Customer Reviews

Psychlone

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I can't understand the bad reviews. This book is important, not for the surface plot, but for the REALLY creepy idea that Bear purports - that mankind has become so powerful that we can now kill souls. This power has been ursurped from God (or whatever name you prefer) and we now face the consequences. This idea gave me the whillies. What a horrific thought. I am a reader of scifi, horror, etc., and this is the first time I ever came across this idea. Read it with an open mind and consider the possibilities.

I got Psychlone real cheap at the library a few years ago and I thought it was cool. I always like reading sci-fi and things to do with weather and Psychlone is a good sci-fi book to read. I thought the freezing of the lynx and how the storm made a huge rock figure that looked like a huge pig was awesome. Psychlone has a lot of good suspense in it and all the stories will keep you wanting to read on to see what happens next.

Don't listen to them other reviews, this is a good book and it's well worth its price.

A mysterious force plays havoc in a remote community in this sci-fi/fantasy by Greg Bear. The opening section deals with a ghostly presence that draws energy from around an isolated cabin, freezing whatever life it finds; and in itself, this isn't a bad story, if only Bear had stopped there. But after that, the plot becomes increasing disjointed, with too many characters, many of whom don't survive long enough for us to get to know them. And who is the protagonist? Fowler? Or Jacobs? Or tiny Tim? And what real purpose do all these characters serve? This reviewer found it hard to care about any of them.

Bear's facile prose always makes for easy reading, and the short chapters make it convenient if you like to read in small bites, but when all's said and done, the plot is very shaky (almost insubstantial) the characters are wooden and wholly forgettable, and nothing really gels. There's a germ of an idea here about the souls of POW's killed by the atomic bomb during WWII, but instead of logically developing this concept, Bear relies on the sheer horror of it, which ultimately fails. Kind of like this whole novel.

If you're looking for something by Greg Bear, this reviewer suggests "Eon" instead; while not a perfect book, it has plenty of interesting ideas and holds together quite a bit better.

In the small town of Lorobu, New Mexico, a horror struck. For an unknown reason all but one of its more than eight hundred citizens wound up dead. But not just dead...they took whatever household objects they could find and in a fit of unspeakable madness, killed each other and themselves.

At an isolated cabin in the backwoods of California, a man took time off to visit his father for a few days. Later, the two men were found dead...the father killed his son and then himself.

The military, along with a few select "civilian contractors", (and the one survivor from Lorobu) begins to research the horrible events at these two places -- Lorobu and the cabin in California. What they discover may flip our whole world upside down and bring to bare some of Humanity's worst fears and most profound horrors.

Greg Bear's Psychlone is an interesting ghost story. What on Earth could turn hundreds of people so mad that they would kill themselves and others as they did. Psycholone explores a very tenuous ground for science fiction...viewing death from the spiritual point of view -- what happens to us after we die. (I say "tenuous" because science fiction is generally grounded in fact and then from those facts extrapolations are pulled. But with death and spirituality, there is very little hard fact.) Bear does a decent job of melding science fact with the realm of spirituality. The main problem with the tale was that there were just a few too many holes...how exactly were Lorobu and the cabin connected?? Nonetheless, I applaud Bear's attempt at combining science with the world of spirituality. The novel is recommended to anyone who enjoys Bear's stories...but don't expect a literary masterpiece.

I have been a huge fan for Greg Bears books ever since I read the book Moving Mars. I have picked up several of his books. I love the Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children books and really enjoyed them. I have also read some of the older books Eon and The Forge of God.

Psychlone is quite a bit different than several of the books that I have read by Greg Bear. It still has the tell tell signs that makes me really like his books.

Almost all of the time that I spent reading the book I kept on wondering if I really liked the book or not. A large part of the book is spent building the story.

This book is focused mostly around two characters Tim, the last survivor of a small town in New Mexico. All of the people that lived there died mysteriously one night. The second is an engineer named Fowler, that is invited to investigate some strange occurrences in a small cabin out in the woods. This leaves him in a position studying something that he does not quite understand.

Fowler finds himself living in the cabin of his friend that mysteriously died. The cabin is haunted by what the book calls an earth spirit.

It turns out that the earth spirit and the thing that killed all of the people in the town in New Mexico did not have a lot in common other then they both hate humans and they both can be destroyed the same way.

So what caused the strange thing that is going from city to city killing people? The thing is called a Psychlone in the book because it is the psychic energy of all of the people that were involved in the explosions of the Atom bombs in Japan during WWII.

The story is interesting and it keeps the reader wondering what is going to happen next. The description of what happened in the town in New Mexico is really interesting and I could see it being used in some movie because the description was scary thinking about what would make an entire town go crazy enough to kill each other.

I can't say that I particularly liked the ending of the book. It was not bad but not as good as I think it could have been. Of all of Greg Bear's books this one is the least impressive ones that I have read. Having said that, this book is still much better than several of the other books that I have read. I will give this a 3 out of 5 stars. Its a good read but not one of Greg Bear's best.

The book will most likely only appeal to people that are already fans of Greg Bear's books and like to see where a writer has started. Greg Bear is really good at creating very clear and vivid characters. Psychlone is no exception, the characters are clear and easy to understand.

I read this book when it was re-released in 1988. It scared the pants off me then, and still does. It also indroduced me to the author, whose books I now eagerly collect.

Greg is capable of much better (his short story "Petra" is a jaw-dropping standout, for example). The central idea is interesting, but the development into a story is contrived, choppy, and flows very unevenly. (I really feel awkward saying this, but the book would have been much better had it been written by Steven King.)

I have not read this book yet as I am now ordering it. However to answer the previous person's post... Greg Bear is an AWESOME writer!! Give his other work's a try!!! You will NOT be disappointed!! I have read MANY of his works and they are EXQUISITE! Try "EON" to start with!! Take Care.

I do not know whether Greg Bear matured into a good author; but this particular book was pathetic. I believe it must have been an early effort. I have friends who tell me he is a viable author, but I only finished this book because I was amazed a book so bad could actually get published.

This book comprises more than forty short chapters of shallow characters and amateur metaphysics. What begins with a simple promising ghost story eventually becomes a nation-spanning quest to find a plot. The climax is contrived, with an anti-nuclear message so cliched it can only leave the reader with the simple feeling that he or she has been cheated out of a full-length novel in favor of a piece of outdated propaganda. Skip over this book in favor of one of Greg Bear's more mature works, such as "Moving Mars."