Darwin's Children
by Greg Bear
Review by Stephen Dedman
(Stephen's updated bibliography of short fiction)
(Review first appeared in The West Australian)
Twelve years after the outbreak of the mutagenic virus SHEVA (Scattered Human Endogenous Viral Activation, popularly known as Shiver or Herod's Plague), most of the children who have been changed by this "viral tool kit" are still being contained in special "schools" run by Emergency Action (EMAC) and deprived of human rights. Corrupt officials sell their medical supplies on the black market, and their security guards stand back and watch while mobs torch the camps and burn hundreds of children alive. Though there have been no more outbreaks for a decade, EMAC's director, Mark Augustine, fears that these children carry viruses that could be triggered by stress or anger - plagues lethal enough to bring about the extinction of Homo sapiens and leave the planet to the 'virus children', Homo sapiens novus.
One of the last defenders of civil rights on the Supreme Court has suffers a heart attack, and bounty hunters busily round up 'virus children' to hand over to EMAC. Mitch Rafelson, an archaeologist, and Kaye Lang, the microbiologist who discovered SHEVA, have managed to hide their daughter Stella, but when a new disease begins killing SHEVA children in the camps, public opinion (led by FoxMedia) becomes increasingly intolerant and EMAC even more powerful. Stella is confined in an EMAC school, Mitch and Kaye jailed without trial.
Three years later, a somewhat chastened Augustine has been demoted to adviser to the scandal-scarred EMAC. An adolescent Stella is learning new ways to communicate and cooperate with her fellow Shevites. Kaye is helping to form national biological policy, but is troubled by the loss of her daughter and what she suspects are messages from God. Mitch discovers archaeological evidence of interaction between Homo sapiens and the doomed Homo erectus. And a SHEVA child becomes pregnant...
Darwin's Children is not an easy read: it's crammed with acronyms and scientific jargon, and the SHEVA children, with their enhanced senses, often speak in their own language. A scientific glossary, a short biological primer, and a non-fiction reading list are hidden at the back of the book (and I mean that; I didn't discover them until after I'd finished reading the story), but you may find that referring to these punctuates your equilibrium.
Bear also shifts viewpoint characters so frequently that it's sometimes difficult to keep track, especially if you haven't read Darwin's Radio. If you're expecting X-men, you may be disappointed; there is some violence, but little in the way of pyrotechnic action. The tone is more reminiscent of The Hot Zone, gene-spliced with political thriller.
Darwin's Children doesn't pull its punches when it comes to politics: a horrible disease is compared to House Republicans and vice versa, and the only out-and-out villains who appear in the book are a senator and a television commentator. Bear is also scathing in his depiction of religious fanatics, bureaucrats, talk radio, and the capacity of Americans en masse (though not usually as individuals) to be intolerant, gullible, complacent or savage to the point of attempting genocide. His scientists are more sympathetic, though never flawless - even Augustine, skilled as he is at the underhanded political games that help him gain power, believes that what he is doing is necessary for the greater good. All the major characters are well realised, and all change slowly but believably: some even evolve.
Darwin's Children is demanding, but it's also gripping, sometimes frightening, often thought-provoking, and well worth the effort of reading.
Copyright © Stephen Dedman
Publisher: Del Rey (hardcover, April 1, 2003), Del Rey (paperback, June 1, 2004)
paperback is 512 pages
ISBN: 0345448359 (hardcover) ; 0345448367 (paperback)