Eon (Mass Market Paperback)

by Greg Bear (Author) "On the first leg of the trip, in the passenger cabin of the long-bed shuttle, Patricia Vasquez had watched the Earth's cloud-smeared limb on a..." (more)
Key Phrases: sixth chamber machinery, third chamber library, third chamber city, Ram Kikura, City Memory, Axis Nader (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
YA In the year 2000, a huge potato-shaped asteroid, nicknamed the Stone by Americans, appears in orbit around the earth. Exploration shows that it is divided into seven man-made, hollowed-out chambers, indicating that it had been inhabited. Scientists discover that it was built by Earth people, but in the far distant future, and that a nuclear war is imminent. It becomes crucial that theoretical mathematician Patricia Vasquez discover why the former habitants left and where they went. Although Eon is far too long, its story of futuristic cities and life forms stirs the imagination. Readers travel to worlds where humans may exist as memories in the City Memory Bank, corporeal representatives (ghosts) or incarnations. Other humanoid life forms also exist, and in an amazing array of shapes, from snake-like creatures to floating blobs. Bear's creativity provides a richness to an intricate, complex plot. It's unfortunate that the length may deter all but the most avid sci/fi fans. Pam Spencer, Mount Vernon High School Library, Fairfax, Va.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
"Sharing aspects of Calrke's Rendevouz with Rama, its uniqueness arises from bear's bold imagination. Bear is a writer of passionate vision. Eon is his grandest work yet."--Locus

"Eon may be the best constructed hard SF epic yet."--The Washington Post
-- Review

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Tor Science Fiction (October 15, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812520475
• ISBN-13: 978-0812520477
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (90 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #158,746 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Fiction from the End of the Cold War, March 31, 2002

By	L. Rodney Ford "lrodzilla" (Athens, AL USA) - See all my reviews

Besides being a very entertaining and somewhat epic near-future space adventure, Greg Bear's novel "Eon", having been published in 1985, will likely be very interesting to anyone old enough to have experienced and appreciated the last years of the Cold War in the 1980s.

It was somewhat serendipitous that I came to read "Eon". I found myself away from home with no reading plans. I visited a comic book store that had some used books for sale. This book "Eon" appeared to be the best of the available sci-fi and the price was only [amount]. I am now very pleased that I happened up on this bargain.

In "Eon", after some interesting fireworks just outside our solar system, an asteroid with some very strange characteristics mysteriously settles into a neat orbit around the Earth and its moon. The surface of the asteroid indicates intelligent activity in its past and investigators find some very interesting things inside. Because I greatly enjoyed Greg Bear's slow revelation of it in the story, I will say no more about the contents of the asteroid.

I enjoyed the technical descriptions of interesting space (and other) technology in this novel, and I found the strong and romantic personalities of the several main characters refreshing. However, the characteristic of this novel that I found most interesting and thought-provoking was the tension in the story that was brought about by the Cold War context.

In 1985, when this novel was written, I was 20 years old - old enough to have experienced the Cold War and participated in "the mindset" associated with it. Reading "Eon" was quite a flashback experience for me. It was fascinating to me to realize how much my mindset has changed since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. Even writing those names here evokes strong memories and strange emotions.

Reading the novel now, nearly 20 years later, I think I realize much of what the author was trying to convey. The context difference offered by science fiction stories often helps authors to make something seem obvious that would not seem obvious in the normal real context. I think the author was trying to indicate to Cold War participants of the time how difficult it is for individuals and collectives to correctly prioritize ideas and activities with regard to their self-interest. In other words, compare the priorities of the participants of the Cold War with that of human survival. I don't know that I would have fully realized those things had I read the book when it was first published.

Reading "Eon" was, for the reasons stated above, a very interesting experience for me. If you are old enough to have experienced even a portion of the Cold War, reading "Eon" will likely be an interesting experience for you, too.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic journey!, November 14, 1997

By A Customer

This extraordinary well-written book is probably one of the best in its genre. Here, the author Greg Bear, describes absolute impossible situations and possibilities in a such a detailed and convincing way that even a skeptic would believe it. Science-fiction books are often too imaginative to an extent that they border to total fiasco. However, this book succeeds in containing both imagination and fantasy without loosing its credibility. In fact, as you read, you will not question the secrets nor the tecniques being exposed to you. And this in a fully normal world, like the one you and I live in right now. The story may seem tame - a steroid is beeing discovered and later examined by a selected group of scientists and technicians. While exploring the "Potato", as they refer to it, the group slowly finds evidence that witness of an earlier population. And the mysteriouses keep growing. Who were they? Where are they now? Do we live in somebodys elses future and is our destiny already predestined? This book awakes your curiosity and will not leave you satisfied until you have read it all. And even after the book is finished, you will still be left with the erge to know more. Only one little detail makes this fabolous book annoying - you will have to read it over and over again to fully understand all the technical details described in it. Time-consuming, but definitely worth it!

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Confusing, August 2, 2003

By	not4prophet (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

"Eon" may pose more of a challenge when it comes to selecting a rating than any other book I've ever read, since it consists of one half of a solid, well-written SF epic, and one half of a piece of incoherent junk. The story starts out like this: a gigantic asteroid arrives from outside the solar system and moves into an orbit around earth. The United States sends teams of scientists to explore it, and they soon find that the asteroid was a gigantic spaceship of sorts that appears to have come from our own future. Investigations into a library found on board soon reveal that the world is moving towards a massive nuclear showdown. This is the good portion of the book. It is written with intelligence, clarity, and an almost nostalgia-inducing dose of Cold War paranoia. The cast of characters is what most people have come to expect from hard science fiction: not extremely deep or dynamic, but believable nonetheless.

However, it all breaks down about halfway through the book. The story makes a wide turn involving alien invasion, parallel universes, alternate geometries, and some other stuff. The problem, simply put, is that this part of the book is too confusing. The explanations are cryptic and difficult to follow, and keeping track of all the new concepts that get introduced becomes quite a chore. Also, the characterizations collapse during the second half of the book. All of the major characters seem too ready to forget and ignore their previous lives and to accept all of the weird stuff that happens to them. One might, of course, make the argument that some enigmatic writing is acceptable and that "Eon" is a novel one that requires multiple readings, somewhat like William Gibson's "Neuromancer". The problem is that Bear doesn't have the literary style to pull such a stunt off, and I really have no desire to pour through this book time after time trying to fit the puzzle together. While I have great respect for some of Bear's other works, this one could have used some more planning and rewriting.