Sunday, April 19, 2009

Greg Bear Does It Again!

If you've never read Greg Bear, you owe it to yourself to do so. I recommend that you give a bye to the sequels (i.e.; Darwin's Children), but his original stories are unbeatable for pure speculation that has the ring of truth to it. Quantico is no exception. It was chilling in its realism and its topic: Bio terrorism.

Quantico involves the FBI, and other federal agencies run amok in purely political power plays as partisan politics have stolen America's ability to protect itself. The agent primarily in charge of finding the source and offender(s) of 2001's "Amerithrax" incident is still looking for them 20 years later. But the circumstances surrounding this incident have become more complex than anyone can conceive and it almost impossible to tell the good guys from the bad guys. Bigots, agencies, presidents, militaries and terrorists around the world are played and playing in a game that can ultimately destroy humanity - but who wants it to happen and who wants to stop it?

The last 100 pages were not "put-downable" as the possibilities and probabilities reach their crescendo, the pace becomes break-neck and thrilling. I was too scared to put this down. It was THAT real. I haven't experienced this kind of heart-racing engagement in a novel since I read The Sum of All Fears 20 years ago. It should scare the haughtiness out of us and cause us to questions ourselves, our government and our goals as a society. This isn't an anti-war book - far from it. It IS an anti-hate book. Read this and do what I did...think about it.

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