Cotton Origin, History, Technology, and Production Book

The first time I read this I felt horrified and dazed for weeks. I still consider this a masterpiece of horror/sci-fi. The characters are somewhat memorable, but more memorable is their pain; indeed, the pain of the whole world was felt in the back of my mouth, preparing it rise up from my stomach, up the pipe, out the maw, to hang onto my lip and smack me thrice on my face, wink, and then jump off to slither under the door-jam and horrify someone else.

Don't get me wrong, this is a pure sci-fi novel, but no sci-fi affects me as much as the types that are just as facile in other genres. This one does and gleefully so. I may not know that much about biology, or enough to tear Bear apart, but I followed his arguments and treatment and was amazed at the way he pulled a rabbit out of the junk DNA.

I've been a fan of Greg Bear's work for many years, and I thought I had really loved works like Eon and Legacy, and then I was amazed by Queen of Angels and then I was jumping up and down with Moving Mars. His short story collection of Tangents still makes me sit in awe. Still, all of these books paled in comparison with Darwin's Radio.

I have to say one thing: I cried uncontrollable tears at no less than three times during this novel. I cannot give higher praise.