Darwin's Children

A Novel

By: Greg Bear

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 17 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Greg Bear’s Nebula Award-winning novel Darwin’s Radio painted a chilling portrait of humankind on the threshold of a radical leap in evolution. Now, Bear continues his provocative tale of the human race confronted by an uncertain future, where “survival of the fittest” takes on astonishing and controversial new dimensions.

Eleven years have passed since SHEVA, an ancient retrovirus, was discovered in human DNA - a retrovirus that caused mutations in the human genome and heralded the arrival of a new wave of genetically enhanced humans. Now, these changed children have reached adolescence...and face a world that is outraged about their very existence. For these special youths, possessed of remarkable, advanced traits that mark a major turning point in human development, are also ticking time bombs harboring hosts of viruses that could exterminate the "old" human race.

Fear and hatred of the virus children have made them a persecuted underclass, quarantined by the government in special “schools”, targeted by federally sanctioned bounty hunters, and demonized by hysterical segments of the population. But pockets of resistance have sprung up among those opposed to treating the children like dangerous diseases - and who fear the worst if the government’s draconian measures are carried to their extreme.

Scientists Kaye Lang and Mitch Rafelson are part of this small but determined minority. Once at the forefront of the discovery and study of the SHEVA outbreak, they now live as virtual exiles in the Virginia suburbs with their daughter, Stella - a bright, inquisitive virus child who is quickly maturing, straining to break free of the protective world her parents have built around her, and eager to seek out others of her kind.

But for all their precautions, Kaye, Mitch, and Stella have not slipped below the government's radar. The agencies fanatically devoted to segregating and controlling the new-breed children monitor their every move - watching and waiting for the opportunity to strike the next blow in their escalating war to preserve "humankind" at any cost.

©2003 Greg Bear (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Bear's sure sense of character, his fluid prose style and the fascinating culture his 'Shevite' children begin to develop all make for serious SF of the highest order." (Publishers Weekly)

"Top-shelf science fiction, thrilling and intellectually charged." (Amazon.com)

Excellent Sequel

Great performance! Satisfying culmination of an epic story. This is Greg Bear at his finest. an intricate story that is all the more frightening because it hinges on scientific fact and speculation.

Serious Science Fiction

I'd give this novel 2 stars for page turning entertainment, 4 stars for true science fictional speculation, and 5 stars for hard science research. What held back the entertainment value was the relentless political conflict. I selected this book because I'm fascinated by the idea of a descended species for mankind. I've always hated that most science fiction books create a homo superior by giving them ESP as their defining trait. Greg Bear's approach is far more creative by exploring how this new species evolves. However, Bear spent to many words on political infighting and not enough on what these new people would be like - maybe he's saving that for another novel. I do give Bear great credit for writing a serious science fiction novel and not fantasy escapism that's common to the genre.