Darwin's Children
Del Rey 2003
ISBN 0-345-44835-9
Monika says:
It's been twelve years since the outbreak that created a new kind of
man. There are several millions of these new children spread out over the
entire world, but the "old" mankind still looks at them with a wary
eye for the most part. They are said to carry new diseases and most people call
them the "virus children". The authorities try to minimize the
alleged danger by sending them to special schools resembling military
institutions and concentration camps where teachers try to suppress their
strangeness and teach them to behave like "normal" human beings. But
the differences being genetic, it's an idle attempt; they can't be eliminated
by bureaucratic measures. Visits by relations and friends are strictly
controlled; the schools are reminiscent of prisons rather than boarding
schools.
For eleven years, Kaye and Mitch have managed to protect their daughter
Stella from the authorities, but in the end they are powerless and have to
watch their family being torn apart like so many others for the sake of the
national security.
I can only speak for myself here, but the racism in Darwin's Children – because that's what it is – reminded me a bit
of the persecution of the Jews in Germany during the Third Reich. An ethnic group
is confined to ghettos, any contact with them is forbidden by law. In this
book, Greg Bear is playing with our ancestral fear of the unknown and foreign.
Instead of gaining new scientific findings from the emergence of a new kind of
man, something a few people actually undertake, most people react with fear and
suspicion and finally with violence. It may sound clichéd to some readers, but
if you take a close look at the history of man, it's a pretty realistic
scenario. Darwin's Children, which is
a sequel to Darwin's Radio, brings
the story to a satisfying end. Some loose threads are being tied up, but if you
are hoping for a truly happy ending, you will be
disappointed.
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Monika
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