Darwin's Radio (Darwin Series #1) [NOOK Book]

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Overview

“Virus hunter” Christopher Dicken is a man on a mission, following a trail of rumors, government cover-ups, and dead bodies around the globe in search of a mysterious disease that strikes only pregnant women and invariably results in miscarriage. But when Dicken finds what he’s looking for, the answer proves to be stranger—and far deadlier—than he ever could have imagined. Something that has slept in human DNA for millions of years is waking up.

Molecular biologist Kaye Lang has spent her career tracing ancient retroviruses in the human genome. She believes these microscopic fossils can come to life again. But when Dicken’s discovery becomes public, ...
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More About This Book

Overview

“Virus hunter” Christopher Dicken is a man on a mission, following a trail of rumors, government cover-ups, and dead bodies around the globe in search of a mysterious disease that strikes only pregnant women and invariably results in miscarriage. But when Dicken finds what he’s looking for, the answer proves to be stranger—and far deadlier—than he ever could have imagined. Something that has slept in human DNA for millions of years is waking up.

Molecular biologist Kaye Lang has spent her career tracing ancient retroviruses in the human genome. She believes these microscopic fossils can come to life again. But when Dicken’s discovery becomes public, Lang’s theory suddenly turns to chilling fact. As the outbreak of this terrifying disease threatens to become a deadly epidemic, Dicken and Lang must race against time to assemble the pieces of a puzzle only they are equipped to solve—an evolutionary puzzle that will determine the future of the human race . . . if a future exists at all.

Editorial Reviews

Gary K. Wolfe
...[O]ne of the most intelligent and original thrillers of recent years....[Draws] on a significant amount of current research on evolution, the human genome, and particularly human endogenous retroviruses....[A]ll this is worked out with the kind of inevitability of a good scientific investigation...
— Locus
Michael A. Goldman
Darwin's Radiois an entertaining, even riveting story, delivered poetically. It portrays scientist as real people, responding to the intense politics of the biomedical world, the funding imperative in public and private sector alike, and the terrifying challenge of a disease that threatens to decimate the human species. It takes a hard look at the challenges faced by a woman scientist with radical ideas, and the excitement of discovering a totally new way of looking at biological evolution. Whether you read it to pass a cold, snowy night by the fire, or to free your mind for the new paradigms that will emerge in the next millennium, I promise you an engaging journey.
— Nature
More Reviews (5) Fewer Reviews
Publishers Weekly
In the medical/SF tradition of Robin Cook, Bear (Blood Music) spins an outlandish tale of evolutionary apocalypse. In an ice cave in the Swiss Alps, Mitch Rafelson, a renegade paleontologist, discovers a frozen Neanderthal family, including an oddly evolved infant. Meantime, in Soviet Georgia, Kaye Lang, a microbiologist, is investigating a massacre site, where pregnant women were exterminated. These events relate--by way of elliptical scientific reasoning--to a retrovirus being hunted by U.S. government scientist Christopher Dicken. Called SHEVA, it causes genetic mutations in embryos and may also be an agent of evolution, ushering into being a new race of humans. Is it a sexually transmitted disease? Or, more sinister, is it a God-sent means of delivering up a new Adam for the millennium? When Mitch and Kaye fall in love, then decide to bring their own SHEVA baby to full term, they are about to find out the truth firsthand. This complicated tale is read somberly by the deep-voiced Rudnicki, who works hard to keep the sense of drama high through all the mumbo jumbo. Simultaneous release with the Ballantine hardcover. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
The discovery of a sexually transmitted retrovirus heralds a breakthrough in the understanding of the human genotype while spelling potential disaster for the human race--and the beginning of a new phase in evolution. As scientists and researchers wage a desperate battle to unlock the secrets of the virus known as SHEVA, a few far-sighted individuals attempt to cope with the possibility that something entirely new might replace humankind in the evolutionary pattern. Bear (Blood Music) remains in the forefront of speculative sf, displaying a genius for portraying the excitement of hard science through the struggles of his all-too-human characters. Filled with the author's lucid intelligence, this compelling novel should appeal to fans of science mystery as well as to hard-core sf readers. A priority purchase. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Robert Killheffer
Darwin's Radio is far superior to other recent thrillers on similar themes, such as John Darnton's Neanderthal, Mark Canter's Ember from the Sun, and Phillip Kerr's Esau, not only because Bear creates fuller, more realistic characters and situations, but also because Bear understands the science behind his ideas more deeply. The implications of dozens of recent discoveries in molecular biology, DNA studies, anthropology, and epidemiology all contribute to the ideas that drive Darwin's Radio, and these roots in the details of current research (not simply the headlines) make Bear's premise more than just the engine of a plot.
—Fantsy & Science Fiction Magazine
Russell Letson
The SF Idea that drives [the story] is an intriguing and nicely presented version of punctuated evolution....Bear is one of a handful of writers in the field who manage both the complexity of the intellectual material and the solidity and depth of feeling required for a "novel of ideas" to be a real novel.
— Locus
Kirkus Reviews
Contemporary SF about human evolution, from the author of Dinosaur Summer (1998), etc. In a high Alpine ice cave, dissident archaeologist Mitch Rafelson investigates three mummified corpses, perfectly preserved by the cold. The adults, male and female, appear to be Neanderthals•but their infant's a modern human! In the Republic of Georgia, microbiologist Kaye Lang probes an execution-style mass murder where all the female victims were pregnant. At the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, virus expert Christopher Dicken ponders SHEVA, a human endogenous retrovirus (it•s attached to human chromosomes) that causes miscarriages. SHEVA's ability to evade the body•s normal defenses alarms the Administration bigwigs. Shockingly, SHEVA causes•without sexual contact•a second pregnancy after the initial miscarriage. Kaye and Dicken agree that SHEVA isn't a disease and has been present in the human genome for millions of years. Stranger yet, Mitch's mummies also contain SHEVA, as do the Georgia dead. Mitch and Kaye conclude that SHEVA somehow causes an evolution event, mediating the appearance of a new type of human. But Dicken, jealously watching Kaye pair off with Mitch, switches sides to support the Administration. In this view, SHEVA, by shutting down human reproduction, represents a deadly threat to humanity, justifying extreme countermeasures. With Kaye deliberately pregnant, she and Mitch must become fugitives, while the country's social collapse parallels the beleaguered Administration's ever more savage policies. Absorbing and ingenious, but despite Bear's helpful afterword and glossary you'll need to be biologically literate to follow the argument. (Author tour)

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780345464927
  • Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 3/4/2003
  • Sold by: Random House
  • Format: eBook
  • Sales rank: 64,914
  • Series: Darwin Series, #1
  • File size: 532 KB

Meet the Author

Greg Bear
Greg Bear
Greg Bear is the author of twenty-four books, which have been translated into a dozen languages. He has been awarded two Hugos and four Nebulas for his fiction. He was called the “best working writer of hard science fiction” by The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. He is married to Astrid Anderson Bear. They are the parents of two children, Erik and Alexandra.

Read an Excerpt

The Alps, near the Austrian Border with Italy
AUGUST

The flat afternoon sky spread over the black and gray mountains like a stage backdrop, the color of a dog's pale crazy eye.

His ankles aching and back burning from a misplaced loop of nylon rope, Mitch Rafelson followed Tilde's quick female form along the margin between the white firn and a dust of new snow on the field. Mingled with the ice boulders of the fall, crenels and spikes of old ice had been sculpted by summer heat into milky, flint-edged knives.

To Mitch's left, the mountains rose over the jumble of black boulders flanking the broken slope of the ice fall. On the right, in the full glare of the sun, the ice rose in blinding brilliance to the perfect catenary of the cirque.

Franco was about twenty yards to the south, hidden by the rim of Mitch's goggles. Mitch could hear him but not see him. Some kilometers behind, also out of sight now, was the brilliant orange, round fiberglass-and-aluminum bivouac where they had made their last rest stop. He did not know how many kilometers they were from the last hut, whose name he had forgotten; but the memory of bright sun and warm tea in the sitting room, the Gaststube, gave him some strength. When this ordeal was over, he would get another cup of strong tea and sit in the Gaststube and thank God he was warm and alive.

They were approaching the wall of rock and a bridge of snow lying over a chasm dug by meltwater. These now-frozen streams formed during the spring and summer and eroded the edge of the glacier. Beyond the bridge, depending from a U-shaped depression in the wall, rose what looked like a gnome's upside-down castle, or a pipe organ carved from ice: a frozen waterfall spread out in many thick columns. Chunks of dislodged ice and drifts of snow gathered around the dirty white of the base; sun burnished the cream and white at the top.

Franco came into view as if out of a fog and joined up with Tilde. So far they had been on relatively level glacier. Now it seemed that Tilde and Franco were going to scale the pipe organ.

Mitch stopped for a moment and reached behind to pull out his ice ax. He pushed up his goggles, crouched, then fell back on his butt with a grunt to check his crampons. Ice balls between the spikes yielded to his knife.

Tilde walked back a few yards to speak to him. He looked up at her, his thick dark eyebrows forming a bridge over a pushed-up nose, round green eyes blinking at the cold.

"This saves us an hour," Tilde said, pointing at the pipe organ. "It's late. You've slowed us down." Her English came precise from thin lips, with a seductive Austrian accent. She had a slight but well-proportioned figure, white blond hair tucked under a dark blue Polartec cap, an elfin face with clear gray eyes. Attractive, but not Mitch's type; still, they had been lovers of the moment before Franco arrived.

"I told you I haven't climbed in eight years," Mitch said. Franco was showing him up handily. The Italian leaned on his ax near the pipe organ.

Tilde weighed and measured everything, took only the best, discarded the second best, yet never cut ties in case her past connections should prove useful. Franco had a square jaw and white teeth and a square head with thick black hair shaved at the sides, an eagle nose, Mediterranean olive skin, broad shoulders and arms knotted with muscles, fine hands, very strong. He was not too smart for Tilde, but no dummy, either. Mitch could imagine Tilde pulled from her thick Austrian forest by the prospect of bedding Franco, light against dark, like layers in a torte. He felt curiously detached from this image. Tilde made love with a mechanical rigor that had deceived Mitch for a time, until he realized she was merely going through the moves, one after the other, as a kind of intellectual exercise. She ate the same way. Nothing moved her deeply, yet she had real wit at times, and a lovely smile that drew lines on the corners of those thin, precise lips.

"We must go down before sunset," Tilde said. "I don't know what the weather will do. It's two hours to the cave. Not very far, but a hard climb. If we're lucky, you'll have an hour to look at what we've found."

"I'll do my best," Mitch said. "How far are we from the tourist trails? I haven't seen any red paint in hours."

Tilde pulled away her goggles to wipe them, gave him a flash smile with no warmth. "No tourists up here. Most good climbers stay away, too. But I know my way."

"Snow goddess," Mitch said.

"What do you expect?" she said, taking it as a compliment. "I've climbed here since I was a girl."

"You're still a girl," Mitch said. "Twenty-five, twenty-six?"

She had never revealed her age to Mitch. Now she appraised him as if he were a gemstone she might reconsider purchasing. "I am thirty-two. Franco is forty but he's faster than you."

"To hell with Franco," Mitch said without anger.

Tilde curled her lip in amusement. "We are all weird today," she said, turning away. "Even Franco feels it. But another Iceman ... what would that be worth?"

The very thought shortened Mitch's breath, and he did not need that now. His excitement curled back on itself, mixing with his exhaustion. "I don't know," he said.


From the Paperback edition.

Table of Contents

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 45 )

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 46 Customer Reviews

  • Posted March 9, 2012

    I once heard baseball described as a long period of boredom inte

    I once heard baseball described as a long period of boredom interrupted with infrequent bursts of activity. That might apply to this book. He had a potentially excellent story line, but should have read Crichton and Cook about how to deliver it. It rambled on with long, insignificant narrative. It unfortunately also left the reader with no idea how the whole thing started, and, even worse, ended in mid-air.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 17, 2011

    One of my favorites.

    I have read this book several times. Greg Bear is great at the hard science thriller. His books generally start slow but build with intricate storylines that are unique and well planned.

    This one is about an endogenous retrovirus nicknamed SHEVA reactivating and bringing about hysteria when it causes apparent miscarrages that ultimately result in a wave of punctuated equilibrium. It's a very interesting read. I highly reccommend it.

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  • Posted August 30, 2011

    Yes, but

    Interesting story. Some of the characters and situations are canned. But the big flaw for me is not explaining HOW the appearance of new genes, how the changes that they manifest actually help cope with the stresses than humans are undergoing. When you set that as a premise, you should follow through. The mutation uncovered at the end doesn't. It seems arbitrary.

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  • Posted August 4, 2010

    more from this reviewer

    Slow starter, strong finish

    This was one of those books that I had to push myself the continue with. It's a bit of a slow starter, but plot develops and by then end it's a decent page turner. This is hard science fiction with a very intriguing plot. Human evolution is taking a big leap forward in one generation, and it's happened before.
    The characters in this one are well developed, but a bit cliche. A couple of scientists who are out of favor with the establishment, a government conspiracy, and some good old virology. With out giving it away, the premise of this book is not complete fantasy and Mr. Bear knows his science, this adds credibility to the plot and the characters.
    It's a decent read, just stay with it, especially in the middle section when things slow down a bit.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 15, 2007

    The Scientific Exploration

    Basically, I thought the book was pretty good. The plot kept me interested, making me want to read more and discover what was lurking around the corner. I did however, feel that it took a little too long for Bear to illustrate the implications and problems of having a 'special' child born in a world of ignorance and fear. Other than that the book overall was really interesting, I learned a lot about genetics, the human cell, and how retroviruses worked. If your a biology fan you will definitely enjoy this book.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 3, 2003

    Was VERY hard to put down!

    I LOVED this book! In fact, I want a sequel!!! ;)

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 19, 2003

    creative, believable and terrifying

    Darwin¿s Radio is a pleasure for someone who loves hard science fiction, as I do. Here¿s the premise: SHEVA, a retrovirus long-buried in our genes, suddenly awakens and begins to attack pregnant women, forcing them to miscarry after three months. But that¿s just the beginning ¿ after the miscarriage, these same women spontaneously become pregnant again, this time developing a fetus that¿s not quite human. The federal government, led by the science establishment, after first denying the truth, then begins pressing parents to turn over their strange children to the government. This premise just blew my mind; it¿s creative, believable and terrifying. The science was complex and I referred to the glossary, included at the back of the book, several times. As I progressed through the pages, I was reminded of Beggars in Spain, Nancy Kress¿s wonderful story. Both novels explore the rapid evolution of humanity into another species, although Greg Bear, unlike Kress, makes humanity involuntary travelers on the journey. My major complaint is the slow pace. Too much time was spent on a romance between the two major characters. Even more frustrating was the endless politics between and among the scientific community and their patrons. Although Darwin¿s Radio is science fiction and not a techno-thriller, more action ¿ yes, a little violence, too ¿ would have strengthened the brew. The bottom line: a slightly flawed but thought-provoking tale.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 4, 2003

    Revolutionary idea of Evolutionary processes

    I had never liked reading any type of book, but I have been searching for an author that peaks my interests. Darwin's Radio was the first book that I have read, one of the over 90 books, that has provided such a revolutionary idea on the processes of evolution. The story-line that accompanied the theory presented also brought a compelling and absolutely exciting anticipation for each new event. I declared this book my favorite book within the hours it took me to read it. The sequel, Darwin's Children, is also fantastic continuing the great story fabricated by Greg Bear.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 26, 2001

    Great story, interesting premise

    I picked this up based on the recommendation of the Hugo Award. The author did a great job unfolding all the scientific information leading up to his climax. Good character interactions. My only criticism is in the length. At times the action took so long to unfold that I was bored. The editor needed to do a better job. It could have been tightened up a lot and the pace of the action quickened.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted September 6, 2000

    'Darwin's Radio' a thinking person's thriller

    'Darwin's Radio' is a complex, well-written thriller with some realistic characters. I thought the actual way the disease manifests itself a bit contrived (more complicated than nature would really devise), but the book was gripping throughout.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted September 8, 2000

    Great Book

    This is a fantastic novel that is easily on the top of the favorate novels list.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 3, 2000

    This was a BEAR of a Book!!

    I've always enjoyed Bear's work, but he seems to be getting better with each book. This one is about SHEVA a old but new virus that attacks humans and forms an evolutionary new type of offspring, maybe the future of human kind. Bear has just enough science and virology as to not make it sound like a science exam. He makes you care about the characters, expecially Kaye Lang and MItch. There is room left at the end for a sequel, but Bear manages to tie things together at the end. The nice little primer at the end of the book was a nice touch. I bought this book in hardcover and it was worth every penny. Bear just keeps on getting better and better and unlike most other science fiction writers, he is not afraid to tackle new ground. Thanks for a great and enjoyable read.

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    Posted August 9, 2010

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