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)

Surprise! I loved it.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Hard to recommend because of technobiojargonlanguage,particularly in the first 1/2 of the book. But, if you hang in, the last 1/3 is really compelling.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Darwin's Radio?

When the 3 year old interfaces with other children.

What about George Guidall’s performance did you like?

When he did the argument between the several government types toward the end of the book. He is so masterful, you were never confused about who was saying what to whom.
Since Frank died, George is alone at the top of the mountain.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Both...I did. I cried several times and laughed out loud a few times. I got angry. This one really got to me. Thank you Mr. Bear.

Any additional comments?

Keep'em coming.

Worthwhile sci-fi thriller

An enjoyable book, reads like a Crichton thriller. Editing of transitions was often too abrupt.

Needs a different narrator

The sci-fi core of this story is great …. but that’s it. The ‘human story’ is unnecessarily over-described. And the (male narrator’s) voicing of female characters is insulting to all women. This narrator obviously has never been in the company of intelligent women discussing scientific issues. I don't believe that the author has either.
Disappointed …..

A really good book.

Great book with lots of valid science. A good cast of characters. And a good storyline too.

Really good science fiction

I really enjoyed this book. In my opinion, there are different kinds of science fiction: the futuristic, usually filled with tons of new gadgets, the war genre, and the biologic type. This is the biologic type and my favorite. The most famous and, probably best representative, is Michael Crichton books. This book comes very close to one of his books but not nearly as well written. However, the premise is compelling: That the Human genome contains the ability to change due to environmental forces in order to allow it survival. This, of course, borders on Lamarkianism but recent discoveries in genetics gives its more credibility. Many people don’t accept the premise that the living body is really only a vehicle for the genes and a book like this will turn them off. The book was excellent because it wove together several different controversial themes: the politics of disease, the status of humanity at the present time, xenophobia, the inability of governments to deal effectively with change, human rights and the place in science in government. All these are topics are worthy of a book and, the fact that Bear did so successfully, is to be praised. I disagree with most of the negative reviews and fear that their opinions were shaped by the daunting science explicated during the story in order to provide credibility. I have a high understanding of biology and, myself had to re-listen several times to these sections, in order to fully comprehend the meaning. When I look at the status of our world today, there are times that I would hope for a genetic change to remove the unbelievable hated, conflict negativity that seems to pervade almost every aspect of our lives. In my opinion, if a change doesn’t come soon, the homo sapiens branch of the tree of life will end up being a withered jin and another branch will continue to grow.

Medicore Story Ruined By Awful Narrator

The description intrigued me, so I bought the book. However, had I realized that it was read by George Guidall, I would not have. This is the same guy that reads all the Brad Thor and Vince Flynn books, and he's awful. Actually, awful only begins to describe his performance. An old guy with too much spit in his mouth, all of his characters sound the same, making it difficult to follow the story. He has four basic voices: male, female, Southern male and Southern female. His foreign accents helped in distinguishing those characters, but otherwise, they all sounded like an excessively-jowled old guy with too much saliva production. Additionally, his speech inflection is odd, and exactly the same for every character. I think the voice characterization for the male protagonist changed two or three times during the book.

The story itself was average. It sounded like the author couldn't tell if he wanted to write a political thriller or a legal battle or a bio-med story or something that could be made into a movie for the LMN network. Some of this tediousness was caused by the narrator (did I mention he sucked?), but looking past that, it took far too long to tell this story. It dragged in places for no apparent reason, as if the telling of mundaneness was the purpose for writing the story in the first place.

The description of this book makes it sound a lot more intriguing than it is and should have been half as long as it is. It's not an action or adventure story. It's basically a medical "thriller" with a lot of cruft thrown in.

Infectious

I enjoyed this novel very much. Living near Fort Detrick, MD, I think about viral epidemics from time to time. My one complaint about the book is that Neanderthal Man and Cro-Magnon Man may have been able to interbreed. Also, to the best of my knowledge, Neanderthal Man left no evidence of funeral customs. I would have liked to have had those two issues discussed in the story since it was as much about pre-historic man as modern virology. As always, the narrator was excellent.

Started out real strong ...

... and then it started to trip on itself. I which there was more time to develop the thesis. Interesting conceit, just happen to fizzle out at the end

Lack of excitement

Well, I did like the story concept but for me the "big reveal" just did not satisfy me. Also, it seemed to drag on the last fourth of the book. Having said that, I have no plans to read he second one.

Pretty good

I thought this was worth a credit. I listened to it a month or so back, and don't actually remember that much about it. The fact that I've forgotten most of it means that there was nothing outstanding about it either positive or negative. I would buy another title from this author if I didn't have anything else on my wish list to try. My overall impression is positive, but not thrilled or inspired. I don't have a critique of the science, which to this laywoman seemed plausible enough. I have to comment that the audio sample offered is from the beginning of the book and represents a section where the author - in the voice of a somewhat cynical character - describes a woman's qualities primarily in terms of her attractiveness and sexual performance. I remember finding that particular passage irritating and almost stopping the program when I heard it. I am glad I stuck with it though, because the point of view of the story isn't solely from that character's point of view, and the author did not seem to share his character's cynicism.