Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780006511380
Edition: New Ed
ISBN: 0006511384
Label: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Number Of Pages: 448
Publication Date: May 15, 2000
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Studio: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.co.uk Review:
Greg Bear notoriously reworks traditional SF themes in his own special way. His first success, Blood Music (1985), features an intelligent plague which seems destructive but eventually recreates humanity in new, transcendent form--echoing Arthur C. Clarke's rough-hewn 1953 classic Childhood's End. Darwin's Radio revisits this territory but foregrounds scientific, medical and political reactions to disaster; it's reminiscent of a Michael Crichton technothriller. The menace is a "new" virus, SHEVA, which is in fact very old--embedded in a ancient human DNA sequences and now emerging as "Herod's 'Flu", which in pregnant women always forces miscarriage. Chillingly, US health aauthorities first see this threat as something to boost funding, while conservative scientists suppress research into the bizarre reality of what's happening. Evidence from Neanderthal remains and Stalin's mass graves hints that SHEVA is no disease but evolution in action. Human genomes everywhere, linked by the subtle network of "Darwin's radio", are activating Plan B: the creation of a new species. Then, with the world racked by panic, riots, death cults and martial law, SHEVA begins to mutate ... Tense stuff, though some biological info-dumps are tough going, and it's awkwardly paced towards the end when nine months are needed for the biologist heroine's own pregnancy, leading to... but that would be telling. This is a fearfully plausible scientific thriller. --David L Langford




Rating: - Very unusual book
A great tale

unfortunately the book ends just where the real questions are asked -so I have to get the second volume now.

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Rating: - Darwin's radio
A great book about our next evolutionary step and how the public and government react to it. There is a lot of science in the book, but not prohibitively so, and it is interesting to see how government departments react to mass illnesses and fight for control of how it should be dealt with. An original premise, well told and perfect commuting and lunchtime reading. I agree with other reviewers that the short chapters make it easy to fly through this book, which only seems to add to the pace of ... Read More

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Rating: - Science Fiction with actual science
I first read this book when a friend leant it to me after telling me that there was too much science for her liking and that I'd probably enjoy it. She was right.

After the inital shock of just how much science there was in the book I settled into it surprisingly quickly. The characters were well developed, the story fast paced enough to keep me interested. And the chapters were short enough to keep me happy - I knew that I had time to read them practically anywhere.

All in ... Read More

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Rating: - good stuff, but a cop out i think
a superb premise. well thought out. far too much science in it, despite doing some molecular biology at university a decade ago, i found the science tricky to follow in places.
not enough characterisation though. and not enough about what is going on in the general public. far too much about the politic s in the academic and political world.
good read if you are commuting.

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Rating: - OK
this book is ok...had no idea what all the science words meant, but there's a glossary at the back which at least gives you a vague idea of what all of them are talking about. and there's a lot of them - so many characters it's hard to keep track...and so many different angencies...i prob didn't really take in any of the character's names or what they did because i was waiting impatiently for something amazing to happen. the book's premise is amazing, but it's execution was a bit stuttered. that ... Read More

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