{"id":4299,"date":"2008-03-14T14:46:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-14T19:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/?p=4299"},"modified":"2017-06-18T17:30:56","modified_gmt":"2017-06-18T22:30:56","slug":"book-report-the-forge-of-god-by-greg-bear-1987","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/14\/book-report-the-forge-of-god-by-greg-bear-1987\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Report: The Forge of God by Greg Bear (1987)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am such an easily led reader. The cool kids mention Heinlein, I read the Heinlein. Instapundit mentions Greg Bear<\/a>, and I read one of the Greg Bear on my shelves. I think I bought both this book and its sequel, Anvil of Stars<\/i>, from Downtown Books in Milwaukee some years ago because he has a lot of books, so if I liked the books, I could get a lot of books. Also, Ted Nugent sings about his brother, Fred Bear<\/a>. So Instapundit mentioned the book, and it was like Pavlov ringing a bell.<\/p>\n

That said, this book provided me with flashbacks of bad Niven, too present in my memory<\/a>. The book covers an alien invasion whose first appearance is a couple of strange geological structures that appear out of nowhere. Then, a series of disconnected scientists hold a bunch of meetings and put together some papers about what might happen. Then, an alien appears that might or might not be a natural alien or just a biological construct. Then, pre-meetings, politickings, and a religious President who thinks the alien invasion–and probable destruction of the Earth–is punishment from God.<\/p>\n

Seriously, the first 200 pages of this book are event, meetings, politicking, papers, hard science. The book cuts between disparate groups, some of whom I forget between their brief cut scenes. But the main characters are hard scientists, a science fiction writer, and politicians (sorry, national leaders). This is supposed to be hard science fiction, which I can take when it when the characters are good and the plot moves along. Unfortunately, with this book, I don’t really get into the characters, the plot drags, and ultimately the enemy who is destroying the Earth is so abstract that I can’t really get a mad-on. The author treats them like a force of nature. And there’s another group of aliens who are helping to save a few Earthlings–they cannot stop the inevitable destruction of the Earth. They, too, are unclear.<\/p>\n

However, in the last 200 pages (slightly less), some of the good aliens possess–as in take over the wills of–some of the characters, and then the possessed characters work toward salvation of a small number in arks that will take them elsewhere. So that happens.<\/p>\n

I guess that allows me to put a finger and pixels to another annoyance about the plot: The events happen to the characters. They don’t really influence the story, it just takes place and the people go along for the ride. Or die.<\/p>\n

The book certainly bears a lot of influence from Lucifer’s Hammer<\/i>; in the afterword or whatnot, the author thanks Niven himself. Sadly, it’s not as good as good Niven. It’s worst than bad Niven. Hard Science Bureaucracy Fiction.<\/p>\n

Books mentioned in this review:<\/b><\/p>\n