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    Darwin's Children
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    Darwin's Children
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    Darwin's Children
    Audiobook (abridged)6 hours

    Darwin's Children

    Written by Greg Bear

    Narrated by Jeff McCarthy

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Greg Bear's Nebula Award-winning novel, Darwin's Radio, painted a chilling portrait of humankind on the threshold of a radical leap in evolution-one that would alter our species forever. Now Bear continues his provocative tale of the human race confronted by an uncertain future, where "survival of the fittest" takes on astonishing and controversial new dimensions.

    DARWIN'S CHILDREN

    Eleven years have passed since SHEVA, an ancient retrovirus, was discovered in human DNA-a retrovirus that caused mutations in the human genome and heralded the arrival of a new wave of genetically enhanced humans. Now these changed children have reached adolescence . . . and face a world that is outraged about their very existence. For these special youths, possessed of remarkable, advanced traits that mark a major turning point in human development, are also ticking time bombs harboring hosts of viruses that could exterminate the "old" human race.

    Fear and hatred of the virus children have made them a persecuted underclass, quarantined by the government in special "schools," targeted by federally sanctioned bounty hunters, and demonized by hysterical segments of the population. But pockets of resistance have sprung up among those opposed to treating the children like dangerous diseases-and who fear the worst if the government's draconian measures are carried to their extreme.

    Scientists Kaye Lang and Mitch Rafelson are part of this small but determined minority. Once at the forefront of the discovery and study of the SHEVA outbreak, they now live as virtual exiles in the Virginia suburbs with their daughter, Stella-a bright, inquisitive virus child who is quickly maturing, straining to break free of the protective world her parents have built around her, and eager to seek out others of her kind.

    But for all their precautions, Kaye, Mitch, and Stella have not slipped below the government's radar. The agencies fanatically devoted to segregating and controlling the new-breed children monitor their every move-watching and waiting for the opportunity to strike the next blow in their escalating war to preserve "humankind" at any cost.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 1, 2003
    ISBN9780739302354
    Unavailable
    Darwin's Children
    Author

    Greg Bear

    Greg Bear has won two Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards and is a past president to the Science Fiction Writers of America. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

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    Reviews for Darwin's Children

    3.5/5

    356 ratings13 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This is actually more a second volume to a story than it is a sequel. The characters from the first book continue through the years. There is some great medical science fiction with a strong touch of mystical happening as well. In my opinion, understanding the theory is not necessary for enjoying the story, so don't get bogged down with that. Don't miss the section at the end called "Caveats" where Bear explains himself a bit.
    • 2/5
      ::spoilers:: I felt this book an unsatisfying follow-up to the first book, Darwin's Radio. I enjoy his narrative technique of jumping between character/location for each successive chapter -- it leaves the reader guessing and waiting for that moment when the 3 subplots will intersect (Kaye, Mitch, and Dicken). The first book satisfies that anticipation, while Darwin's Children strangely leaves one plot thread hanging and unconnected (what does ever happen to Dicken and the Shevite he rescues?). Will's inability to adapt to the camp in California is peculiar, since he was the one who had been wanting to go there in the first place. And the idea that the world would embrace the Shevites because of remains found at an archeological dig is simply stretching it... I would have thought his ideas more interesting and provocative had he left things as they were at the end of Darwin's Radio: a confused and unaccepting world struggles to deal with a force of nature that it tries but fails desperately to understand and to control and is left wondering -- where do we go from here.
    • 3/5
      This book is broken into 3 parts, separated by a few years each. In addition, each part follows at least 3 separate story lines. I felt the first part was fairly interesting,if mainly in the segments which follow the family of Mitch, Kaye, and Stella. I really hate political maneuvering, so that wiped out a great deal of the story for the last 2 parts. Then I felt that Bear was spending a lot of time delving into the interrelationships between viruses and humans, and how this affected the changes the children underwent. He does include a brief tutorial at the end, and a glossary of science terms, as if that will help the reader feel his speculations have some validity. Not knowing what DNA, RNA, or genetic transfer is about was not my problem. I was dissatisfied with his use of so many created theories. At one point one of his characters, Marge Cross, says "Let's not confuse our ERV with someone else's ERV," rattling off a lot of the scientific terms which can be used so glibly but need to be clearly understood in order to make sense.Thumbs down, I'm giving this away.
    • 3/5
      Enjoyable, though not quite as good as the first in the set: Darwin's Radio.
    • 3/5
      I did not read "Darwin's Radio" but when this sequel chanced my way, I read it, thinking that it might work as a stand-alone story. It does, but there is much in the book that is unsatisfying. Possibly because Bear had already invested time in character development in the first work, the character's never quite seemed dimensional in this one. Many, many pages were given to conversations, meetings and exposition in which the science that supports the novel was explained. Necessary but, in this case, occasionally sleep-inducing. Political and sociological commentary figured largely, which is also fine, and an important part of any good science fiction novel, but somehow, in this instance, it seemed didactic. All criticisms aside, the topic was extremely interesting and well-researched. Bear dealt beautifully with speculating on alternative forms of communication as the next step in the evolutionary process. There is much to like about this book, but I would tend to recommend it to friends with many caveats.
    • 3/5
      Darwin's Children is the sequel to Darwin's Radio and continues to follow the lives of Kaye, Mitch, and Stella, their daughter.The plot has some interesting twists and turns, especially in the end. The plot also is very believable in terms of people's reactions to new 'things' and other people's unscrupulous drive for power.Unfortunately, this book falls far short of the first book. The writing drags in areas and is confusing in spots. The characters are only slightly more developed over the first book and most become caricatures of themselves. This book had the feeling of a "sequel demanded by the publisher", without a lot of heart in the writing by Greg Bear.Overall, I was very disappointed in this book and in some ways, wished I had not read it. It nearly spoiled the wonderful feelings I had for Darwin's Radio.
    • 3/5
      After reading and enjoying Darwin's Radio several years ago I was looking forward to catching up with the sequel but was a little disappointed. The writing just didn't flow very well for me and I found the conversations between scientists that are used to explain concepts a bit too contrived.
    • 3/5
      Kaye and Mitch had protected Stella like a rare orchid throughout her short life. Kaye knew that, hated the necessity of it. It was how they had stayed together. Her daughter's freedom depended on it. The chat rooms were full of the agonized stories of parents giving up their children, watching them be sent to Emergency Action schools in another state. The camps.Mitch, Stella, and Kaye had lived a dreamy, tense, unreal existence, no way for an energetic, outgoing young girl to grow up, no way for Mitch to stay sane. As I had copies of both books, I decided to read the sequel straight after finishing "Darwin's Radio". I found myself much more interested in what Dicken and Augustine discovered in the 'new children' school, than in Kaye and Mitch lying low to avoid their child being taken from them. Although it was never stated in the book, I think the main reason that Kaye dumped Mitch as soon as he was no longer useful for protecting the family, was because he was showing signs of depression, and she didn't want another husband with mental health issues after her experience with Saul. So them getting back together again later made no sense to me; in fact, nothing about their relationship rang true. And why the obsession with Mitch's hands - yes he used to be an outdoors Type who worked with his hands, and now he isn't - I get it!
    • 2/5
      A massive let down after the first book. Not much story in it at all - very little happening other than lots of diatribe about viruses. The story could have developed in all sorts of interesting directions leaving the reader wanting more. In the end I was just reading it simply to finish it.
    • 4/5
      This sequel has less science and more character development than Darwin’s Radio.I felt drawn in by the characters, although the action never really grabbed me. I enjoyed seeing the characters develop and change as events evolved around them.
    • 4/5
      Sequel to Darwin's Radio.More sociology and less science in this book than the first. This work proceeds on a more personal level following characters we got to know in the first book. The political intrigues are not as fleshed out so policy decisions are less charged. I would have liked more explanation of the biology behind the Shivites skills and some hints as to what a mature civilization of Shivites might accomplish (perhaps Bear is holding back for a sequel). Similarly, some tantalizing hints regarding Kaye's "epiphany" but not a lot of development in that direction - I did PARTICULARLY like one confrontational scene in relation to this.Still a very good book, criticism mainly because the ideas in this book (and the first) had a potential to be GREAT but fell a little short.
    • 4/5
      While this can certainly be counted as another tour de force by Greg Bear, it does not quite match the sheer intellectual power of the first book in this series, Darwin's Radio. This book follows the continuing story of the Rafelson family - Mitch, Kaye, and their superior daughter, Stella Nova. Stella was among the first of a new species of human and was born towards the end of the first book, but this book begins 12 years later and is centered around her story and what has become of the new "virus children".One of my main dislikes of the book were the time leaps. If I was to draw out the sequence of this book, it would rise to fever pitch twice before plummeting back to a starting point. Bear basically continues to increase the suspense and draw out the story, only to pull back at the last moment and shoot forward three years to see the aftermath of that event. While this technique could be successful in some cases, I believe it falls flat here, especially since after the time jump, it often takes several chapters to get back into the flow of the story. This jerky exposition creates a disconnect with the story, which did not allow me to fully immerse myself in Bear's world for most of the book.Another problem is the seemingly random instance of God, which is never fully explained and is not necessary in the least to making the rest of the novel a comprehensive story. However, as always, Bear's science is flawlessly elegant and well-explained, even to those of us without extensive biological backgrounds (namely, me). Before reading this series I knew nothing about retroviruses or the various schools of thought on the function of viruses. While I am still not interested in biology, Bear creates a wonderful synergy between the reader and his subject matter. All in all I would recommend this book to the discerning scifi reader. While it takes some heartiness to get through a thick Bear novel, it is worth it in the end as long as you stop periodically to reflect on his revelations.
    • 4/5
      Nice sequel. Good writing, pacing & plot development. Interesting and understandable science. Excellent human drama. All the things I love about Greg Bear. Reading this makes me want to bring about some kind of change in our species right now. It’s fascinating and wonderful to peek in on Bear’s imagination of our future.One of the things that’s funny and patently obvious in this novel, is how caught up in the right now humanity is. Our life spans are so short, that we cannot see anything in perspective. Biological time has almost no meaning and geological none. The inevitability of the Sheva virus is inescapable. Try as we might to put it down and eradicate it, evolution will win out in the end. Our emotional attachment to the earth as it is at this minute is really very funny, but also has some interesting ironies. We lament the fact that humanity is ostensibly the cause of “global warming”, but I haven’t heard one person say we should actually make less people. Funny. And so what if the earth is warming (it’s done so before and quite without human intervention). Things will not end, they will only change. And that’s what we fear so much. Darwin’s Radio & Darwin’s Children are about exactly that; change, our fear of it, and what results because of that fear.