Greg Bear - Deadlines.

[tom_hobbes]

I highly recommend it. It's a present day science fiction horror, pretty much in keeping with his another recent sci-fi horror novel <i>Vitals</i>. (I highly recomend <i>Darwin's Radio</i> as well, though haven't yet got around to reading it's sequel, <i>Darwins Children</i>.)<br /><br />The premise behind <i>Deadlines</i> is a new breakthrough in communications TRANS which utilises the 'empty' interstices of creation, the quantum bandwidth well below the atomic level both as an energy source and medium for storing and transmitting information. <br /><br />Here's part of how it's inventor describes TRANS to the protagonist, Peter Russel, a former soft porn director at the end of his tether after the death of his daughter and his best friend:<br /><br />'We never feel it,' Kreisler said. 'Trans reaches below our world, lower than networks used by atoms or subatomic particles, to where it is very quiet. Down there is a deeper silence than we can know, a great emptiness. Huge bandwidth, perhaps infinite capacity. It can handle all our noise, all our talk, anything we have to say, throughout all eternity. Even should we expand to populate entire galaxy, we can never hope to fill it.' He approached the white board with marker in hand. 'Are you mathematician, Mr Russell?'<br /><br />But those dark quiet places aren't empty or quiet. When these conduits of communication are filled with our chatter, some of that darkeness sparks across to our reality, revealing things not meant to be seen by the living.<br /><br />There are some lovely touches throughout the book, such as the location of the communications hub of TRANS, which is sited with geek pride in the gas chamber of former San Andreas prison, now offices for the brilliantly drawn communications and marketing nerds. Or the new age guru and her psychic friend from whom russel is paid to extract imponderable answers for his billionare benefactor. <br /><br />When Russel is roped into marketing the product through his associations <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#339966"> I wish I could remember<br /> But my selective memory<br /> Won't let me</font><font size="2" color="#99cc00"> </font><font size="3" color="#339966"><font size="2">- </font></font><font size="1" color="#339966">Mark Oliver Everett</font></p><p> </p> </div>

 

[kelle]

Wow, that sounded like a far fetched, but still interesting book. That's the way I like it. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />I've only read Eon and Eternity by Greg Bear earlier, but those were awesome, so perhaps I ought to check out some more books by him.

 

[jmilsom]

Greg Bear is an incredibly imaginative writer and this one sounds well worth a read! I have only read Eon, Eternity and Blood Music - the last one is a mind-blowing work about an intelligent virus - a must read also! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[tom_hobbes]

I don't think he's abandoned an interest in harder science, but I certainly don't think it's quite so clear a distinction, not since his last four or five novels anyway.<br /><br />Bear has always seemed to evade easy categorisation in my view, classification simply as a 'hard science fiction' writer seems to diminish rather than define him. I never thought that <i>Eon</i> for instance was particularly 'hard' science fiction. It's science is arguably way 'out there'. Although admittedly armed with all the basic tropes of hard SF, he always seemed to me a more flexible, widely <i>concerned</i> author altogether. <i>Hegira</i>, <i>Strength of Stones</i>, <i>Psyclone</i>, <i>Beyond Heavens River</i>, <i>Darwins Radio</i>, <i>Song of Earth And Power</i>, etc. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#339966"> I wish I could remember<br /> But my selective memory<br /> Won't let me</font><font size="2" color="#99cc00"> </font><font size="3" color="#339966"><font size="2">- </font></font><font size="1" color="#339966">Mark Oliver Everett</font></p><p> </p> </div>

 

[chmee]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Bear is one of the more hard sci fi writers, like Niven, Heinlein, Asimov & Pournelle. <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Hey those are MY favorite authors! <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />So you must like hard science fiction crowd then.

 

[gwenelle]

Ooh, I've recently been thinking about something like TRANS to solve the problem of faster-than-light travel.<br /><br />I'll have to give this one a look.<br />

 

[tom_hobbes]

I agree, he does science fiction/horror particularly well. There's a quality to them which benefits from his undoubted strengths as a hard sf writer to make even the most outlandish scenario seem highly plausible. If they creep you out, it would be wise to avoid one of his earliest <i>Psychlone</i>, or some of his most recent, <i>Vitals</i> and <i>Deadlines</i>.<br /><br />I know what you mean, but that's precisely the reason I love them! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#339966"> I wish I could remember<br /> But my selective memory<br /> Won't let me</font><font size="2" color="#99cc00"> </font><font size="3" color="#339966"><font size="2">- </font></font><font size="1" color="#339966">Mark Oliver Everett</font></p><p> </p> </div>