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Quantum Logic #2
Mariposa
The world just keeps getting tougher and more complicated. America teeters on the edge of bankruptcy because of crushing foreign debt and an apparent savior, The Talos Corporation, delivers training for soldiers and security forces around the world, logistical support and badly-needed troops economically, but with a hidden cost that’s both sinister and disturbing.
The three rookie FBI agents who survived the challenges portrayed in Quantico, have gone their separate ways but seem fated to be drawn back together in an alliance against a surprising challenge for which no one seems prepared. Rebecca Rose is brought back from an extended sabbatical when the President is shot and her second-in-command is implicated in an horrific crime—and all the threads point deeper into Talos’s secretive activities. Fouad Al-Husam, working undercover inside Talos, has uncovered and been forced to hide vital information of a takeover plot that threatens America’s independence.
Nathan Trace, victim of a violent incident in the Middle East, struggles with post-traumatic stress and seems to be recovering through participation in a treatment program, code-named Mariposa, which has unexpected side-effects that turn patients into brilliant, detached and sociopathic individuals—very smart and extremely deadly.
Only a desperate combination of misfits and survivors can combat an apparently inevitable collapse of American organization that will lead to the fall of democracy.
The three rookie FBI agents who survived the challenges portrayed in Quantico, have gone their separate ways but seem fated to be drawn back together in an alliance against a surprising challenge for which no one seems prepared. Rebecca Rose is brought back from an extended sabbatical when the President is shot and her second-in-command is implicated in an horrific crime—and all the threads point deeper into Talos’s secretive activities. Fouad Al-Husam, working undercover inside Talos, has uncovered and been forced to hide vital information of a takeover plot that threatens America’s independence.
Nathan Trace, victim of a violent incident in the Middle East, struggles with post-traumatic stress and seems to be recovering through participation in a treatment program, code-named Mariposa, which has unexpected side-effects that turn patients into brilliant, detached and sociopathic individuals—very smart and extremely deadly.
Only a desperate combination of misfits and survivors can combat an apparently inevitable collapse of American organization that will lead to the fall of democracy.
Kindle Edition
First published November 10, 2009
32 people are currently reading
441 people want to read
About the author
Greg Bear
232 books2,106 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 60 reviews
November 6, 2015
Now I will be the first one to say that I do not do spoilers and I do not try and do a conventional review simply because there are better and more comprehensive ones out there compared to what I could produce - However I do want to say first of all - how do you categorise this book? Is is a techno-thriller, a near future Sci Fi dystopia or is it something totally different - you see there are elements of pure hard science fiction - from the weaponry used at the end of the story to medical treatment with unexpected side effects, or is it a thriller which hides social tensions and political concerns behind a facade of things yet to be (which are more than relevant today). Either way there are some great new ideas inter-mixed with some of societies very old (and yet still current) concerns.
That said - this is a good book but not as great a book as the first (Qauntico) as I feel too much time is spent on establishing the high tech wizardry and not enough on the story. I may have missed the point but it seemed a long way in to the book to actually find out what the plot was about and why. It felt almost as if Mr Bear came up with a storyline and then suddenly thought of something he could use in it - and then that idea took over and everything else got pushed to the back.
Now I am sure that is wrong and that all had its place and time and was in fact part of a much larger picture - however that was the impression I got. I know that many stories are a series of apparent random events that coincide together to lead the protagonist from point A to B but I did wonder for a while where point B exactly was.
That said once I did see what was going on the pace suddenly shifted up a gear and the book became unputdownable. For me that is a sign of Greg Bear getting back on form - where story was paramount and all the tech and grand ideas are there to support it and not over shadow it.
That said - this is a good book but not as great a book as the first (Qauntico) as I feel too much time is spent on establishing the high tech wizardry and not enough on the story. I may have missed the point but it seemed a long way in to the book to actually find out what the plot was about and why. It felt almost as if Mr Bear came up with a storyline and then suddenly thought of something he could use in it - and then that idea took over and everything else got pushed to the back.
Now I am sure that is wrong and that all had its place and time and was in fact part of a much larger picture - however that was the impression I got. I know that many stories are a series of apparent random events that coincide together to lead the protagonist from point A to B but I did wonder for a while where point B exactly was.
That said once I did see what was going on the pace suddenly shifted up a gear and the book became unputdownable. For me that is a sign of Greg Bear getting back on form - where story was paramount and all the tech and grand ideas are there to support it and not over shadow it.
November 9, 2013
Mariposa is the Spanish word for butterfly and it's use as the title seems to invoke chaos theory - that a typhoon may arise from something as small as the flutter of butterfly's wings. This may be an apt metaphor for the novel Mariposa for at heart it is about the typhoon that engulfs a near-future America brewed from the geopolitical milieu of today - Middle East militant, USA borrowing, Texas self-regulating, Blackwater emergent.
In the actual novel, the butterfly Mariposa only makes a fleeting appearance. Instead, the author posits the drug Mariposa, initially intended as a miracle cure for post-traumatic stress disorder, but with long-term effects that make supermen, geniuses and psychopaths. Greg Bear tells about men and women, heroic and villainous, who must deal with technological and geopolitical changes, and attempt to steer their way to perhaps new visions and more meaningful lives. This is as dystopic as any near-term dystopia can be. Take some quaaludes ar anti-depressants before you dig in.
I enjoyed the book. It had the vibe of an early Tom Clancy thriller, with much behind the scenes political maneuvering. Bear makes this pop with very cool tech toys, and the strong resonance with his 1985 novella Blood Music. The non-nuke weapon that determines the way the book ends counts as one of the best SFnal geekery of recent vintage. The SF elements are much more to the fore here than in the predecessor Quantico, and for this I rate Mariposa 5 stars. Am looking forward to picking up its linking books Queen of Angels and Slant.
In the actual novel, the butterfly Mariposa only makes a fleeting appearance. Instead, the author posits the drug Mariposa, initially intended as a miracle cure for post-traumatic stress disorder, but with long-term effects that make supermen, geniuses and psychopaths. Greg Bear tells about men and women, heroic and villainous, who must deal with technological and geopolitical changes, and attempt to steer their way to perhaps new visions and more meaningful lives. This is as dystopic as any near-term dystopia can be. Take some quaaludes ar anti-depressants before you dig in.
I enjoyed the book. It had the vibe of an early Tom Clancy thriller, with much behind the scenes political maneuvering. Bear makes this pop with very cool tech toys, and the strong resonance with his 1985 novella Blood Music. The non-nuke weapon that determines the way the book ends counts as one of the best SFnal geekery of recent vintage. The SF elements are much more to the fore here than in the predecessor Quantico, and for this I rate Mariposa 5 stars. Am looking forward to picking up its linking books Queen of Angels and Slant.
June 5, 2013
I wanted to give this 3.5 stars - as a novel, it's a procedural thing like Quantico, but extra interest is added because we encounter the origins of elements of Queen Of Angels: a two-year-old Mary Choy, the beginnings of Therapy and of Thinker technology, Colonel Sir John Yardley and William Raphkind. The book is a great linking piece between the hitherto unrelated Quantico and the chronologically subsequent (and superior) entries in the series. And, while not up to those books' standards, it is still an enjoyable and immersive read.
June 16, 2024
This is a tad bit mind blowing. The way things are going, the story and events depicted here could be us in a very few years. It is unfortunately easy to visualize this kind of future, with security corporations taking over, the Government bankrupt and totally ineffective, states pulling out of the union and going their own way, and one guy trying to take over the whole mess. The book doesn't exactly cover how things got that way, but I'm pretty sure that most of us can now see how they could get that way. Read this for a scary look at what may happen if we are not able to change course soon.
April 23, 2012
Greg Bear's forays into various thriller subgenres are a mixed bag which I find almost always worthwhile for his occasional bursts of intense and deeply weird imagery. His earlier future-FBI doohickey
Quantico
was more conventional, but Mariposa, despite being sort of a disjointed mess full of the kind of police/spy gadgetry digressions that don't do much for me, is really interesting because of three things.
First, the premise that gets the plot going is a variation on the idea of superintelligence that didn't remind me of any other treatment of that subject in SF: basically, becoming a mental superman means reliving the free-associative learning of a two-year-old, being unable to distinguish between rationality and fun, and being liable to either commit horrible crimes or accidentally break your own limbs while testing the limits of what you can do. I found it oddly moving, in keeping with my feeling that Bear's best writing has always been about extreme, ineffable emotional states.
Second, I don't think I've seen any other example of a series of books crossing multiple science-fiction time scales— that is, periods of futureness that are different enough to be subgenres— within the span of a regular human life. There are characters who start out in a near-future thriller in Quantico, and by the end of Mariposa, they're within walking distance of the much shinier and scarier future of Bear's Queen of Angels , and it reminds you that things really can move that far in a generation. The wonderfully-named villain Colonel Sir John Yardley, who by the time of Queen of Angels has become a kind of cross between Castro and Mr. Kurtz, just barely shows up near the end of Quantico as a nondescript upstart, and it feels like the way those things happen: you first heard about Yardley on the news as a kid, now you can't remember a time without him.
Third, police/military-related techno-thrillers tend to have a politically conservative feel, and this (like Quantico) was no exception. That's not how Bear usually seems to me, which makes me wonder whether a) the near-future setting predisposes me to see certain events as comments on current politics, or b) this is how Bear really feels about the world, but he only expresses it directly when he's writing about the near future. Either way, the book's apparent point of view isn't exactly right-wing in any of the familiar styles popular in current American politics, or in political SF by people like Niven and Pournelle; it's a very odd mix of anti-corporate and authoritarian, internationalist and ethnocentric— which, maybe not coincidentally, is a lot like the idiosyncratic crankiness of late-period Poul Anderson (who was literally Bear's father-in-law). I would find this more off-putting if Bear weren't so good at conveying the feeling his characters have that the world is becoming unrecognizable to them, something we can all more or less agree on.
First, the premise that gets the plot going is a variation on the idea of superintelligence that didn't remind me of any other treatment of that subject in SF: basically, becoming a mental superman means reliving the free-associative learning of a two-year-old, being unable to distinguish between rationality and fun, and being liable to either commit horrible crimes or accidentally break your own limbs while testing the limits of what you can do. I found it oddly moving, in keeping with my feeling that Bear's best writing has always been about extreme, ineffable emotional states.
Second, I don't think I've seen any other example of a series of books crossing multiple science-fiction time scales— that is, periods of futureness that are different enough to be subgenres— within the span of a regular human life. There are characters who start out in a near-future thriller in Quantico, and by the end of Mariposa, they're within walking distance of the much shinier and scarier future of Bear's Queen of Angels , and it reminds you that things really can move that far in a generation. The wonderfully-named villain Colonel Sir John Yardley, who by the time of Queen of Angels has become a kind of cross between Castro and Mr. Kurtz, just barely shows up near the end of Quantico as a nondescript upstart, and it feels like the way those things happen: you first heard about Yardley on the news as a kid, now you can't remember a time without him.
Third, police/military-related techno-thrillers tend to have a politically conservative feel, and this (like Quantico) was no exception. That's not how Bear usually seems to me, which makes me wonder whether a) the near-future setting predisposes me to see certain events as comments on current politics, or b) this is how Bear really feels about the world, but he only expresses it directly when he's writing about the near future. Either way, the book's apparent point of view isn't exactly right-wing in any of the familiar styles popular in current American politics, or in political SF by people like Niven and Pournelle; it's a very odd mix of anti-corporate and authoritarian, internationalist and ethnocentric— which, maybe not coincidentally, is a lot like the idiosyncratic crankiness of late-period Poul Anderson (who was literally Bear's father-in-law). I would find this more off-putting if Bear weren't so good at conveying the feeling his characters have that the world is becoming unrecognizable to them, something we can all more or less agree on.
July 25, 2011
Mariposa is Greg Bear's 2009 sequel to Quantico. Mariposa's story is set 3-4 years after Quantico, and it continues to follow the exploits of the FBI agents introduced in Quantico. The title of the book refers to the codename of an experimental medical treatment that was originally developed to help combat veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The treatment has had some unintended side effects, however - its subjects have become detached from almost all emotion, and their mental capacities have increased to genius levels. The existence of this treatment, along with the presence of some very high tech gadgetry (and a borderline AI), place Mariposa solidly in the genre of science fiction. The book is intelligent, action packed, and its characters are realistic and engaging.
Anyone who has enjoyed Greg Bear's earlier sf novels in the Queen of Angels sequence (Queen of Angels, Slant, Heads, and Moving Mars) will note several references to characters and events which indicate that Quantico and Mariposa take place in the same timeline as the QoA books.
Anyone who has enjoyed Greg Bear's earlier sf novels in the Queen of Angels sequence (Queen of Angels, Slant, Heads, and Moving Mars) will note several references to characters and events which indicate that Quantico and Mariposa take place in the same timeline as the QoA books.
September 6, 2015
This is not a direct sequel to Quantico, but it involves some of the same characters, and is set a few years later. I recommend reading that first as the characters do recall some of its events. But the plot does stand alone.
It is a near future thriller set in a declining America (the recession of 2008/2009 has snowballed) where privatized intelligence, military, and police operatives have grown strong enough to threaten our form of government. An assassination attempt on the President has failed, and the Vice President has murdered his wife, within the first few pages of the book - so that is no spoiler. I found the book entertaining in a high-tension way, but not any more profound than that.
It is a near future thriller set in a declining America (the recession of 2008/2009 has snowballed) where privatized intelligence, military, and police operatives have grown strong enough to threaten our form of government. An assassination attempt on the President has failed, and the Vice President has murdered his wife, within the first few pages of the book - so that is no spoiler. I found the book entertaining in a high-tension way, but not any more profound than that.
July 5, 2012
This was my first Greg Bear book, and I quite enjoyed it.
A near future earth, US on the verge of economic collapse, a meglomaniacal rich man and a PTSD treatment. In all I thought it was rich in texture, the science fiction was plausible, extrapolations of modern tech pretty good as well. The cultures of law enforcement and military also believable.
I'll be reading more of his stuff in the future.
A near future earth, US on the verge of economic collapse, a meglomaniacal rich man and a PTSD treatment. In all I thought it was rich in texture, the science fiction was plausible, extrapolations of modern tech pretty good as well. The cultures of law enforcement and military also believable.
I'll be reading more of his stuff in the future.
May 15, 2010
i prefer bear's far future and alien worlds to his near-future stuff.
July 20, 2025
The FBI agents from Bear's "Quantico" take on a new SF threat in the near future. They never truly team-up, but instead the action jumps between the four characters as readers are given different angles from different locations as they take on a major threat to the United States.
The book is full of many interesting and believable ideas about our near future. Additionally, there are a several scenes in the book that are especially well-written and the overall plot is a good one.
When writing these mini-reviews, I often comment that a short story has been stretched into a novella or novel, "The Outer Limits Syndrome." This book suffers from the opposite malady. There are so many ideas and plot points crammed in, I think the book would have been better if it were 200 pages longer. At two or three points in the book, the author simply drives the narrative forward with a list of facts, rather than providing scenes or evidence for the reader to enjoy. This is all we need to read to know the author is running out of gas or up against a deadline or the publisher isn't going for the 600-page book.
Good narrator.
The book is full of many interesting and believable ideas about our near future. Additionally, there are a several scenes in the book that are especially well-written and the overall plot is a good one.
When writing these mini-reviews, I often comment that a short story has been stretched into a novella or novel, "The Outer Limits Syndrome." This book suffers from the opposite malady. There are so many ideas and plot points crammed in, I think the book would have been better if it were 200 pages longer. At two or three points in the book, the author simply drives the narrative forward with a list of facts, rather than providing scenes or evidence for the reader to enjoy. This is all we need to read to know the author is running out of gas or up against a deadline or the publisher isn't going for the 600-page book.
Good narrator.
August 27, 2022
This book gave a frightening picture of what life might be like if technology tracks us with chips in our arms and sensors everywhere, and if privatization of the military, police, and secret service leads to a company which basically has power over the world. It made me wonder how much of this futuristic technology is already in place. The book was interesting but hard to follow all of the characters and especially the workings of the technology.
November 30, 2022
A bit better than the first book, but plagued by poor character development and a cartoonish super-villain, and bogged down by a far-fetched and overly intricate plot. It's also impressively dated for such a recent book (not in a good way), the technological and political predictions are laughably inaccurate.
December 24, 2022
Scary New World
The best science fiction has such an element of believability that leaves you gasping for breath because our country and our world could be taken over so easily.
Greg Bear was masterful at portraying how current technology and social and business trends lead us toward results that are inherently evil in the hands of evil people.
Missing you Mr. Greg Bear.
The best science fiction has such an element of believability that leaves you gasping for breath because our country and our world could be taken over so easily.
Greg Bear was masterful at portraying how current technology and social and business trends lead us toward results that are inherently evil in the hands of evil people.
Missing you Mr. Greg Bear.
March 8, 2023
This series is a little out there, high tech, and some grim extrapolation of our current situation as a country.
Very enjoyable, nonetheless. No doubt about it Greg Bear can write, put together a great story, and keep you interested.
Not sure if there are more in this series or not, but will probably look in to it.
Very enjoyable, nonetheless. No doubt about it Greg Bear can write, put together a great story, and keep you interested.
Not sure if there are more in this series or not, but will probably look in to it.
January 28, 2020
One of his better books. This one deals with a drug to treat PTSD with some weird and powerful side effects and a plot to take over a weakened US. Get a bit too shoot-em-up at the end, but otherwise well constructed.
June 15, 2023
A spy thriller set in a slightly future world...less science fiction, as I think of it, than an action tale. Loved it. Great characters, well-paced action, and an ending I could not put down until it resolved. Highly recommended!
December 27, 2019
A rich man tries to take over the U.S.
November 18, 2021
Spy-type thriller rather than strict sci-fi, but Greg Bear shows versatility with a good story. Slightly dystopian, not full bore apocalyptic is well matched with the plot itself. Enjoyed it.
January 17, 2010
I have a love hate relationship with Greg Bear books. The New York Times used to have a reviewer who loved his books so for a time I read a few of them, and I hated them.
Yet this book seemed right up my alley. Alternate American reality with an Evil corporate guy trying to take over America, secret soldiers in a plot to thwart him. High Tech cyber and nano technology plus also some drug therapy.
I did actually like it because I like action and high tech and this abounds in the stuff and zoomed through it in about 2 days, but that is not to say that it made a lot of sense. Its very disjointed and appears to start in mid sentence, nearly mid thought almost. It had a lot of action. I did not read the first book called Quantico by Greg Bear, which introduced many of these characters, and I wonder if Quantico and Mariposa are really just one big book broken into two parts.
In any event, Axel Price is the evil corporate guy who is working to take over America. Fauod (basically a spy) for America is at Price's headquarters to infiltrate his computer and steal secrets to find out what Price is planning.
Another character from the first book is apparently William Griffin. He is sent on a mission to break a young prisoner sentenced to death in Texas out of jail and rescue him.
At the same time Rebecca Rose, a third character from the first book is sleeping with a young naval officer when a bomb blows up at her convention hall nearly killing her if it wasn't for the efforts of a gentleman named Nathanial Trace.
It seems that Trace was treated by a doctor named Plover, who was financed by Price, with a special drug that was designed to fight Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but had serious side effects. The drugs were given at a place called Mariposa, hence the name of the novel. (As an aside its a terrible name as it really has nothing to do with the novel other than it means two things as a Mariposa is a butterfly which changes from one stage to another and the people treated with this drug do as well.) Trace it turns out was one of the first 8 subjects tested with the drug, the first was the Vice President, who as the novel opens is killing his wife. Depending on the dosage, the drug breaks down barriers in the brain so that the recipient becomes either a sociopath --see Vice President, or survives by becoming a more advanced person.
There is no coherent narrative, its almost sink or swim in here, but in many sf books set on alternative worlds with alternative rules, the reader is forced to find the story and understand how it works, so I caught on I think, and rode the tiger.
If you can ride it out it makes some sense I guess, but its probably better to read Quantico first. The science is cool, the plot and characters a little hard to follow but it works I think in the end.
Yet this book seemed right up my alley. Alternate American reality with an Evil corporate guy trying to take over America, secret soldiers in a plot to thwart him. High Tech cyber and nano technology plus also some drug therapy.
I did actually like it because I like action and high tech and this abounds in the stuff and zoomed through it in about 2 days, but that is not to say that it made a lot of sense. Its very disjointed and appears to start in mid sentence, nearly mid thought almost. It had a lot of action. I did not read the first book called Quantico by Greg Bear, which introduced many of these characters, and I wonder if Quantico and Mariposa are really just one big book broken into two parts.
In any event, Axel Price is the evil corporate guy who is working to take over America. Fauod (basically a spy) for America is at Price's headquarters to infiltrate his computer and steal secrets to find out what Price is planning.
Another character from the first book is apparently William Griffin. He is sent on a mission to break a young prisoner sentenced to death in Texas out of jail and rescue him.
At the same time Rebecca Rose, a third character from the first book is sleeping with a young naval officer when a bomb blows up at her convention hall nearly killing her if it wasn't for the efforts of a gentleman named Nathanial Trace.
It seems that Trace was treated by a doctor named Plover, who was financed by Price, with a special drug that was designed to fight Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but had serious side effects. The drugs were given at a place called Mariposa, hence the name of the novel. (As an aside its a terrible name as it really has nothing to do with the novel other than it means two things as a Mariposa is a butterfly which changes from one stage to another and the people treated with this drug do as well.) Trace it turns out was one of the first 8 subjects tested with the drug, the first was the Vice President, who as the novel opens is killing his wife. Depending on the dosage, the drug breaks down barriers in the brain so that the recipient becomes either a sociopath --see Vice President, or survives by becoming a more advanced person.
There is no coherent narrative, its almost sink or swim in here, but in many sf books set on alternative worlds with alternative rules, the reader is forced to find the story and understand how it works, so I caught on I think, and rode the tiger.
If you can ride it out it makes some sense I guess, but its probably better to read Quantico first. The science is cool, the plot and characters a little hard to follow but it works I think in the end.
January 23, 2016
Chilling sequel to "Quantico", which was chilling itself, this book again brings together four FBI agents, who stopped a terrorist plot in the first book. This time, a megalomaniac U.S. military contractor(perhaps based on the infamous Blackwater/Xe company?), has wormed his way into taking over the country, through various nefarious deeds, and is about to see his plan come to fruition. The group is led by agent Rebecca Rose, who has been treated for PTSB(as a result of the action in the previous book), by a company underwritten by the megalomaniac, which has produced vicious side-effects in patients, turning the earliest into sociopaths. The most notable patient, although his treatment was in secret, is the Vice-President, who murders his wife, then goes and reads a bedtime story to his daughter. Another of the agents has infiltrated the company, trying to dig up information to stop this monster. This is a fast-paced thriller, which literally gave me chills. A lot of Bear's novels are like that. He's one of the best "hard science fiction" writers, as well as a master of suspense.
May 26, 2014
I’ve greatly enjoyed the majority of Bear’s science fiction from his excellent early ‘proper’ sci-fi, through the somewhat indulgent Darwin novels to the most excellent Hull Zero Three. I hadn’t encountered Quantico but the storyline of Mariposa was sufficiently interesting to justify the modest expenditure.
It’s an odd novel; more of a law enforcement agency thriller with bits of near-future sci-fi and I’m not entirely sure that this weird hybridisation is wholly successful. To it’s credit, there are a lot of characters to keep track of, the plot is fairly complex and there is an even peppering of plausible sci-fi elements but the characters are all somewhat monolithic and the plot lacks pace & feels contrived. Totally America-centric with no defining atmosphere, the whole reading experience is sadly rather bland, unfulfilling and forgettable.
Not a truly dreadful novel but by no means Bear’s greatest work.
It’s an odd novel; more of a law enforcement agency thriller with bits of near-future sci-fi and I’m not entirely sure that this weird hybridisation is wholly successful. To it’s credit, there are a lot of characters to keep track of, the plot is fairly complex and there is an even peppering of plausible sci-fi elements but the characters are all somewhat monolithic and the plot lacks pace & feels contrived. Totally America-centric with no defining atmosphere, the whole reading experience is sadly rather bland, unfulfilling and forgettable.
Not a truly dreadful novel but by no means Bear’s greatest work.
January 6, 2015
Read Quantico again, to be in the mood for this, but this took one major turn in style, and was somehow not well edited, more like 2.5 points.
There are no spelling errors, and some grammar errors or missing words may have been deliberately (slang/speech from characters), not too distracting, but also left me feeling like a bad scan or shoddy editing (or no editing).
The idea was good, so 3 stars it is.
I may add to this review in the next few days.
Recommended with warning, do not expect too much, this should have been a page-turner, but for that it was too complicated.
This an SF-take on something Brad Thor Brad Thor might write, or from the Tom Clancy-Group Tom Clancy (think Netwars).
A very specific US-Future which has a lot of true ideas and some good thought out political twists.
There are no spelling errors, and some grammar errors or missing words may have been deliberately (slang/speech from characters), not too distracting, but also left me feeling like a bad scan or shoddy editing (or no editing).
The idea was good, so 3 stars it is.
I may add to this review in the next few days.
Recommended with warning, do not expect too much, this should have been a page-turner, but for that it was too complicated.
This an SF-take on something Brad Thor Brad Thor might write, or from the Tom Clancy-Group Tom Clancy (think Netwars).
A very specific US-Future which has a lot of true ideas and some good thought out political twists.
July 24, 2016
More engaging than it's predecessor (Quantico), though I still found myself more interested in a somewhat secondary character than the main one.
Mr. Bear has a very bleak view of the future of the United States, and while I can see history possibly turning out the way indicated in his books, there will always be a part of me that leans more toward the hopeful futures shown in other works of speculative fiction.
Overall, the book is a decent read. I would not call it a page-turner, as I was able to put it down quite easily, but the plotline is fairly solid. It does get a bit murky from time to time, and there are some details that are left to the reader to figure out, but that seems to be Mr. Bear's general style based on the few books of his I have read.
Not on my "A" list of recommendations, but I wouldn't spit in the eye of someone for loving it either.
Mr. Bear has a very bleak view of the future of the United States, and while I can see history possibly turning out the way indicated in his books, there will always be a part of me that leans more toward the hopeful futures shown in other works of speculative fiction.
Overall, the book is a decent read. I would not call it a page-turner, as I was able to put it down quite easily, but the plotline is fairly solid. It does get a bit murky from time to time, and there are some details that are left to the reader to figure out, but that seems to be Mr. Bear's general style based on the few books of his I have read.
Not on my "A" list of recommendations, but I wouldn't spit in the eye of someone for loving it either.
February 9, 2017
Mariposa is the se sequel to Quantico but it's not really integral to have read Quantico before this one.
This is again a book set in the near future and is more a thriller than actual hard scifi. Anyway the story is very interesting and the main characters are actually more likeable than in Quantico although most of them were also in Quantico. The opening of the book is better and faster than in Quantico but maybe the story is a bit slow at the middle. But then again the latter part of the book is great and as a whole I relly did enjoy the adventure. The book rises questions about many subjects that are or at least should be hot topics today, and that I think is the essence of a good scifi book.
If you are interested in a near future light scifi thriller I recommend this one.
This is again a book set in the near future and is more a thriller than actual hard scifi. Anyway the story is very interesting and the main characters are actually more likeable than in Quantico although most of them were also in Quantico. The opening of the book is better and faster than in Quantico but maybe the story is a bit slow at the middle. But then again the latter part of the book is great and as a whole I relly did enjoy the adventure. The book rises questions about many subjects that are or at least should be hot topics today, and that I think is the essence of a good scifi book.
If you are interested in a near future light scifi thriller I recommend this one.
August 9, 2015
Greg Bear is of course a giant of science fiction, but I haven't read all his work, so I hunted this down in the local library. It is an interesting enough story that reminds me a little of Flashback by Dan Simmons - a near future where the US is in serious economic trouble - with the difference being that I think Dan's characters are more interesting, the backdrop is much more compelling, and the storyline more intriguing (sorry Greg). I enjoyed Mariposa but I don't think it was an interesting enough plot or innovative enough for me to score more than a respectable but not spectacular three stars.
December 14, 2010
As someone that got hooked on Greg Bear via Blood Music, this yarn, despite it's near-future/techno-thriller feel, doesn't disappoint with some new ideas and novel concepts. The story moves along briskly, has lots of characters -- which means, as usual, none can be fully three-dimensional -- and never stretches your incredulity too much.
There's a lot to like, here. And while it will never be literature, Bear does a fair job of making it durable... probably all the way up to the time that some (all?) of these things become fact.
There's a lot to like, here. And while it will never be literature, Bear does a fair job of making it durable... probably all the way up to the time that some (all?) of these things become fact.
February 5, 2016
I don't like Goodread's five-star categories. Two stars to me should be more negative, with three stars reserved for the more neutral "it was ok" opinion. That being said, my overall feeling after reading Mariposa was that book was OK; hence, two stars. There was so much unbelievable stuff happening in this story, and a lot of it was not very well explained. I raced through the book just to finish it and move on to something hopefully more interesting.
Although I did read Quantico, I don't think it added anything to this book (ie, Mariposa stands on its own).
Although I did read Quantico, I don't think it added anything to this book (ie, Mariposa stands on its own).
January 3, 2013
What do you do when after a bunch of clues, you get about half way into a book that you think you have read before and suddenly there is a scene so clear that you are certain you did indeed read it.
Well, I went ahead and finished it a second time. I thought I knew the big picture of what would happen, but the story was still enjoyable.
This is set in an undefined near future with toys, technology and equipment we do not currently have. I don't think.
Mr. Bear is very skillful in creating what Robert Crais calls "...an adrenaline-amped thriller..."
Really.
Well, I went ahead and finished it a second time. I thought I knew the big picture of what would happen, but the story was still enjoyable.
This is set in an undefined near future with toys, technology and equipment we do not currently have. I don't think.
Mr. Bear is very skillful in creating what Robert Crais calls "...an adrenaline-amped thriller..."
Really.
January 31, 2013
It has been a while since I read Quantico and I was wondering how much confusion that may cause upon starting to read Mariposa. No worries here as this one could actually be read as a stand alone novel. The story on this one is basically about a bad guy threatening the very fabric of the U.S being hunted by an outdated and almost closed down Bureau. With a lot of characters and a bunch of new fancy gadgets this one almost gets away from the reader at points. However overall not that bad of a book.
January 14, 2015
Quite good, although for some reason it took me two tries to get into this tale of trans-human changes and a truly scary attempt at world domination. Well-written, as is usual with Bear, this nevertheless did not engage me as fully as the first volume in this series, QUANTICO, did. It's near-future science fiction that isn't labeled as science fiction -- more of a thriller vibe to it. Good characters, and convincing passages detailing what it would be like to have truly superior -- and evolving -- sensorium.
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