Blood Music

by Greg Bear

Genetron was being very careful. The firm had succeeded where others had failed, combining protein molecular circuitry with silicon electronics to create programmable, medically applicable biochips, or MABs. It was the first useful useful product of the biochip revolution, and any bad press would jeopardize all they'd accomplished.

Brilliant and eccentric, Vergil Ulam had been working on the project for nearly three years and had recognized Genetron's shortsightedness: Why limit oneself to silicon and amino acid biochips when a single mammalian cell had the DNA capacity to store huge amounts of information? The idea fascinated him, and the fact that no one else at Genetron had made the connection was a source of deep satisfaction, since it left him free to use the company's labs for private research.

Using his own white blood cells, Vergil had actually developed lymphocytes with an ability to learn...to think...and to pass the learning on to other cells. Then the roof fell in. Somehow Genetron discovered his secret computer file--just the sort of thing that, if leaked, could ruin the firm's position in the marketplace. He was ordered to destroy his research, or face not only dismissal but also industry-wide blacklisting. Yet he had come too far to simply throw it all away.

So Vergil made a fateful decision: he injected the altered cells into his bloodstream. And what followed was nothing short of a miracle: bizarre physical changes that scared him at first, then enthralled him...increasingly sophisticated communications from the intelligent micro-organisms he'd created, like music in his blood.

The transformation had begun.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Horror, Cyberpunk, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Audiobook

246 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1985

About the author

Greg 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.)

Reviews

[karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I HAVE BEEN TOLD THIS REVIEW IS SPOILERY!! BEWARE!!

(dude, you seriously want an audio version of this??)

so i read this because bird-brian told me to.

i don't know that i am the best person to review sci-fi books. i have zero background in the genre, but for whatever reason, brian thought it would be amusing if i reviewed this.

so i will try.

soooo - okay - quick plot for you plotty folks out there - genius bad boy scientist gets fired from job for meddling with mammalian cells and conducting experiments outside of his job description. before he gets booted to the curb with his cardboard box, he surreptitiously injects many of his little cells into his own body so he can continue his experiments in the privacy of his own home.

oops.

once inside his body, they start housekeeping a little. they are like sentient little roombas, fixing his allergies and his eyesight - gentrifying his insides so the nice noocytes can move in and go condo. they make it all better, like when my super put potted plants in my foyer. suddenly, he is stronger and thinner and he can have sexual intercourse FOUR times in a single evening with a girl who approaches him in a bar and then moves in!! he is like jeff goldblum in the fly - he is better than human; he contains multitudes!! and they communicate with him in his miiiind!! but then, much like poor jeff goldblum, he begins to deteriorate. but in this book, he takes everyone with him.

and the world goes ffwwoosshh.

and that's when it gets a little "huh?" for me.

so north america is pretty much gone. people turn into like jello?? and so this "slow" girl survives. why?? no one knows - i guess she is the only sped in north america and the noocytes can't be bothered fixing her, and then the mother of the now-gelatinized bad boy scientist - she survives because... yeah, well no one knows, and then twin brothers (eeeek) survive because they have a lot of pesticide-exposure?? okay, i can buy that. and then the twins meet up with old science-mama as they flee the rapidly-changing landscape?? sure, makes sense - the USA is not that big after all.

but slow girl goes to live in the world trade center (i pour out my 40-ounce) where she is visited by three ghosts who bring her food and... yeah, i don't understand any of this part.

again - i don't read a lot of sci-fi. is it traditional in sci-fi that the sci- takes over the more traditional elements of storytelling like characterization?? or is this more of a criticism of a particular kind of science fiction from a particular time (the eighties). because these characters were pretty one-dimensional. and there isn't really a main character because the one you assume will be the main character knocks off pretty quickly... as do the rest...it reminded me a lot of on the beach, which book seemed so unrealistic to me in the way that people just quietly accepted their fate without changing their day-to-day routines... dummies.

i have to confess - i have no idea what happened in the post-noocyte takeover of north america. why there were four people left knocking around the whole fucking continent - what their stories were meant to contribute to the greater story - i am at a loss here, guys...

i am also at a loss here:

"first you need to find a length of viral DNA that codes for topoisomerases and gyrases. you attach this segment to your target DNA and make it easier to lower the linking number - to negatively supercoil your target molecule. i used ethidium in some earlier experiments..."

*zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz*

"what you want is to add and subtract lengths of input DNA easily, and the feedback enzyme arrangement does this. when the feedback enzyme is in place, the molecule will open itself up for transcription much more easily, and more rapidly. your program will be transcribed onto two strings of RNA. one of the RNA strings will go to a reader - a ribosome - for translation into a protein. initially, the first RNA will carry a simple start-up code"



sorry, i totally drifted off there, greg bear.

(greg bear also wrote the book moving mars which greg stahl is always talking about. we saw it yesterday during our bookstore jaunting. this is an aside)

i don't know... i don't know where this falls in the greater scheme of science fiction, or what i am supposed to have gotten out of it all. i assume it is a cautionary tale about not taking your work home with you, right?? (although if i ever get fired, i am going to inject SO MANY books under my skin so i can read them when i get home. oh god if i got fired, i would have so much free time... kind of tempting...) and the more likely cold-war stuff, but that part is less fun and more blowy-uppy.


i did learn that greg bear likes the word "cocantenations" as much as proust.

and that's all i got.


oh, i almost forgot my most favorite bit of dialogue:

"i'll never be rid of you," bernard said. "you always represented something important to me." she swiveled on her high heels and presented the rear of an immaculately tailored blue suit. he grabbed her arm none too gently and brought her around to face him. "you were my last chance at being normal. i'll never love another woman like i did you. you burned. i'll like women, but i'll never commit to them; i'll never be naive with them."

hahahahahaha

come to my blog!

[mark monday · Rating 4 out of 5]

the science is hard and persuasive; the microscopic beings are soft and even more persuasive. they find themselves born in a strange new universe: the human body! and as many such beings do, they form themselves into groups and they build. they build and build and build and so create a civilization in their universe. a civilization in your body!

Greg Bear is a great writer. the science is carefully explained, understandable even to science-dummies like myself. and he is just as persuasive when it comes to the human condition, carefully grounding his characters within their own personal contexts, their flaws and virtues, their desire to connect and to love, their need to be individuals. stakes are created when human nature is sympathetically and accurately portrayed, and so stakes are high in this novel.

the book juggles many things: it is an alien invasion saga - but an invasion from within; it is a tale of horror - of bodies changing and melting and oozing into the floor and each other; it is a speculative tale of a future that may look and feel utterly alien - but is still a future of hope and an expansion of human consciousness. ultimately, it functions as both parallel and healing antibody to Arthur C. Clarke's depressing Childhood's End. I'm a glass half-full kind of guy, so I appreciated the potential for uplift and the hopeful message that this mind-expanding novel delivered. and personally, I don't mind melting into the floor and into my loved ones if it also means that I (and the rest of humanity) get to level up. maybe that's just me though.

[Kevin Kuhn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I believe the only other Greg Bear books I’ve read are “Eon” and “Eternity”. I read both a very long time ago. I enjoyed both, especially Eon, but I remember having a few problems with the stories and was disappointed in the overall ending. Well, my neighbor picks up sci-fi at a used book story on occasion and passes on ones that he liked, as we have similar tastes. So, despite this being first published in 1985, I decided to give it a read.

Overall, it was a similar experience to “Eon” and “Eternity”, I enjoyed the read, but found myself let down at the end. The story starts with Vergil Ulam, a slightly overweight, nerdy, goalless, but brilliant scientist. He works at a biochip company where he is secretly performing research on his own. He’s building intelligent cells, highly intelligent cells. I mean they can navigate mazes better than lab rats. Well, he’s found out, and rashly decides to preserve his creations the only way he can get them out of the lab – by injecting them into his bloodstream. This kicks off a series of events, beginning with positive improvements to his body (improved eyesight, weight loss, increased strength, etc.) but leading to much more disturbing and ultimately cataclysmic events.

I found the book to be a page turner, as I was intrigued, first by what would happen to Vergil, and then by the broader events. Along the way, I experienced some disappointments, such as wondering who the main character was, and finding frustration that we never seemed to stay with a character enough to development an interest in them. But it’s not really a character driven story, it’s a series of transformations that are well described and fascinating. Bear occasionally dips deeply into biochemistry and later physics adding support to the events. There were some interesting ideas about the make-up of the universe in the final third of the book. If those ideas were used at the end as a climatic ending with some characters we cared about, I think this could have been excellent. But in all honest, by the end, I didn’t really care about the remaining characters and the thought-provoking ideas had already been spent as we approached the final ending. I was left feeling like some very cool ideas and creative scenes were wasted.

A borderline hard sci-fi novel, which contains an escalating series of creepy, captivating, and skillfully described events, that disappoints due to a lack of strong characters and an anti-climactic finale.

[Henry Avila · Rating 4 out of 5]

What if plot, not for the nervous of heart as little quite weird blood cell creatures become dominant but the good aspects are it's set in my hometown of San Diego, (America's finest city ) don't blame me the burgh's official slogan, still a rather good and wise choice. However no surprise as the superb writer Greg Bear is a native. Vergil Ulam a brilliant biotechnologist though maybe not fully honest scientist working in the renown La Jolla's numerous bio labs , a San Diegan neighborhood which the rich, snobbish, and very delusional elite, inhabitants think a separate municipality. Vergil a contrary genetic engineer, researcher of blood cells. Nevertheless a man who doesn't follow rules in strict safety protocol and this a problem , but make's the story quite interesting to the discriminating reader if not the characters, his secret work at last produces ambiguous progress. The boss of Genetron, Mr. Gerald Harrison isn't happy and when this occurs no surprise wants the benefits for the company. You can imagine the troubles this makes for Vergil. A man disliked by colleagues, no girlfriends, his mother April lives far away in the Central Valley of California loving woman she isn't. A hard science-fiction novel which should be read by veterans of this unique genre , amateurs can, but inevitably get lost in the jungle of the obscure tech babble. It helps if you know some buzz words however only a biotech employee can closely follow the science. The microscopic cellular material, are intelligent blood cells calls by the creator Vergil noocytes, whatever that is. A good thing the suspicious nerd finally find a girl Candice, she doesn't understand his job would anyone? A gigantic disaster follows caused by the unethical Mr. Ulam, those who seen Psycho or read the influential Frankenstein will guess the reckless behavior and the consequences , not a pretty sight still people will be drawn and fascinated they may not comprehend but be entertained. Curious humans strangely like looking at other people's pain thinking thank God it's not me. Just like all disaster films of the past, a few modern ones, catastrophic destruction sells books and tickets, the public blood-lust in taste is known. Genetics done in a style that captivates an audience it's worth the struggle to grasp the difficult narrative.

[Paul Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

MOULD, FRANKENSCIENCE AND MIRTH


In Greg Bear's funny and creepy and REALLY insane story, the rogue scientist invents a virus which... goes viral! Ha ha, that's funny right there, ain't it? Well, what did he expect? That it would stay where he told it and just watch tv? No sir. It develops intelligence. Learns the art of conversation. Says stuff like

WORDS communicate with *share body structure external* is this like *wholeness WITHIN* *totality* is EXTERNAL alike COULD DO WITH A BEER

Okay okay, I added the last bit. Anyway, the virus eats New York (these things never happen in Nottingham or Albuquerque) which then looks like some giant has draped giant army surplus blankets over it. You think I made that bit up too? No, I didn't! Greg Bear's very words - army surplus blankets. Ha ha! Greg, you're killing me with your blankets!

So of course 5 people are immune to the virus, everyone else becomes subsumed within the blankets, and just as in all other apocalypso books and movies, the five people find each other and all of the survivor malarkey goes on apace.

Does love bloom amongst the glop? Read on to find out. But, you know, it's a safe bet in these things. Maybe not the kind of love The Ronettes sang about though.

I guess if ALL your human characters get turned into brown gloop by page 87 the story might lack a certain something. So Greg had to get his survivors to meet somehow (this was before Tinder). But the survivors-meeting stuff just seems unlikely to me. Oh look - I see there's a light on in the 75th floor of that skyscraper over there! Could it just be my cool punk cousin? Or maybe a cute 14 year old girl? Let's find out!

Then again you have to respect a novel where one army surplus brown gloop says to the other

*WHOLE* infrastructure skonkalolly *INTELLIGENCE far from BIOSPHERE*

and the other says

*YOU'RE MAKING ME BLUSH YOU LITTLE RASCAL"

gloop gloop everybody

gloop!

[Apatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Vergil Ulam had become a god. Within his flesh he carried hundreds of billions of intelligent beings.”

If Blood Music is ever adapted into a movie, the above quote would be ideal for the movie’s slogan. It sums up the central conceit of the novel very nicely. So Vergil Ulam, a not entirely sane scientist working for a biotechnology lab, experiments with lymphocyte (a form of white blood cell) to turn them into smart cells*. This is very far from his employer’s purview so they summarily dismiss him. In order to continue his work after dismissal he hastily injects the experimental lymphocytes - called “noocytes” - into himself. These noocytes soon develop sentience and start to transform Ulam from the inside. They soon learn that their host is not the entire universe, there is a much larger “macro-scale” universe of which Ulam is a tiny subset, and they want access to that. The world is definitely not ready for these microscopic guys, and life will never be the same again.

A lymphocyte

This is by far my favorite Greg Bear book, Eon and The Forge of God are great sci-fi books but the ideas and plot of Blood Music are much more startling. The effect these noocytes have on the human population of America is the stuff of nightmare. There is something very surreal about the landscape of the cities and the bizarre creatures roaming around them once the noocytes really get going. While there are several variants of the noocytes creatures specially design to function in our “macro-world” I imagine a lot of them look kind of like gigantic tofu. How they come to exist and what they are able to do are also wonderfully “sf-nal”. If you are familiar with the grey goo scenario you can look forward to some serious grey-gooing!

On the writing side, I have to give props to Bear for creating complex and believable human characters with recognizable relationship issues and foibles. In the “Quotes” section after the review, I have juxtaposed Bear’s different styles for writing science expositions and emotional human drama. He is clearly one of the more versatile sci-fi authors.

The ending of the book is truly epic, surreal, yet philosophical and even intimate. Unfortunately the more I talk about this book the more I am likely to spoil it. So I will shut up now. Blood Music is a feast for the imagination, read it!

________________
* A bit like smartphones I suppose, except they are not phones, nor are they cell phones. (Sorry!)

Quotes:
“Why limit oneself to silicon and protein and biochips a hundredth of a millimeter wide, when in almost every living cell there was already a functioning computer with a huge memory? A mammalian cell had a DNA complement of several billion base pairs, each acting as a piece of information. What was reproduction, after all, but a computerized biological process of enormous complexity and reliability?”

“Can’t own a woman, Mike. Wonderful companions, can’t own them.”
“I know.”
“Do you? Maybe you do. I thought, when I found out about your mother’s lover, I thought I would die. It hurt almost as much as this does. I thought I owned her.”

“Information can be stored even more compactly than in molecular memory. It can be stored in the structure of space-time. What is matter, after all, but a standing-wave of information in the vacuum?”

“She had postulated that sex was not evolutionarily useful— at least not to women, who could, in theory, breed parthenogenetically— and that ultimately men were superfluous.”

[Dr. Cat in the Brain · Rating 4 out of 5]

So what if I told you somebody did a Junji Ito horror novel 13 years before Uzumaki was first published?

Well say hello to Greg Bear everybody!

Before people used the term "body horror". Before "Cronenberg" became short-hand for the 'ick' factor in stories about people having sexual relationships with their own tumours? Greg Bear was out there in 1985 dropping Naked Lunch hallucination monsters all across America and transforming Chicago into a veritable wasp hive of living bio-engineered thought-flesh.

Gotta love the work ethic.

We're talking full on graphic cellular mutation and quantum physics horror dropped right into your lap. It's not even Christmas! But Santa came early! And in your socks.

And you can't wash that out with Tide.

This book feels so far ahead of its time it's like somebody just went back into the past and dropped it into our reality. Like a full on Mandela Effect going on here. How did I miss this book growing up?

Time travel is the only explanation that makes sense. Greg Bear was a time-traveller. And he was stepping on all the butterflies. LEAVE THE EGGS UNSCRAMBLED PLEASE.

ANYWAYS. Blood Music is the tragic story of a guy who tries to do a crazy experiment and it goes wrong. Like, really, seriously, completely, wrong.

And by wrong, I mean it turns lots and lots of people into that screaming pile of flesh at the end of Akira.

But it also might have gone right too, because sometimes being screaming thought-beef is just better than a normal office job? I mean if you had to chose between becoming spaghetti bio-horror and working retail? Pass the meatballs.

Like Junji Ito's Uzumaki, this isn't just an apocalypse, it's a sort of weird infection take-over. It's like something abstract got a foothold into our reality and just started to spin everything awry. Until life and physics and our minds and time become this unrecognisable disaster.

Kinda like Twitter.

Only the infection is very polite. So nothing like Twitter.

I mean for a cosmic horror reaching out from quantum realms and turning people into spaghetti monsters, it's really a nice, relaxed, empathetic hive of trillions of terrifying abstract intellects. Sure they're trying to turn us into a mass of malignant meat-tubes, but at least they say "thanks" and "please" and ask your permission.

If atomic horrors can understand and respect people's consent what's stopping the rest of us?

Y'know?

Makes you think.

A large portion of the novel goes like this:

Hive: "Hello Tim."

Tim: "Oh no."

Hive: "How are you feeling today buddy? "

Tim: "Leave me alone!"

Hive: "Sorry. Still upset about the end of the world as you know it? We know. It's rough."

Tim: "I don't even know how long I've been awake anymore!"

Hive: "Wow. That can be a real bummer Tim. But we got the perfect cure for your reality
disorientation! Right now. Today. For free. We can make you... into a living pile of spaghetti."

Tim: "No! For the last time! I don't wanna become a spaghetti monster!"

Hive: "But all your friends are doing it Tim. And they love it."

Tim's friends: "C'mon Tim! Being a spaghetti monster rocks! Get in the pool! The DNA soup is warm!"

Hive: "See? You thought it would be a bummer. But splish-splash it's a tentacle bash! And isn't capitalism the real horror, when you think about it?"

Tim: "If all my friends jumped off a cliff, I wouldn't join them."

Hive: "Are you sure about that Tim?"

Tim: "..."

Hive: "Cuz, we actually think you would jump."

Tim: *sweating*

Hive: "In fact, we really think you would."

Tim: *intense sweating*

Hive: "IN FACT, WE'RE COUNTING ON IT TIM."

And that's why I'm giving this book 8/10.

It's the most polite horrific cosmic science fiction mass violation of humanity I've ever read. And it's visionary and ahead of its time and criminally underrated among horror fans.

Greg Bear was a phenomenal talent. And possibly a time-traveller.

And you don't mess with time travellers.

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Blood Music' by Greg Bear is a novel about a pandemic, but this one literally changes EVERYTHING - it changes us, some of the surface of the Earth, and maybe some of solar system into.....wait for it. Sentient quantum particles - at least everything in North America becomes particles. I think.

Everything on North America transforms into thinking nodes or clumps of transformed particles. These particles are individuals which can 'argue' with each other, yet not be individuals. They function like a master computer program resolving a problem with other programs.

The rest of the Universe unfortunately experiences a change in the laws of physics as we know them today. The laws of physics become tweaked out of true, so to speak, because all of those trillions of sentient particles are observing!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrödi...

We is gone but we all still here... information lives.

I think. I do. I think thoughts. Shutup. But how does thinking work? Link the neurons in the brain and....? Magic! But thinking doesn't mean I am an I, an individual. People is cells. We believe we are an individual, but we are really a conglomerate of different cells and molecules, or in other words, multicellular. Silly humans.

But to the point of describing this novel? This novel is badass in science, but weird as a black hole.

A rogue scientist, Vergil Ulam, on purpose builds a new kind of mammalian cell in a petri dish, molecule by DNA strand by enzyme by RNA by protein by gene by chromosome by amino acid, mixing in viral and bacterial genes - and after there are quite a few of them, he tests and trains them up. These cells are sentient, able to learn and compute like an AI, but they definitely are biological cells. White blood cells. Ignorant white blood cells, but learning.

Vergil has a tantrum after being fired because management at Genetron, his employer, doesn't approve of his offbook research. Genetron does not know Vergil has already been successful in creating sentient cells which compute in his experiment. They are afraid his work with microorganisms means he's making a plague for war.

Before he leaves the laboratory for the last time, he's ordered to destroy his white blood cell cultures. Instead, he injects himself with his new sentient cells. He plans to withdraw some of his blood later, and he hopes to save whatever of the new cells he created in another clean lab to continue his work. Vergil expects the new cells to die within two weeks out of their test tubes of protective serum nutrients. He thinks his body will finish off the cells by his immune system if he doesn't 'rescue' them in two weeks. Tick tock, right?

Nooooooo, not. At least no worries in his worry that the cells would be killed by his immune system. The cells LOVE their new environment! The immune system can't distinguish the new cells from Vergil's own, because, hello, he used his own cells to play with. Oh oh.



I can't decide if I would have chosen to be an up quark or a down quark or....maybe, both at the same time! -since there would be no observations in the incoming light of any eyes to be taken, right? Or maybe I'll be simply charmingly strange?

: p

But being a photon might be more interesting - getting into a spooky entanglement sounds fun, like a space opera involving unpredictable relationships.

I don't know what I'm talking about obviously. I was a secretary.

; D

This book made my brain hurt.

If you've read this book and understood it perfectly, can you explain black holes to me? Comment below.

[Oblomov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vergil is a scientist who has secretly created sentient white blood cells (don't think about it too hard, just go with it) which he names Noocytes (No-oh-cytes, not Noooocytes as you may hope). Unfortunately, Vergil's absolutely shite work attitude and underhand practices leads to his expulsion from the company laboratory. Forced to destroy his research before security escorts him out the building, Vergil is unwilling to commit complete genocide against his burdgeoning new life forms, so sneaks out a single vial. Having no suitable equipment to transport them safely and no idea when he'll have access to another lab, Vergil can only think of one way to keep his 'children' safe: he injects them into his own body.

Blood Music is the only example I know of a positive take on an apocalypse. Vergil's incubation of the Noocytes intially leads to an improvement in his health, but is followed by gruesome and rather mushy body horror as they slowly transform his flesh, and then the intelligent microscopic creatures decide to give imperialism a try and spread into the city water supply. The cells infect the country, dissolving people into Cronenberg monstrosities and leaving only a few stragglers of the oddly uninfected, the plot skipping between these individuals as they navigate the wasteland of meaty monsters.

So far this sounds like a The Thing-esque nightmare of eldritch abominations and foolish science, but here's the twist: The noocytes are able to communicate with their hosts, as well as each other on one massive, psychic network, and they're not really evil.

Written in 1985 in America, this could easily have been an anti-communist Cold War fable, with the noocytes acting as a borg like entity assimilating the world into one vast Red empire, but Bear doesn't portray it that way. The Noocytes aren't a metaphor for an all devouring Soviet bloc, but for radical and frightening advances in technology that make established paradigms obsolete. It asks whether we're willing to dramatically change our ways or hang desperately to failed and miserable, but familiar, systems (nudges America and anyone daft enough to still support the Tories). This also happens in The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but there the 'life improvements' offered by the aliens are shot down as a mere facade of contentment, with human emotions simply lobotomised. Not so with Blood Music, with the Noocytes offering an expansion of emotions, interconnections and intelligence rather than turning everyone into an organic mannequin, and now I can't talk anymore without risking major spoilers, so I'll skip to the bit where I moisten the book with slobbery praise and beg you to get it.

This is one of the best sci-fi books I've read, no matter how shakey the premise, or how confusing the 'grey goo' and 'quantum information' theories Greg throws sharp end first at my dim head. The characters are distinctly human, there are no villains or paragons, the ethical questions are fascinating and Greg's descriptions of the mutating bodies sits perfectly between mesmerising and utterly nauseating. It's good, it's really, really good, stop reading this daft review and go read Blood Music.

[J.L. Sutton · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Nothing is lost. Nothing is forgotten. It was in the blood, the flesh. And now, it is forever.”



I enjoyed the premise upon which Greg Bear's Blood Music was based, an intelligent virus mutating inside a human being. I was very engaged through the first third or so of the book; however, while it was fine, it didn't seem near as focused or fun after that. I'm not sure there was enough for a full-sized novel. I really enjoyed other full-length works of Bear such as City at the End of Time; I just don't think Blood Music h held up in the same way. 3.25 stars

[Daniel T · Rating 4 out of 5]

ایده و ایده و ایده …
ایده داستان به شدت جذاب و خوب بود.

اینی که میگم رو تصور کنید، البته قبلا هم تصور کردید ولی خب…

که چقدر ما در این کیهان ناچیز هستیم، چقدر کوچک و چقدر بی اهمیت برای این دنیا و چقدر همه چیز برای ما نامشخص و ناشناخته‌است.
حالا تصور کنید این کیهان در اصل یک بدن بزرگه و ما سلول های اون بدن.

ایده این کتاب چنین چیزی است، ولی خب نه دقیقا به این شکل.

داشمندی به اسم ویرژیل که در یک آزمایشگاه کار میکنه، از روند کاری تخطی میکنه و روی یک پروژه شخصی کار میکنه، این پروژه سعی بر هوشمند کردن سلول های خونی بدن هست که از قضا این خون هم از خون خودش هست. سرپرست وقتی از کار ویرژیل مطلع میشه اون رو اخراح میکنه و ویرژیل در لحظه آخر تمامی آزمایشات خودش رو به بدنش تزریق میکنه و … شروع فاجعه اینجاست و یا شاید هم موهبت(این بستگی به دید شما در پایان داره)

این کتاب یک علمی تخیلی است که با علم پزشکی و کمی فیزیک کوانتومی کار داره، پس اگر فکر میکنید این موجودات هوشمند قراره یک جنگ تمام عیار علیه بشریت به پا کنند سخت در اشتباهید و شاید براتون کمی حوصله سر بر باشه، چون هیجان آنچنانی نداره مگر سرنوشت این نویست عجیب و هوشمند و
سرنوشت زمین.

سرونوشت برخورد انسان با موجودی هوشمند که از جنس خودشه، کدوم یک میتونه بر دیگری غلبه کنه؟ موقع خوندنش کلی سوال برای خواننده ایجاد میکنه این کتاب (یا حداقل برای من اینطور بود) که بسی ترسناکه

شخصیت پردازی خوبی داشت کتاب به نسبت حجمش(عالی نبود، ولی خوب بود)

تجربه خوبی بود👌

[Blaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as a teenager, when it first came out, and I remember loving it. Rereading it now, 30 years later, it's good, but not great. It deserves full credit for being an early work to focus on the idea of an intelligent virus transforming humanity. And it's not the book's fault that the scenes where the Soviet Union is the big scary villain come off now as dated.

That said, the pacing of the book is odd. The first half focuses on a handful of characters, of whom only the protagonist appears to be infected. Then suddenly, off screen and in the space of a page, we've leapt a few months forward and only a handful of people are alive in all of North America. The choice of which characters survive is odd. It's not clear what is added by the three in California. For a book about the end of humanity, there's an awful lot of talking in the back half of the book. It's an interesting story, but not entirely satisfying.

[Dirk Grobbelaar · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most brilliantly bonkers books I have read in a while. Starts off as a thriller, veers into body horror territory, and eventually goes to that place where all really good Science Fiction goes. And no, it isn't where you think.

Nothing is lost. Nothing is forgotten.
It was in the blood, the flesh,
And now it is forever.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bear has always been a 'big ideas' science fiction writer and BM is no exception. First published in 1985 and nominated for many awards, this has aged well and the science involved must have been seen as extraordinary at the time it came out. Further, the story arc is incredibly ambitious and it took some very strange twists and turns.

This starts off more like body horror than science fiction. Our lead, at least in the first section, is Vergil Ulam, a biological researcher; in his 'spare time' at work for a genetic engineering firm, his work involves the restructuring of cells at the DNA/RNA level. While we are never quite clear on exactly what the end goal is of his research, his bosses are not very happy with his side project as it involves animal cells and he is pretty lax regarding biological protocols. While getting basically the bums rush out the door from work, he manages to inject himself with some of his 'smart cells' and shortly thereafter, strange things start to happen to his body. Again, the opening really had a body horror feel to it, but Bear is just getting started here; turns out, the cells are a lot smarter than he thought...

So much for the set up. The biological research for this must have been some work and in a way, this is really a product of its time. Patenting living organisms was only first allowed in 1981 and lead to the GMO/bio-tech revolution. The worries about gene-engineering were quite vocal at the time (and indeed, still play out today) in a very 'romantic' way, that is today, the belief that technology is a double edged sword. While there may be great benefits to the new gene tech, there may well be great perils. In a way, what Vergil made/discovered was both but in a very strange way.

Definitely a fun read in a 'big ideas' way, but like many other hardish science fiction, do not expect too much in the way of character development. The twists and turns were fun, even if you have to stretch your mind around them and accept some of the rather large premises that, upon reflection after finishing the book, seem rather dubious. 3.5 stars, rounding down because I am really tired of the concept of 'singularity' and quantum stuff taking the place of magic .

[Lizz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t write reviews.

What’s the show about?
That’s the beauty of it; it’s about nothing.
Nothing?
That’s right. Nothing.

Okay, this book was not actually about nothing, but it meanders quite a bit. It’s a really good idea for a story; a slightly mad (and a bit misanthropic) scientist uses his own lymphocytes to create intelligent life. When his job finds out that he’s doing unauthorized, and very dangerous, experiments, he’s forced to discontinue his work. The problem is, he sees his creations as his children and, reluctant to kill them, he injects them into himself for safekeeping. What could possibly go wrong? As it turns out, many things.

Now the problem is, I expected all of this to lead somewhere. Things happen, but they’re vague. Characters are introduced without any follow through. There’s not any sort of an ending. Though I don’t regret the time I’ve spent in Bear’s imagination, I would have appreciated a more decisive “The End.”

[Lasairfiona · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't decide: should I burn this book because it is the most horrible piece of trash I have ever read or should I frame it?

Why is this book so horrible? It is because the concept is so _cool_. I couldn't put it down because it is just neat that a virus could become sentient! There is also some cool (though completely bogus) science and theory on observations of time. The only character worth caring about is the virus!

But I had to wade through bad sentence structure, useless characters that you can't empathise with, bad story structure, bad statistics (only 12 people in all of north america survive and of course 3 of them find each other. Oh, and one is the main character's mom), complete improbabilities, the killing of the main character with no replacement (except the virus and the story is structured around it rather than on it), and the most useless and unfulfilling ending ever. I threw this book across the room many times only to pick it back up to find out what happened.

There is nothing worse than a cool story with an inept writer. It is just cruel!

This concept needs to be handed off to an author that can write and do this concept justice.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

This week I started and finished reading a trilogy by this author. My first encounter with Greg Bear (see what I did there? *lol*). I wasn't overly impressed although I liked the writing style. According to my buddy-reader and constant volunteller, Brad, the trilogy was NOT the author's best work, not by far, and I should read this short story.

So I did.

The story is about a scientist experimenting with biochips (computer chips that can be put in a human body). In the tradition of scientific horror stories, he takes it too far, even by the standards of the biotech company he's working for, and therefore gets fired. Panicking, he injects himself with his invention (of course) and that is where the fun begins.
As William Blake said: To see a World in a Grain of Sand...

I really liked the story and the creepy crawly feeling it invoked. Imagine knowing that intelligent biochips are inside you but you have no control over them and no knowledge of what they are going to do. Will they be trying to conquer, take over? Will they worship the body they live in as a deity? Just how intelligent can they become? Was that just a normal itch or some change the things have initiated?

I was wondering why it took them so long before the doctor realized he had been infected and if the sweaty palm trick hadn't also worked on the Bernard guy but it doesn't really matter for the overall atmosphere and message or the progression of the story. Though I was almost a bit disappointed that it turned squishy instead of techy - maybe I was hoping for a more metal-ish evolution (think Robocop or the nanites from Stargate) but if you only have a squishy body to work with ...
The characters were relatively flat (much like in the trilogy) so I'm left also wondering if characterisations are a weak point of this author or if it was deliberate here because it was supposed to be all about the science and the old individuals didn't matter.

Anyway, nice and creepy story that marks the perfect transition from September to Spooktober. ;)

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
This was a fun sci fi thriller that explores how scientific experimentation can go horribly wrong. I thought the characters were pretty generic, but it was a good page turner.

[aLirEza nEjaTi · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh!
حقیقتا meh

[Christina · Rating 1 out of 5]

This novel really irked me, for several reasons. I think my primary complaint is in the characters - they were undeveloped, unrealistic, and clearly vessels for the science and story rather than dynamic individuals. I didn't care about any of them, except for maybe the intelligent cells themselves.

It didn't help that the plot was slow-moving and required a lot of suspension of disbelief. I don't know enough about hard science to judge the likelihood of any of this novel's events, but from a layman's perspective, they seemed so absurd - and more and more so as the book progresses - that I had a hard time continuing to read past the halfway point. I love science fiction. I used to devour Michael Crichton's books. But they were enjoyable and exciting because they seemed at least somewhat plausible; Blood Music doesn't.

What really killed this novel for me, though, was the writing style. The prose is straight-forward, detailed, and kind of...cold. It's written like a scientific report: here's what happened, to whom, and when. Bear throws in little unnecessary details - "he went to Jack-in-the Box for breakfast", "he got a Dos Equis from the fridge" - which just distract from the story. The detached way in which it's written made it hard to read - I felt like I was plowing through it, rather than becoming engrossed in it.

I know I seem harsh. Clearly, with all the five-star reviews, not everyone feels the way I do. But if you have little experience with science fiction, I would avoid Blood Music as your first exploration of the genre, unless you have a really strong interest in nanotechnology.

Oh and be sure to check your edition for typos before you pick it up - mine was full of them, on almost every page. Big ones, too - the word "hi" would often appear where the word "in" should have been, and a lot of punctuation was missing. I'm not sure how that happened, but it was also very distracting.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Classic SF novel dealing with biotechnology, nanotechnology (including the grey goo hypothesis), the nature of consciousness and artificial intelligence. On my list to re-read in the near future as it has been some time since I first read this.

Nominee: British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel
Nominee: John W. Campbell Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Nominee: Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (the original short story WON the award for Best Short Story)
Nominee: Nebula Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (the original short story WON the award for Best Novelette)
Nominee: Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel

[Ira (SF Words of Wonder) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Check out my full, spoiler-free, video review HERE.
Great start and premise, diverges into something not expected but still overall good.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, let me say that I really enjoyed reading this book. Do I think it would be a 5-star read for everybody that picks it up, probably not. It feels a little dated. But for me, I very much enjoyed it. It's perfect for fitting into that 80's vibe that I connect with so much in the sci-fi and horror genres that I like. The science is great (and complicated) and the ideas are truly interesting and mind bending even. And what an ending! The story went totally different than I expected.

So why 5-stars for me then? Besides enjoying myself and sympathizing with the emotion and characters in this story, I feel a weird connection to this book that I can't explain. I've read a couple of Greg Bear's books in my past and enjoyed those very much. I also have a couple of other of his books on my TBR list, although not this one. I happened to be randomly looking at Booktube videos when I came across a list of the top 15 Sci-Fi books by Bookpilled. I wasn't especially looking for a sci-fi book, but his list was very interesting, and for some reason, when he got to this book (which was book 5 on his list), I was drawn to it. Looking at the different covers for it, and listening to the description, I just had that feeling this is a book I needed to read. I immediately searched for it and ended up buying a used copy. It came in a few weeks, and I added it to the stack of books on my desk. It's not at all unusual for me to buy a book like this on a random whim, and most often, those books arrive weeks later when I'm in the middle of other reads and said book ends up on the TBR stack on my desk or shelves for a year, or two, or three before I end up reading it on another random whim. Just like this time.

But this book kept drawing my attention. I picked it up when I had 3 other books going and couldn't help but read a chapter. The moment I freed up from other reads, I started into it - almost like I had a deadline and I needed to get to. Couldn't say why I felt that way, but I did. And I enjoyed the whole reading experience with it. Then, as I finished the book yesterday, I happened to see a random tweet on my timeline. I don't follow Greg Bear, or his wife (who is also an author), and I don't believe I've ever seen a tweet by either of them before. But yesterday, I did, and it was a tweet by his wife explaining that Mr. Bear was being removed from life support following a medical issue and that he would be passing. I felt an immense sadness when I read that, a feeling that a great sci-fi mind was passing, and it suddenly made sense to me why I had felt such a strong urge to pick up his book. I don't know why or what that connection was, but I'd felt the urgency, and I'm really glad that I did. Crazy I know, but there it is.

So, just like the urge I had to read this book, I had the urge to write it down - not at all for anyone else to read but so that I can look back and remember this in the future. It was a good feeling despite the loss. And, after all of that, I would recommend it to anyone who reads sci-fi. It really is worth it.

[Yoshiboy13 · Rating 5 out of 5]

book *awesome-on-verge-of-omfg* greg bear MUST SPEND MORE TIME STUDYING AUTHOR
Could you make that slightly more readable for the nice people out there?
*negative* understand. possible mean EXTERNAL GROUPING
Yeah, pretty much.
VERGIL translate CLUSTERS *can-not-translate*
I think they mean that it's a good book.
pause . . . . . . . . EXTERNAL GROUPING nice? nice from *city-nice-in-country-france*? nice *friendly*? QUERY
Nice friendly.
CLUSTERS need learn MORE
Yes, quite right.
- - End transmission. - -

[Simona B · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept is intriguing, but I was somewhat disappointed by the lack of imagination in the description of the noocytes' behaviour, who (which?) act all too humanly: there is little point in writing about a species of human-made aliens (simplistic description, but if you've read the book you get my meaning) if you're going to describe them in such anthropocentric terms.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine a friendly COVID-19 combined with John Carpenter's The Thing and you will have Blood Music.

Bear is often compared with Arthur C. Clarke and it is easy to see why, both in the book's strengths and weaknesses: an unfortunate lack of characterization, though, is easily overlooked by the sheer batshit craziness of the story itself. Like Clarke, the characters are mostly there for observational purposes and to make questionable decisions. I like this occasional illogic because as the reader, your fervent protests make you much more part of the process of the storytelling.
Anyone, the skinny (minor spoilers), as best as I can simplify it:
Overweight loser scientist creates rapidly evolving intelligent micro-organisms. When his research gets him sacked, he injects himself with them, setting into motion a rapid pandemic/invasion of humanity's biology by these seemingly well-intentioned organisms.
Since they can rapidly alter their hosts and the world at large, there are fine moments of horror that invoke Carpenter's film. I especially liked the downright disturbing scene of the flesh pipe extending from a person's back feeding weird fluids down into the kitchen sink.
The titular tunes are infected people hearing these micro-organisms messing around in their bodies. The character focus leaps around a lot, and if there is a main character it'd be split evenly between a few flailing scientists, one of whom is infected and in isolation. Other brief character moments center around a few people mysteriously immune to the evolutionary plague.
All in all, a good, often creepy, and fascinating take on invasions, plagues, and humanity's stupidity.

[Oscar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vergil Ulam, biotecnólogo estadounidense, trabaja para Genetron investigando sobre biochips. Al mismo tiempo, desarrolla un proyecto personal basado en si los linfocitos son capaces de pensar por sí mismos, lo que daría lugar a células inteligentes. Sin embargo, sus superiores le instan a abandonar y destruir dicho proyecto. Pero Vergil no desea renunciar a este experimento, y para sacarlo del laboratorio no tiene más remedio que inyectarse a sí mismo los linfocitos. A partir de aquí deberá ser el lector que el que continúe leyendo para saber cómo sigue la historia.

‘Música en la sangre’ (Blood Music, 1985), del escritor Greg Bear, empezó siendo un relato corto que el autor desarrolló posteriormente para convertirlo en novela. La prosa de Bear es sencilla y clara, pero abunda en elementos de ciencia ficción hard, más concretamente en biología y ciertos aspectos metafísicos. Por lo demás, la historia se desarrolla desde distintos puntos de vista y personajes cotidianos.

En resumen, una novela original, que me ha interesado y atrapado en algunos momentos, pero que no me ha entusiasmado.

[Fantasy boy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blood Music is one of the enthralling Science Fiction with horror elements, It does have tons of horror elements as I’ve anticipated; this is why some readers reflect that it’s a science horror book, actually more like a post- apocalypse Science fiction to me. Especially the last 30% of the book reveals stupendous speculative-scientific facts in the post-disaster world which was altered by the intellectual plague/ Zoocytes. If this book is just like other books set in a post-catastrophe world, was affected by kind of zombie virus then it wouldn’t be a stunning read. However, this book not only conveys the thrilling story also an alternative thinking about what if cells became intelligent, what would happen to human societies? Moreover, they are able to communicate with people when they are inside your bodies. What would be the possibilities to humanity and the outside world that is going to be shifted by those intelligent microorganisms?

The story is not complicated. The biosicent, Vergil who invent a type of cells are able to encode DNA and duplicate or reproduce itself; a self-functioning cell factory was invented by this Vergil who was clever but without contemplating any consequences. When his supervisor found out he was against the policy, he demanded Vergil to eliminate his extracurricular activities( those intelligent cells) but he had other thoughts. He has injected them into his body shortly afterwards he surreptitiously destroyed any evidences about his personal work. Soon he was fired; during his unemployed state, he was seeking a job in order to prolong those cells inside his body. He didn’t found any jobs, he thought his research would be failed. On contrast, those cells already consistently modifying his body. After he noticed the change, he called up his doctor friend, and found out his body was being an enigmatic phenomenon for both of them to decipher what was the situation. After that the story switches to the doctor and Bernard POVs. Soon they realize that Vergil was a vector who unnoticeably was spreading Zoocytes/ the invented germs to both of them and others. Bernard asked his friend of providing him an isolated Lab and he moved within in order to study those Zoocytes.

After Zoocytes were wildly spreading in North America, the story focus on two POV, one is Suzy, the survivor’s story line, and Bernard the communication and studying with Zoocytes. Zoocytes were covering North America on rivers, vegetations, streets etc. The substances on North America which were covered by brown, glassy materials, with spiky spirals extending into sky. The scene is grotesque and gorgeous at same time to be witnessed. people started listening their inner voices that inside their heads, this is when Zoocytes started communicating with humans, by communication Zoocytes commenced integrating Humana’s corporeal body. Other countries were being aware of the circumstances in America. Some political maneuvers, climate and environment changing. Till the end, the story doesn’t reveal what is the ultimate changing to humans on Earth.

Blood Music is a Thought Provoking Sci-Fi, Suzy’s story is the representative of individuality of Self-Identity. Even Zoocytes can store memories which on Genes, without the boundaries with each other, but still the most secure thing is ourself. Without it, can we call ourselves a human? Identities could be duplicated by Zoocytes, producing multiple versions of one person; without clear definitions of a person. If this happened, would you accept it? In the story, almost all North Americans and animals were integrated with Zoocytes, a world Zoocytes consider is the necessary; maybe the writer think it is the ultimate evolution of Mankind via the AI procedure, we live in all possibilities; the quantum can achieve anything, without diseases, objections, discriminations etc. However, I think most people would consider it’s a much worse situation than living in a problematic world.

The pandemic, Covid-19 is the worse thing that happened in 2020. But this story tells a more horrendous facts about technologies go wrong, philosophic questions about self-awareness and identities, a new form of life etc. This is more appalling than Covid-19, because Covid-19 is not intelligent.

P.S: Zoocytes once was confronting a holocaust threat, it produce a time-space to prevent the effects from the holocaust. I think our future technologies have potential to do anything… but what scales of achievements from future that I wouldn’t dare to imagine it…

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

It’s a relatively straightforward book, but I’ve gotta say I am having a tough time wrapping my head around it. Not because the sciencey stuff isn’t explained well (it’s actually impressive how straight forward Greg Bear makes some very not straight forward stuff seem), but because the book as a whole is somewhat disjointed.

For about the first half, we’re dealing with hard scifi body horror. It’s creepy and a little disgusting, but pretty compelling - especially since it’s clearly building up to something.

And what it’s building up to is... also pretty interesting, but with a very different timbre. Less hard scifi and more science fantasy, and even with descriptions of fleshy blobby biomechanical things, there’s no longer any real horror, either, and the tension all but dissipates. This part of the book skews a bit more philosophical, with discussion of memory, consciousness, of being part of a greater whole. The science itself is a little more abstract.

What let’s it down (especially towards the end) is the sometimes weak characterisation. We’re rapidly jumping from POV to POV, but it feels like there isn’t enough time to really get to know anyone. This is a short book with a lot crammed in, and as a result the characters start to lack any real depth.

But on the other hand, this is also a book that manages to justify sentient meat tunnels and giant walking hills, so it’s definitely going to keep a special place in my mind.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-En su momento, ideas de vanguardia.-

Género. Ciencia ficción.

Lo que nos cuenta. En el libro Música en la sangre (publicación original: Blood Music, 1985) conocemos a Vergil Ulam, que trabaja en una compañía dedicada a la investigación biotecnológica que tiene ideas propias sobre el rumbo que deben tomar ciertos proyectos. Su actitud profesional y personal le termina llevando al despido, pero logra llevarse con él su propio proyecto secreto: linfocitos manipulados genéticamente, a partir de los de su sangre, con la intención de crear inteligencia en ellos. Primero fue un relato del mismo nombre, publicado en 1983.

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