In Darwin's Children, the first generation of new humans are growing up, and there's enormous government tension engendered by their presence, the fear of them as a contagious virus that needs to be contained, etc. (In the real world, I suspect the response to 'new' humans would be far more savage and deadly, but perhaps the author didn't want to go there.)

Mitch and Kay, and their new human daughter Stella, are key protagonists in this novel, but not the only players: every chapter in the book switches - irritatingly - from one character point of view to another.

As is so often the case with science fiction, the science becomes the protagonist, with the human characters often little more than mouthpieces for lengthy disserations on various scientifica topics - in this book for example, evolutonary and viral biology (though Bear provides a glossary at the back for the jargon-challenged).

I suppose this would have all been fine, except nothing really happens in Darwin's Children. There are tensions. Stella grows up. Mitch and Kay have relationship issues. There's a very touching archaeological find of mixed races buried in 30,000 years of old lava (CAN two races of humanoids work together???). Oh, and Kay has an epiphany - which is all very interesting - but ultimately has little bearing on either the story or the development of Kay's character.

In short, after rushing out to buy the book in hardcover, I was left feeling flat. Perhaps this was a book Bear didn't want to write anyway - but his publisher made him....


The Death Throes of a Formerly Healthy Career   September 13, 2004
 11 out of 13 found this review helpful

Prior to 1997, Greg Bear had written some of the best big-concept hard sci-fi in the genre. For some reason, after the publication of Slant, he decided he was through with sci-fi, and went on to write more accessible works. And accessible this is! Once you get past the concept that there exists a group of mutant children who talk to each other with their freckles, you've got a run-of-the-mill medical mystery clearly aimed at mass-market acceptance.

Regardless of what you think of Mr. Bear's career direction (i.e., striving to become the next Michael Creighton or Robin Cook), Darwin's Children has a large number of faults with the prose itself.

First off, the book is just flat-out boring. There are no new or interesting ideas presented above what was introduced in Darwin's Radio. Likewise, the book's few major events could have been compressed into a volume about one-third the size. However, plenty of space is given over to turgid descriptions of people's outfits and clumsy inner monologues. There is a limit to how many times you can read "They've taken my child!" before the intended effect wears off.

What's worse is that the book devotes entire chapters to politics and political wrangling. If reading about testifying in front of congressional subcommittees sounds exciting, this might be the book for you.

On the other hand, characterization is kept to a minimum. Almost all the characters in the book are wooden, and by the end of the novel you're left with - at best - apathy towards them. However, one protagonist (Kaye) is such a selfish princess that you'll wish you could reach through page and slap some sense into her.

Perhaps the book's biggest flaw is the injection of religion / mysticism into the storyline. It would appear that Mr. Bear has "found God" - or at least had some profound religious experience in real life - and wants to make sure you know it. The "can't we all just get along" ending is also rather heavy-handed and serves as a perfect anticlimax to this sad volume.

Do yourself a favor, and pick up a copy of Wil McCarthy's excellent "Lost in Transmission" for some great ideas and fresh storytelling. Or go back and read "Eon" or "Anvil of Stars" again - reading Darwin's Children will only serve to disappoint.


Worth reading for its thought-provoking subject but flawed.   June 2, 2003
 10 out of 19 found this review helpful

The "Darwin's Radio--Darwin's Children" novels had the potential to be truly great science fiction. In these novels, Greg Bear speculates about the future of human evolution as well as its possible mechanism. I freely admit that some of Bear's science was over my head, however, he does manage to explain much of it in a clear fashion that is often quite interesting.

Let me begin by saying that I enjoyed "Darwin's Children" and read it in a long afternoon. However, it disappoints the reader due to nonexistant character development, a murky and essentially nonexistent plot, a storyline that jumps around more than an old 78 rpm record, intrusive political preaching, and a strange tendency for all of the strong (physically and mentally) characters to be women and all of the men to be eunuchs.

Instead of focusing on the basics, like character development, plot, and a clear storyline, Bear inexplicably starts taking subtle jabs at conservative politics. An ill patient's body "is like a body run by House Republicans..." The novel's portrayal mistreatment of the evolved children by the Government is a not very subtle allegory of post-911 anti-terrorism measures. This would be OK if there was a storyline and plot (authors are entitled to push their ideologies--that's part of what writing is for) but there just isn't. The novel (if that's what it was) simply describes what is happening to the evolved children and a couple of their parents. The story is murky and erratic.

In the "Kim Stanley Robinson" tradition, all of the strong characters in this novel are women. Every single one. The men are a form of 21st century eunuch--these chaps tend to follow along behind their women, care for the children, and mostly stay out of the way. In this novel you will find women "standing guard," running huge multinational companies, being cops, running Congress, and leading all scientific discovery. Hey, I'm all for equal rights, but where did the men go and what happened to them? I guess the same thing that happened in the Robinson Mars novels. They shrank and disappeared.

Now, Bear plainly seems to have decided to speculate about human evolution rather than write a novel, which might have been OK, except that Bear does not do a very good job telling us what the evolved people are really like. We learn that they communicate by smell a lot, and that women are in control among them (naturally) but that's about it. Are they more intelligent? Do they live longer? Are they physically more healthy? We never really learn.

Not that it matters all that much, but I found the notion that the evolved humans communicated alot by smell to be unlikely. This is a trait many animals have (a dog's sense of smell is literally a million times more acute than a human's) and I personally am unconvinced that this retrograde trait is something humans are evolving towards. But I digress.

An interesting read, but this novel and its prequel could have been much more had Bear paid more attention to the traditional jobs of the novelist: plot, storyline, and character development.


More human than DARWIN'S RADIO   April 27, 2003
 9 out of 12 found this review helpful

First, I do urge you to read DARWIN'S RADIO first, although I feel this is the better novel of the two. However, it is necessary to know the background of the earlier book to thoroughly enjoy the second.

One difficulty I did have with both books is the multitude of characters. So many are introduced and so few really have any importance to the story. This however, is a minor flaw.

While there is a lot of biological background explored in this book, it's easier to take and intrudes less into the plot than it did in the first. More emphasis is given to the human characters, especially the daughter who naturally is a focal point of interest.

The mother becomes more fleshed out also. Her "epiphany" adds interest. The first book stressed her atheism, and therefore, her experience is very interesting, and does have its effect on the character and, in turn, her effect on the plotline. The author deals with this subject in an objective manner so that the reader can accept it as something that does happen to some people or reject it as overactive imagination.

All in all, the two books together comprise one of the better science fiction works.