Darwin's Radio, by Greg Bear

Great book. For those who don't know it, there are two kinds of science fiction: hard and soft. Soft sci-fi paints a story arch on the background of some type of futuristic landscape with advanced technology, aliens, interstelar travel, etc. No attempt is made to explain anything since the universe is not grounded on any kind of credible scientific foundation. That's the approach in many fun works like Star Wars. Hard sci-fi, on the other hand tends to be challenging, because science, or at least scientific speculation, plays a key role in the story. Among the contemporary writers in this sub-genre, Greg Bear has written some pretty darned good hard sci-fi books (though he's written some duds too).

This book talks about evolution, as it is obvious from its title. Most specifically, it talks about the next step in the evolution of the human race. Unlike Darwin's writings, though, this one is weaves a theory around molecular biology and bio-chemistry. Now, even though I know nothing of molecular biology, I was able to wade through the jargon and the (pseudo?) scientific explanations in this novel and still enjoy it immensely. I found that the science bits in this kind of book are crucial to ground the story in the realm of the believable.

The novel reads as a thriller, a very good one at that. I found myself caring for the characters and what they were going through, and at the same time, I was fascinated with the story about what triggers the evolution of a species. It was very hard to put it down once I started it, even thought I had a nasty cold with fever and the works at the time. I could think of nothing but reading this book as long as I was awake. The ending is a bit mysterious and smacks of a cliff hanger, but it is still very satisfying as a stopping point as long as one can live with the idea that the story could go on in a dozen different potential ways.