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)

It's worth it for the birth scene

I don't know how a man wrote such an amazing section on child birth, but it's absolutely gripping.

Seems particularly poignant in 2019

(Spoilers)
The societal responses to the scenarios presented in this story seem very resonant. We can only hope that in some way, the response to the problems that face us will be better humans whether by societal adaptations or evolution. Not knowing enough about genomics to certify the authenticity of the science that is the basis of the scenario, it certainly seemed reasonable enough for suspension of disbelief. The characters were developed enough to make the plot engaging. Fun “read” overall.

Darwin

Darwin would be happy with this new race of man. Crisper Gene technology from a virus of our ancestors.

GREAT!!!

If you could sum up Darwin's Radio in three words, what would they be?

Interesting premise of both past and future.

What does George Guidall bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Love George Guidall. Just love his voice.

ok not great

A severe suspension of disbelief is needed for this story in general. Seems like a background fiction for the so called indigo children discussed on late nite talk radio. The ability of human DNA to modify itself and anticipate changes, world events, etc. is the main problem I have with the premise.

Science Fiction or Medical Thriller?

This was a great medical mystery book! A mix between Robin Cook and Michael Crichton; a real pager turner!

My only complaint and the reason I could not go all the way and give it 5 stars was because it was just way too “jargony” and it lost me quite a few times along the way. There was a lot of dumbing-it-down-for-the-common-man and the author provided plenty of explanations of the medical terms and processes (so much so that it started to feel like he was showing off his research) but there was still WAY WAY too much technical detail for my liking. As soon as it started getting interesting, it got text-booky.

I also felt like I lost huge chunks of the developing story; many times I found myself thinking “How did we get to this point?” or “when did that happen?” … did I miss something crucial?

If you have a good attention span (better than mine anyway) you won’t have trouble – I on the other hand was confused for a lot of the time. Still, it was a great story and I can’t wait to dig into Book 2!

Don't have to be a biologist to enjoy!

Any additional comments?

Loved the book! At first, I almost gave up listening, but then decided to put my faith in the author - I was sure he wouldn't tell a story that required the reader to know all about genes, DNA, chromosomes, etc. So I decided to just listen to the story, and pick up the few facts that I could remember or that might be relevant to the story. Then I realized that was exactly what I needed to just enjoy the story - which is great! Don't let the technical jargon and explanations about genes, DNA, or chromosomes scare you off this book - you don't have to remember everything they tell you about them (but it's very interesting to learn a little about how they work). It's a great read - I would highly recommend it!

Pretty good sci-fi

I really liked this book. A little long winded, but overall easy to listen to. Pretty cool concept.

Fascinating biological SF, with some flaws

Having started my SF reading at about age 11 with The Andromeda Strain, and having enjoyed some of Bear's earlier works, I decided to give this one a try. It was fascinating, though a bit uneven.

Many have criticized the narrator's reading, but I mostly thought that was fine. He does mispronounce or give some words incorrect emphasis, but overall I thought he did ok with the heavy science and the voices. His distinctions among characters are perhaps not as strong as she narrators, but not as one-dimensional as some reviewers have portrayed. I liked his reading of the "Five Tribes" elder male, and thoughts he captured the rhythms and inflections there without being over-done. (I am not of significant native ancestry myself, however, so my own ear may not be sufficiently sensitive to catch errors there.)

Bear's science was interesting, and reasonably believable. I myself do have a Genetics degree (from way back in 1984), so I have some background in the terminology, but I think it should be understandable to those without that training as well. My own education is far enough out of date that I wouldn't catch anything that might be implausible based on more recent research, however.

What did clunk on my ear were the references to computer technologies that date the book pretty clearly. It's difficult to write decent near-future fiction, and the speed of change in computer technology is a big part of why. In this case, the references to things like pagers and "closing" cell phones recall technologies that were cutting edge 15-20 years ago, but already read as quaintly outdated. The joke about the "next generation morning after pill" being called the "pentium" pill is understandable to my late-Boomer ears, but might well be lost on Millenials, for instance. But if you can suspend your disbelief enough to work around the clunky technology references, the story itself is fairly compelling.

Similarly the references to researchers famous in AIDS research in he late 80's were recognizable to me, but felt dated or sometimes nostalgic. And then there was the tragic referencing of Bill Cosby as someone whose reputation would lead people to trust him. :( Of course Bear can't be faulted for not knowing what nobody knew at the time, it does point up the risk of being too specific in certain kinds of references, when writing near-future SF.

On the whole, I'd recommend this one to someone like myself, with some biosciences background and/or an appreciation of books and movies like Outbreak, Andromedra Strain, and The Uplift Wars, but who don't demand absolute cutting edge science or 100% accuracy.

Slight formatting issues with the audio

Would you consider the audio edition of Darwin's Radio to be better than the print version?

Yes and no. The audio was great, don't get me wrong. I just still like to read the book too.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes

Any additional comments?

The audio is a bit glitchy. It cuts over too quickly at the end of some chapters. I think it misses the last sentence or two of the chapter. Not a huge deal breaker but slightly annoying.