Conference noted::sf

    	There are two SF Topics on Bear at 340 and 626.
    
    	There are at least two main ways to find authors, titles, and
    subjects in the SF Conference, by typing either DIR/TITLE=topicname
    or SHOW KEYWORD/FULL subject/ALL.
    

I did a search on "Bear" and didn't get anything.  Sorry about that.
Okay.  Forget what I said.

Moderator, please feel free to relocate my banter.

-kms

Re .2

As the topics mentioned in .1 refer to specific works by Bear, and .0
here is asking about Bear's works in general, I feel that this does
deserve it's own topic.  I am declining to move it to either topic
mentioned in .1.

Can we get back to SF now, rather than administrivia?

Dave C.
moderator

    Anybody else seen Bear's newest, "Queen of Angels"?  I'm about halfway
    through it.  Good, but not as good as Eon or Eternity or Blood Music,
    IMHO.  It features nanotechnology, especially applied "Blood Music" style
    to human beings, and a voodoo (? he calls it "vodoun") connection which
    I haven't gotten to yet.
    
    Unless you're a Bear freak, I'd recomend waiting for this one in
    paper.
    
    len.
       

    Actually I believe vodun is the correct term.  Popular culture uses the
    term voodoo.
    
    " We put the voodoo on him, maaan, then his arms fall off...
    
     
    
    
      and we've got him hands down!
    
    					- john

    PSYCHLONE written in 1979 is an excellent book.
    THE WIND FROM A BURNING WOMAN and TANGENTS (short stories including
    the original "BLOOD MUSIC") are 2 more titles by Bear.
    
    

"Psychlone" is more horror than SF. It does have some pretty spooky images. No
real connection, but it makes me think about HP Lovecraft's "The Rats in the
Walls" (so much for free-association).

"Tangents" is one of those books that gets published for every author when he/
she gets big: all the flotsam and jetsam that an author has accumulated on the
way up. A lot of junk with a few valuables floating around. I did recognize one 
story that had been made into a Twilight Zone or Amazing Stories or something, 
about a cattle truck driver who takes the recently-deceased to Hell.

I can't speak highly enough of "Blood Music". This is the sort of imaginative
stuff that SF thrives on. It's the old bit about taking one unbelievable 
concept and turning your mind loose on it. "Eon" is also very good, but
somewhat exhausting. I still haven't gotten up the energy to go on with 
"Eternity".

    Read "The Forge of God": it's excellent!
    
    Alice T.

    I saw EON in a bookstore, and remembered seeing Bear's name here. 
    Could someone list all of his books here?
    
    Also, what EXACTLY is his style of writing?  Is he heavy SF (using a
    lot of technological words and phrases) or is he SF-lite?
    
    My curiosity is peaked, but not quite enough to actually BUY.
    
    K.C.

    Is your curiousity peaking while being piqued?  Sorry.  Greg Bear
    writes both fantasy ("The Infinity Concerto") and quite hard SF 
    ("The Forge of God", "Blood Music", "Eon").  He is one of the
    most innovative authors in the field, but tends to have chaotic
    plots.   I don't like his endings much, but he sure throws in a
    lot of neat stuff along the way.  /jlr

    In my opinion, his books are more to do with the ideas he's exploring,
    rather than the plots and characters. For instance, you may not have
    liked the Forge of God much, but it very cleverly examined the way Bear
    imagines people/mankind would react if they knew the planet was going
    to die (eg. the cult of the Forge of God, the newspaper cuttings,
    etc...).
    
    I, personally, do find the stories very good (though it is obvious that
    Blood Music was one of his first). Big fan.
    
    The following is all his books I can think of (not in any order):
    
    Infinity Concerto
    The Serpent Mage
    Blood Music
    Queen of Angels
    Eon
    Eternity
    Heads
    Beyond Heaven's River
    Tangents
    Psychlone
    
    Alice T.
    
    PS Some of you may be interested to see the topic on science-fiction
    just started in IKE22::WOMANNOTES-V3. 

I've read The Infinitey Concerto and Serpent Mage and enjoyed them
both. However I found his SF to be rather hard going. I read
Forge of God, and while the story is interesting and well
written it left me feeling somewhat depressed, I mean the
'good guys' SORT of won in the end ?!?!?!

Mike

    Has anybody read "Heads" yet?  I saw it hardbound in a bookstore last
    night and couldn't talk myself into buying it (though I have much other
    Bear in hardbound).
    
    len.
    

    I haven't read "Heads" but: in the August 1990 edition of Interzone
    Magazine, he's written a short epilogue to it (called "Heads II" I
    think), in case you'd like to know!
    
    I can put a photocopy in internal mail if anyone wants.
    
    Alice T.

    Beyond Heaven's River
    Blood Music
    Corona
    Early Harvest
    Eon
    Eternity
    The Forge of God
    Hardfought
    Heads
    Hegira
    The Infinity Concerto
    Psychlone
    Queen of Angels
    The Serpent Mage
    Sleepside Story
    Strength of Stones
    Tangents
    The Wind From A Burning Woman
    

Just in the past few months have been released :

	The Anvil of Stars (sequel to the Forge of God ???)
	The Venging (a collection of short stories, I think)

Peter.

    Can anyone provide a pointer to a source for "The Serpent Mage"?
    
    My son read Infinity Concerto a year+ ago (purchased in the UK two
    summers ago) and wants to read the sequel, but we have had no luck 
    even finding a listing for it here in the US. (I have seen it listed
    in the front-matter of a few of his books, but the bookstores we've
    tried all turn up a blank). Any suggestions?
    
    Dave

Article: 611
From: [email protected] (Aaron V. Humphrey)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews
Subject: Prograde Reviews--Greg Bear:Moving Mars
Date: 7 Jun 1994 08:09:20 GMT
Organization: The Anna Amabiaca Fan Club
Sender: [email protected] (Michael C. Berch)
 
Greg Bear: Moving Mars
 
A Prograde Review by Aaron V. Humphrey
 
When I first heard the title of this book, I figured that it must be
about a gigantic engineering project to move the planet Mars.  But
after reading the dust-jacket blurb and the first hundred pages, I
decided it must be called that for a different reason.  Perhaps it was
the population of Mars that was "moving".  While not trying to spoil
anything...my first impression was fairly close. 
 
The book takes a long time to really get moving.  The first half is
devoted to how the main character, Casseia Majumdar, first gets
involved with a student protest against the first unified Martian
government (which doesn't last too long), then falls in love with a
young physicist named Charles Franklin but decides she doesn't want to
marry him, and finally goes to Mars as part of a diplomatic mission. 
This is all buildup for the second half of the book, and IMHO goes on
too long. 
 
Upon Casseia's return from Earth, she's beginning to realize that
Earth is somehow scared of Mars, or something Mars might be able to
do...and that something is linked with the research project Charles is
involved with. She gets involved with another attempt at a unified Martian 
government, this one more successful, and ends up as Vice President. 
 
Then she finds out what Charles has been working on, and all hell
breaks loose. 
 
A bit less at the beginning and a bit more at the end would have been
nice, but the second half of the book leaves little to be desired.  It
compares favourably to _The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress_, with which
there are nontrivial similarities, and my pulse was pounding right to
the very end. 
 
In all, a great book, but a bit off in the pacing.  It will rank high
on my Hugo ballot, but not at the top. 
 
%A Bear, Greg
%T Moving Mars
%I Tor
%C New York
%D November 1993
%G ISBN 0-312-85515-X
%P 448 pp.
%O Hardcover
 
-- 
--Alfvaen (Editor of Communique)
Current Album--Jane Siberry:When I Was A Boy
Current Book--Janet Kagan:Hellspark
"It's a one-time thing.  It just happens a lot."  --Suzanne Vega
 

Article: 4864
From: [email protected] (Rob Slade, Ed. DECrypt & ComNet, VARUG rep,
                        604-984-4067) 
Newsgroups: alt.books.reviews
Subject: "Moving Mars" by Bear
Date: 29 Aug 1994 15:13:49 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Sender: [email protected]
 
BKMOVMRS.RVW  940705
 
%A   Bear
%C   175 Fifth Avenue/
     New York, NY  10010
%D   1993
%G   0-312-85515-X
%I   Tor/Tom Dougherty
%O   U$23.95
%T   Moving Mars
 
One science fiction author has stated that the purpose of science
fiction is to use science to allow the story to examine ideas that
society can't or won't examine in real life.  You take a story, he
said, and set it in the future, or on another planet, and therefore
discuss, at a safe remove, things that are too close for us. 
 
In one sense, this is exactly what "Moving Mars" does.  The story,
generally about a clash of cultures (I think), takes place across
planets, rather than across borders.  The "trigger event" in the
conflict is a new scientific discovery.  So far, science is important
to the story. 
 
So far, and no further.  This story could as easily be told with no
technical involvement whatsoever.  The planets could be countries, the
trigger could be an economic advantage.  Nanotechnology, advanced
"pen" computing, robots, direct experience, virtual reality, and weird
"cemeteries" where the rich can extend their lives at the expense of
being physically caged, all make appearances, but are in no way
essential to the book or its tone.  Some technologies appear only
once, in scenes with only the most tenuous connection to the story and
which appear to be no more than excuses to introduce the high tech item. 
 
Indeed, much of the technology is presented with little feel for the
implications.  Nanotechnology is used throughout the book, and yet
with no sense of either the drastic changes that it would make in
terms of the means and control of production, or of the limitations
and costs of such systems in energy and time.  At one point in the
book, Mars is unable to produce advance neural net computers -
"thinkers" -  and yet, when they are really important to Bear's plot,
a small, ill-equipped group is able to ramp up production of the most
elite of these units.  The "evolvons" of the book are defined as viral
computer programs, but act more like logic bombs.  (Two units are
cleared of evolvons in the course of the book and yet thousands of
suspected units are not even checked.  Again, this astounding naivete
and the appalling outcome seem to be central to Bear's view of the
necessary plot.) 
 
"Moving Mars" does deal with some of the social and political aspects
of sudden advantages, and these can be applied to technical advances. 
For the rest, however, the technologies are mere SF wallpaper. 
 
copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994   BKMOVMRS.RVW  940705
 
======================
DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters
Editor and/or reviewer [email protected], [email protected], Rob Slade at 1:153/733
Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" (Sept. '94) Springer-Verlag