Darwin's Radio

By: Greg Bear

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 17 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

Greg Bear's fiction ingeniously combines cutting-edge science and unforgettable characters. It has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and choruses of critical acclaim. Now, with Darwin's Radio, Bear creates a nonstop thriller swirling with provocative ideas about the next step of human evolution.

In a cave high in the Alps, a renegade anthropologist discovers a frozen Neanderthal couple with a Homo sapiens baby. Meanwhile, in southern Russia, the U.N. investigation of a mysterious mass grave is cut short. One of the investigators, molecular biologist Kaye Lang, returns home to the U.S. to learn that her theory on human retroviruses has been verified with the discovery of SHEVA, a virus that has slept in our DNA for millions of years and is now waking up. How are these seemingly disparate events connected? Kaye Lang and her colleagues must race against a genetic time bomb to find out.

Darwin's Radio pulses with intelligent speculation, international adventure, and political intrigue as it explores timeless human themes. George Guidall's masterful performance heightens the excitement and keeps you enthralled until the final fascinating word.

©2000 Greg Bear (P)2000 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

• Winner, 2000 Nebula Award - Best Novel

"Centered on well-developed, highly believable figures who are working scientists and full-fledged human beings, this fine novel is sure to please anyone who appreciates literate, state-of-the-art SF." (Publishers Weekly)

Superb science fiction

The plot is clever, the science (although an invention) seems almost close to feasible, the reactions of human beings really accurate. The best science fiction story I've read for many years.

Good SF. Disappointing naration.

I really enjoyed the book conceptually. Obviously the author is well versed in the science of genetics and evolution, reminiscent of Crichton. There are good fictional twists that are thought provoking and written convincingly. The long stretches of hard sceince naration might put some people off. I actually enjoyed them, but I am in the field. Bear's character development and dialog is much better than most hard SF writers, but certainly not as good as a more literary SF writer like Margaret Atwood or Ursula LaGuin. The main thing that I found irritating was the narrators reading of the material. There were many times when the author actually states in the text that a character delivers a line in a specific way and the reader doesn't read the line that way. I repeatedly found myself saying that I would have read that character very differently in my own mind if I were reading this book than the narrator did, and it would have made it more compelling and enjoyable.

Excellent Read

This was my first Greg Bear book and it will not be my last. The science was engaging and plausibly presented. The dreams described by the characters and woven into the story are so clear that I became invested in the characters and their lives and welfare. I identified with the two main characters so closely at the end that it surprised me how my emotions paralled theirs ??? the joys, fears, anguish. I enjoyed the science immensely and the pace was good. Greg Bear brought the story lines together throughout the book and the narration was engaged and reflective of the action and mood. I highly recommend the book.

Too much bureaucracy!

The story and science were great, but the constant political infighting was probably accurate but overdone!

excellent stuff

fascinating story and well performed.
chapters in the audio version are way off but would still recommend over and over.

Fantastic Book, Terrible Narration

I love this book more than I love Michael Crichton’s “Jurassic Park” novels. It has been on my Top 10 list of Favorite Books since I was in high school. I was so excited to purchase it... and then I started listening.
Y’all, I would rather listen to a tween record his own wet farts than listen to this narrator for one more minute.
If you enjoy hearing a jowly old man with bad Southern accents (I am from Texas, I KNOW the accents) and too much spit on his lips flub his way through one of the best novels ever written, be my guest. When you hear the narrator say anything with a “p” or “b” sound, and his gross wet lips pop together disgustingly because they’re slick with his own spit, as if he’s a toddler blowing saliva bubbles, don’t come crying to me. I warned you.
I wrote an email to Audible offering to record this entire audiobook myself, for free, on my husband’s high-tech audio engineering equipment. I haven’t heard back yet, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed. A first grader learning how to read would be better listening than this dude.

Wonder-filled Hope.

Not well versed in biology I found it hard to get through. While I did love the story and intrigued by its POV of government as something that does nothing well being correct.

Another excellent storyline by Greg Bear.

A very thought provoking storyline. I can't wait to continue the story in the sequel Darwin's Children.

Punctate human evolution

Greg Bear's Darwin's Radio is a fascinating tale of human evolution occurring in the blink of an eye resulting in fear and confusion along with violence. What starts as an apparent new infectious disease is eventually identified as endogenous retroviruses coming out of the human genome and causing flu-like symptoms only in women. Subsequently, aborted pregnancies occur resulting in a second, asexual pregnancy with a chromosome count different from human. While, public health officials and the general public regard this as a new disease, a small group of investigators believe this heralds the next step in human evolution and find evidence to support a past similar event in Neanderthal history.

Bear utilizes some intriguing concepts capitalizing on HIV biology to suggest that endogenous retroviruses, rather then being genomic, leftover detritus are in fact the drivers of Darwinian evolution along the lines of a punctate model, where environmental conditions set in motion enhanced genomic mutation rates to find a "new" solution for a viable organism. The integration of molecular biology, hormonal physiology, and what at the time was an emerging genomic appreciation is masterfully accomplished. At the same time, the scientific, cultural, and political angles are well crafted. Perhaps the only minor criticism is the notion that the CDC Director would aspire to be the Surgeon General which suggests a lack of appreciation for the power hierarchy within HHS.

The narration is superb with excellent character distinction and a good range of voices. Pacing is well aligned with the plot and results in a speedy listen.

Okay, Greg Bear's Got DNA Cred…

This book is worth listening to… much of it. George Guidall will help with all of it, but particularly the, um, "look-I-really-now-about-this-stuff" parts. See this is all about what's riding on the Watson and Crick double helix. So, be prepared to go eye-glazed as Mr. Bear's scientists show off their knowledge so we will suspend disbelief.

When the lectures start… let your mind wander. Don't try to follow… and don't try to look for a lot of plot in these monologues. Instead, give the author credit for his research and push on. It's a cool story and very Crichton-ish. If you liked Michael Crichton and like Robin Cook, you'll enjoy this. I did.