SOJALS rating:

Mediocre (2/5)

I first read this on the 9th March 2004.

In "Darwin's Radio" Greg Bear told the story of the horrifying SHEVA virus. In this sequel he tells us what happened twelve years later. What has been happening is not good. The USA is fearful of these potentially lethal children and brutal in its suppression of them: most of the SHEVA children are locked up in concentration camp; some are in hiding and a few are on the run. Mitch Rafaelson and Kaye Lang are living in obscurity trying to keep their child Stella Nova from the clutches of the government and a panicked, prejudiced population.

This is An enjoyable, competent book but, in comparison to "Darwin's Radio", it is major disappointment. I read this book three days ago and I have already forgotten most of it. One thing that does stick in my mind is how the government was apparently so bad at tracking dangerous menaces. I'd have thought that was a plot artifice were it not so often true.

It is a reasonable drama, lots of worrying about the kids and some bad guys reforming. It is also a metaphor for our times with the imprisonment of hundreds of people merely because of suspicion and with no evidence that they present a risk.

It may stimulate you to think more about the current casual drift to inhumanity in national governments, but that's about it.