Blood Music (novel)

Last updated
Blood Music
BloodMusic(1stEd).jpg
Cover of first edition (hardcover)
Author Greg Bear
LanguageEnglish
Genre Science fiction
Publisher Arbor House
Publication date
1985
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages262
ISBN 0-87795-720-7
OCLC 11444143
813/.54 19
LC Class PS3552.E157 B58 1985

Blood Music is a 1985 science fiction novel by American writer Greg Bear. It is an expanded version of a short story of the same title, originally published in the June 1983 issue of Analog and the winner of both the 1983 Nebula and 1984 Hugo awards for Best Novelette.

Contents

Blood Music deals with themes including biotechnology, nanotechnology (including the grey goo hypothesis), the nature of reality, consciousness, and artificial intelligence.

Plot summary

Renegade biotechnologist Vergil Ulam creates simple biological computers based on his own lymphocytes. Faced with orders from his nervous employer to destroy his work, he injects them into his own body, intending to smuggle the "noocytes" (as he calls them) out of the company and work on them elsewhere. Inside Ulam's body, the noocytes multiply and evolve rapidly, altering their own genetic material and quickly becoming self-aware. The nanoscale civilization they construct soon begins to transform Ulam, then others. The people who are infected start to find that genetic faults such as myopia and high blood pressure are fixed. Ulam's eyesight, posture, strength, and intelligence are all improved. The infected can even have conversations with their noocytes, with some reporting that the cells seem to sing.

Through infection, conversion, and assimilation of humans and other organisms, the cells eventually aggregate most of the biosphere of North America into a region 7,000 km (4,300 mi) wide. This civilization, which incorporates both the evolved noocytes and recently assimilated conventional humans, is eventually forced to abandon the normal plane of existence in favor of one in which thought does not require a physical substrate. The reason for the noocytes' inability to remain in this reality is somewhat related to the strong anthropic principle.

The book's structure is titled "inter-phase", "prophase", "metaphase", "anaphase", "telophase", and "interphase". This mirrors the major phases of cell cycle: interphase and mitosis.

Reception

Dave Langford reviewed Blood Music for White Dwarf #79, and stated that "The finale is magnificent. The only problem is that it's nigglingly close to the conclusion reached by an author extrapolating from a different start-point: Arthur C. Clarke in Childhood's End . But Bear, I think does it better – and goes beyond even Clarke. Strongly recommended." [1]

The novel was nominated for the Nebula Award in 1985 [2] and for the Hugo, Campbell, and British Science Fiction Awards in 1986. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greg Bear</span> American writer and illustrator (1951–2022)

Gregory Dale Bear was an American writer and illustrator best known for science fiction. His work covered themes of galactic conflict, parallel universes, consciousness and cultural practices, and accelerated evolution. His last work was the 2021 novel The Unfinished Land. Greg Bear wrote over 50 books in total. He was one of the five co-founders of San Diego Comic-Con.

<i>The Forge of God</i> 1987 novel by Greg Bear

The Forge of God is a 1987 science fiction novel by American writer Greg Bear. Earth faces destruction when an inscrutable and overwhelming alien form of life attacks.

<i>Job: A Comedy of Justice</i> 1984 SF novel by Robert A. Heinlein

Job: A Comedy of Justice is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein published in 1984. The title is a reference to the biblical Book of Job and James Branch Cabell's book Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice. It won the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 1985 and was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1984, and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1985.

<i>Friday</i> (novel) 1982 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein

Friday is a 1982 science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein. It is the story of a female "artificial person", the eponymous Friday, genetically engineered to be stronger, faster, smarter, and generally better than normal humans. Artificial humans are widely resented, and much of the story deals with Friday's struggle both against prejudice and to conceal her enhanced attributes from other humans. The story is set in a Balkanized 21st century, in which the nations of the North American continent have been split up into a number of smaller states.

<i>Dangerous Visions</i> Science fiction short story anthology edited by Harlan Ellison

Dangerous Visions is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by American writer Harlan Ellison and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. It was published in 1967 and contained 33 stories, none of which had been previously published.

<i>The Postman</i> 1985 novel by David Brin

The Postman is a post-apocalyptic dystopian science fiction novel by David Brin. It is about a man wandering the desolate Oregon countryside who finds a United States Postal Service uniform, which he puts on and then claims he is a mail carrier and federal inspector for the "Restored United States of America". His mail service and claims about the return of a central government gives hope to the people, who are threatened by a murderous, neo-feudalist militia.

<i>The Integral Trees</i> 1984 science fiction novel by Larry Niven

The Integral Trees is a 1984 science fiction novel by American writer Larry Niven. Like much of Niven's work, the story is heavily influenced by the setting: a gas torus, a ring of air around a neutron star. A sequel, The Smoke Ring, was published in 1987.

<i>West of Eden</i> 1984 novel by Harry Harrison

West of Eden is a 1984 science fiction novel by American writer Harry Harrison.

The use of nanotechnology in fiction has attracted scholarly attention. The first use of the distinguishing concepts of nanotechnology was "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom", a talk given by physicist Richard Feynman in 1959. K. Eric Drexler's 1986 book Engines of Creation introduced the general public to the concept of nanotechnology. Since then, nanotechnology has been used frequently in a diverse range of fiction, often as a justification for unusual or far-fetched occurrences featured in speculative fiction.

<i>The Urth of the New Sun</i> 1987 science fiction novel by Gene Wolfe

The Urth of the New Sun is a 1987 science fiction novel by Gene Wolfe that serves as a coda to his four-volume Book of the New Sun series. Like Book of the New Sun, it is of the Dying Earth subgenre. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel, Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1988.

<i>Future on Ice</i> 1998 science fiction anthology

Future on Ice (1998) is a science fiction anthology edited by American writer Orson Scott Card, belated companion to Future on Fire (1991). It contains eighteen stories written in the 1980s by different writers including "The Fringe" by Card himself.

<i>Lost Dorsai</i> 1980 novella by Gordon R. Dickson

Lost Dorsai is a science fiction novella by American writer Gordon R. Dickson. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1981 and was also nominated for the Nebula Award in 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Sharing of Flesh</span> Short story by Poul Anderson

"The Sharing of Flesh" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Poul Anderson. Originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction, it won a 1968 Hugo Award for Best Novelette and was nominated for a 1969 Nebula Award. The story has appeared in the collections The Night Face & Other Stories (1979), The Dark Between the Stars (1981), Winners (1981), and The Long Night (1983).

"The Dog Said Bow-Wow" is a science fiction short story by American writer Michael Swanwick, published in 2001. It won the 2002 Hugo Award for Best Short Story and was nominated for the 2002 Nebula Award for Best Short Story. The Dog Said Bow-Wow is the title story of his 2007 short story collection, published by Tachyon Publications, and was reprinted in the same year in Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology.

<i>Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer</i> Short story collection by Tanith Lee

Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer is a short story collection of dark fantasy retellings of popular fairytales by British author Tanith Lee. Contrary to what the title may suggest, it not only includes retellings of fairytales by the Brothers Grimm, but also by Charles Perrault, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve or Alexander Afanasyev. The title story was nominated for a Nebula Award.

<i>Terry Carrs Best Science Fiction of the Year</i> 1985 anthology edited by Terry Carr

Terry Carr's Best Science Fiction of the Year is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Terry Carr, the fourteenth volume in a series of sixteen. It was first published in paperback by Tor Books in July 1985, and in hardcover and trade paperback by Gollancz in October of the same year, under the alternate title Best SF of the Year #14.

<i>The Ragged Astronauts</i> 1986 novel by Bob Shaw

The Ragged Astronauts is a novel by Bob Shaw published in 1986 by Gollancz. It is the first book in the series Land and Overland. It won the BSFA Award for Best Novel.

<i>The Best Science Fiction of the Year 13</i> 1984 anthology edited by Terry Carr

The Best Science Fiction of the Year #13 is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Terry Carr, the thirteenth volume in a series of sixteen. It was first published in paperback by Baen Books in July 1984, and in hardcover and trade paperback by Gollancz in December of the same year.

<i>Terry Carrs Best Science Fiction of the Year 15</i> 1986 anthology edited by Terry Carr

Terry Carr's Best Science Fiction of the Year #15 is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Terry Carr, the fifteenth volume in a series of sixteen. It was first published in paperback by Tor Books in August 1986 and in hardcover and paperback by Gollancz in October of the same year, under the alternate title Best SF of the Year #15.

<i>The Planet on the Table</i> 1986 collection of science fiction stories by Kim Stanley Robinson

The Planet on the Table is a collection of science fiction stories by American writer Kim Stanley Robinson, published in hardcover by Tor Books in 1986. A British paperback edition appeared in 1987, as well as a Tor paperback reprint; a French translation was issued in 1988. The collection was republished in the 1994 Tor omnibus Remaking History and Other Stories. The collection takes its title from a poem by Wallace Stevens, which provides the book's epigraph.

References

  1. Langford, Dave (July 1986). "Critical Mass". White Dwarf (79). Games Workshop: 16.
  2. 1 2 "1985 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-11.