| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 340.1 | Another Yes! vote | NRPUR::MULLAN | | Thu Nov 19 1987 18:47 | 8 |
| I agree! It was a great book. And some of his descriptive scenes!
***Possible Spoiler***
The description of Vergil's girlfriend "melting" down the drain
sent chills up my spine!
-mishel
|
| 340.2 | | FSDB00::BRANAM | Waiting for Personnel... | Thu Aug 22 1991 19:19 | 11 |
| Still my favorite of Bear's. This is some really imaginative stuff. There is an
anthology of his (mostly forgettable) early work which includes the original
short story. The novel does a stretch job on the story, so the ending parts are
similar, but fills it out very well. The novel also ends with some wild stuff
about the nature of reality. His latest novel, "Queen of Angels", continues
the concept, although not as a primary theme, in which we have gone beyond
microelectronics to nanoelectronics (actually bioelectronics). Everything is
nano-manufactured: food, buildings, art, etc. Everything can be pervaded by
nano watchers and searchers (the main character is a lady cop) that can send
back video and root out the most minute evidence. Haven't finished it yet, but
it's good.
|
| 340.3 | In..my..own..words | VCSESU::BRANAM | Steve, VAXcluster Sys Supp Eng MRO1-3/SL1, DTN 297-2625 | Thu Oct 31 1991 14:23 | 16 |
| Not the latest Bear note, but to follow up on my previous reply: Q of A is
good...until the end. I was very disappointed in it. There are roughly four
threads running through this book. They are intertwined, but you keep waiting
for some real convergence. They never really do. (Spoiler->) One of the main
characters, about whom the rest of the threads revolve, kills himself just when
things are really cracking. Oh, gee, well, everybody go home then. End of
story. There is no climax. It just falls off. This is as lame an ending as
Haldeman's Hemingway Hoax. I find it really annoying when an author writes
himself into a corner and then just gives up. If he can't be creative enough
to do something about it, he shouldn't publish the book!! Or at least he should
revise it so the problem doesn't show up in the first place. Q of A needs
another hundred or so pages to wrap up what happens after the guy kills himself.
And while I'm raving, what was all that AXIS stuff? It was so pedantic that it
was useless as atmospheric background. I kept thinking it would have some
bearing on the story, but it never did. Was this book just an exercise in
disappointment?
|
| 340.4 | | SQM::TRUMPLER | Help prevent truth decay. | Fri Nov 01 1991 15:33 | 17 |
| Re .3 (QofA spoilers):
I thought that all of the threads were quite clearly related, even if
the pace was somewhat slow (to be polite). I don't think it ever
occurred to me that the threads would converge in a physical sort of
way, but then what would have been gained by that?
In re AXIS:
The AXIS stuff was not "atmospheric background." I thought it was
quite clearly related to the subject matter of the book (nature of
intelligence and self-awareness). Of course, I didn't realize this
right away.
I was not very disappointed by this book. It had flaws, but I still
think it's worth reading.
>Mark
|