false<![CDATA[The Forge of God]]>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1231220830m/64732.jpg6473210The Forge of God is Greg Bear's best novel & one of the best alien invasion novels written since H.G. Wells got the ball rolling with The War of the Worlds. Long but not overlong, the story is told with a grim & powerful sense of inevitability that gives its climax a tremendous jolt of authenticity & emotional force. Despite the fact you pretty much know how the book is going to end by halfway thru, it still has the power to bring readers to tears. The novel is also a fine melding of hard SF & character driven, "triumph of the human spirit" drama, related without any Hollywood sentimentalism or treacly preachifying.
The plot kicks off with the discovery of various geological anomalies—like mountains that weren't there just a little while ago—in remote locations like the Australian outback & Death Valley. It's gradually discovered that these oddities are artificial creations planted here by extraterrestrials. The Death Valley location even coughs up a real ET, who gives the bewildered Americans (& soon the world) the frightening story that the Earth is under siege by an unknown alien force that literally eats worlds from the core out, like worms in an apple. Worse, it seems that there is no defense against this destruction. Earth itself is faced with an extinction event about which it can do nothing.
The news stuns the world; the fact that the devoutly religious President of the U.S. comes out publically & tells everyone we're doomed does nothing for humanity's morale. But then an unpredicted player enters the fray; another alien race, which has been scouring space seeking out the planet-eaters, arrives in the solar system. Earth has an ally, & tho they say they can do nothing to stop the imminent destruction of the planet, they set about rounding up thousands of human candidates (as well as records of Earth's history, literature etc.) for rescue in arks.
Throughout Forge of God, Bear makes remarkable storytelling decisions that keep his tale from sloshing thru the quagmire of formula predictability. Most interesting is his depiction of humanity's reaction to news of its upcoming extinction; whereas the clichéd approach would lead towards riots, chaos & destruction, he convincingly portrays us exhibiting everything from plain old denial to overwrought religious revivalism that actually embraces the upcoming apocalypse as the will of God. "Life goes on," sadly intones one character. Faced with the inevitable, most people fall back upon introspection, a final devotion to family, friends, loved ones, those crucial memories that define our lives. All of this is thankfully depicted without mawkishness. Of course, there are many who try to fight for the Earth; plans are made secretly to nuke the Death Valley invader. While this is going on, a select group of people, conscripted telepathically by our mysterious saviors, are moving resolutely to get the arks ready as Earth's final hour draws nigh.
It is particularly interesting that Bear chose not to identify firmly either the Earth's destroyers or its rescuers. Such a choice might annoy hard-SF purists who insist upon solid explanations for absolutely everything; yet as it stands, the mystery surrounding both good & evil aliens puts the reader squarely on the same playing field as the novel's characters— helpless, frightened, always tense.
But what is most powerful here is quite simply Bear's prose. Very few hard-SF epics can match the stunning power of this novel's last 50 pages. Even the most jaded readers should allow themselves to feel the awe of what's being presented here.2235106book1987The Forge of Godtotal:640|5:123|4:252|3:223|2:39|1:3|64023738644232falsefalseSun Sep 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008Thu Aug 28 12:22:07 -0700 2008Tue Sep 16 13:35:50 -0700 2008
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41falsefalseSat Apr 12 20:53:50 -0700 2008Sat Mar 01 11:19:10 -0800 2008Sat Apr 12 20:46:37 -0700 2008 Like most sci-fi written in the past talking about "the future" that is now our past, it has a few stumbling blocks where he didn't get it quite right. Forg...more...]]>
40falsefalseSun Jun 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009Sat Jun 20 20:44:56 -0700 2009Sun Jun 28 16:36:39 -0700 2009 I know why this story is written t...more...]]>
51falsefalseWed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1992Thu Apr 03 18:28:32 -0700 2008Fri Jun 13 13:08:54 -0700 2008
After reading this, I was in a complete freaked out state of mind for so long. I kept wondering: How many completely seemingly inconsequential things were going on RIGHT NOW that could mean the end of the world ?
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40truefalseTue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009Fri Sep 11 10:32:54 -0700 2009Fri Sep 11 10:40:25 -0700 20091
Good characterization, and thought provoking scenarios presented in - ...more...]]>
40falsefalseSun Dec 28 00:00:00 -0800 2008Wed Nov 05 18:21:24 -0800 2008Sun Dec 28 08:07:04 -0800 20081
The Forge of God kept my attention until the last page. Greg Bear deals with the hard science of science fiction, and his writing is interspersed with scientific explanations of the events in the novel. There were a lot of c...more...]]>
40falsefalseMon Apr 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009Sat Apr 11 07:26:00 -0700 2009Mon Apr 13 06:45:35 -0700 2009
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30falsefalseWed Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 1993Thu Oct 15 11:40:09 -0700 2009Thu Oct 15 11:51:14 -0700 2009150falsefalseWed Apr 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009Wed Apr 08 07:37:34 -0700 2009Wed Apr 08 07:40:43 -0700 200920falsefalseSat Mar 07 00:00:00 -0800 2009Sun Mar 08 10:59:48 -0700 2009Sun Mar 08 11:02:38 -0700 200940falsefalseWed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1997Wed Jan 07 22:39:32 -0800 2009Wed Jan 07 22:42:54 -0800 2009140falsefalseTue Sep 16 00:00:00 -0700 2008Wed Sep 10 10:50:47 -0700 2008Wed Sep 17 09:04:22 -0700 2008 The middle thir...more...]]>
30falsefalseSun May 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009Sun May 10 18:44:34 -0700 2009Sun May 10 18:45:59 -0700 2009 Like all of Greg Bear's books, makes one vaguely feel that the human race isn't really all that worth saving. ]]>
40falsefalseSun Nov 30 22:15:48 -0800 2008Sun Nov 30 22:16:58 -0800 200840falsefalseMon Dec 01 15:34:36 -0800 2008Mon Dec 01 15:35:07 -0800 200840falsefalseSun Jul 15 09:20:38 -0700 2007Sun Jul 15 09:23:58 -0700 2007
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50falsefalseSat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005Thu Apr 02 08:34:28 -0700 2009Thu Apr 02 08:35:26 -0700 200930falsetrueWed Aug 27 17:27:47 -0700 2008Tue Jan 27 23:22:11 -0800 2009 Sinister alien built von Neumann probes chop up the earth to use as raw supply to build more probes. Another alien race saves a small remnant of humans and transplant them to a terraformed Mars. These aliens then h...more...]]>
20falsefalseTue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008Wed Aug 27 12:32:54 -0700 2008Wed Aug 27 15:11:36 -0700 2008
anvil of stars don't speak to me in t...more...]]>
40falsefalseThu Jul 24 04:07:14 -0700 2008Tue Aug 26 04:37:09 -0700 2008
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