Darwin's Radio

'Darwin's Radio' is a highly accomplished work of popular fiction, as much a scientifically-orientated political thriller as a conventional science fiction novel. It was published in 1999 as the first volume of a two-volume series when much of the gene science in it was still new and unclear.

The basic premise is the triggering of our own genome's inherent endogenous retroviruses in our 'junk' DNA (or so it is claimed) to effect a somewhat traumatic 'upgrade' of our species which (it is suggested) has happened before - in the transition from the Neanderthal species to Sapiens.

It picks up on theories of punctuated equilibrium, then-recent discoveries about the human genome and a claimed relationship between social stress and speciation. show more Whether Bear's scientific speculation is plausible over two decades later (I suspect it is not) is not really the point.

The point is that Bear gives us a 'what if?' that makes us think about possible human reactions to any sudden species transformation within our own kind triggered by whatever means but especially by something that manifests itself as a public health crisis for which we are not ready. Familiar?

The fact that speciation is caused here through a retrovirus and that the scientific community is not given the time to come to a fully evidence-based view of its societal implications as it spreads rapidly through the population has immediate resonance today.

The film 'Outbreak' came out in 1995 (based on a novel published in 1994) and we had a recapitulation of the theme of mass viral infection in 'Contagion' in 2011 so none of what happened in the last two years should be too much of a surprise.

What Bear does is shift sudden highly transmissable viral infection from being just a disease to becoming something far more transformative. In this case, it directly affects gender relations since males pass it on to females who suffer the most traumatic effects.

Two separate narratives, reaction to a public health crisis and in due course to speciation and 'difference', become overlaid. We see (if not exactly aligned) some of the real world experiences of the last two years played out in imaginative fiction over two decades ago.

Bear is not just good on the science (he is generally good at explaining it without slowing down the narrative although X-Ray on Kindle helps) but on the politics of academic infighting, disease control and ultimately of public order. It is a fine political thriller in that context.

There are no bad guys here but there are good guys unclear about what they are dealing with doing what may be bad things in good faith simply to control the situation. This too is familiar today with governments feeling forced to take drastic actions and sections of the public resisting.

There are, of course, implausible elisions of narrative to get us from A to B (which is how thrillers have to work) but not many - the whole works well within its popular fiction framework. Details of the scientific and politico-administrative narratives should not be discussed here to avoid spoilers

My reaction to the book was that much of what was to happen in society because of COVID-19 may not have been predictable in the detail but was at least partly predictable in general. Our unpreparedness has less excuse if even popular fiction writers can see the trajectories.

The story shifts over time from the public sphere and debate as dominant narrative to the state of affairs for a new family with a new-speciated child. The personal is central to Bear's tale centring on a particular female scientist and her emotional and sexual life.

She has as foil male bureaucrats on one side and a rather hapless male anthropologist on the other who is father of the child. One flaw is that the narrative is rather summarily and unsatisfactorily resolved but it is just the first volume of two so some slack must be cut here.

Bear seems highly sensitive to the woman's perspective in a story built around pregnancy, miscarriages and abortion. He has strong women playing their roles throughout. I cannot judge if he got it right here (I am a man) but it looks impressive from the outside.

He is also good on complexity. I do not just mean the complexities involved in virology, genomics and so forth but also those of politics and society. Although there are some standard thriller tropes, the individuals also stand out as real people attempting to deal with something utterly new.

The one false note is the insertion of a 'dreaming' narrative, not because the indigenous voice (from which it derives) does not have a right to be heard (it does) but because one of the 'scientific' characters appears to dream himself into the Neanderthal past and have it taken seriously.

This adds a note of magical thinking to the science. It suggests some sort of imaginative vitalism in play and even, hidden somewhere back there, a guiding hand so that evolution gets captured for the quasi-Gaia camp far far too easily, unravelling the plausibility elsewhere.

The book is a solid crowd-pleasing entertainment even if it perhaps just misses the chance to dig deeper not into the science (which is well done) but into the societal effects of the transformation ... although perhaps this comes in the second part about which I shall assume nothing here. show less

The first time I read this I felt horrified and dazed for weeks. I still consider this a masterpiece of horror/sci-fi. The characters are somewhat memorable, but more memorable is their pain; indeed, the pain of the whole world was felt in the back of my mouth, preparing it rise up from my stomach, up the pipe, out the maw, to hang onto my lip and smack me thrice on my face, wink, and then jump off to slither under the door-jam and horrify someone else.

Don't get me wrong, this is a pure sci-fi novel, but no sci-fi affects me as much as the types that are just as facile in other genres. This one does and gleefully so. I may not know that much about biology, or enough to tear Bear apart, but I followed his arguments and treatment and was show more amazed at the way he pulled a rabbit out of the junk DNA.

I've been a fan of Greg Bear's work for many years, and I thought I had really loved works like Eon and Legacy, and then I was amazed by Queen of Angels and then I was jumping up and down with Moving Mars. His short story collection of Tangents still makes me sit in awe. Still, all of these books paled in comparison with Darwin's Radio.

I have to say one thing: I cried uncontrollable tears at no less than three times during this novel. I cannot give higher praise. show less

Engrossing biological hard sf. What happens when the human race evolves? and how will we cope? The answer is of course, badly. But with a ray of light still present throughout.

Bear posits the just about feasible hypothesis that sometimes evolution acts very quickly indeed. Buried within the introns of the genome are alternate genesets for species design to cope with rapidly changing conditions. All it takes is the right type of viral infection to trigger this shift, and within a generation of children speciation will have occurred. Naturally such changes are quickly noticed in modern society, and upon skilled bio-tech investigation, prior hints at the possibilities are un-earthed. But for those involved, there is no cure. Only the show more option to face the future un-guided by the past.

Our heroes are Mitch a disgraced archaeologist who has fond some unusual remains in an alpine cave, and Kaye, and eminent biologist who has spotted the first possibilities of the viral transmissions. Neither of them are well versed in the politics of science, communicating complex ideas to the public, nor the role of policy and public opinion. But when they discover some facts that seem to oppose the general wisdom, they soon find out why these matters are vital.

The initial third is somewhat dense in biology. It isn't that complicated, but even the basic primer at the back doesn't really explain it that well either. This may be enough to put off some readers who don't understand what DNA is and it's role in human life. The rest is surprisingly good characterisation, and complex politics, centered in the US. Ignorance and fear remain the prime motivators, and in these times no-one has the patience while science finds the right answers. Originally written over ten years ago, it has aged well, with little of the biology being directly overturned (apart from the total number of genes). The technology is also well predicted.

There are a few quibbles, especially the US centric matter, of a worldwide issue. Likewise many of the political issues and decisions get glossed over and the characters given little background. But it works well enough. Thoroughly readable and enjoyable by anyone with even a slight amount of biological background. The key points are possibly not so much the speculation over human evolution, but the attitudes towards science, politics and the other, in society today. show less

Bear is famous for Blood Music, a fix-up novel that postulated a virus that leads to our body cells become autonomously intelligent. Darwin's Radio returns to extreme biological speculation, but in much greater depth and sustained length. This time Bear explores a possible cellular mechanism for near-instant evolution. The focus is not on the new humans, who appear only at the very end, but on the parents and the effects of uncertainty and risk on society. Bear devotes a lot of time to the biology, sociology, and politics, both scientific and governmental. It is an impressive construction, with strong characters, but is also a good example of more being less. Nancy Kress in Nothing Human achieved comparable if not greater impact telling show more a similar story, with far less plausibility and attention to detail.

Still, highly recommended. show less

Fascinerend en goed uitgewerkt: hoe de mensheid geconfronteerd wordt met een evolutionaire sprong binnen de eigen soort en daarop reageert alsof het een pandemie is. Straf hoe Greg Bear de twee kanten van dat verhaal schetst en zowel de politieke, de maatschappelijke en de persoonlijke gevolgen ervan gedegen de revue laat passeren. Geloofwaardige en sterke personages in een heftige en originele context. Puik!

There is a lot of hard-core science in this book, far more than was probably necessary. I got the basic idea, but a lot of the exposition bogged me down. Still, the explanations for the biology seemed good, and were realistically included, usually in the context of a scientist explaining something to a politician. But since there were a lot of politicians involved, there was a lot of explaining that needed to be done. So, in addition to trying to figure out all the science, one also has to keep track all of the politicians. Between the two, this book was a little overloaded.

The premise is a really interesting one, though. What if evolution isn't as gradual as we think? What if it can happen in great leaps. What are the consequences? How show more do we react as a civilization? What is the role of the government? What is the role of scientists? Greg Bear tackles all these questions ably while telling a compelling story. show less

Maybe it's just because I'm an evolutionary biologist, but this book stretched my suspension of disbelief to the breaking point. When something unbelievable happens in a science-fiction book, the author can take one of two approaches: either quickly handwave it with technobabble and move on to focus on the consequences of the event, or foreground the explanation based on reasonable extrapolations of current science. The author tried to do the latter, but his "explanation" made all the sense of a handwave.I also found the author's attitudes toward women, particularly the bodily autonomy of women, to be troubling. What happens to the women in this story is a violation of their bodily autonomy: they become pregnant against their wishes. show more Being disgusted and horrified by this pregnancy is a perfectly normal and understandable reaction. However, by the end of the book, the women who are frightened and repulsed by their unwanted pregnancies and the offspring created of same are vilified, while those who embrace pregnancy and motherhood are celebrated. Not to mention that the children produced by these pregnancies, who are supposed to be yay and wonderful and the next step in human evolution, are just plain creepy. show less