- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st UK edition edition (2 April 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007124023
- ISBN-13: 978-0007124022
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.2 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,407,294 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Vitals
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Product Description
Review
'Vitals is the ultimate conspiracy theory. A collusion between our governments, the dark secrets of our hearts, and a force older than time. You'll be blown away by its ferocious intelligence, astounding research and insight, and terrifying logic. Read it with the light on. Prepare not to sleep easy.' Stephen Baxter
‘At a time when bold enthusiasts proclaim that the keys to immortality lie within human reach, Bear cautions, in Vitals, that a strange and frightening world may await us if we dare open that door. The best book about immortality since Aldous Huxley's After Many a Summer Dies the Swan' David Brin
'Whatever Bear touches turns epic . . . rarely have I felt so much the presence of great events' THE TIMES
‘Darwin’s Radio is a tense technothriller in the Michael Crichton vein . . . But it's got a disturbing twist … profoundly unsettling.’ NEW SCIENTIST
'Greg Bear's Darwin's Radio is one of the most intelligent and original thrillers of recent years … a suspense novel that pushes a lot of contemporary buttons … this season's most convincing candidate for a bestselling thriller … As with his other books, the special pleasures of Bear's writing come from its interaction of Big Ideas with more down-to-earth human issues … Bear is one of a handful of writers in the field who manage both the complexity of the intellectual material and the solidity and depth of feeling required for a 'novel of ideas' to be a real novel.' LOCUS
'Greg Bear builds a neat conspiracy, back-tracking the entire 20th century as he ties politics, war and atrocity into humanity's next upgrade. Real page-turning stuff' SFX
Starburst
‘A chilling air of highly infectious paranoia ... alarmingly proficient cross-genre thriller makes The X-Files feel curiously tame...'
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
After reading Blood Music (the novel) and Darwin's Radio, I bought Vitals and thought I was going to have a good time reading interesting things about biology.
The book started well, and I was looking forward to learning the secret about stopping the aging process in humans. The thriller aspect was there as well (who is "programming" humans, and who is trying to keep the secret from Hal Cousins, and why?), until the story goes over the top, so to say.
It seems to me that the author had to many ideas he wanted to stuff in the book with too few pages to do it on.
The book started well, and I was looking forward to learning the secret about stopping the aging process in humans. The thriller aspect was there as well (who is "programming" humans, and who is trying to keep the secret from Hal Cousins, and why?), until the story goes over the top, so to say.
It seems to me that the author had to many ideas he wanted to stuff in the book with too few pages to do it on.
The fact that there are two "I" persons telling the story is not confusing.. but it isn't exactly helpful for the plot, in my opinion.
If you haven't read anything from Bear, don't start with this one. Save it until later.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I agree with other reviewers though I struggled through to the end of the book. The basic premise could have been interesting, but the conspiracy stuff got a bit "X Files"/"Alias". The characters were cardboard cut outs, especially the women. The writing style was jarring. And the plot got itself so tangled up that it made no sense in the end. Perhaps Mr Bear knew what the story was but he didn't manage to communicate it. Give it a miss
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Greg Bear's Vitals is a science fiction thriller with just a hint of horror thrown in for good measure. It starts promisingly, hitting the ground running with Hal Cousins, the main protagonist for most of the book, receiving a strange phone call from his twin brother. This sets the tone for the rest of the book and the tension and paranoia just keep increasing.
Perhaps I am biased (I came to this title already admiring Greg Bear's work - especially blood music and Eon), but I found Vitals to be both a genuine page turner and an intellectually engaging read (quite a rare combination). It is also a very frightening book, in the way that 1984 is frightening, as it deals with issues of identity and freedom of thought. Not since 1984 have I felt the fragility of my own personality so starkly while reading a novel.
Ok, Vitals cannot compete with 1984 for sheer literary power, and it falls short of something like Thomas Disch's Camp Concentration on that score also. But Bear is writing a thriller and as such has slightly different concerns where plot, structure and characterisation are concerned.
As an out and out thriller, the novel stands up extremely well. It manages to create and maintain a sense of fear and paranoia all the while moving along at great pace. Add to that the extremely well handled scientific speculation and you have one hell of a SF thriller.
Perhaps I am biased (I came to this title already admiring Greg Bear's work - especially blood music and Eon), but I found Vitals to be both a genuine page turner and an intellectually engaging read (quite a rare combination). It is also a very frightening book, in the way that 1984 is frightening, as it deals with issues of identity and freedom of thought. Not since 1984 have I felt the fragility of my own personality so starkly while reading a novel.
Ok, Vitals cannot compete with 1984 for sheer literary power, and it falls short of something like Thomas Disch's Camp Concentration on that score also. But Bear is writing a thriller and as such has slightly different concerns where plot, structure and characterisation are concerned.
As an out and out thriller, the novel stands up extremely well. It manages to create and maintain a sense of fear and paranoia all the while moving along at great pace. Add to that the extremely well handled scientific speculation and you have one hell of a SF thriller.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Unbalanced
I've been a fan of Bear for a while, but Quantico failed to engage me, and unfortunately Vitals left me cold about half way through. Read more
Published on 28 Jun 2007 by Mr. G. Battle
Good book until the lazy ending
A epic of contemporary hopes and fears. Good build up with many twisting subpolts and then............. the author got bored and wanted to finish the book quickly. Read more
Published on 28 Dec 2005
Exciting conspiracy plot
I must say I was gobsmacked to see negative reviews posted here. I read this book during a two-week holiday and it was easily the best book out of the five I read. Read more
Published on 21 Dec 2004 by Gareth
A missed opportunity
I perservered and managed to finish it.
The idea is great (I won't spoil it), and he obviously did some research but Bear should have given this concept to an author able to... Read more
Published on 3 Dec 2003 by "n_m"
Unreadably awful
I couldn't actually complete this book, giving up in disgust 2/3 of the way through. Possibly a clever plot idea hides within this book somewhere but the jerky plotline makes this... Read more
Published on 4 Nov 2003
The Rule of Paranoia
This could have an exciting, gripping techno-thriller. This could have been a deep examination into the hows, whys, and moral correctness of immortality. Read more
Published on 5 Sep 2003 by Patrick Shepherd
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