| Author: |
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Greg Bear
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| Title: |
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Queen of Angels |
| Moochable copies: |
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No copies available |
| Recommended: |
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| Topics: |
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| Published in: |
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English |
| Binding: |
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Hardcover |
| Pages: |
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432 |
| Date: |
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1980-01-01 |
| ISBN: |
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0446514004 |
| Publisher: |
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Grand Central Publishing |
| Weight: |
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1.76 pounds |
| Size: |
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6.22 x 9.06 x 1.73 inches |
| Edition: |
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1st Edition |
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| Description: |
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Amazon Review
Eon and Eternity may have sold more copies, but Queen of Angels is Greg Bear's masterpiece; a novel of extraordinary richness and depth. The depth isn't immediately evident; the showy, well handled murder plotline keeps you reading, the many futuristic and mind-tickling ideas keep popping up to make you think, and the vaguely experimental division of the text between different viewpoints can be a little distracting. But at the core of this book is an exploration of the nature of consciousness as profound as any in literature. Martin Burke is a psychologist who investigates the motivations for a murder in a society, using nanotechnology to explore the Country of the Mind. AXIS is a sophisticated computer that has travelled to a distant planet. The two journeys of exploration are paralleled, but in their different ways they prove relative dead-ends. Bear's masterstroke is surreptitiously to delineate the shift of another sophisticated computer, JILL, from a linear intelligence based on processing data to a self-aware sentient intelligence that is a genuine consciousness. These passages at the novel's conclusion are amongst the most affecting things Bear has written. It is true that aspects of this novel work less well; it is, for instance, in part an exploration of the role race plays in society, something that doesn't gel entirely. But overall it embodies exactly what Science Fiction does best--philosophical investigation into the mystery of consciousness expressed in an popular and accessible form. You finish the novel changed. A masterpiece of the genre; the author really does deserve the appellation The Great Bear. --Adam Roberts
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| Reviews: |
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Psybre (USA: IA) (2007/01/04):
Being already an avid fan of Greg Bear perhaps taints my review of this magnificent examination of punishment as a tool for social cohesion. I agree with Mark L. Irons who says, "Bear is firing on all cylinders for the first time since Blood Music." Diverse writing styles for different characters in different "states of being/thinking" were wonderful. A particular approach to language in explaining psychotropic-like scenes, perhaps not as poetic as Zelazny, but with a unique voice, was quite pleasant. As I do not rate books, I can only strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in one of the following: psychiatry, punishment, neurology, the Dominican Republic or Haiti, social class division by choice, writing, good literature. Readers especially averse to literature involving a lot of science and science-related topics might wish to avoid this novel.
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| URL: |
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http://bookmooch.com/0446514004 |
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