Bought this due to an Economist review of books with an AI theme. It fits that. Big cast of characters, several intertwined stories in parallel, complex. Very modern and contemporary ideas. Hard to believe it was written back in 1990 ( )

On its most superficial level, Greg Bear’s Queen of Angels involves a famous poet who has become a mass murderer. But that is just the start. The novel, set in 2047, describes a complex techno-social future—nanotechnology, required therapy for most citizens, and AIs with emergent self-awareness. In a society that tests and treats all signs of mental illness, how should we treat murderers? The first-world answer is more therapy, but in Bear’s Hispaniola, there is a machine called the hellcrown that forces criminals to replay everything they regret over and over. It is true torture. In a subplot, an artificial intelligence on a robotic starship in a distant star system needs some treatment of its own. It cannot handle mission failure and feels lonely. ( )

review of
Greg Bear's Queen of Angels
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - March 1-4, 2018

For the full review go here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/617526-whatever-of-whatevers

Ok, I might as well just add Bear to my personal pantheon of great SF writers & be done w/ it. I keep hesitating to put him there b/c the writing's just a tad bit too.. college-correct. But the ideas are always amazing & he's done a great job w/ this one, this is probably one of my favorites of the 20 bks I've read by him so far.

A central character is a man who murders his friends & acolytes in a seemingly calculated spree of death. He's a writer. His writings are quoted throughout. One of the nice touches is a footnote to the opening epigraph by him on p 3:

"1 Permission to Quote Unattributed Passages: International Artist's Rights Committee, World © Emanuel Goldsmith 2022-2045."

Another central character is a "PD", wch I initially took to mean "Police Department" or "Police Detective":

"She could not wash away the sight of eight young comb citizens in various stages of disassembly. Last night, the first investigation team had gone to the third foot of East Comb One in response to neighborhood medical detectors picking up traces of human decay. In the first two hours the team had mounted a sniffer, performed assay and scanned for heat trails. Then the freezers had come and tombed the whole apartment. Senior in her watch, Mary had been assigned this rare homicide at seven hundred. Spin of the hour.

"Layer by cold solid layer, forensics would now study the scene corpses and all and take as long as they wished. From the large scale to the microbial everything would be sifted and analyzed and by tomorrow or the day after they would know something about everyone who had been in and out of the apartment over the last year." - p 4

As usual, Bear's imagination is far-reaching & thorough. He pursues a multitude of well-worked-out possibilites for the near-future & makes it all cohere. The above 1.5 paragraphs give a taste. He imagines housing, He imagines forensics. I thought PFD meant the 2 things listed above but, as it turns out: ""You are a Public Defender in Los Angeles["]" (p 126) Mary's a "Public Defender". This no longer means a state-pd lawyer for the defense, it means a cop. But the whole legal system has changed dramatically in a more humane direction—& this is controversial. Bear's reimagining of the 'justice' system bears examination by 'Injustice System' Activists of today.

Just as I'm interested in a future where permission can be granted "to Quote Unattributed Passages" so am I interested in a future acronym of "O.V.F. & I.—Once Very Famous & Influential". (p 13) Thickening the plot, is a search for intelligent life in the universe by an unmanned vessel. Tech details are provided:

""By cutting through the galaxy's magnetic field and generating this electricity, AXIS relied on the law of conservation of energy to decelerate even more quickly without the use of onboard fuel. The power drawn from its vast wings was more han sufficient to dispel the cold of deep space; but AXIS waited for proximity to Alpha Centauri B to begin to grow its biologic thinker system.["]" - p 20

Goldstein, the murderer, who was 1st & foremost a writer, is quoted throughout. His writing tends to a Draconian perception of humanity:

"Examiner: "I remember Mr. Bormann. You've been before this court before, have you not?"
Bormann: "Yes."
Examiner: "For outrages against your own kind."
Bormann: "Yes."
Examiner: "What crime is he accused of this time?"
Clerk: "Outraging Hell, sire." - p 21

As is so often the case w/ just about everything, the extent of the perceiver's knowledge determines what they get out of something. In this case, the reader may just respond to the name "Bormann" as a fictional one. OR they may hearken back to "Martin Bormann":

"Bormann joined a paramilitary Freikorps organisation in 1922 while working as manager of a large estate. He served nearly a year in prison as an accomplice to his friend Rudolf Höss (later commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp) in the murder of Walther Kadow. Bormann joined the Nazi Party in 1927 and the Schutzstaffel (SS) in 1937."

[..]

"Bormann was one of the leading proponents of the ongoing persecution of the Christian churches and favoured harsh treatment of Jews and Slavs in the areas conquered by Germany during World War II."

[..]

"After Hitler committed suicide, Bormann and others attempted to flee Berlin on 2 May to avoid capture by the Soviets. Bormann probably committed suicide on a bridge near Lehrter station. The body was buried nearby on 8 May 1945, but was not found and confirmed as Bormann's until 1972; the identification was reaffirmed in 1998 by DNA tests. Bormann was tried in absentia by the International Military Tribunal in the Nuremberg trials of 1945 and 1946. He was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging."

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Bormann

The treatment of criminals in Bear's not-so-far-distant-future involves giving them therapy, reshaping their personalities. Much of the novel revolves around aspects of this. Martin, another main character, the "O.V.F. & I." one is a brain researcher.

""Do you know Emanuel Goldsmith?" he asked Martin.

""I know of him," Martin said. "If we're talking about the same man."

""We are. The poet. He murdered Mr. Albigoni's daughter three nights ago.""

[..]

""Would you be willing to help him?"

""How?" Martin avoided taking a sip from his drink though he fingered the glass.

""Mr. Albigoni was—is—Mr. Goldsmith's publisher and friend. He bears him no ill will." Lascal's voice did not skim so easily over this prepared statement." - p 29

That's quite the dramatic premise, eh?! Society is split between the therapied, who tend to be more financially prosperous, & the untherapied who tend to live in the shade of the exclusive high rise housing Combs where the therapied live.

"Here and in the stablize deep sunk pads of Malibu was where the notyetchosen waited for vacancies with the combs. Vacancies were becoming more and more rare as rejuvenators plied their controversial trade, turning good citizens into multicentarian eloi." - p 37

Again, what the reader knows or doesn't know effects the perceived inflection. "Eloi" is a reference to the delicate & spoiled people of H. G. Wells's The Time Machine. They lead an easy life where they're well-taken care of w/o any wear & tear on themselves. This is made possibly by the Morlocks, the working class who live underground & manage all the infrastructure that makes the Eloi's life possible. There is a price, tho. Sometimes the Morlock take the Eloi underground to eat them or some such. Wells's story was a sort of Socialist warning to elites that sooner or later the exploited working classes wd revolt & get their revenge.

Now imagine the Eloi, as Bear does, as people rich enough to afford tretaments that enable longevity. Are we there yet? We might be closer than one might think. Imagine parents who live long lives spending all the family money on being kept alive. Money that might've once gone to the children to help them thru precarious old age is kept instead for the oldest while the children die off in deprivation. It seems to me that medical practice, in the US at least, revolves largely around taking every cent from old people for things like extremely expensive drugs to keep their internal organs going when they might otherwise be ready to give up the ghost. The patients won't die until the medical system has drained the family coffers.

Bear's imagining of forensics in 2047 is one of my favrote things about this novel:

"All nonhuman debris were within normal levels in the metabolic carpet. Goldsmith did not smoke or use powder or aerosol drugs. Guests brought in detritus consistent with their travel-paths through apartment and points of origin. Clothing and other fiber matches consistent with above conditions and patterns. Analysis of nondomestic nontailored microbes consistent with above conditions and patterns. Routine searches based upon direct human cell evidence and analysis of territorial mitochondrial drift and evolution of nonsymbiotic/nonparasitic microbial traces expected to soon give leads on homes (breakdown by known microbial environments) of all unknown visitors to the apartment." - p 70

This bk was published in 1990. It's mostly about 2047 but, of course, there's some history leading up to then. One of the most fun things, for me, about reading SF is seeing wch predictions come true (when applicable) & wch don't. Some predictions are mainly wishful thinking about the possible but implausible. It's 2018 as I write this:

"["]in 2017, five nations, headed by the young technological giant China, decided to build the first interstellar probe. Reluctantly, the United States was persuaded to join" - pp 80-81

The "Reluctantly" part is perhaps the most accurate. After all, the US refused to sign or ratify the following:

"
• 1930 - Forced Labour Convention, not ratified
• 1948 - Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, not signed
• 1949 - Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949, not signed
• 1950 - Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, not signed
• 1951 - Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, party to only the 1967 protocol
• 1951 - Equal Remuneration Convention, not ratified
• 1954 - Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, not signed
• 1958 - Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, not ratified
• 1960 - Convention against Discrimination in Education, not ratified
• 1961 - Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, not signed
• 1962 - Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages, signed but not ratified
• 1964 - Employment Policy Convention, 1964, not ratified
• 1966 - International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, signed but not ratified
• 1966 - First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, not signed
• 1969 - Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, not ratified
• 1969 - Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, signed but not ratified
• 1972 - Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, signed but withdrew in 2002
• 1977 - American Convention on Human Rights, signed but not ratified
• 1977 - Protocol I (an amendment protocol to the Geneva Conventions), not ratified
• 1977 - Protocol II (an amendment protocol to the Geneva Conventions), not ratified
• 1979 - Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, signed but not ratified
• 1979 - Moon Treaty
• 1981 - Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981, not ratified
• 1989 - Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, not signed
• 1989 - Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed but not ratified
• 1989 - Basel Convention, signed but not ratified
• 1990 - United Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, not signed
• 1991 - United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, not signed
• 1992 - Convention on Biological Diversity, signed but not ratified
• 1994 - Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel, signed but not ratified
• 1996 - Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, signed but not ratified
• 1997 - Kyoto Protocol, signed with no intention to ratify
• 1997 - Ottawa Treaty (Mine Ban Treaty), unsigned
• 1998 - Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, unsigned [2]
• 1999 - Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, not signed
• 1999 - Criminal Law Convention on Corruption, signed but not ratified
• 1999 - Civil Law Convention on Corruption, not signed
• 2002 - Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, not signed
• 2006 - International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, not signed
• 2007 - Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, signed but not ratified
• 2008 - Convention on Cluster Munitions, not signed
• 2011 - Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, signed but not yet ratified
• 2016 - Trans-Pacific Partnership, signed but not yet ratified
• 2017 - Paris Agreement, signed but not ratified"

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_treaties_unsigned_or_unratified_by_the_Uni...

Not exactly an impressive track record for a nation that supposedly values "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". I suppose that's 'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness unless somebody wants to get rich off of sex slavery or cluster bombs or polluting the environment or whatever'.

I've criticized Baer's writing for being too "college-correct" by wch I mean he doesn't break the conventions but he still has some flare w/ language when he fdares wax poetical:

"Mary Choy debarked from a pd interjag minibus and glanced up briefly at East Comb One, upright stack of narrow horizontal mirrors with four sectors aligned into silver verticals, preparing to reflect hours from now the lowering westerly sun on the sixth jag where E Hassida lived. The city lay beneath uniform pewter clouds pushing in from the sea, decapitating the combs. There might be no usable sun this evening perhaps even rain but still the combs arranged themselves as if motivated by guilt for their shadowing presence." - p 82

Did you ever think about that? Highrises that block out the sun from the 'low-lifes'? What about highways that bisect neighborhoods or go entirely too close to houses that were once peacefully located, that're now subjected to constant noise? Not to be too obvious or anything but that stuff only happens in poor neighborhoods where the victims are too poor to effectively resist in legal fashion.

Another thing that usually interests me in SF is descriptions of imagined future technology. Eevn tho I'm not really that much of a tech-buff it's fun to imagine what might be ferasible:

""I'm reading about your triple focus receptor. It picks up signals from circuitry established in the skin by special neurological nano. It's designed to track activity at twenty-three different points around the hippocampus and corpus callosum."" - p 92

Martin, "O.V.F. & I.", is a pioneer of this brain research who's had his career unfairly cut short by politics.

""Radical therapy was only fifty percent effective until you made the procedures more precise." Albigoni raised his dull eyes to Martin's and smiled faintly. "Thereby putting the final touches on a transformation of law and society in the last fifteen years."" - p 95

[..]

""I still do not understand what is meant by Country of the Mind."

""It is a region, an unceasing and coherent dreamstate, built up from genetic engrams, pre verbal impressions, and all the contents of our lives. It is the alphabet and foundation on which we base all of our thinking and language, all our symbologies. Every thought, every personal action, is reflected in this region. All of our myths and religious symbols are based upon its common contents. All routines and subroutines, all personalities and talents and agents, all mental structures, are reflected in its features and occupants, or are reflections of them."" - p 97

More about the writer/murderer: "Goldsmith like Ezra Pound in an earlier age had established by being a Yardley apologist a reputation for inept and perhaps dangerous political dabbling that had made secure his literary standing." (p 102) I found that comparison interesting. Pound was eventually imprisoned in a mental hospital in the US b/c of his support of Italy during WWII. I don't think that support made his "literary standing" "secure" tho. On the same page, Bear has Goldsmith using the pun "eRace". Bear wd've used that no later than 1990 when the bk was published. I've always liked the term when I've encountered it at political protests.

"ERACE, also known as Eracism is an anti-racism organization created in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1993 by Brenda Thompson, Black, and Rhoda Faust, White, in response to racially charged statements in letters to the editors of the Times-Picayune series "Together Apart/The Myth of Race". They created the ERACISM bumper sticker and started free, bi-racial, facilitated ERACISM discussions." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ERACE

Interestingly, Bear's coinage of the word predates the 1993 attribution quoted above.

One idea that, to my disappointment, doesn't get explored further is: "legal implications of decl. dead retaining citizenship status upon reincarnation" (p 111) Imagine the legal wrangles regarding inheritance over that! Artists cd particularly benefit b/c their work might be worthless while they're alive, become very valuable after they die, & then, upon reincarnation, they cd finally collect the bucks.

Bear's near-future imaginings has much to hold my attn. A major part of it is "a complex of computing and thinking systems" (p 112) trying to detect their having a sense of self:

""Are you unified?"

""I do not think I am."

""Is that a true opinion, or a colloquialism?"

""I am of the opinion that it is a true opinion."

""Good. Return to keyboard, please."

"!JILL> Done.

"!Keyb> Thank you for notifying me, Jill, but I'm afraid this is a false alarm. I don't think that you are truly self aware.["]" - pp 112-113

Here's a part of Bear's future that I find more likely than others:

"Breakfast built itself quickly in the oven, a film of reddish nano drawing material from dimples and side troughs in the glass dish and rising like baking bread. In most homes nanofood prepared itself out of sight; not in Ernest's.

"In three minutes the red film slid away, revealing think brown slices with a breadlike texture kippers applesauce scrabled eggs flecked with green and red. The oven automatically heated everything to it desired temperature then opened its door and slide the meal out for their inspection." - pp 136-137

In the future where such nanofood cooking happens there'll be a few catches: 1. If the owner of the oven allows the automatic updating it won't be long before a new oven will have to be purchased or it won't be able to cook the food anymore; 2. This'll take no longer than 3 mnths; 3. If the new oven isn't purchased the nanofood will be in the shape of the Pillsbury Dough Boy but it'll be made entirely out of shit & will be animate & immortal. Now imagine THAT contesting your ownerships. The nano companies will get yr money no matter what.

Bear uses Goldsmith to take a stab at Islam, something that I continue to think is as needful as stabs at Christinanity. We cd do w/o these 2 gangs.

""What's the book?" Martin asked.

""The Qu'ran," Albigoni said. "A special edition I published fifteen years ago. It was the only boom he had with him."

"Martin looked over his shoulder at Lascal, "He's been reading it all along?"

""Off and on," Lascal said. "He called it 'the religion of the slavers.'["]" - p 176

Indeed. True dat. ( )

A decent exploration of consciousness/awareness/self-analysis(the benefit of). Major themes: a man kills people and doesn't know why; an interstellar probe is not self-aware, but can't deal with NOT finding interstellar life; the exploration of the "country of the mind" goes wrong; an acolyte contemplates murder just to prove that he's not an emotional cypher. All of these sub-plots connect through their questioning what is conscious reality and what is sanity. There is a competent description of the various levels of the mind and how we differ from "lower" animals....and why we sometimes perform at best, hurtful acts; at worst, despicable acts. The concept of "hellcrowns" is definitely painful, but acceptable in terms of the analysis of the concept/meaning/value of punishment. Bear seems to have missed the idea that we created the concept of a "punitive god", theoretically, to control the would-be slackers who try to hide in the multitudes: "you can't hide from GOD!" ( )

Misschien een top-boek, waarom zou het anders genomineerd zijn voor een aantal prijzen, maar ik kon er niet doorheen komen.

Probeer het later nog wel eens. Of niet.