Eon

Well it's certainly ambitious! A very Big Ideas scifi novel, and with some significant novelty in it. I admire the ambition and description of other cultures, ways of being human, and a bunch of hard scifi ideas and their consequences.

Shame the book is so dated in other ways. There's a whole Cold War plot with Grim Soviet Soldiers that just reads bafflingly now, the stereotypes shining through. Also while there's good women characters there's also some really baffling sexuality on display including one laughable scene where a woman volunteers to have a quick shag with our hero because he's so horny he just can't concentrate. Really?

Mostly though what frustrated me is for all its Big Scifi ambition, it got lost. I never really understood the layout of The Stone, the chambers and the singularity and how it all fits together. And I fully never understood the political machinations of the factions that are introduced in the second half of the book. I think Bear probably spent a lot of very creative time sketching that out and I like the ambition. I just wish he'd described it better.