/ (Slant)
by Greg Bear

Greg Bear is a writer who is able to write books that span a wide variety of styles: from hard-SF (Eon and The Forge of God) to stylistic experiments (Hegira), he has written about them.

One of his more stylistic books was Queen of Angels, a tremendously wonderful but 'dense' romp through a future world where nanotechnology is everywhere. That book follows the events affecting different groups of people leading up to the 'binary millennium' in the year 2048 (2048 in binary is 100000000000). He has now written a follow-up book with the curious title of / (Slant).

/ (Slant) features many of the characters in Queen of Angels: Mary Chow, a PD (Public Defender) who was 'transformed' (uses nanotechnology to modify her body features) and now faces a disturbing murder/suicide investigation, Martin Burke, a therapist who sees a disturbing rise in the number of psychotic breakdowns in 'therapied' people (people who use nanotechnology to enhance their mental functions) and Jane, the AI who finds another AI with extremely strange and powerful computational powers. Into this steps Jack Giffey, an apparent thief who wishes to rob Omphalos, a well guarded structure for rich and powerful people but who may have a totally different role.

This book is not as dense in detail or concepts as Queen of Angles which features parallel threads where the characters don't meet and the only common item is the time the events take place. All the characters in / (Slant) eventually converge into one area for the final showdown that will affect the way nanotechnology is used in the future. All this makes for a book that both easier to read but less 'fun' also since you don't have to concentrate as hard to keep events synchronised.

One fascinating facet in the book is over the use of nanotechnology presented by Bear. This is a world where nanotechnology is ubiquitous, helping people overcome mental problems, transforming their very body shape and even used in a battlefield to gather raw material and use it to create new weapons. The implications of such technology appear to be well thought out in the book.

You don't have to read Queen of Angels beforehand to understand what is happening in this book. But doing so will give you a better idea of the world Greg Bear has envisioned as well as give more background to many of the characters involved in this book.

A recommended read for those who are fascinated by the possibilities of nanotechnology. As for the meaning of the title of the book, I suppose it has many meanings: a separator between people or events, an indicator of possible options (this or that), a breakpoint in events, etc. Read the book to get your own interpretation.

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/ (Slant) by Greg Bear

/ (Slant)
by Greg Bear