles enough quotes and excerpts in between chapters that we can get a good feel for things without being overwhelmed. As the various plots start to come together and the mysteries stand revealed, the characterization starts to take a backseat to rapidly cutting back and forth between what's going on and people reacting to what's going on and thus things paradoxically start to lose a little bit of steam. The steps to reach the climax seem to take quite a while to get there for no good reason and part of me just wanted him to get on with it and have bodies start dropping. Plus, after starting out with a whole slew of characters, toward the end we're only focusing on a few and the rest are just bystanders, which was a little disapointing. But the pace moves swiftly enough and Bear deserves a lot of credit for writing a novel where everything isn't spelled out for us and for showing a future that is better in some ways but still not perfect. There's always room for improvement. But it feels like SF with some thought actually put into the science while managing to tell an entertaining story without having the book sit there and lecture us about stuff that we may or may not care about all that m

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.

This is a totally engrossing book. The plot isn't overloaded with suspense or action - until the climax, when things speed up a little - but the density of the near-future world that Bear creates is incredible. He invents neologisms that are seamlessly integrated into his world, and he tells his story in an information-dense present tense style that efficiently and completely illustrates the near future. He sprinkles the text with references to newscasts, nonfiction works, and technical excerpts, all of which are inventions of the author. Those features, along with the realistic, everyday 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. Involved in preventing this scheme are a policewoman, a self-aware AI, and a psychiatrist, all of whom first appeared in Bear's novel "Queen of Angels". There is also a team of saboteurs seeking to infiltrate and destroy Omphalos, the group's giant headquarters, for hidden reasons of their own; and the middle-class family and call-girl who are also entangled. The book moves at a steady, reasonable pace which adds to the realism. There are no action 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. One noticeable strength is that Bear is never didactic: he certainly has his own point of view, but he lets his characters, even the snobbish neo-Luddites, argue their beliefs and defend their actions, without casting judgment from above. 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. 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.

I agree completely with those critics who have written of the difficulty of getting involved with this book. Greg Bear is obviously not afraid to make substantial demands on his readers, but rightfully so, in my opinion. The first six chapters (72 pages) introduce a large number of seemingly unrelated characters--the course of the novel will see them interact eventually, but that does not happen for quite some time, and the reader is left wondering where the book is going. That the story takes completely unexpected paths repeatedly was one of its delights for me--I can honestly say that it was totally unpredictable and convincing nonetheless. Further demands on the reader are made with the use of future vocabulary--Bear condescends to no one with lengthy explanations of the terms the characters use, preferring to let us figure them out in context as best we can. This quality and complexity of writing, along with Bear's deeply grim vision of the future, reminded me of John Brunner's novel Stand on Zanzibar. Slant is an exploration of a world driven by the twin forces of nanotechnology and mental therapy, and Bear seems uncannily precognisant of the issues that are likely to arise. Thus sex, Hollywood, the military, politics, religion and personal freedom are all involved in one of the most sophisticated and well-thought out plots I've read in years. Quotes from a future book, Alive Contains a Lie (reminiscent of Brunner's The Hipcrime Vocab) allow Bear to get a bit preachy at times, moralizing as events allow: "Conservative elitists rule much of modern religion, making it a branch of the Entertainment State. So sayeth the evangelistic moneychanger in the dataflow temple: Money can buy peace and salvation! Good works count for nothing against an ever-growing pile of status. Conservatism is not about tradition and morality, hasn't been for many decades...It is about money and the putative biological and spiritual superiority of the wealthy." To be fair, liberals come in for an equally harsh treatment--in fact, Bear's depressingly disturbing future vision is clearly a result of the clash of values between conservatism and liberalism and the failure of a humanistic approach to life. If you are unafraid to engage the world of ideas and willing to pay the cost, Slant is a marvelous book, and I highly recommend it. (Although Slant is technically a sequel to Queen of Angels, one need not have read the previous book to understand Slant, although there are a few references to prior events, and certain characters return.) If, instead, you prefer light entertainment, go rent a video of Men in Black.

Have patience, or else Bear will bore you to death with the first two thirds of this book. Unfortunately he needs it to unravel the story. He does something fairly similar in EON, which is a better book, where you have to patiently read through 300 pages of mediocre plus writing in order to get to 200 of the best pages of fiction ever written.Slant is exciting. Bear is courageous enough to write about a future only 70 years away. His heroes are real and the story, after its snail starts, finishes like lightening.