Quantico by Greg Bear is one of those science fiction thrillers that is set in the near future, near enough that you're not sure whether or not it really is science fiction. Political situations described are not that different from today's world, e.g. infighting between FBI, CIA, and Homeland Security; Middle East ready to explode at any time, a woman president. Add that to our current rapid progress in DNA sequencing and synthesis and you have the makings of a thriller where the world could come to an end through bio-terrorism not through atomic bombs. We're all afraid of anthrax but could it be something much more benign, something that doesn't kill, just disables.Bear sets up his characters and scenarios so they are believable, three dimensional. He moves the story by shifting the narrative from place to place and you hate it because you're really invested in what is going on at a certain place and don't want to leave it when he does.
It's nice to see a Sci-Fi Thriller like this that doesn't need or use profanity, blood and gore, or shock except in very limited amounts appropriate to the story. I would give this five stars.
I don't know about the middle east exploding or government corruption or diseases or anything, but Dad reading fiction is surely a sign of the Appocalypse.
ReplyDeleteThe bit about shifting from place to place reminds me of the Lord of the Rings. Unlike the movies, the books leave Frodo and Sam for 300 pages at a time and then shifts back leaving the rest of the Fellowship for a similar amount of time. It was so difficult for me that I finally broke down and used the index in the back to read the two simultaneously and stay at about the same point in time. Honestly, I think the book is better as written, but I was too excited to leave either scenario for too long.
Thanks for the recommendation. Sounds like it's right up my alley!
ReplyDeleteArnold,
ReplyDeleteI'll ask you this, because you review many books and you're an educated yet outside source of information: you are always posting reviews on the widest range of books. What do you look for in a book cover image? What covers draw you in to/turn you off of the book? I ask this because I design text book covers in my current job and I am always looking for new sources of inspiration for covers. Also, there are times when I get too caught up in the cover from a design point of view that I forget to look at it with the eye of a reader. Any thoughts from Arnold, or anyone else, would be appreciated.
Nightengail, this is going to take some thought and introspection. I didn't want you to think I hadn't read the comment, though, so I'm giving you a short answer: I'm not sure. I think irony, humor, and relevancy are high on the list as far as cover content.
ReplyDeleteI've said before that I mainly check out books by their cover which isn't totally true any more. About a third to half of the books I read now are recommendations from either the Daily Show or the Colbert Report.
Let me get back to you on a better answer.
In response to Lee, I continue to read mostly non-fiction for the driving I do with Meals on Wheels, it has been handy to listen to audio books. For these I mostly get recommendations from Jon Stewart or Carolyn.
ReplyDelete