The thread linking these books is very thin - that was disappointing...but the quality of Legacy goes beyond either of the other two books.

It reminded me a great deal of the grand adventure novels of an earlier age. Even a little taste of Charles Dickens in places, though you might have to look hard. You can allow yourself to get caught in the storytelling as long as you aren't too upset by the fact that this novel drops much of the fururistic science fiction in favour of a nostalgic seafaring epic with elements of the fantastic that are natural wonders rather than technological ones.

Bear shows his craft well in this book, and I kept thinking "What a spectacular film this would make!" Each new twist had me smiling to myself in appreciation of the way that he had interested me in a world that I was initially dishearted to find after reading the other two related books in this series.

Drop the expectations of another "EON" and you may find yourself loving this book more than the other two.

A pleasant surprise to be sure. Though I still hope for another book in the series to continue the EON series and make up for "Eternity"'s weak spots.


Misleading   December 6, 2003
 6 out of 9 found this review helpful

I am a huge Bear fan-but this book reminds me of Orson Scott Card milking his Enders Game success ad nauseaum.
The most charitable explanation I can think of is that Bear didn't even write this book-perhaps it is ghost written. The connection to EON and ETERNITY is laughable.
If you are in the mood for an Edgar Rice Burroughs style Tarzan novel from the 30's -you might find this interesting.
I wouldn't have minded this too much if Bear had been honest about this book and not tried to connect it to EON/ETERNITY. It might have worked as a stand alone fantasy adventure. Hardcore science fiction-this is not. Its going rate of 40 cents on the used list is a good gauge of the value of this book. If I could get my money back-I would.


Davey Jones and some wierd plantlike things   April 22, 2003
 5 out of 9 found this review helpful

While I was able to make it thru the entire book, I'm thankful that I didn't spend hard cash on it, and instead checked it out of a library.

The story of Olmy started out in a very good way, in a nice hard-style sci-fi environment that started to grab my imagination. But that changed once he came to Lamarckia via the Way. After that, I could have been reading a sappy hard-life novel of some people in some jungle somewhere, with a major sea travel thrown in. I didn't care about the secondary characters in the story, I didn't care about the had times on board a sailboat, and I didn't care about the large plant-like creature, who was the only interesting point about the story apart from the Way and the technological environment from where the story began.
Through the entire book I was expecting some sort of discovery of some sort of large-scale ecologic intelligence, (like Jerry Pournelle's STARSWARM) but there's no payoffs for all of your determined reading. Things are vaguely explained, hinted at, and in the end I realized that there was just no substance to the mystetries that Mr. Bear tried to hook me with.

Here's a paraphrase of the entire book:

Some guy from a very interesting place goes on a vague mission of discovery to a very wierd place. There, he becomes part of the hard-knock life. Eventually he falls in love with a girl because she's "simple" while working as a deck-hand on a sailing ship. while sailing they see wierd things and suffer more hardships. Then a war happens with small numbers of people using primitive cannons and other weapons, then he's rescued somehow and is back in the interesting place talking about his experience.


Fairly entertaining but not worth the time invested   April 17, 2005
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This was a fairly entertaining book with some remarkable ideas and concepts but I felt like it never achieved its full potential. I also found it to be a very frustrating book because it constantly got bogged down in dull forest and ocean adventuring at the expense of exploring the interesting sci-fi concepts that are introduced in the book (far too infrequently, I might add). It explores a tiny bit of the early history of Thistledown at the very beginning of the book but never returns to it, instead continuing the rest of the book on the planet of Lamarckia. The book begins with a lot of promise but quickly descends into boring planet exploration for hundreds of pages. The unique flora and fauna of the planet, although fascinating, are not enough to hold the interest of the reader for 400+ pages. There is so little action that actually takes place in the Way that it is difficult to connect this book with Eon at all, never mind calling it a prequel. Overall, the book was mildly enjoyable and I recommend it to those that want the complete story of the Eon world, but otherwise it's not worth the time it takes to plow through it.


Slow moving tale   May 20, 2006
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

One thing I enjoyed about Bear's books such as Anvil of Stars and Eon is his ability to keep the action going. This book, sadly, just drags along, and the action is mostly mundane adventure, unrelated to science fiction. This book really has nothing to do with Eon, except for a few short chapters at the beginning and the end. Ser Olmy enters a weird planet through a gate and the book takes place there. The science fiction angle is uninspired. If you were intrigued by the physics and mystery of the Way, don't follow Olmy through this gate. Surely, Bear has much more to offer than this.