Darwin’s Children by Greg Bear

Only 7 of the 12 people who came to the discussion on a dismal election day had read this sequel to Darwin’s Radio. All who started it had finished and all but one person had read Bear before.

This book begins 12 years after the first book and follows some of the same characters. The “virus children,” the next evolutionary leap, are growing up. Their odd looks and abilities cause fear, which leads the government to put them incamps to “protect” them.

Although the book is well-written, has interesting characters and action, and does not have the info-dumps of the first book, many readers did not like it as well. The stupid and villainous ways the government and unevolved people react was too scary and believable, too close to the current situation in the country, for comfortable election-season reading. We also thought the ending was resolved too quickly and simplistically.

After discussing the book, and wishing that if Bear does write a third volume, it is more like the first one, we went on to the topic of what books should be on the next voting list–always hoping to find something worth reading.

–Sandy Kayser