Strength of Stones

Thoughtful and deep. The reader sees the exploration of an abandoned world and empty cities and then he is drawn into a deftly woven world of biotech and sentience and wonder-science all knotted about the questions of mortality. No other writer handled the religion aspects better than Bear in my view. And the end is both grand and sad at the same time.

This is a 3 part novel, composed of 2 novellas previously published. In a far future, the religious people of humanity have settled a single planet and built fully aware, highly advanced cities. Unfortunately for them, the cities promptly decided that humans were dangerous sinners and expelled them all. I guess that makes this a post-apocalyptic Mad Max style book, but with no great war or natural disaster. Humans are still living on God-Does-Battle, trying to break back into the great cities and struggling to rise above medieval level technology. All 3 stories deal with human interaction with the remains of the dying cities and how humans could be saved by getting back in - or leave the planet all together. Good, solid science fiction.

Post-apocalyptic on a distant world in the far future. Toss in some religious mysticism and too-complicated-to-explain technology.

The planet "God-Does-Battle" was purchased and colonized by Christians, Jews, and Moslems. They contracted architect Robert Kahn to build their high-tech cities - designed to re-inforce their shared religious ideals. Only centuries after their creation the cities expelled their inhabitants for failing to live up to those ideals. Without citizens, the cities have no mission and wander and decay.

This book concerns events on "God-Does-Battle" almost a millenium after the events above and itself spans a few centuries. The texture of this book is much different than other works by Greg Bear I have read. I found it show more somewhat to remain engaged in the storyline since there was no single unifying character to which the events held a personal significance so everything that happened seemed to have a "distance" to it that I had trouble overcoming. show less

Hmmm not the best Bear book. I found the religious aspect confusing and upon reaching the end I was left feeling not quite sure what happened! The big problem with this book is there's no main central character. The book is in 3 parts, 3 large chapters and after the first 'chapter' (54 pages) I got to know the main character only to find in the next part (set 10 years later) there's a new main character. Then later the original character returns but the focus has changed. Most books are about one person-not so with this book! Will list it on bookmooch so someone else can read it!

Not his best by a long shot. Try The Infinity Concerto or Blood Music if you want to sample Greg Bear.

A könyv három összefüggő kisregényből áll, nincs hagyományos értelemben vett főszereplője. Bár olvastam hasonló felépítésű nagyszerű könyveket, itt csak megnehezítette az olvasást. Az volt az érzésem, hogy egy jó (bár nem igazán befejezett) kisregényt bővített ki idővel az író, elég feleslegesen. Az alaptörténet szerint egy bolygón intelligens városokat épít az emberiség ahol zsidók, keresztények és muszlimok élnek. Később persze a városok öntudatra ébrednek... Nem igazán jöttem rá, hogy mi lenne a könyv mondanivalója. A mesterséges intelligencia veszélyeit akarta bemutatni? A vallások erejét/károsságát? Alig bírtam befejezni.