Bloom |
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Author:
Wil Mccarthy
By Del Rey
Average Customer Rating:   
List Price: $19.00
Our Price: $11.31
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Product Description
Mycora: technogenic life. Fast-reproducing, fast-mutating, and endlessly voracious. In the year 2106, these microscopic machine/creatures have escaped their creators to populate the inner solar system with a wild, deadly ecology all their own, pushing the tattered remnants of humanity out into the cold and dark of the outer planets. Even huddled beneath the ice of Jupiter's moons, protected by a defensive system known as the Immunity, survivors face the constant risk of mycospores finding their way to the warmth and brightness inside the habitats, resulting in a calamitous "bloom."
But the human race still has a trick or two up its sleeves; in a ship specially designed to penetrate the deadly Mycosystem, seven astronauts are about to embark on mankind's boldest venture yet--the perilous journey home to infected Earth!
Yet it is in these remote conditions, against a virtually omnipotent foe, that we discover how human nature plays the greatest role in humanity's future.
From the Paperback edition.
Amazon.com Review
In the distant future, nanotechnology has gotten out of control. The inner solar system has been overrun by Mycora, atom-size machines that devour everything they touch. Humanity has long since fled Earth for the cold reaches of the outer system, where the lack of heat and sunlight make it difficult--but not impossible--for the Mycora to bloom. Life in the Immunity is hard, and the survivors of humanity face the constant onslaught of the ever-evolving Mycora. But if they are to survive, the remaining humans must try to learn what happened to Earth, and whether the Mycora are finding ways to overcome their susceptibility to cold. When the Immunity mounts an expedition to plant probes on Earth's polar caps, shoemaker and aspiring journalist John Stasheim is asked to come along to chronicle the journey. He soon learns that the trip will be fraught with as many political dangers as nanotech ones, and that the Mycora are both more and less than they seem. An excellent SF novel along the lines of Greg Bear's Blood Music, but with more action and plot. Wil McCarthy is a writer to watch. --Craig E. Engler
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Not Free SF Reader, 2007-09-03
This book definitely disappointed me. The people on Earth screwed up in a bit way, creating a substance called mycora. It expanded exponentially and took over the place, and kept on going.
A few people got away. The rest of it to me seems very fuzzy and furry, and generally pretty dull.
Flowering Inferno, 2007-06-06
What happened to my man McCarthy? He had the fabulous Continuum series and then tried to get all metaphysical on us. In the process, he seems to have taken a stupid pill for we are back to the old Star Trek days of smart, living non-coporal bodies. You remember, the big cloud that was alive or the germs that were smart? In this case it's origin, though never actually confirmed, seems to be a product of Earth. Yep, it's evil nanotech gone wild. A self-replicating nanobot escapes and turns the Earth into goo. A few lucky ones escape to Mars or the asterois or Jupiter.
OUr hero, a reporter in the future, is from one of Jumpiter's moons. He is selected for a mission to study the Bloom phenomena on Earth and send his trademark stories back to a world waiting with bated breath. At the same time there has risen a group that attaches spiritual qualities to the bloom (the process of converting mass) and have conducted terrorist attacks using blooms as weapons. I won't bore you but eventually you learn that the evil politicians actually want to hurt the poor thing that destroyed the Earth, Moon and Mars. Thankfully, at the last minute, our hero's gal in the hay fesses up - Yep, she's a believer and in fact is infected with the bloom and ....EEEEEEEE. She goes ballistic before their stunned faces but she is thankfully pushed into the air lock. This got our reporter thinking that maybe, just maybe, they were right and the Bloom was alive.
Suddenly, like Jehova speaking to Moses (or more apt, "God" speaking to Star Trek crew in that hokey movie) a face of the bloom emerges and "speaks" to them. Think seances, nebulous 20 questions and "spiritual" qualities and you're on the right path. Mankind discovers the errors of their ways and in the end, slowly we become on with the Bloomers. The characters were interesting but their actions made about as much sense as the overall philosophy of the book. It was a good description of Nano but we've got those by the thousands. Next time Wil should use a focus group before going through with something as corny as this.
Good idea for not an easy read, 2007-01-07
Lots of technical, detailed descriptions about the science behind the idea of nanotechnology gone amuck. If you like your hard sci-fi very hard this book is for you.
Blooming Good Fun, 2005-10-10
Really excellent hard SF. McCarthy makes the story both relevant and accessible, despite staying within the world of his story even in his use of language. I'll definitely be reading more McCarthy.
Charles Gramlich
Author of "Cold in the Light."
Scared the heck out of me., 2004-07-05
The main idea brought forth in this book scared the heck out of me. The idea is that wandering nanotech could drift for ages, then suddenly "bloom", eating all matter in the vicinty, thus creating terrible destruction. The book would translate to film very well. Sure, some of the characterization is weak, but that's not why we read hard-SF like this. The science and the ideas are key here, and Wil McCarthy delivers on both.
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780345485373
ISBN: 0345485378
Label: Del Rey
Manufacturer: Del Rey
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 1999-08-03
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: 1999-08-03
Studio: Del Rey |
