Day 366: Blood Music

Usually I try to follow my book haul's pretty closely, but with the last one being such a mess I still haven't gotten around to reviewing any of them. I read a book over the weekend though that grabbed me so immediately I had to review it. In fact, I finished the whole thing in one sitting it was so good. This book was 'Blood Music,' by Greg Bear.

This book is like a rollercoaster ride. I usually don't read for very long periods all at once but I finished the whole thing in one eight-hour sitting. I didn't even sleep cause I just couldn't put it down. It's about a geneticist who creates sentient microbes and injects himself with them in an attempt to sneak them out of his laboratory. Things don't quite go as planned, as an understatement. It's an excellent book and you should definitely go read it before you get any spoilers. It reminded me a lot of Michael Crichton's works if you're into his books.

Spoilers from here on out. Sorry, but it's just too good not to talk about some of the juicy details.

I was sucked in from the first paragraph, which is just a description of the Genetron company sign outside of their headquarters in 'enzyme valley.' I always know it's going to be good when an author can create such a vivid vision out of something entirely mundane. Vergil as a character was quite interesting, just the type of brilliant mind who would set the world on fire because he was too obsessed with whether or not he could that he didn't stop to think about whether or not he should. I guess they were really terrified of genetic manipulation back in the 80s, because this is like the fifth book I've read based on that fear. From Vergil's initial panicked decision to inject himself with his sentient microbes, the 'noocytes,' things only got more hectic as time went on.

The imagination behind this book was really something else, and I don't just mean the concepts or the science. This is the only book of Greg Bear's I've read (so far!) but his attention to detail was stunning. I just know he must have really been able to see all of it in his head. Every time I started to get confused on some of the more complex points, there was a clarifying sentence or tow that made it all sink in, probably a little too well. Vergil's little affectations that changed as the noocytes slowly took over, and the grotesque details of the body horror that took place as they did were simultaneously disgusting and beautiful. I don't think I've ever read anything that was able to repulse me just as strongly as it made me want to look deeper.

And the plot! It just kept spiraling. I never knew what was about to happen next at all. When Edward killed Vergil by throwing that lamp into the bath with him I actually gasped out loud. And then he immediately saw Candice lying on the shower floor, half dissolved, and knew it was all for naught. Sheesh. After that, the switch over to Bernard was pretty smooth. Vergil was an interesting character for what he did, though I never really missed him because I felt his story was complete. The dichotomy thereafter between Bernard's acceptance of the noocytes and Suzy's resistance had a nice symmetry to it, but at that point I think the characters became a vehicle for the real star, which of course were the noocytes.

They're so alien. And very trippy. And just really freaking cool. I'm not sure there's much else to say about them, other than that the idea of introns being a generational data storage and retrieval system is also neat. I was once again blown away by Bear's vivid descriptions of the environment. That scene on the plane where the British reporter is giving a rundown of what they see in the flyover had me rapt. It was such a clever plot device for a bird's eye view without getting too out there. I just knew something bad was gonna happen, holding my breath the whole time hoping these poor hapless reporters could get out alive. I guess the plane going down was inevitable.

The ending was a good spectacle, although the wonky physics bent my suspension of disbelief a little too far. I thought the noocytes sat on that perfect border between believable and incredible, but once he went further than that I lost the plot a little bit. I didn't really like the idea that the universe bends to the will of the things that live in it. I mean it was ok, but it felt more like a mystical misinterpretation of the observer effect to me than the more concrete basis the noocytes originally had.

Other than that, no complaints. I have to put this thrill ride up pretty high on my favorites list now. What did you think of 'Blood Music?'

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley