Gaia's Toys [Paperback]

Rebecca Ore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1997

It's 20 minutes into the future--a place where gene restructuring is the norm, where if you don't have a job, you become a welfare drone, where children go hungry in the streets, but the wealthy save endangered species in eco-bubbles. And where a group of eco-terrorists will band together to stop the government from robbing Americans of their last scrap of freedom.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This ambitious tale of eco-terrorism from the author of Slow Funeral is a sweet and sour mix. Though extremely exciting on the action-adventure level, and rich in ideas of political philosophy, it offers inadequate character motivation and falls short of building a seamless, wholly believable future world. The story binds three main characters. Willie, a "drode head" with a hardwired skull, works for the government and owns a bio-engineered pet mantis; Allison, an eco-terrorist, is captured and turned by the feds after her Green friends dupe her into setting off a baby nuke; Dorcas, the scientist who created the mantis, is trying to design bugs that will be even more ecologically stimulating. Despite bouts of muddy writing, the energy behind Ore's takes on the ecological problems of our near future?including the dangers of overpopulation and uncontrolled technological expansion?render this a vital, thought-provoking novel.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Thanks to its brilliant, macabre vision of America's not-too-distant future, Ore's new novel puts her squarely in the ranks of such leading-edge sf talent as William Gibson and Neal Stephenson. The twenty-first century she imagines brings--along with bioengineered nanoviruses that keep the rich perpetually young and mandatory cyberspace brain hookups for the poor (for human brains, it turns out, are cheaper than computer brains for running menial programs)--a ruthless caste of eco-terrorists whose latest strike wipes out a score of oil refineries with a miniature nuclear bomb. One terrorist named Allison, aka Mattie Higgins, is nabbed before the explosion, interrogated with high-tech brain probes, and cleverly drafted as an undercover infiltrator for the government. Her new objective: to catch an outlaw gene-tweaker who is breeding insects capable of drugging humans into pacifism. Using three ingeniously different points of view, Ore fuses slick and absorbing storytelling with sophisticated speculative science. Carl Hays --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 245 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812539087
• ISBN-13: 978-0812539080
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,443,861 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dystopia at its best (or worst), August 11, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gaia's Toys (Paperback)

The title says it all: the book is about allthe various technologies we humans developand then go on to use for vile purposes; welfare drones serving as human computers, tranquilizing wasps and giant mantises are only a few of the toys employed by Ore's very real and plausible future world. If you're cynical and fed up one societal terror after another, read this book. I wouldn't be surprised if the author gets regular phonecalls asking her if she's starting a cult.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars William Gibson Meets John Le Carre, January 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Gaia's Toys (Paperback)

An eco terrorist group sets up an orphan who has fallen in with them. High tech, nano tech, and government agents abound in this wild, thought provoking story (how would you like to start life all over again?). Like Gibson and Le Carre, at times it is hard to understand what is going on. Go back and re read, it's worth it.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Rough beginning, great middle, horrid ending, September 18, 1999

By 

Nancy L. Sexton (Hanover Park, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gaia's Toys (Paperback)

This book suffers a bit from odd terminoligy never explained (still don't know what in heck a "front junkie" is). I thought the beginning read rough while I was trying to understand her odd future-tech world that she didn't explain well. But in the middle it went much better and I was thinking it was a great book. Then poof, she obviously had NO idea how to end it, and the last 50-100 pages just plod on horridly like she had no real inspiration or motivation for writing those words other than to get it published and make some money. A book that just drops off from great to bad like that isn't worth reading in my mind.