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 Legacy by Greg Bear
reviewed by XXXXX
Original appearance: Albedo one issue ??, date?
Is there such a thing as a stand-alone novel any more? It seems like every book I see these days is volume x in the n volume series. Even debut novels come with a sub-title that invariably reads something like - The First Book In The Magnificent ***** Trilogy. So where does the poor sod who is just starting out go? Particularly if he wants to read the latest by well known authors, rather than trolling through their back catalogues.
Greg Bear is one of the most highly thought of contemporary SF writers but, for whatever strange reason, I have never actually read anything by him before. So when LEGACY appeared I figured it was an opportunity to correct the aberration. Admittedly, the novel was sub-titled A Magnificent Return To The Universe Of Eon, but as it was not namechecked as Volume X in the series, I thought I would be pretty safe with it - why would publishers wish to launch a novel that was inaccessible to new readers?
Well, I don't know the answer to the previous question but Mr Bear has made few concessions to readers not familiar with the Universe Of Eon or its infinitely long artificial universe, the Way. (The italicised phrase is lifted directly from the book jacket because I frankly still do not quite understand the concept of the Way. It is never covered in LEGACY as it is not central to the plot. The problem is, it is referred to constantly as it is important to the characters who inhabit the novel.)
Okay, maybe I'm being unfair to Greg Bear. Maybe he doesn't want readers to start with Legacy. Maybe he wants us all to go to the first novel in the series. But hell, if that's the case, why doesn't the novel come with a warning: READ EON FIRST. That said, after about forty or fifty pages of LEGACY I stopped being confused and ignored the gaps in the background information. Which meant I could get down to reading the book on its own merits.
Possibly, as a non-fan, it is unfair of me to review this book. But I don't think so. It must stand or fall on its own merits, no matter how high the quality of what has preceded it. By those standards LEGACY is pretty poor fare. The plot concerns a planet which has been discovered and a group of political dissidents who have colonised it. Olmy, a young agent of the government (The Hexamon) is sent to investigate the unauthorised settlement and the planet itself.
Life on Lamarkia has evolved differently from the rest of the known universe. Here, an entire continent may be inhabited by one single multi-faceted vegetable consciousness. Each of these consciousnesses has been named by the inhabitants - the one where Olmy arrives is called Elizabeth - and each has a separate personality. Although there is political intrigue between the human factions on Lamarkia, this serves as a mere backdrop to Olmy's exploration of the planet. This exploration fortunately coincides with a major scientific expedition on behalf of one Lamarkian faction who take him along as they are short of trained staff.
If you like sense of wonder explorations of an alien presence (culture? artefact?) then LEGACY may indeed be the book for you. The characters are well drawn, as one would expect from a novelist with the stellar reputation of Greg Bear, but I'm afraid they failed to engage me, as did their quest for answers to the mystery which is life on Lamarkia and their war with an opposing human splinter group. Overall, I found the novel unrewarding and definitely not worth the investment of time or money necessary. Greg Bear fans should wait for the paperback. If they must.
New Legends, edited by Greg Bear
reviewed by Underview
Original appearance: Albedo one issue 11, 1996
Did you know that New Legends edited by Greg Bear is The Original SF Anthology for the 90's and Beyond? Me neither, so I'm glad it was pointed out to me on the cover. Otherwise I'd have missed the point altogether. I'd have also failed to understand just why the stories in it are so crap.
Obviously Bear has set out to create a worthy, meaningful anthology that would define a time and place, very much in the way Dangerous Visions summed up its generation. What he's got is a load of po-faced posturings from writers who should know better. If this is what Science fiction is going to be about in the next ten years then I'm sorry folks, but as Bob Dylan once said A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall. I'd prefer if the falling thing was a piano and the area it landed was on the X which marks the spot in which Greg Bear is standing when it falls. Because this sort of thing gives SF a bad name.
Rather than allowing the writers free rein, letting them explore the far corners of their minds, he must have presented them with a set of guidelines that froze their creativity in their veins. No other explanation could account for the turgid gunk he has published. New Legends reads like Analog Magazine on a bad day. Sure there are well known writers between the covers like Greg Bear himself, Ursula K. LeGuin and Gregory Benford but they're only there because it's a market that pays well. If they've got good stuff it's gone by express messenger to Asimov's.
Shame on you, Greg Bear. You should know better.
Hegira by Greg Bear
reviewed by John Kenny
Original appearance: FTL 7, Winter 1990
Bear's first novel, and already the seeds of what was to come in his later work are evident towards the end of the book.
On the world of Hegira great obelisks rise into the sky, inscribed on their sides the accumulated knowledge of their forefathers.Every year the world's inhabitants try to develop better technoloy to get them further up the sides of the obelisks and tyr to decipher the writing.
However, greater mysteries remain. Like who put the great stones there? Why do they start to fall? Bar-Woten and Kiril set out on a quest to find answers to their questions and discover some far-reaching revelations about their planet. A good read.
 Slant by Greg Bear
reviewed by Lynne Ann Morse
Original appearance: First Contact Issue n, vol 2, 1997
The temptation to call Slant "just another cybernovel" is very strong; but to do so would be unfair, as the novel is so much more. It's not just any old romp through technologically-generated "spaces," but rather an attempt to get into the human experience of living through a society that's turning itself inside out, due in no small measure to the very technological advances embraced by those humans.
In the not-so-distant past of Slant, nano-technologies have been applied to the problem of mental disease. Human beings stretched to their limits are provided with a veritable nano-toolbox, to return their systems to productive functioning. While prejudice against the Therapied is considered bad manners, there still exists an undercurrent of resentment toward them by the "naturals"; that the Therapied are only getting along by relying on a crutch, and draining society of vitality and of rewards that "rightfully" belong to the naturals. And a small group of them are willing to go to great lengths to right the balance....
Slant opens as an ex-soldier is planning the robbery of what he believes to be just a fancy tomb for the super rich.
Concurrently, a very rich man approaches a Therapist, desperate for emergency but secret treatment, because he would lose his standing with his natural friends. But the Therapist must refuse him. Meanwhile, the police have happened on a scene on unutterable abuse, involving human beings transformed into genitalia-ridden sex-toys... and the money trail leads back to the rich man.
But when he commits suicide, it's not just because of a guilty conscience. Records are erased in a way pointing to some other force moving beyond the shadows, one connecting the cryogenic tomb for rich folks and the ominous failure of the technologies keeping the Therapied able to support the collective structures of their society.
My main difficulties with Slant have to do with its length. Even that complaint isn't as bad as it might sound, because the prose itself is clear and given to the occasional flash of sparkling insight. However, several expository passages interrupted the flow of the plot; as important as the information was, I was still changing at the bit, ready to move on to Cereal" action. Not every bit of expository prose disturbed the flow: a discussion between two characters, considering the problem of Therapied fallbacks, worked very well indeed. In another successful instance, a flashback sequence from the old soldier serves to deftly bring the reader up to speed about the current politics.
The length of the book also obscured several clues about the conspiracy, which came to light only after I read it a second time for this review. They drown in a welter of other interesting details, perhaps the author meant to mirror the characters' own information overload. A bit less verisimilitude on this point might have created more involvement, more "punch" from the story, instead of diluting the reader's attention.
On the plus side, however, are a stable of interesting and varied characters, each tugged this way and that by the sheer scale of their world. The epigraphs heading the chapters enrich the experience of reading Slant; my favourite "threads" were the ones giving me the impression I was looking over someone's shoulder at some search through the whole network, and excerpts from a novel "Alive Contains A Lie" by Kiss of X. There is the presence of two artificial, self-aware intelligences, "thinkers," who curiously outside of the plot even as they become central to it. Their dialogues on the ethics of hurting humans are clear and dispassionate-sounding, but contain the power and awesome inevitability of glaciers. The conspiracy loops back on itself in a way that reveals to one of its new recruits its utter hypocrisy, and yet leaves enough for he and his family to start over. Yet not all is a happy ending. Real and permanent changes are wrought in the fabric of human minds.
Extra good news is that this is a sequel to Queen of Angels. Not that you had to have read that to enjoy Slant.
However, several characters recur from it, so in a sense, there's more where that came from, if you want it.
Overall, Slant was fun enough .... so, who'd like to borrow the book from me?
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