(2004)Very good sci-fi ghost story about a movie producer/writer that discovers that a new cell-phone technology has hindered the after-life. It also leads him to come to grips with his daughter's murder and finally his own death.

review of
Greg Bear's Dead Lines
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - December 4, 2017


Greg Bear's Quantico followed this one. In my review of that I wrote:

"Ok, I've previously drawn parallels between Greg Bear's "Blood Music" & Michael Crichton's "Prey" that were unflattering to Crichton (see http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34...) & then I HATED Crichton's "State of Fear" (see http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15...). SO, I credited Bear w/ being original & discredited Crichton w/ being a paltry 2nd (or 3rd or whatever). THEN Bear writes this - a novel not that dissimilar from Crichton's "State of Fear" but coming out a yr or 2 later." - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1440240.Quantico

The reason why I start this review off this way is because Dead Lines, as the predecessor of Quantico, puts Quantico somewhat in perspective. I speculate (does that makes this SR instead of SF? Speculative Reviewing?) that Bear was trying to make more money by writing in established popular genres. Who knows? Maybe everyone in his family had flesh-eating disease & the bubonic plague, I mean he might've been desperate for money.

Dead Lines has a list of writers that it's "FOR":

"J. Sheridan Fanu.
Henry James.
M. R. James.
Arthur Machen.
H. P. Lovecraft.
Shirley Jackson.
Fritz Leiber.
Richard Matheson,
Kingsley Amis.
Peter Straub.
Bruce Joel Rubin.
Ramsey Campbell.
Dean Koontz.
Stephen King.
Clive Barker.

Scary people, all." - p vii

I've heard of most of those authors, some of them are popular horror writers, others a bit more ambiguous. I read an entire Dean Koontz novel & found it to be a bit predictable in its chain-pulling, I read one Stephen King short story & have never had the desire to read anything else by him since - although I've seen more movies based on his bks than even a hypnotist cd ferret out. I don't think of either authors as being worth emulating but, having worked in the bkstore biz for 8 yrs, I can say that King was the most popular writer I've ever known of so if you want to make money that's apparently the way to go, or the road to hoe, or the road to ho.

&, heck'a'goshen!, King even endorses Dead Lines on the back cover: "A REALLY EXCELLENT NOVEL". I hope he didn't think too hard about that.

Bear, even at his worst, wch is what I'd say Dead Lines is, still has interesting ideas that put his stories a notch above the furthest my belt can stretch. In this case, a new post-cell-phone technology taps into some unexpected places. The pre-story flash-forward (of sorts) hints at the ambitious plot:

"We were all there in that city that draws its paycheck from the manufacture of ghosts. We were there when one man started handing out free talk. And we are there now, sad little dolls made of dust." - p 1

Ain't it the truth. But what is all this 'free talk' stuff I've been hearing about? Is it like 'Freedom Fries'?

""If you take the damned thing, turn it off while you're here/"

""They don't turn off," the young man explained to Peter, drawing closer. His wide blue eyes assessed Peter's character and the size of his wallet. "You can turn the ringer down, however."

"Peter smiled as if at a half-heard joke. "What is it?" he asked.

""Free talk," Joseph said. "But it doesn't work.["]" - p 12

That's b/c freedom isn't free. It is on sale this wk only tho. Buy 2 get 1 free. Unfortunately, all 3 of them are ghosts:

"With Baslan out of the doorway, Peter had a clear view through an arch to the dining room, about thirty feet from the porch. A little boy in a frilled shirt and knee stockings stood there. He looked sick; not sick, dead; worse than dead, unraveling. His face turned in Peter's direction, skin as pale and cold as skim milk. The head seemed jointed like a doll's. The grayish eyes saw right through him, and suddenly the outline blurred, precisely as if the boy had fallen out of focus in a camera viewfinder." - pp 35-36

Oh, he probably just came back from the dr's. You know what I say: A highwayman said: "Your money or your life!", a dr just thinks: "Your money & then you life." Business is business. Maybe the dr just gave him a steroid shot in the hip. The next thing you know, a mere 23 pp later, you're seeing another ghost:

"Through his tears, he saw that the woman's face was like a flat sheet of mother-of-pearl. Her eyes opened to quizzical hollows. Less than solid, she resembled a paper doll frayed by careless snipping. Peter could actually see her edges ripple." - pp 59-60

If I don't write something here before I move on to the next quote it'll seem that the ghost above is the "she". The wd be funny but I've decided against misleading YOU, dear reader, in that way.

"She introduced the guests to Peter. Two he had met long ago, writers from a group Phil had belonged to for almost thirty years, the Mysterians." - p 69

Now, maybe that's a take-off of "The Futurians", an early-to-mid 20th century SF group. Or maybe Peter's the question-mark. Get it? Question Mark & the Mysterians? HahahAHAhahA.. Another good touch is to have Peter be a former sexploitation Psychotronic moviemaker a little down on his luck:

"["]Out of the onetime slammer comes a promo campaign headed by Peter Russell, the edgiest sexploitation director ever." Weinstein's face grew serious. "And to be honest, Russ Meyer turned us down. But then he suggested you, one Russell to another."" - p 101

The clues fall into place like glue traps raining from heck:

"["]In less than twenty years, world will run out of bandwidth. Radio, TV, cell phones, wireless, all will halt screeching growth." He smiled. "But world's problem is solvable, I have solved it."

"Kreisler rose and started to move his arms, slowly at first, then describing large arcs. No need for waves, for radiation. I discover new source of bandwidth, forbidden information channels, not truly radiation at all, unknown until now. Channels in what I call Bell continuum" - p 105

I call it the "Taco Bell Continuum" but it's basically the same thing.

""Like cell phones, Trans units always tie into network. They are always on. What is more remarkable, as they work, they actually change surrounding space, perhaps permanently. They alter information permittivity." - p 107

Hence, Free Love.

""Yes, but we use term as a metaphor," Kreisler said. "A capacitor stores up charge. Space stores up information, but over time, it fades, dissipates. When Trans accesses the forbidden channels, she increases space's permittivity. Information does not fade, but builds up until it jumps like a spark.["]" - p107

It's like when you go to hug someone & you get shocked by static electricity & the next thing you know their whole life story flashes in front of you & you realize they're a serial killer & they know that you know & they stab you to death. Happens all the time.

As a (non-Psychotronic) moviemaker myself I appreciated this next bit:

""I presume I'm going to shoot HD video," he continued, his tongue gluey. "I've never used a Betacam, or whatever it is now. I'd like to see some of the equipment, just to know what to rent."

Karl shrugged. "Hell, with what's in Circuit City right now, you might as well buy. Only cost you a couple of grand for something pretty terrific."

"Peter shook his head. "This is professional, Karl."

""That's what I'm saying, Peter. Something the size of your hand, locked onto a hundred-dollar tripod, will give you great results. What kind of budget?"" - p 142

A "couple of grand"?! Pshaw! I use a $35 'sports' camera bought at another famous chain store & I'm the best moviemaker in the world!

"Peter stopped at an old pay phone near an Asian grocery, one of the last pay phones in Los Angeles—they were being dismantled everywhere. Everyone was going wireless." - p 231

True dat. The reader reading this might not even remember pay phones. They were the things that rival drug dealers pissed on the mouthpieces of.

& that, gentle wo(men), concludes today's PowerPoint on sails. ( )

I'm sorry, but this dudely dude is going to have to find someone else to care about him. Maybe one of those women he likes. *eyeroll*

To call a book about a bunch of dead people not being able to be pass on to wherever it is dead people are supposed to go a good fun read seems almost perverse, yet that is exactly Greg Bear’s Dead Lines is. The lines, in this case, are lines of communication, both on this plane of existence and whatever lies beyond this world.

Part of the premise is easy enough to believe: with the proliferation of cellular cell phones and other wireless devices, we are running out of bandwidth for these devices to operate in. Enter a bizarre scientist as brilliant, misunderstood and eccentric as Nikola Tesla with a solution: he has hit upon a scheme to utilize some previously unknown, “forbidden”, frequencies that will provide unlimited bandwidth and instant communication across the entire planet. The secret to this instantaneous communication described in a manner very reminiscent of interstellar travel used in Dune, folded space. Problems arise as it becomes apparent this dimensional folding is preventing spirits of the deceased from completing their final journey and channeling some less than desirable entities back into this world.

What follows is a captivating story that, while predictable in the outcome, has just enough twists to keep the reader from being bored. Formalized religion is left out of the plot lines, but spirituality and karma heavily influences the action. While clearly a work of fiction meant to entertain readers, Greg Bear provides a lot of thought provoking material to ponder here about what happens when we die.

Filled with eccentric, well-developed and unforgettable characters, good dialog and a semi-original plot, Dead Lines weighs in at a solid four stars. If offbeat spirit filled fiction is your thing, you will enjoy this work. If you’ve ever attended a séance or seen shadow things in the corner of your eye while telling spooky stories, you will readily identify with this story. ( )

Greg Bear narrows the line between horror and science fiction in this novel. The plot involves a new communications technology that promises to revolutionize the cell phone. It promises zero distortion and complete connectivity. But using the phone seems to free the dead to return.

The first problem I encountered is the feeling that this isn’t what people want. We repeatedly are willing to sacrifice communications quality for data rates. Ok, so I’m surprised Greg Bear missed that.

The main character is somewhat unbelievable. I couldn’t empathize with him. He is a director of porn theater. But his female leads respect him too much. And the reasons for his involvement in the phone business don’t seem reasonable.

Then he had to rely on a pop-in character, a psychic, to explain how the technology works and why it’s a problem. The character never appeared again. I really expect an experienced writer to avoid plot devices like this. It didn’t even feel like it fit into the story.

Too much was unexplained in the book. We don’t know why the phone interferes with the process of death. Why are the dead appearing to people. What happened in Europe? It seemed to be a major event and harbinger of things to come, and we never hear of it again.

The end of the book felt premature and anticlimactic. I really feel like I missed something, maybe I did?

I normally really like Greg Bear, he has written some excellent science fiction with some good takes on the latest science. This book doesn’t fit.

http://books.randolphking.com/?p=896 ( )