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From the author of Blood Music and Vitals, Greg Bear's Darwin's Radio opens with a pair of Neanderthal bodies, and examines what the junk DNA in our bodies may be for...
Greg Bear began to come to prominence in the late 1970s and early 1980s with a string of excellent short stories set in the far future, of which the best known is ‘Hardfought,’ but of late has tended to write more contemporaneous stories, almost all at novel length, such as Vitals and the Nebula-award winning Darwin’s Radio. Renegade anthropologist Mitch Rafelson and his companions make the astonishing discovery in a recently uncovered Alpine ice cave of the mummified remains of a Neanderthal couple and their strange newborn child. The others are killed, and in hospital Mitch reluctantly admit what has happened to the police. So begins a long, slow process of rehabilitation for his past misdeeds, perhaps even redemption. One of the scientists who later studies the remains admits to him that though the couple were Neanderthals, the baby was Homo Sapiens. Worse, it looks as if the parents murdered it. Meanwhile, in Georgia, Kaye Lang, a molecular biologist specializing in retroviruses is shown a mass grave full of pregnant women, all shot in the stomachs in a recent wholesale execution; her research leads her to believe that the women were proof that ‘junk’ DNA may have a hitherto unexpected evolutionary purpose. Christopher Dicken is a virus hunter at the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta. He is investigating a sexually transmitted disease that attacks only pregnant women, and makes them miscarry, known as Herod's flu, when his path crosses Kaye’s. But even as the three scientists begin to work together, it becomes clear that Herod’s Flu is a ticking bomb about to detonate. The numbers of victims of the flu begin to increase, slowly, surely spiraling out of control. Their research leads them to the almost unbelievable conclusion that something has slept in humanity’s genes for millions of years, but now – whatever it is – it’s waking up. As the world begins to descend into a near-apocalyptic breakdown, with hysteria, rioting and looting spreading across every country in the world, the danger comes closer to home. Kaye has separated from the husband she still adores, but with whom she can no longer live – his depression is too much for her. She and Mitch fall head over heels in love. Then Kaye discovers that she is pregnant. She has no idea whether she will be able to carry the baby to term, what she will give birth to, nor what sort of world she will be bringing this new life into. Ever since his stunning novel Blood Music, Bear has long demonstrated a fascination with apocalyptic changes to humanity, and what our evolutionary successors may look like, but Darwin’s Radio brings it closer to home than has ever been done before. Packed with believable sympathetic characters, Darwin’s Radio is truly epic transcendental SF of the highest order.
The copyright of the article Darwin's Radio in Apocalyptic Fiction is owned by Colin Harvey. Permission to republish Darwin's Radio in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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