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The Way #3
Legacy
The Way is a tunnel through space and time. The entrance is through the hollow asteroid Thistledown and the space station Axis City that sits at the asteroid's center. From there the Flawships ride the center of the Way, traveling to other worlds and times.
Now the rulers of Axis City have discovered that a huge group of colonists has secretly entered one of the interdicted worlds along the Way. In some ways Lamarkia is very Earth-like--but its biology is extraordinary. A single genetic entity can take many forms, and span a continent. There are only a few of these "ecos" on Lamarkia, and the effect of human interaction on them is unknown.
Olmy Ap Sennon has been sent to secretly assess the extent of the damage. But he will find far more than an intriguing alien biology--for on their new world the secret colonists have returned to the old ways of human history: war, famine, and ecological disaster. On this mission, Olmy will learn about the basics: love, responsibility, and even failure...
Now the rulers of Axis City have discovered that a huge group of colonists has secretly entered one of the interdicted worlds along the Way. In some ways Lamarkia is very Earth-like--but its biology is extraordinary. A single genetic entity can take many forms, and span a continent. There are only a few of these "ecos" on Lamarkia, and the effect of human interaction on them is unknown.
Olmy Ap Sennon has been sent to secretly assess the extent of the damage. But he will find far more than an intriguing alien biology--for on their new world the secret colonists have returned to the old ways of human history: war, famine, and ecological disaster. On this mission, Olmy will learn about the basics: love, responsibility, and even failure...
480 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
479 people are currently reading
2658 people want to read
About the author
Greg Bear
229 books2,094 followersGreg Bear was an American writer and illustrator best known for science fiction. His work covered themes of galactic conflict (Forge of God books), parallel universes (The Way series), consciousness and cultural practices (Queen of Angels), and accelerated evolution (Blood Music, Darwin’s Radio, and Darwin’s Children). His last work was the 2021 novel The Unfinished Land. Greg Bear wrote over 50 books in total.
(For a more complete biography, see Wikipedia.)
(For a more complete biography, see Wikipedia.)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 144 reviews
December 14, 2010
This book is the sequel to Eon and Eternity.
Actually, it's a prequel. It's told in the first-person by Olmy, one of the major characters from the previous books. In this book Olmy travels through a gate in the Way (the artificial universe in the center of a hollowed-out asteroid) to a world called Lamarckia.
The book is an interesting blend of social commentary and world-building. Essentially a group of religious fanatics leave their homes (where they can have every comfort or desire) and go to colonize a new world that is very different from Earth. Because of their religious beliefs, they want to be as "pure" as they can be. So they don't take any of their technology with them.
Turns out they needed the technology, and their colony was in serious danger of failing. Olmy travels to their world and finds that the humans have seriously degraded the biosphere they found, and the human legacy is massive change that could prove fatal.
Overall, it's a very good book. Again it's heavy on the politics but the characters have some real problems, and how they deal with them is what makes the book so interesting.
Actually, it's a prequel. It's told in the first-person by Olmy, one of the major characters from the previous books. In this book Olmy travels through a gate in the Way (the artificial universe in the center of a hollowed-out asteroid) to a world called Lamarckia.
The book is an interesting blend of social commentary and world-building. Essentially a group of religious fanatics leave their homes (where they can have every comfort or desire) and go to colonize a new world that is very different from Earth. Because of their religious beliefs, they want to be as "pure" as they can be. So they don't take any of their technology with them.
Turns out they needed the technology, and their colony was in serious danger of failing. Olmy travels to their world and finds that the humans have seriously degraded the biosphere they found, and the human legacy is massive change that could prove fatal.
Overall, it's a very good book. Again it's heavy on the politics but the characters have some real problems, and how they deal with them is what makes the book so interesting.
February 17, 2022
“We have sullied the many mothers of life.” Then, smiling as if about to give me a gift, “Lamarckia is not a bad place to die …”
Published 1995, an engaging tale of exploration and alien worlds. Made more so by the deep introspection of the point of view character. Those around him wonder who he is, he wonders too.
'The human pathogens of Lamarckia were cultural and philosophical, not biological.'
Stands up to technology changes better than many contemporary science fiction, partly because the dearth of metals on Lamarckia forced retrograde technology. Do current readers know who Nader was/is?
'Lamarckia would be a poor substitute for eternal bliss, but a fair compromise compared to the nullity of empty death.'
Interesting and effective use of forward flashes (or whatever you call them). Using the word "stunning" in the subtitle is off-putting.
“Come take me now! Where are you? Take me now!” 'I think I was asking for a gate to open, but I might have been asking to die.'
Published 1995, an engaging tale of exploration and alien worlds. Made more so by the deep introspection of the point of view character. Those around him wonder who he is, he wonders too.
'The human pathogens of Lamarckia were cultural and philosophical, not biological.'
Stands up to technology changes better than many contemporary science fiction, partly because the dearth of metals on Lamarckia forced retrograde technology. Do current readers know who Nader was/is?
'Lamarckia would be a poor substitute for eternal bliss, but a fair compromise compared to the nullity of empty death.'
Interesting and effective use of forward flashes (or whatever you call them). Using the word "stunning" in the subtitle is off-putting.
“Come take me now! Where are you? Take me now!” 'I think I was asking for a gate to open, but I might have been asking to die.'
September 1, 2017
The first big thing I have to say about this book is: why is it a prequel to Eon and Eternity? The text is a lot more concerned with the world of Lamarkia than it is with the Hexamon. Even the end of the book, as everybody starts figuring out who Olmy is, could have been reworked without the idea of people from another world coming to rescue everybody. This could have just as easily been a group of space explorers finding a planet and settling down.
I liked the world of this novel quite a bit, but I wanted to spend more time in it just understanding the Ecos and the way the nature of it all worked. The best chapters were in exploring the strangeness of the land, like on Martha's Island, or when you meet the "queen."
Olmy never really jumped off the page as a particularly distinct character for me, either, which is a bummer because Olmy was my favorite part of the two other books. I understand that one of the large themes here is in finding identity, and how we construct ourselves. But nothing about the Olmy in this book seemed to follow logically into the Olmy from the other books, which take place considerably later. I wanted to feel like I knew something about this character going in, but really he ended up being very little more than an empty vessel.
Also, Bear has a consistent problem with writing women. They're always either exotic and untouchable or mysteriously sexy or, on the rare occasion that they're actually well-developed humans, they are still sexualized by the male leads, who often have some sort of position of power over them (see: Olmy and Shirla in this text, and Lanier and Patricia from Eon).
I had a good time reading this book, honestly. It was a quick read and it kept me constantly on my toes. The ending left things sort of sad and incomplete, but I liked that as well. I'm only giving three stars because I couldn't stop thinking about the text's flaws as I was reading it, which is never a very good sign.
I liked the world of this novel quite a bit, but I wanted to spend more time in it just understanding the Ecos and the way the nature of it all worked. The best chapters were in exploring the strangeness of the land, like on Martha's Island, or when you meet the "queen."
Olmy never really jumped off the page as a particularly distinct character for me, either, which is a bummer because Olmy was my favorite part of the two other books. I understand that one of the large themes here is in finding identity, and how we construct ourselves. But nothing about the Olmy in this book seemed to follow logically into the Olmy from the other books, which take place considerably later. I wanted to feel like I knew something about this character going in, but really he ended up being very little more than an empty vessel.
Also, Bear has a consistent problem with writing women. They're always either exotic and untouchable or mysteriously sexy or, on the rare occasion that they're actually well-developed humans, they are still sexualized by the male leads, who often have some sort of position of power over them (see: Olmy and Shirla in this text, and Lanier and Patricia from Eon).
I had a good time reading this book, honestly. It was a quick read and it kept me constantly on my toes. The ending left things sort of sad and incomplete, but I liked that as well. I'm only giving three stars because I couldn't stop thinking about the text's flaws as I was reading it, which is never a very good sign.
May 27, 2010
Disappointing. The first two books were really cool. They had ADVANCED TECH. Well, this book is a prequel. While the main society has the same tech, a splinter group who are kind of like Quakers(don't like advanced tech) leaves and goes to world with a different type of evolution. The world is also low on metal. This philosophy and lack of metal means a science that is early 20th century or earlier. I tend not to like "low tech SF". This doesn't really do the steampunk thing, either.
The different type of evolution is "Lamarckian". Lamarck was before Darwin. His theory involved inheriting what is learned-like your work improves your children. Something like that, anyway. Well, in this world there are very few organisms, but they are LARGE-maybe even continent size. The organism is like a beehive, if the beehive is one organism. But, there are hundreds of types or "parts" to the beehive, each doing what a single organism usually does in an ecosystem.
The whole setup of the world was interesting, but he didn't really DO that much with it.
The main character was well done, and developed. But, there weren't really any other good characters.
The different type of evolution is "Lamarckian". Lamarck was before Darwin. His theory involved inheriting what is learned-like your work improves your children. Something like that, anyway. Well, in this world there are very few organisms, but they are LARGE-maybe even continent size. The organism is like a beehive, if the beehive is one organism. But, there are hundreds of types or "parts" to the beehive, each doing what a single organism usually does in an ecosystem.
The whole setup of the world was interesting, but he didn't really DO that much with it.
The main character was well done, and developed. But, there weren't really any other good characters.
January 13, 2019
"The gate will only open somewhere interesting."
Or so I paraphrase the keywarden, as he opens a path from the artificial axis universe stored within the generation ship Thistledown to the planet Lamarckia, and ushers our protagonist, Olmy, on a secret mission to scout a renegade colony of anti-technology utopians. The problem is that the keywarden lies, or at least only partially tells the truth.
Greg Bear's whole thing is a kind of Ultra-Orthodox Hard SciFi, a dazzling display of ideas where the characters and plot take a back seat, and this book delivers. Lamarckia, the centerpiece of the book, is a planet dominated by the ecoi, continental scale organisms that express themselves as scions, sub-organs ranging from tree-analogous to mobile tenders and spies to stranger creatures that influence whole weather systems. The renegade utopians were 5000 colonists under the leader Able Lenk, but his community has fractured politically, and is riven by famine, war, and threatened by the ecoi, which they lack the scientific base to understand.
Olmy's ostensible mission is to find a clavicle, a device which would open a gate back to Thistledown, but instead he arrives in the middle of a war between Lenk and the renegade Brion, and then signs up on a scientific voyage to circumnavigate the world. The book takes on a tinge of Moby Dick, with a captain obsessed with finding a queen of the ecoi, a mythical self-aware center to the landscape. The actual plot wanders, and Olmy is a cipher as a protagonist.
I read this book because it came first in my Eon collection, which probably was a mistake. I'm looking forward to Thistledown as a setting.
Or so I paraphrase the keywarden, as he opens a path from the artificial axis universe stored within the generation ship Thistledown to the planet Lamarckia, and ushers our protagonist, Olmy, on a secret mission to scout a renegade colony of anti-technology utopians. The problem is that the keywarden lies, or at least only partially tells the truth.
Greg Bear's whole thing is a kind of Ultra-Orthodox Hard SciFi, a dazzling display of ideas where the characters and plot take a back seat, and this book delivers. Lamarckia, the centerpiece of the book, is a planet dominated by the ecoi, continental scale organisms that express themselves as scions, sub-organs ranging from tree-analogous to mobile tenders and spies to stranger creatures that influence whole weather systems. The renegade utopians were 5000 colonists under the leader Able Lenk, but his community has fractured politically, and is riven by famine, war, and threatened by the ecoi, which they lack the scientific base to understand.
Olmy's ostensible mission is to find a clavicle, a device which would open a gate back to Thistledown, but instead he arrives in the middle of a war between Lenk and the renegade Brion, and then signs up on a scientific voyage to circumnavigate the world. The book takes on a tinge of Moby Dick, with a captain obsessed with finding a queen of the ecoi, a mythical self-aware center to the landscape. The actual plot wanders, and Olmy is a cipher as a protagonist.
I read this book because it came first in my Eon collection, which probably was a mistake. I'm looking forward to Thistledown as a setting.
October 28, 2019
It's probably a couple of decades since I read the first book in this series and five years since I read the second. This is the third and final (so far) instalment. It's not the best. Nor is it the second best.
I caught up by reading the Wikipedia synopsis of the other books. I was impressed by them and remembered how much I enjoyed them. A sense of anticipation came over me. Then it died.
The death of anticipation came when I realised that this book does not continue the main storyline. This book is merely a story within the universe of The Way (an infinitely long artificial universe through which other worlds can be accessed).
Ninety percent of this novel is not set in The Way, but on a planet accessed from it: Lamarckia. If this were a novel all by itself without the proclamation 'return to the universe of Eon (the first book in the series)' then I would have enjoyed it a lot more and would have probably given it four stars instead of three. Bat as it is, I felt disappointed and cheated out of a proper sequel.
But enough about me; what about the book? Well, it's an adventure story set on a different world, children. There's a love story to sigh over, an alien ecology to get your head around, strange folk to follow around and a (kind of a) mystery to solve towards the end.
What else can I tell you? Hmm, probably lots. What else do I want to tell you. Hmm, very little. This is the kind of book that puts me off reading.
You'll dig this if you never read the other two books. You'll not have fun if, like me, you expect too much.
I caught up by reading the Wikipedia synopsis of the other books. I was impressed by them and remembered how much I enjoyed them. A sense of anticipation came over me. Then it died.
The death of anticipation came when I realised that this book does not continue the main storyline. This book is merely a story within the universe of The Way (an infinitely long artificial universe through which other worlds can be accessed).
Ninety percent of this novel is not set in The Way, but on a planet accessed from it: Lamarckia. If this were a novel all by itself without the proclamation 'return to the universe of Eon (the first book in the series)' then I would have enjoyed it a lot more and would have probably given it four stars instead of three. Bat as it is, I felt disappointed and cheated out of a proper sequel.
But enough about me; what about the book? Well, it's an adventure story set on a different world, children. There's a love story to sigh over, an alien ecology to get your head around, strange folk to follow around and a (kind of a) mystery to solve towards the end.
What else can I tell you? Hmm, probably lots. What else do I want to tell you. Hmm, very little. This is the kind of book that puts me off reading.
You'll dig this if you never read the other two books. You'll not have fun if, like me, you expect too much.
June 1, 2018
Según todos es el tercero, al parecer según la cronología interna de la serie es el primero, lo que a día de hoy llamaríamos una precuela, a mí me llegó como un volumen independiente y por eso comencé a leerlo, cuando me enteré de su "unión" con los otros dos ya era demasiado tarde.
Resumen: me ha dejado bastante indiferente. Comenzó interesante y de repente se convirtió en un rollo infumable de investigaciones ecológicas y al final ha mejorado otra vez, pero ya no he conseguido meterme de nuevo en la historia y me daba igual todo lo que pasara y no me ha gustado ningún personaje (y eso que todos son bastante grises!)
Al parecer el bueno de esta "trilogia" es Eon que está marcado como el primero aunque en realidad la trama es posterior a este.
5/10 (os lo podéis ahorrar!)
Resumen: me ha dejado bastante indiferente. Comenzó interesante y de repente se convirtió en un rollo infumable de investigaciones ecológicas y al final ha mejorado otra vez, pero ya no he conseguido meterme de nuevo en la historia y me daba igual todo lo que pasara y no me ha gustado ningún personaje (y eso que todos son bastante grises!)
Al parecer el bueno de esta "trilogia" es Eon que está marcado como el primero aunque en realidad la trama es posterior a este.
5/10 (os lo podéis ahorrar!)
September 23, 2019
The book was disappointing, the story not anything about The Way or Thistledown, but instead about the Hexamon agent Ser Olmy's adventures on the world Lamarckia. The story is a kind of sea adventure, most of the action taking place on sea. Also there are pretty detailed descriptions of the unique Lamarckian ecosystem called the ecoi. I wonder about the title "Legacy"; maybe it means the human and erring and in the end disastrous influence the people had on the planet; even as sophisticated as the Hexamon is, it still is capable of producing only humanly imperfect people who may regress into worst acts of humanity.
December 17, 2020
This is the "prequel" in the three-novel series which, I have always thought, was not as well written as the first two, there is almost nothing about the technology that made The Way a wonderful thing to read about.
Still, this novel is about humans coming from a high technology society and deliberately casting themselves in to a 13th Century society, complete with a renewal of the wars, rapes, and Christian / Islamic / Israeli atrocities which science and technology *should* be able to eliminate with technology, eventually.
Once the adults return and put a stop to the cultists, sanity and peace returns.
Still, this novel is about humans coming from a high technology society and deliberately casting themselves in to a 13th Century society, complete with a renewal of the wars, rapes, and Christian / Islamic / Israeli atrocities which science and technology *should* be able to eliminate with technology, eventually.
Once the adults return and put a stop to the cultists, sanity and peace returns.
January 17, 2014
Classic Sci Fi novel, but told with such brilliant vividness that I couldn't put it down until 3am.
Legacy follows the Life of Olmy: a member of the Way Defense on a gargantuan ship called Thistledown, until he is assigned to do recon on an Earth-like planet named Lamarckia.
Greg bear is thorough in his exploration of human society and what would really happen if a small group of humans were really to start over on a new planet. From the societal factions and shortcomings of people, to mile-long Storm Beasts creating megacytic organisms that control weather, this book keeps you on your toes, deep in thought, and with a fatuous smile on your face.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves reading and is interested in science fiction, because this book is a Good Read
(haha. get it..? 'cause Good Read is like goodreads except it's- …never mind. Just- It's a good book).
Legacy follows the Life of Olmy: a member of the Way Defense on a gargantuan ship called Thistledown, until he is assigned to do recon on an Earth-like planet named Lamarckia.
Greg bear is thorough in his exploration of human society and what would really happen if a small group of humans were really to start over on a new planet. From the societal factions and shortcomings of people, to mile-long Storm Beasts creating megacytic organisms that control weather, this book keeps you on your toes, deep in thought, and with a fatuous smile on your face.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves reading and is interested in science fiction, because this book is a Good Read
(haha. get it..? 'cause Good Read is like goodreads except it's- …never mind. Just- It's a good book).
January 14, 2020
Bear, Greg. Legacy. The Way No. 3. Tor, 1995.
We begin on an asteroid habitat called Thistledown that connects to wormhole gates. Our hero travels through one of the gates to a planet called Lamarckia, which has been settled by some human beings without permission from the Thistledown authorities. They are having a hard time of it, but the story is most about is a sea voyage to explore the planet’s unusual flora and fauna that seems to adapt to and copy whatever it comes across. If you are thinking Darwin and the Beagle at this point, I would not argue with you. The story reminds me of the sort of science fiction adventure stories that Bear’s father-in-law Poul Anderson used to write. Entertaining, but don’t expect things to be wrapped up too neatly. Note: The Way series is also known as the Eon series and Legacy is a prequel.
We begin on an asteroid habitat called Thistledown that connects to wormhole gates. Our hero travels through one of the gates to a planet called Lamarckia, which has been settled by some human beings without permission from the Thistledown authorities. They are having a hard time of it, but the story is most about is a sea voyage to explore the planet’s unusual flora and fauna that seems to adapt to and copy whatever it comes across. If you are thinking Darwin and the Beagle at this point, I would not argue with you. The story reminds me of the sort of science fiction adventure stories that Bear’s father-in-law Poul Anderson used to write. Entertaining, but don’t expect things to be wrapped up too neatly. Note: The Way series is also known as the Eon series and Legacy is a prequel.
December 31, 2009
This was a disapointing read from the usually reliable Bear. The best part of this book was the very discriptive way that Bear brought another world to life but too much of the book was on a boat and at times felt more like a O'Brien adventure.
May 13, 2007
All Bear's stories are challenging and thought provoking, though sometimes to the point of headache inducing as one tries to wrap his mind around mathematical constructs that actually exist.
December 7, 2018
The book is very amazing
August 6, 2023
I’m not on a Greg Bear kick; I just happen to have a lot of Greg Bear books that I’ve picked up here and there, most of them signed, like this one. And this one is a typical Greg Bear - mind blowing future societies filled with incomprehensible descriptions and hard science generally requiring a PhD to understand. Good stuff.
This book is supposed to be the pre-quel to Bear’s megahit Eon, which I have not read. It’s actually the third book of the Eon trilogy, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense because this, in reading order, should pre-date the others and should, based on that, have baseline explanations of the concepts. Not here; they were given quite the short shrift, leaving me scratching my head from time to time. I suspect fuller treatments are in the first two books, which means you should probably read those two before reading this one, which is the pre-quel to those. So I don’t know how this book ties into that, and I’m worried that talking about this will create a bunch of spoilers for the others, so I’ll be circumspect.
Thistledown is a generation ship carved out of an asteroid and sent on a millenia long mission across the galaxy from a dying Earth, or one that’s overcrowded, not really sure. It is several thousand years since the initial launch and a robust human society ruled by the Hexamon has grown up inside with mind blowing tech and an alien enemy called the Jarts, who are doing everything they can to destroy Thistledown. Why? Dunno, but they’re quite formidable. Olmy Ap Sennon is a member of Way Defense fighting the Jarts when he is selected for a secret mission: find out what happened to the Lenkians, a group of anti-technology Thistledowners who illegally entered the Way and fled to live a pure life on a planet called Lamarckia. He is to locate the leader of the group, the Good Able Lenk, and retrieve the clavicle, which is a device that allows transport along the Way.
The Way? What’s that?
Dunno, it’s unclear, suffering from Greg Bear’s rather annoying inability to describe his concepts/characters/settings with anything like clarity. Best I can figure, it’s the path that Thistledown is traveling, a wormhole of some kind that the authorities of Axis City, the Thistledown capital city, have the ability to tap, allowing for travel hither and yon. Maybe it’s better explained in Eon.
But all that is just background because Lamarckia is the main focus here as Olmy lands in the middle of a civil war between the followers of Lenk and a breakaway faction called the Brionists. It’s a brutal war; Olmy walks into a massacre of men and women and kidnapping of children from a Lenk town by Brionist thugs who have no trouble deciding to kill him, too. But, unlike the thugs, Olmy is a trained soldier and makes quick work of the attack. Which is impressive; he uses only makeshift weapons on site because he brought nothing with him from Thistledown. Somehow, he ends up on a voyage of Lenk scientists bent on circumnavigating the virtually unknown Lamarckia in a sailing ship, avoiding the Brionist navy along the way.
And what a voyage. I put it up there with any great sea story you want to name, from Robin Hobbs’ The Liveship Traders Trilogy to Horatio Hornblower. Bear knows his sail craft, altering it to fit the very odd conditions of Lamarckia, which is a world made up of living ecos, every one of them different from the other and consisting of various plants and jungles and silvas and creatures conjured by the ecos to clean the places and steal from other ecos and even sample the blood of passing humans. It is a fascinating world that suffers from Bear’s inability to describe it in clear-enough detail for you to get a picture of this incredibly alien and weird world. Think of Fantastic Planet, and you’ll have an idea.
Olmy finds that the humans are rueing that whole anti-technology philosophy that brought them to Lamarckia because the colony almost starved to death on a planet with no real food, resources and no metals, hence the reason for the war- the Brionists want to change Lamarckia to their own liking, while the Lenkians want humans to adapt to it. What they don’t know is that Lamarckia is adapting to them. And it isn’t pretty.
This is a fairly tough read, a combination of the hard biological science and Bear’s lacks, but the voyage alone makes it worthwhile. Too bad the voyage ends so abruptly. And in such a frightening manner, a scene where Bear actually rises to the occasion and gives you some of the most hair-raising descriptions of an alien life form you don’t ever want to meet. And where all this leads … whoa.
Whoa, indeed.
This book is supposed to be the pre-quel to Bear’s megahit Eon, which I have not read. It’s actually the third book of the Eon trilogy, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense because this, in reading order, should pre-date the others and should, based on that, have baseline explanations of the concepts. Not here; they were given quite the short shrift, leaving me scratching my head from time to time. I suspect fuller treatments are in the first two books, which means you should probably read those two before reading this one, which is the pre-quel to those. So I don’t know how this book ties into that, and I’m worried that talking about this will create a bunch of spoilers for the others, so I’ll be circumspect.
Thistledown is a generation ship carved out of an asteroid and sent on a millenia long mission across the galaxy from a dying Earth, or one that’s overcrowded, not really sure. It is several thousand years since the initial launch and a robust human society ruled by the Hexamon has grown up inside with mind blowing tech and an alien enemy called the Jarts, who are doing everything they can to destroy Thistledown. Why? Dunno, but they’re quite formidable. Olmy Ap Sennon is a member of Way Defense fighting the Jarts when he is selected for a secret mission: find out what happened to the Lenkians, a group of anti-technology Thistledowners who illegally entered the Way and fled to live a pure life on a planet called Lamarckia. He is to locate the leader of the group, the Good Able Lenk, and retrieve the clavicle, which is a device that allows transport along the Way.
The Way? What’s that?
Dunno, it’s unclear, suffering from Greg Bear’s rather annoying inability to describe his concepts/characters/settings with anything like clarity. Best I can figure, it’s the path that Thistledown is traveling, a wormhole of some kind that the authorities of Axis City, the Thistledown capital city, have the ability to tap, allowing for travel hither and yon. Maybe it’s better explained in Eon.
But all that is just background because Lamarckia is the main focus here as Olmy lands in the middle of a civil war between the followers of Lenk and a breakaway faction called the Brionists. It’s a brutal war; Olmy walks into a massacre of men and women and kidnapping of children from a Lenk town by Brionist thugs who have no trouble deciding to kill him, too. But, unlike the thugs, Olmy is a trained soldier and makes quick work of the attack. Which is impressive; he uses only makeshift weapons on site because he brought nothing with him from Thistledown. Somehow, he ends up on a voyage of Lenk scientists bent on circumnavigating the virtually unknown Lamarckia in a sailing ship, avoiding the Brionist navy along the way.
And what a voyage. I put it up there with any great sea story you want to name, from Robin Hobbs’ The Liveship Traders Trilogy to Horatio Hornblower. Bear knows his sail craft, altering it to fit the very odd conditions of Lamarckia, which is a world made up of living ecos, every one of them different from the other and consisting of various plants and jungles and silvas and creatures conjured by the ecos to clean the places and steal from other ecos and even sample the blood of passing humans. It is a fascinating world that suffers from Bear’s inability to describe it in clear-enough detail for you to get a picture of this incredibly alien and weird world. Think of Fantastic Planet, and you’ll have an idea.
Olmy finds that the humans are rueing that whole anti-technology philosophy that brought them to Lamarckia because the colony almost starved to death on a planet with no real food, resources and no metals, hence the reason for the war- the Brionists want to change Lamarckia to their own liking, while the Lenkians want humans to adapt to it. What they don’t know is that Lamarckia is adapting to them. And it isn’t pretty.
This is a fairly tough read, a combination of the hard biological science and Bear’s lacks, but the voyage alone makes it worthwhile. Too bad the voyage ends so abruptly. And in such a frightening manner, a scene where Bear actually rises to the occasion and gives you some of the most hair-raising descriptions of an alien life form you don’t ever want to meet. And where all this leads … whoa.
Whoa, indeed.
April 20, 2025
The plot is the exploration of the relationship between a small human society and a new life form. The author seems to have envisioned a new idea for a new life form and used the book as a device to explore it. That said, the book is enjoyable.
Olmy is sent by the Hexamon to spy on the humans on Lamarckia, a planet with a unique life form that was to be left alone. As soon as he arrives, the focus turns to an exploration of the life itself.
There is almost nothing that is really explored. Although Olmy sets out on a travel, which did not seem to fit with his mission, almost everything we learn about the life is provided by other characters. As the story progresses, the reader encounters characters more and more knowledgable.
Another plot line involves the relation of two factions on the planet. We open with outright warring, and eventually learn the underlying history behind the war, and the people leading it. We also learn a little about the cultures involved in this war. Personally, I found this more interesting than the life exploration.
Besides Lamarkia, referring to the planet and the Lamarkian-style evolution that seems to predominate its life forms, the author has thrown in references to mythologies. Other than just names dropped, there isn't really a clue that there is a reference. I suspect I missed most of them, if there were more than a couple.
Early on, the book dragged. I really couldn't identify with any of the characters in the book, the main character seemed to make some very odd decisions. The book really picked up in the second half. If the first half were just a little better, I would rate the book much better.
Olmy is sent by the Hexamon to spy on the humans on Lamarckia, a planet with a unique life form that was to be left alone. As soon as he arrives, the focus turns to an exploration of the life itself.
There is almost nothing that is really explored. Although Olmy sets out on a travel, which did not seem to fit with his mission, almost everything we learn about the life is provided by other characters. As the story progresses, the reader encounters characters more and more knowledgable.
Another plot line involves the relation of two factions on the planet. We open with outright warring, and eventually learn the underlying history behind the war, and the people leading it. We also learn a little about the cultures involved in this war. Personally, I found this more interesting than the life exploration.
Besides Lamarkia, referring to the planet and the Lamarkian-style evolution that seems to predominate its life forms, the author has thrown in references to mythologies. Other than just names dropped, there isn't really a clue that there is a reference. I suspect I missed most of them, if there were more than a couple.
Early on, the book dragged. I really couldn't identify with any of the characters in the book, the main character seemed to make some very odd decisions. The book really picked up in the second half. If the first half were just a little better, I would rate the book much better.
June 11, 2017
This book should be a fantastic read for fans of world-building. The concept of continent-sized organisms is not new to science-fiction, and of course, the concept of colonial, social organisms working in concert as tools of a single central "mother" is not fictional at all, but the author marries these very nicely. Descriptions abound but do not tire, and the influence of this biological backdrop on the young society of Lamarckia is convincingly portrayed; these pioneers, flawed as they are, can be understood and empathized with. I was much less happy with the confusing portrayal of Thistledown politics and religion that starts the book. The main character, Olmy, recognizes after a while that he doesn't know who he is until after he has stayed in Lamarckia for a while; this was clear from the start to me as a reader, because neither Olmy nor his acquaintances are in any way relatable. An impatient reader could be tempted to drop the book altogether at this point. For the patient ones, rewards will be slow to arrive, but arrive they will. The exploration journey of the Vigilant brings memories of the voyage of the Beagle, slowly turning into something not merely darker but almost metaphysically weird, a trip of the spirit into seas of wholly inhuman experience. The petty concerns of the individuals do become a bit lost. Olmy's newfound love isn't remotely interesting, or well integrated into the plot. The ending is both epic and prosaic, which is fine: this is rather hard sci-fi after all, and not escapist fantasy.
November 23, 2023
Larry Niven opens with the first part of his novel “Slowboat Cargo”, where a shipment from Earth to the planet We Made It by Ramrobot #143 contains something that will change their society forever. I have reviewed the novel version, called A Gift From Earth, in detail elsewhere. Robert Sheckley gives us the nicely paranoid tale of Lanigan, who is terrified that the world of his dreams is becoming reality, in “The Petrified World”. The twist ending was riffed on years later by Ellison in Strange Wine. Ed Lamb is an amiable mechanic who likes nothing more than taking his old Norton out on the open road, but when he assists some strangers with a broken-down machine he accepts a gift that both the donor and recipient regret in “Star Bike” by B. K. Filer. “The Courteous Of Ghoor” offers Archie a mental gift which enables him to move the entire Earth to a new star after a warning that Sol is about to go nova. But the real reason is more sinister in Robert Lory’s tale. Debut auther Laurence Yep gives a very polished tale set after California slipped into the Pacific. Duke is bitter after being rejected by Pryn, who both work with dolphins in the submerged cities. But the reasons why a union between them would be unwise is made manifestly clear in “The Selchey Kids”. Closing the issue is the conclusion to “All Judgment Fled” by James White, where a running battle between humans and alien species on a starship near Jupiter comes to a head. I have reviewed the novel version of this tale elsewhere.
October 3, 2017
I was looking forward to reading this book because Eon was a winner of SF awards. This is the prequel to Eon, so I thought I’d start at the beginning. The book is well written. I think the premise is interesting, too: an almost sterile world that relies on imitation and responsiveness to the environment to change. I finished the book, hoping that the story would become more compelling but Meh... Even the love interest, someone plain, not a compelling personality- so why bother. It was an exercise in imagining a place so neutral and essentially harmless that the humans become more degenerate as a reaction to such a boring place. The author does bring up a compelling idea: Male leaders with visions of utopia generally force Women followers to bear the most painful and largest burden. We get glimpses of these women and the consequences of following their husband’s choice, but not enough. I don’t know if I will read Eon. I had to do a palate cleanse with Witches of New York, by Ami McKay: A fun Historical fiction that can wash out the downer effect of this gloomy novel.
February 21, 2018
Loved it. This is a prequel to the The Way series, and so although I've read them (so far) somewhat out of order, that wasn't a factor in understanding this one.
I'll have to rank Bear among the pantheon of truly biologically imaginative authors I've read, which includes Frank Herbert (for the Dune series) and Orson Scott Card (for the Enderverse). The ecosphere in this one may well be the most unique I've run across, though, and that's saying something.
The novel is largely concerned with a scientific voyage at sea, and contains elements of Moby-Dick, Kon-Tiki and Darwin's accounts of his voyage on the Beagle. That is to say, it combines scientific inquiry, engineering and construction of seaworthy vessels using primitive materials, procedural shipboard activity, and adventure and tragedy on the high seas. The story itself is fairly thin until about the last quarter of the book, but the description of the exotic terrain and life is enough to carry you that far.
I'll have to rank Bear among the pantheon of truly biologically imaginative authors I've read, which includes Frank Herbert (for the Dune series) and Orson Scott Card (for the Enderverse). The ecosphere in this one may well be the most unique I've run across, though, and that's saying something.
The novel is largely concerned with a scientific voyage at sea, and contains elements of Moby-Dick, Kon-Tiki and Darwin's accounts of his voyage on the Beagle. That is to say, it combines scientific inquiry, engineering and construction of seaworthy vessels using primitive materials, procedural shipboard activity, and adventure and tragedy on the high seas. The story itself is fairly thin until about the last quarter of the book, but the description of the exotic terrain and life is enough to carry you that far.
June 20, 2018
I started this book mid-flight over the Atlantic ocean because it was the only one on my Kindle. I understand that "Eon" is essentially a hard sci-fi classic, but I've never read it. Having bought the trilogy, "Legacy" came first as I understand its a prequel of sorts. But having slogged through this tedious bore, I'm not sure if I have the stomach for the next two. It's not that nothing happened. I mean, there was a war for the love of God, or Able Lenk or the Good Nader, or something like that, and that's drama. Although I'm not sure what the point was of sending ONE mid-level 27-year old soldier through the portal to go there and do a recky if he wasn't going to do anything except tag along on a ship, run through some colorful ecoi, and fall in love. Really, what was HE DOING? Ugh. It's not the writing was bad. There was just so much NOT going on, that I had to force my eyes to stay open. Sorry, Ser Olmy. Didn't work for me.
January 2, 2019
I got the three-book series in one download, and for some reason the third book, Legacy, was first in line. It is a prequel, but what the hell? Without some of the context provided by the other two, I felt a little out of touch with the main character and what was going on. Fleeting references to key features didn't help as much as they should have. My fault, though, for not checking first before reading, I guess.
That said, this was enjoyable, but odd. The middle third seemed like an intro to a strange exo-biology class, and some events that were important at some point in the book turned out to be more like filler than real explication. I like Greg Bear so 3 stars, but I almost went back and gave it 2. New Year's generosity, I guess.
That said, this was enjoyable, but odd. The middle third seemed like an intro to a strange exo-biology class, and some events that were important at some point in the book turned out to be more like filler than real explication. I like Greg Bear so 3 stars, but I almost went back and gave it 2. New Year's generosity, I guess.
April 18, 2022
Don't think of this a "prequel." It's not setting up anything relevant to "Eon" and/or "Eternity." It's just another story taking place in the same universe, with Olmy as the main character.
The setting of Lamarckia is very interesting, but the story itself is not. The rapid action that takes place in the last hundred pages or so is out of sync with everything that goes before.
The writing is spotty as well. It's hard to tell whether Olmy is telling this story almost as it's happening, or after years of reflection. That spottiness is somewhat addressed in those last hundred pages with obvious switches to account for that but it's jarring when it appears suddenly. That last bit also seems rushed and disjointed.
Ultimately a meh book, part of what is, overall, a meh series.
The setting of Lamarckia is very interesting, but the story itself is not. The rapid action that takes place in the last hundred pages or so is out of sync with everything that goes before.
The writing is spotty as well. It's hard to tell whether Olmy is telling this story almost as it's happening, or after years of reflection. That spottiness is somewhat addressed in those last hundred pages with obvious switches to account for that but it's jarring when it appears suddenly. That last bit also seems rushed and disjointed.
Ultimately a meh book, part of what is, overall, a meh series.
December 13, 2024
This is a prequel to Eon which is one of my favourite books. It's great at the start of the book to experience a populated Thistledown (which is deserted in Eon). The plot then moves to a planet located via the way which a rogue group have settled and attempted to colonise, where it stays for the remainder of the Novel. It's interesting and well written, not as bleak as Greg's other work, but not as stellar as Eon. The plot is mostly about an agent from the way attempting to assess the society that has arisen, so that he may report back, only to find himself entangled into a society that has experienced much famine due to the local fauna not being compatible, and is presently engaged in conflict. The plot didn't blow me away, but it was entertaining with good character development.
July 31, 2017
This third book was a disappointing prequel to the other books in Bear's series "The Way." In retrospect, I could've happily stopped after Eternity
For one thing, Bear spend far too much time describing the unusual landscape of Lamarckia. Yes, it's a fascinating concept -- an ecos rather than an ecosystem, comprised not of a variety of different life forms, but one life form with many scions. But there's really only so much one needs to hear about the all the scions in each of Lamarckia's habitats before it begins to seem like the detail is just filler for a plot that's short on interesting events.
There were also fewer interesting people than I'm used to from Bear. Basically, the protagonist Olmy himself is the only person we really got to know. Some of the others could've been fleshed out more if less time had been spent on the plants.
For one thing, Bear spend far too much time describing the unusual landscape of Lamarckia. Yes, it's a fascinating concept -- an ecos rather than an ecosystem, comprised not of a variety of different life forms, but one life form with many scions. But there's really only so much one needs to hear about the all the scions in each of Lamarckia's habitats before it begins to seem like the detail is just filler for a plot that's short on interesting events.
There were also fewer interesting people than I'm used to from Bear. Basically, the protagonist Olmy himself is the only person we really got to know. Some of the others could've been fleshed out more if less time had been spent on the plants.
January 10, 2018
This book was really good, but it was ruined by the untimely usage of a time shift in the book. One of the more tension filled spaces in the book is the war, and the aftermath of the war. And it is tense because among other things, we don't know how it would impact into the protagonist. And in the time shift we learn a lot while the main tension knot is not resolved, but a lot of tension is released.
Of course, if you read Eon, you'd know he's still alive, but this book is proposed as a prequel, so I read it first. And that single moment ruined for me what was a really good novel about how introducing a species from another place can disrupt any ecosystem.
Of course, if you read Eon, you'd know he's still alive, but this book is proposed as a prequel, so I read it first. And that single moment ruined for me what was a really good novel about how introducing a species from another place can disrupt any ecosystem.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 22, 2019
So this is a prequel? I’m usually very into stories that force a real leap in imagination which this story definitely does. However, the length and depth of time spend describing the ecoi and scions was painfully dragged out in excruciating detail. I was halfway through the book and ready to shelve it when things started to happen. The second half of the book was better but as I finished it I was left with the Seinfeld finale blues.....just kind of hanging out there without any closure or satisfaction. A big part of me is hoping that the other two books can seal the deal but another big part of me is already regretting the time I’m going to spend reading them.
November 14, 2019
The original two books in the Way series were exceptional and visionary. This prequel to them is just a travelogue fish-out-of-water story, with future people of vast intellectual capacity case in a backwoods environment. The characterization that was handled adequately in the original two books is nearly entirely missing in this one, and at the end of the book realizing the most damning thing I can say about a book: I never learned to care about any of the characters one way or the other at all. They weren't people, they were just plot devices.
August 7, 2023
Interesting book. It's a world-building book, one about a world that is very, very different than Earth, inhabited by life-forms that are nothing like the life-forms that humans are used to, and eventually corrupted/advanced by humans. It's listed as book #3 in "The Way" trilogy, but it's first in the trilogy when actually put in print under Greg Bear's direction. Recommended if you like great world-building. Despite the protaganist/story-teller being a human, the real primary characters of the book are the Ecos.
March 3, 2017
I've seen this labeled book 1 and 3 by different services, and after reading it, I think it made the most sense as book 3. It's a "prequel" to the other two (almost standalone) that describes one of the main character's origins, and it was better than Eternity. Legacy and Eon where both probably equally good books, though Legacy was far more about one man's struggles so might be easier and more engrossing.
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