Slant

Nanotech has "perfected" life, but there are still problems. A secret society, a police officer and a terrorist come together in conflict at a time and place that can affect the fate of the world.

Better than Quantico, not up to the standard of The Infinity Concerto.

it's a kind of sequel to Queen of Angels (two common characters, set a bit later). he dumps artifical intelligence, nanotech into a dystopia pot, stirs well, and emerges with a fairly standard cyberpunk narrative. since i kinda like cyberpunk narratives, i was fairly pleased with the result. but

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the characters weren't so much interesting, the whole thing read stiffly in Bear's usual style, and it's not as inventive as his premises can be.

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Set in the same universe as Queen of Angels, this is sort of a who-done-it in a future US where just about everybody is happy due to manipulation via nanotech, and everybody is connected to a super high bandwidth Internet full of, well, mostly porn it seems.(Certainly a plausible future!) However,

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under the surface, problems persist. Fairly fast paced and often tense, this was a pretty good read.

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I really liked this sci-fi novel at first, but at about the halfway point it started to drag for me. Some interesting concepts here, and while on the whole I enjoyed it more than not, I'm left feeling a bit like it didn't all quite come together.

Pornography in the guise of science fiction. I quit reading after first 20 pages. Even if you like pornography, the book does not give the reader any reason whatsoever to want to continue reading.

Substance: The second half is much better than the first half, most of which, it being an exercise in pornography disguised as an explanation of the techniques of popular entertainment, could have been jettisoned without effecting the main plot of the book. The science and technology are assumed,

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not explained, in a duolithic world of sad and not very likeable people. No middle-class, no middle-ground.

However, the well-constructed plot reveals itself satisfactorily, disclosing hidden motives and other secrets as needed, although the ideological worldview of the novel as a whole is shallow and one-sided. Protagonists do assert that family is the most important thing in their lives, but it's hard to credit their sincerity sometimes.

The self-aware computer is well-done, although the concept of warbots clearly breaches Asimov's Laws of Robotics (no specs are given for Bear's computers). He describes his AI in technical jargon that he never defined.

Style: Multiple protagonists took a while to get straightened out, although at least they are all different from each other, and not cardboard characters. Graphic.

NOTES:
p. 330ff: Major discussion of the AI situation. Jargon included "loop awareness" and "autopoietic systems", which I had to look up later. I got the idea anyway, but it would have been nice if Bear had slipped the definitions into the conversation somewhere.
p. 407: "bio-neural mind"
p. 475: I like the phrase "elite arrogance", even though it is directed at the books boogie-men, the Neo-Federalists, a species of elite conservatives not to be confused with the gun-toting libertarian unhinged patriots of Green Idaho.
p. 482: danger from a simple infection vector - "corrupt Disneyland and you corrupt the world".
p. 487: throw-away comment encapsulates the state of the art in this milieu - "The Alexandria Quartet" being produced by Disney for children, with the novel's porn star.

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Nanotherapy is ubiquitous and people are the better for it. But one group does not like it, and manages to undo a lot of people’s therapies, protected by a great artificial intelligence/computer.

Was not so engaged.

From an author whose other works are engaging and thought-provoking, this book was a disappointment. There were countless, intertwining plot lines, but many remained difficult to appreciate even as the book was coming to a close and some ended up irrelevant. The characters lacked the depth and

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substance to make me care about whether they survived or not, and some left me wondering what purpose at all they had in the book. A few intriguing ideas, but nothing worth 500 pages.

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High time for a quick read, I headed to the science fiction section at the used bookstore and picked up Slant, as Greg Bear has made it onto my list of trusted authors. Despite that, the first noteworthy thought I had reading this book was "Please, dear Greg, no more writing sex scenes!" I was a

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tad concerned when sex/porn turned out to be rather central to the plot, but the most cringe-worthy moment had passed and I was soon absorbed by the story.

Basic idea -- it's 60ish years in the future. The internet dominates modern life. It has advanced to allow direct plug-ins that let the user see, fell, etc. the experiences of others -- live or recorded. This has taken over the economy. Those who produce popular content make money, those who only consume struggle. Also important is that large sections of the population have been "therapied" -- destructive/non-functional brain circuits are physically repaired by nanites.

I would not place this among Bear's strongest works, though there are many interesting ideas here. Commentary on the internet, elitism, runaway capitalism. Bear's female characters are starting to feel a little similar, but at least they're smart, powerful, and allowed to have relationships with each other, so I'll give him a pass for now.

Give it a read if you're a fan of Greg Bear. If you haven't read him before, start with Darwin's Radio or Moving Mars.

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Bear's characters can suffer somewhat (for lack of depth) from the density of his plot, but this is a thought-provoking sci-fi novel. Nice to see "normal" people struggling with some of things Bear thinks we all may have to deal with very soon.

Slant, is a aequel to Queen of Angels, but, I would say, is much less ambitious and also a much better book.
Policewoman Mary Choy is back, after a few life changes (divorce, move from LA to Seattle, job change). When she's called on to assist in an investigation of sex workers killed through

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botched back-alley nanotech operations, she does not expect to be launched into a far-reaching conspiracy to bring down society. But a billionaire investor's mysterious suicide, a virtual-reality murder, and an unprecedented epidemic of mental disturbances and general crime all seem to be somehow related...
With diverse characters that include a has-been porn star, a scientist with self-induced Tourette's syndrome, a renegade AI, and a heist mastermind without a past, Bear discusses many of the same themes as in the previous book, but in the context of a complex, entertaining and action-filled novel.

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Title Description # pages Price
Lives of Love
This group of ten amazing female disciples of Meher Baba have much wisdom and experience of living with the Avatar. 309 $15.00
Kissed by God
(my childhood with Meher Baba) Charles Haynes first met Meher Baba in 1958. He was just eight years old. This

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beautiful gem of a book tells the stories of Charles' time with Baba and his inner experience of Baba. As he puts it so well, “Like a time capsule from the past, each story of Meher Baba opens in the present to release the fragrance of His love.” (from the Preface) 160
60 fotos $18.00
Upasni Maharaj
A Perfect Master of India “Conceived by Meher Baba. . . and written under his auspices, this spiritual biography of Upasni Maharaj is a gift to America, to the West, and to the world. As a clear and authentic guide to the unfolding of higher consciousness, the life story of this Perfect Master serves as an invaluable resource for the contemporary Western seeker, for it accurately portrays the many stages of high illumination as well as the forceful transformative processes that accompany them.” 555 $75.00
Meher Baba’s
Blue Bus Tours
Including never-before-seen photographs from the newly digitized Elizabeth Chapin Patterson Photo Archive, Meher Baba's Blue Bus Tours is a meticulously researched chronicle of Baba's travels in India with His Western and Eastern women disciples, beginning in December 1938 and ending in November 1941. 848
100 fotos $45.00
The Boys
In 1927, Meher Baba initially established only the Meher Ashram, which offered a full academic curriculum as well as instruction in spirituality. Just months after the ashram began, a number of boys began to lean much more towards the spiritual offering, which on many days was being given to them directly by their Spiritual Master, Meher Baba. 465 $25.00
Meher Baba’s Samadhi
Tales from The Beloved's Tomb Over the decades, countless thousands have traveled to India's Maharashtra State to honor or worship Avatar Meher Baba at His Samadhi in upper Meherabad.
This collection of stories includes some history of the Tomb-shrine itself, and an account of Meher Baba's interment seven days after dropping His physical body on Jan 31, 1969. 234 $20.00
Twenty Years with Meher Baba
Dr. Ghani was a childhood friend and neighbor of Merwan S. Irani, before he was known as Meher Baba. In 1920, after some years apart, he was reacquainted with Merwan and learned of his new name (meaning Compassionate Father), given to him by the growing group of people who recognized and respected him as a great spiritual personality. Meher Baba lovingly referred to Dr. Ghani as “Big Head 110 $12.00
The Silent Messenger
The Life and Work of Meher Baba Meher Baba's life and teachings move through Vedantism, Sufism, Christianity and Buddhism. Uniquely, Baba gave all this to the world whilst remaining silent for 44 years. 311 $23.95
He Gives the Ocean Stories of the Savak Kotwal Family's Life with Meher Baba Najoo was one of a few Baba lovers who spent much of her childhood growing up at Meherabad. Her father, Savak, longed so intensely to serve God, he took his wife, Nergiz, and their three children, Najoo, Hilloo, and Adi, to live with Baba in March 1940, when Najoo was twelve. 416 $20.00

 
I hate dystopias! Several sub-plots coalesce into a nano-nightmare of complexity: the bad guys are trying to create a shelter so they can ride out the eventual collapse of world civilization--which they are aiding and abetting, so they can reemerge from safety and then take over the world--in comfort. The writing and excitement deserve a 5* rating....but I hate dystopias.

The first two stories take place about the same time—but the next 2 seem to have been written out of sequence. Book 4, “Slant”, takes place about 3 or 4 years past the first book and even mentions Mars as a major focal point of human expansion. But this is where/when we learn of the mysterious world-wide society that controls much of the real world. Book 3, “Moving Mars”, even mentions this secret society, in passing.

The reference to Mars in “Slant” and to the secret society in “Moving Mars” hint at the preferred chronology. While the distinctly unsatisfying ending to “Slant” makes me wish I had read “Moving Mars” last—with its much more encouraging ending.

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