Quantico

Thrillers are one of my staple diet of mind candy & I grew up reading the hard core, science-oriented SF of the 1960's/70's. Mr. Bear has here combined the two with a fast-paced SF police procedural that I picked up on a Friday night and literally did not set down until I had finished it. Bear's writing is unmuddied, and his plot is clipped to the exact pace of law enforcement officers under the gun (of time). His characters are amazingly well-fleshed for such a novel. In a political thriller, it is often difficult to let the reader know which characters are trustworthy, which not, and which are conflicted without stirring so many red herrings into the mix that the reader is unable to enjoy the unfolding of the tale. There is no such problem here. I also give him credit for his several allusions to the SF masters (for whom such times as ours would undoubtedly have produced many novels like this)and for maintaining the correct balance between too much and not enough science background. He makes the probability of bioterrorism seem too real and too possible and too terrifying to ignore--which is just what a near-future thriller ought to do. A very good job overall.

I am not a huge greg bear fan. I have been picking up his books for what must be three decades now. However, to the best of my memory, he has always left me feeling like I was unsatisfied with the reading experience. Quantico in my opinion has some stark problems that hold a light to Bears faults as an author. However, at the same time, I can see Bear attempting to deal with these problems, the only thing is that he just barely does not pull it off. My main beef with Quantico is Bears story telling. He has a great idea, one that he goes back to again and again in different ways, and that is the notion of humanities end. Here he plays with biological warfare, a strain of Anthrax and a new virus that could possibly wipe out all of humanity. For Bear, he has some fairly interesting protagonists. I could feel the extra effort he made to flesh out the characters this time, and for three quarters of the book, I was totally sucked in. However, Bear uses several characters to tell the story and eventually you get lost following one of at least a half dozen story lines. I think he could have done a better job by just sticking to one character. If you like Bear, you will enjoy this book. Bear is an idea man and this is a good one. In the hands of a more gifted story teller, this would have been dynamite.

... and what he has to say is fascinating. As Bear said on THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART, this is SF with the net up -- reasoned, reasonable extrapolation ... about the most important issues of our time. A major book from a major talent.

I LOVE "QUANTICO"! THE NOVEL IS THOUGHT PROVOKING, IMAGINATIVE, AND SCIENTIFICALLY/HISTORICALLY/POLITICALLY COMPELLING. THIS IS A GRIPPING THRILLER WITH LIVELY VERISIMILITUDE. I PARTICULARLY ENJOYED THE CHARACTERS AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT. THE PLOT WAS RIVETING! THIS IS A CROSS-OVER NOVEL WHICH STANDS UP WELL ON ITS OWN LITERARY MERITS. ONE CAVEAT: I WAS SORRY TO SEE IT END. NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE ARE AWARE OF THE DANGERS OF BIO-TERRORISM; I FEAR THAT GREG BEAR MAY BE A CASSANDRA - I HOPE, HOWEVER, THIS BOOK DRAWS MANY 100'S OF THOUSANDS OF THOUGHTFUL READERS WHO WILL RELECT ON THIS NOT IMPROBABLE FUTURE. d showley, orange co., ca

Bear combines a Crichton-style thriller with some damned good science to scare the pants off readers with this near-future story of bioterror, global politics, and heroic FBI agents. QUANTICO would make--and probably will make--a great movie, with a pace that rockets to the finish, and characters who should pop off the screen. One of Greg Bear's particular talents is to tell a hard science story with characters who live and breathe, and QUANTICO is no exception to the rest of his powerful bibliography. It's not for the faint of heart! But it's a most rewarding read.