[WhiteWolf]

I did a search for discussions about this author and found a few, but nothing that was both in-depth and generalized. So here's a new one.

Many years ago I read THE FORGE OF GOD and loved it. It was a straight end-of-the-world story at the hands of alien machines, but it was written in a clear style, moved quickly, and had enjoyable, multidimensional characters. So I went out and bought the sequel, ANVIL OF STARS, and my dog ate it. Seriously. I never got back to picking it up again, but have thought about it often. I'll get back to that.

Then I picked up a collection of short stories by Bear, and found many of them to be smart, entertaining, and very original. Some of them even reminding me of the best of Harlan Ellison. The short story version of BLOOD MUSIC was particularly memorable, especially having been written so early on in the development of nanotechnology and science-fiction's exploration of its implications.

Then I read DARWIN'S RADIO. Great book. Some of the characters were genuinely unlikeable and I think their ambiguity was done purposely and worked well. Parts of the book were confusing and the writing seemed more unsteady than anything I've read by Bear previously, but it didn't ruin anything about the book for me.

Then it all started to fall apart for me. I bought VITALS on the discount shelf and it was atrocious. I mean unreadable. Bear bungled point-of-view storytelling so badly in this book that the actual events became murky and caused headaches while attempting to comprehend. I knew there was a good idea somewhere in there that Bear started out with, but he lost it and therefore lost this reader. I got halfway through it and wanted to set it on fire, but settled for just closing it and never looking back. I actually felt insulted that Bear expected people who bought the book to read it.

But hey, writers are allowed to have some misses here and there, right? And I liked everything else well enough up until this point, so I couldn't very well discard Bear and move him to my "Authors to Avoid" list yet, could I?

Well, then I got QUANTICO. Couldn't finish it. Like VITALS, I knew there was a good, original story idea somewhere hiding in the walls of the book, but I just couldn't wonder around forever in there looking for it. A very cliched cop book, boring characters and way too much time spent on FBI bureaucracy.

I have DEAD LINES sitting on my shelf. I want to read DARWIN'S CHILDREN. I'd like to go back and read ANVIL OF STARS. But I'm becoming tired of Greg Bear.

So I need a little help and guidance from anyone else who has read this author more extensively and might have some advice on how to proceed. Anybody else have this problem?

:confused:

[B5B7]

I read Quantico and liked it, and read Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children (in the wrong order), and I agree he can be hard to read. His most recent book that I tried to read was City at the End of Time and I found it difficult going and gave up after about 100 pages (there is a thread here where others also mention not finishing reading it). I'm not sure what the problem is that causes readers to struggle to read it - it had some interesting concepts (although with a strong fantasy tinge), and maybe I will give it another go one day.

[metalprof]

My own experience with Greg Bear is also very hit or miss. Some of his books I really like, and others I don't like at all. And as typical for me, the books I don't like sometimes tend to be the ones that are highly favored by others.

Bear books I've really liked: Eon, Eternity, Forge of God, Anvil of Stars, Heads, Moving Mars, Psychlone, The Infinity Concerto, Serpent Mage.

Books I really didn't like: Hegira, Queen of Angels, /, Darwin's Radio, Legacy, Corona (his Star Trek book).

I was lukewarm on Blood Music, so use that as an indication of how out of whack I am, since many consider that his best.

There are many others I haven not read.

I guess my recommendation is to read his fantasy pair next (Infinity Concerto, Serpent Mage), since it may be refreshing to try something that's not SF. You can find these bundled in the volume Songs of Earth and Power.

Ken

[nquixote]

Reading Greg Bear is like reading something written by a genius extraterrestrial...

[WhiteWolf]

I think what I'm going to do is go ahead and read DEAD LINES, since I already have it. It seems to be an homage to writers of the "ghost story," with a dedication page that lists authors such as H.P. Lovecraft, Richard Matheson, Ramsey Campbell, Dean Koontz, Peter Straub, Stephen King and Clive Barker. That might make it appropriate enough to pick up around the Halloween season.

Based on how that one goes, I guess, I'll pick up ANVIL OF STARS and read that next year some time. That's the one I really want to get back to.

Although I think metalprof has a good idea about picking up SONGS OF EARTH AND POWER, since I already know I enjoy his short work. Bear might be one of those writers, like Stephen King, who gets distracted very easily once he is deep into a long novel, but excels when he keeps his word count down.

I get the feeling that his "harder" SF novels might be better than his techno-thrillers, like VITALS and QUANTICO.

EON looked intriguing, but I'm wary of books like that after reading the Gentry Lee RAMA sequels, which were terrible in my opinion.

[Rob B]

I went through mini-Greg Bear phase almost a decade ago, reading Eon and its sequel, Darwin's Radio, Songs of Earth and Power. I liked all of them.

Then, I read City at the End of Time (http://www.sffworld.com/brevoff/475.html) earlier last year and thought it very disappointing, to say the least. Just click on my review.

[WhiteWolf]

I remember reading that when you first wrote it, and your phrase "chaotic narrative" jumped out at me.

I can't ever say that Bear hasn't been an author with good ideas, and original story lines, but some of his books have just plain jumbled writing. The worst part of it is that I know he can be a good writer, and I often wonder if it is just the editing and polishing phase of publishing his novels that is lacking. A couple of them just leave you feeling like you want them to be good, and they just aren't. Like he needs to put a little more emphasis on the quality of the writing, or at least as much as he does on the ideas and concepts. Know what I mean?

[Ash]

Eon is a great sense of wonder book. Don't let anyone tell you its become politicaly dated either. It has in fact become an alternate history novel and an excellent one at that.

I think city at the end of time is overly ambitious and helishly confusing. I wish I both liked it and understood what the heck was going on, but sadly I dont.

[Werthead]

Greg Bear has written two good novels: Eon and Blood Music.

He's then gotten a few other okay books like The Forge of God and that Star Wars novel he did, Rogue Planet.

Pretty much everything else he's done is very meh, at best.

Of the Killer Bs, by far the most consistent is David Brin, who's never written anything that's really bad. Bear and Benford both peaked early and have been phoning it in for the last twenty years or so.

[WhiteWolf]

Hmm. Well, if I get past DEAD LINES and ANVIL OF STARS then I'll look into reading EON.

And I'll consider looking in on David Brin. Definitely heard of him before.

Funny. Never heard of them called "The Killer B's, but I've noticed the abundance in that section of the SF shelf at the bookstore. I like it.