The Forge of God

I would absolutely recommend this book. Greg Bear does the best job of bringing hard science into speculative fiction of anyone I know. The story never subsumes the science, nor the science the story. VERY satisfying to the head and the heart.

Very satisfying.

The last third of the book is loaded with stuff that would not have changed the story at all if it hadn't been there. Sorry, Greg. If it hadn't been for Stephen's excellent reading, I wouldn't have stuck with it.

I wonder if this book could have gotten published these days. Every story now seems so addicted to "it all works out in the end" that true tragedy isn't really dealt with. I really liked the fact that Greg Bear acknowledged that sometimes the worst case happens. He has a silver lining, all right, but it doesn't eclipse the catastrophe of the event.

Honestly, the last third of the novel was full of things that covered in 20 pages what could have been covered in one. Perhaps when one is Greg Bear, editors are (or were) reluctant to intervene. In any event, one of the advantages of having a good narrator is that his energy can carry you through the slow spots. And I really appreciate that, because the last pages of the story were really worth getting to. I would certainly buy another Greg Bear book, as I've done in the past, and will certainly look for anything narrated by Stephen Bel Davies. Hurrah and thanks to you both. A great yarn.

Thank you audible. I have been waiting years for the audible version of this novel, and am not disappointed. In my opnion this is Bear's best work. A perfect balance of science and drama, with very compelling characters. It builds slowly but brilliantly to its inevitable, terrifying, and heart breaking climax. Though it is bleak in some ways, and frightening, there is the ever present flicker of hope throughout. It is thoughtful, intelligent and haunting... A science fiction classic.

The narrator is really engaging; he completely brings the story alive. With most books it takes me a little while to get into the story, and this one was no different. But after about 30 minutes or so I was hooked. Very entertaining.

I loved the philosophical approach to 'Earth as our home and the center of everything' vs 'the universe as our home and Earth is just a living being trying desperately to mature and spread seeds before time runs out.' The science fiction elements of the story and plot are accessible, good for those who don't read hard core sci-fi. Action is sparse and the author makes a character driven plot tick forward with an increasing urgency. Best I've read in a long while.

The speaker

less changes between different strings of story

It's a very very good performance. He is very pleasant to listen to and he gave the story a lot of additonal character. in a good way.

Go to hell earth

Great performance by the reader, story builds and builds to a great ending. Easy to see why this book is on the top 50 Sci Fi books of all time.

I might give Greg Bear another shot someday, but I would definitely not pay for it. Stephen Bel Davies did a decent enough job.

He could've cut out the tons of superfluous point-of-view characters that were only there to fluff things out, and make the story seem more widespread. They rarely added anything to the story, and their undeserved melodrama just dragged things out and muddled things. "Oh look, here's another person that has no idea about what is going on, and is struggling with their emotions."

The first two acts of the book are a complete waste of time. Incomprehensible aliens mess with humanity's heads for no reason, while the central protagonists heads up a presidential task force that travels all over the world, discovering absolutely nothing.

There are perhaps two interesting ideas in the book, buried under acres of contrived angst. There is no story arc. No character development. Some decent speculation on how one can blow up the earth, and what that might look like. And hours of boredom.

The one where nothing happened, and people were angsty and uncertain about it. Then something semi interesting popped up, and the story suddenly cutaway to another boring character before you could be entertained.

Disappointment. I thought Bear would be better.

Save yourself the trouble and read the plot synopsis on Wikipedia instead. You'll get just as much out of it with out wasting hours of your life.

Greg Bear, yes. Stephen Davies, NOOO.

Eon. Eternity.

It was difficult to distinguish between characters and their personalities when he was narrating.

I actually purchased the hardcopy of the book and read it because I very much disliked the narration.

Awful narration.

He could have a great career as a children's bedtime story reader or sleep therapist.

I love hard sci-fi and alien invasion plots in particular. Unfortunately this book is so extremely slow i was barely able to go on listening. You keep waiting for the story to get going until you ultimately find yourself at chapter 70 and THEN FINALLY something interesting happens.

Not sure. Apathy maybe? I found the characters so lacking a personality i really didn't care about them.

A bit flat and boring, but ok i guess.

Disappointment, since it's my favourite genre.