Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
New York : Hachette Book Group, 2010.
Description
A starship hurtles through the emptiness of space, its destination-unknown and tts purpose-a mystery. One man wakes up wet, naked, and freezing to death. The dark halls are full of monsters but trusting other survivors he meets might be the greater danger. All he has are questions -- Who is he? Where are they going? What happened to the dream of a new life? What happened to the woman he loved? What happened to Hull 03?
User reviews
LibraryThing member dalai-lt
I can say I really liked this story by Greg Bear, although - as others have already mentioned - it is not the most original. In fact as I was reading it I thought that it could describe what would happen on a Rama ship if everything went nuts. Nevertheless, as far as I am concerned, he really got
The fight for survival part is also well executed. As a reader you really feel for the confused hero who can't even remember his name, but is thrown into a hellish environment that he's not really prepared for. In some respects, the beginning parallels the beginning of the movie Pandorum but they quickly part ways. Nothing is ever safe and conditions change rapidly from hospitable to deadly and back. The other major problem is that noone has the answers or all the pertinent information on what is going(even the Ship has had large parts of its databanks lost) . Knowledge gathering is just as important as surviving - perhaps for some even more so. Unfortunately, the latter is not explored so much.
My main problem with the book, and it is not a major problem, is of the endless descriptions of the rooms and areas that were traversed by the characters, especially in the first part. Maybe it is a limitation of my English or of my imagination, but it felt like the author was trying to convey important information with all this detail and I couldn't quite get it. After a point I just gave up and pictured it my way... A lesser frustration was that the Teacher and the other characters were taking too long to remember/regain their knowledge.
Show More
the hard sci-fi part right. All the science is not just plausible but also very interesting and quite thought-provoking. To his credit, everything is also explained and everything fits within the grander scheme. The fight for survival part is also well executed. As a reader you really feel for the confused hero who can't even remember his name, but is thrown into a hellish environment that he's not really prepared for. In some respects, the beginning parallels the beginning of the movie Pandorum but they quickly part ways. Nothing is ever safe and conditions change rapidly from hospitable to deadly and back. The other major problem is that noone has the answers or all the pertinent information on what is going
My main problem with the book, and it is not a major problem, is of the endless descriptions of the rooms and areas that were traversed by the characters, especially in the first part. Maybe it is a limitation of my English or of my imagination, but it felt like the author was trying to convey important information with all this detail and I couldn't quite get it. After a point I just gave up and pictured it my way... A lesser frustration was that the Teacher and the other characters were taking too long to remember/regain their knowledge.
Show Less
LibraryThing member iankg
I was going to call this a "love it or hate it" book, but then as I've given it 3.5 stars maybe I'm somewhere in between. As Sci-Fi goes It certainly ranks as good, inventive, original and unpredictable, with an accessible narrative that doesn't attempt to lecture nor requires a degree in
And yet somehow I don't love it. Maybe it's because, rather than stirring me to love or even loathe "Teacher", the main protagonist, I was left simply with a mild and rather irrational dislike of him. Or maybe it's because the mystery of the plot, which was gripping throughout, rather fails at the end to live up to the expectation that has been set.
Nevertheless, well worth a read for SF fans.
Show More
astrophysics to understand. It kept me turning the pages until the end without any regrets at having started.And yet somehow I don't love it. Maybe it's because, rather than stirring me to love or even loathe "Teacher", the main protagonist, I was left simply with a mild and rather irrational dislike of him. Or maybe it's because the mystery of the plot, which was gripping throughout, rather fails at the end to live up to the expectation that has been set.
Nevertheless, well worth a read for SF fans.
Show Less
LibraryThing member beserene
This novel, released in November 2010 and received by me as an ARC, is serious science fiction. It's not a subgenre -- not space opera, not *punk -- but true science fiction, with astrophysics, "aliens" (so to speak), conflict... in short all the ingredients of a classic science fiction plot. It is
The novel is written in first person from the perspective of an individual usually referred to as "Teacher" -- Bear plays with the irony of that title throughout the novel, starting from page three, because Teacher begins the novel as ignorant as the reader, and progresses slowly toward a knowledge of who/what/where/why he is. The reader follows that journey, through a hostile environment in a damaged spaceship, where nearly everything is trying to kill nearly everything else. The reader is often as confused as Teacher is, but the small steps toward the resolution of the ship's mystery keep one turning pages.
The environment of the ship itself is eerily evoked through Bear's descriptions. We see this world through Teacher's eyes, including as his memory awakens, so things for which the reader might have a ready word or comparison are sometimes described in new, alien terms or with a sense of rediscovery. Most of the time, this works to enhance the sense of eerie otherness that the novel is building -- occasionally Teacher's "hey, I remembered a new word!" moments are a little annoying, but that is generally outweighed by some of the sly allusions that Bear uses Teacher's wakening memory to make. References to literature (including Carroll's 'The Hunting of the Snark', unless I am way off) and scientific knowledge abound.
The characters that Teacher meets along the way are puzzles unto themselves, and the reader could easily spend plenty of time considering their particular evolution. Bear has put a great deal of thought and craftsmanship into the logical pattern of development for the ship, its inhabitants, and how they all fit into the mysterious circumstances he has created. There is a lot of crafty build-up in this novel, to the point that the final chapters seem to fly by as the pieces of the larger puzzle start to come together. The end, which of course I will not reveal here, is perhaps not as mindblowing as one might expect from that build-up, but still works in the grand scheme of the book.
Bottom line: If you are a fan of science fiction in its purest form, this is the book for you. It has all the ingredients -- a tight plot, suspense, science, space travel, strange beings, even a healthy dollop of blood and gore -- that made classic sci-fi great. Warning: it also contains a touch of the surreal (as the allusion to Carroll would testify), so don't expect simplicity here.
Show More
also complex, sometimes confusing, and occasionally downright creepy. I quite liked it.The novel is written in first person from the perspective of an individual usually referred to as "Teacher" -- Bear plays with the irony of that title throughout the novel, starting from page three, because Teacher begins the novel as ignorant as the reader, and progresses slowly toward a knowledge of who/what/where/why he is. The reader follows that journey, through a hostile environment in a damaged spaceship, where nearly everything is trying to kill nearly everything else. The reader is often as confused as Teacher is, but the small steps toward the resolution of the ship's mystery keep one turning pages.
The environment of the ship itself is eerily evoked through Bear's descriptions. We see this world through Teacher's eyes, including as his memory awakens, so things for which the reader might have a ready word or comparison are sometimes described in new, alien terms or with a sense of rediscovery. Most of the time, this works to enhance the sense of eerie otherness that the novel is building -- occasionally Teacher's "hey, I remembered a new word!" moments are a little annoying, but that is generally outweighed by some of the sly allusions that Bear uses Teacher's wakening memory to make. References to literature (including Carroll's 'The Hunting of the Snark', unless I am way off) and scientific knowledge abound.
The characters that Teacher meets along the way are puzzles unto themselves, and the reader could easily spend plenty of time considering their particular evolution. Bear has put a great deal of thought and craftsmanship into the logical pattern of development for the ship, its inhabitants, and how they all fit into the mysterious circumstances he has created. There is a lot of crafty build-up in this novel, to the point that the final chapters seem to fly by as the pieces of the larger puzzle start to come together. The end, which of course I will not reveal here, is perhaps not as mindblowing as one might expect from that build-up, but still works in the grand scheme of the book.
Bottom line: If you are a fan of science fiction in its purest form, this is the book for you. It has all the ingredients -- a tight plot, suspense, science, space travel, strange beings, even a healthy dollop of blood and gore -- that made classic sci-fi great. Warning: it also contains a touch of the surreal (as the allusion to Carroll would testify), so don't expect simplicity here.
Show Less
LibraryThing member randalhoctor
This is the story about a slower than light sleeper colony ship sent from Earth at tremendous expense during what was thought to quite possibly the end-times of our home world. Its told from the point of view of a "teacher". A humanoid based on a real person, one of the key people of the colonizing
All in all I liked the story. However, I would like to see it reworked. The beings are often bizzare to the point of being Dali-esque or Jim Henson-esque may be a better word. The writing in general could be tightened up and many questions are left open, but not in a skillful way. Seriously, this could be a major work of SF if it were re-done. Even so, the story lingers with me and I suspect will enter my dreams.
Show More
effort. He has troubling memories of his life on Earth, but they are distorted and cannot be trusted. Nothing can be trusted. He awakens in a bizarre nightmare world that humans were never meant to be quickened into. Something has gone terribly wrong. The ship and its computers and memory stores are badly damaged. Dire decisions have been made and warring factions result. Behind all this is a moral dilemma, a brutal test, that I think we as we are would probably fail. There is more going on than meets the eye on Ship.All in all I liked the story. However, I would like to see it reworked. The beings are often bizzare to the point of being Dali-esque or Jim Henson-esque may be a better word. The writing in general could be tightened up and many questions are left open, but not in a skillful way. Seriously, this could be a major work of SF if it were re-done. Even so, the story lingers with me and I suspect will enter my dreams.
Show Less
LibraryThing member dulac3
_Hull Zero Three_ is a pretty solid 3-star sci-fi story. It’s my first read of anything by Greg Bear, and while I wasn’t exactly blown away I’ll keep my eye out for other stuff by him in the future. The novel follows the first person account of a newly awakened passenger on a seedship headed
The majority of the novel plays out as a kind of scientific mystery tinged with horror as the newly awakened crewman, soon dubbed “Teacher” by his saviour, is immediately thrust into a race to find out not only the purpose of the huge ship he has found himself aboard, but the reason for why everything seems to have gone so horribly wrong. As Teacher and his growing group of companions race across the giant hull in an attempt to “follow heat” and live with a constant spin up and spin down of gravity to which they must become accustomed, they also have to avoid the Factors, giant creatures created by Ship to keep things in order…unfortunately that apparently also means terminating any human strays they find in the myriad passageways and compartments that make up the vast environment.
I personally thought that Bear let the survival elements of the story play out a bit too long. The final mystery as to what happened to Ship to place it in its current predicament was interesting and had a lot of potential...unfortunately the conclusion reached by Teacher as to the agency behind Ship’s difficulties, though very intriguing, seemed to come out of nowhere given the relatively sparse build-up given to the clues that led to his intuitive leap. I thought more fleshing out of that aspect of the story and a little less emphasis on the survival part would have been an advantage. Overall a fun read, though not earth-shattering by any means.
Show More
towards a destination as yet unknown. The sequence that opens the novel followed by the disorienting waking of the passenger is well done and immediately immerses the reader into the dangerous world of Ship.The majority of the novel plays out as a kind of scientific mystery tinged with horror as the newly awakened crewman, soon dubbed “Teacher” by his saviour, is immediately thrust into a race to find out not only the purpose of the huge ship he has found himself aboard, but the reason for why everything seems to have gone so horribly wrong. As Teacher and his growing group of companions race across the giant hull in an attempt to “follow heat” and live with a constant spin up and spin down of gravity to which they must become accustomed, they also have to avoid the Factors, giant creatures created by Ship to keep things in order…unfortunately that apparently also means terminating any human strays they find in the myriad passageways and compartments that make up the vast environment.
I personally thought that Bear let the survival elements of the story play out a bit too long. The final mystery as to what happened to Ship to place it in its current predicament was interesting and had a lot of potential...unfortunately the conclusion reached by Teacher as to the agency behind Ship’s difficulties, though very intriguing, seemed to come out of nowhere given the relatively sparse build-up given to the clues that led to his intuitive leap. I thought more fleshing out of that aspect of the story and a little less emphasis on the survival part would have been an advantage. Overall a fun read, though not earth-shattering by any means.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Homechicken
I was intrigued after hearing Greg Bear interviewed on the Starship Sofa podcast, and happened to have a 50% off coupon for Borders books, so I picked it up. Although it was strange in places, I mostly found this book quite captivating and difficult to put down.
It's mainly a trip through a
It's mainly a trip through a
Show More
generation ship gone wrong. The main character wakes up expecting to be at their destination but finds himself immediately running for his life from monsters and chasing warmth. Things only seem to get more mysterious as he meets a few more people as they try to make their way forward to find answers, but instead find themselves caught up in a war they barely understand. Show Less
LibraryThing member Beezie
Action, adventure, descriptive technical bits and evil twelve-breasted devil women named, Mother. What more could you possibly want in space ark book? You'll aslo get messianic clones, a classic pallate of female characters; she-wolves, sexy mutants and creepy worker bee daughters fighting for
Seriously though, Bear writes this stuff well. The science works and his mosters are fantastic. I remain confused by their necessity, some kind of plague or radiation would be more effient (but, that would have been boring). Ship is cool, too. To be fair, I'd love to see this as a movie. A big flashy hollywood joint, all James Cameron-ed up would be perfect.
Show More
survival on Ship. Last but not least, a humanoid chimerical chaperone helping out from above. She's sexy. She's silvery, alien and toothless. She might not exist, but that doesn't mean the suggestion of such a character won't fill plot holes. Seriously though, Bear writes this stuff well. The science works and his mosters are fantastic. I remain confused by their necessity, some kind of plague or radiation would be more effient (but, that would have been boring). Ship is cool, too. To be fair, I'd love to see this as a movie. A big flashy hollywood joint, all James Cameron-ed up would be perfect.
Show Less
LibraryThing member gregandlarry
Interesting story, but there was something missing.
LibraryThing member HadriantheBlind
First contemporary hard scifi I've read a while. Good gripping stuff, and the concepts fascinate me - rehashed as some of them were, the writing style made up for it. I'll have to look up this author's stuff in the future.
LibraryThing member fpagan
A not-too-bad but not-too-pleasant SF novel about tribulations on a giant starship. None of the Bear books I've read in the last couple of decades (not that I've read them all) has matched his masterful _Eon_ and _Eternity_ in awesomeness of concept.
LibraryThing member viking2917
Inventive hard sci-fi. The Ship is an interesting creation, and the characters were fun, but I was kind of left wondering what the point of the whole thing was. Bear's other books are better by far, especially Blood Music, Queen of Angels, or Heads.
LibraryThing member Valleyguy
I loved how the book began, it was so frightening and surreal, the mystery kept unfolding as the people/creatures made their way out of the horrible accident that occured somewhere along a journey to colonize another world. There is some frightening and wierd stuff in here, and in the end, I'm not
Show More
sure I got all of it. The science is so far advanced as to seem utterly fantastic and chaotic, and the characters subject to the limitless capabilities of the ship's powers that actually unravelling what happened is very difficult. That may contribute to why the ending didn't have the satisfaction I had hoped--it was an ending set so deeply into a mix of scientific possibility that I was not able to relate with it comfortably, and so I lost my grasp on it. Perhaps if I had a mind more open I would have been ready for it. Show Less
LibraryThing member TeresaFrohock
A spaceship hurdles through space, seeking the perfect planet, and within the ship sleeps the planet’s future population: men, women, and creatures designed to help populate and settle the world to which they fly. Until something goes wrong, and ship goes to war with itself.
Teacher is jerked from
This is the best science fiction I have read in years. Bear’s command of Teacher’s story grips the reader from page one and does not let go. The story is dark and haunting, and I loved every page of it.
Science fiction writers sometimes make their tales more about the science and less about the characters. Not Bear. He carefully intertwines all the qualities of science, which makes science fiction fun, yet he never loses Teacher or his bleak story.
Nuanced with lovely prose, Bear reminds us that science without a conscience can be deadly.
Teacher is jerked from
Show More
dreams of this new world and brought into the harsh reality of ship. He can remember only bits and pieces of his life before awakening. Cold, he runs toward warmth and the mysteries of ship.This is the best science fiction I have read in years. Bear’s command of Teacher’s story grips the reader from page one and does not let go. The story is dark and haunting, and I loved every page of it.
Science fiction writers sometimes make their tales more about the science and less about the characters. Not Bear. He carefully intertwines all the qualities of science, which makes science fiction fun, yet he never loses Teacher or his bleak story.
Nuanced with lovely prose, Bear reminds us that science without a conscience can be deadly.
Show Less
LibraryThing member RBeffa
I was a little slow to warm to Greg Bear's latest novel Hull Zero Three, but once I did I really enjoyed it and found it an above average hard science fiction novel. There are a couple of good reviews on Library Thing that capture my thoughts on the book better than I could, especially the one by
Show More
beserene dated jan 6, 2011. I really like a book that can pull me into another world, one where once you set the book down that world is still alive within your mind. The ending was rather unexpected for me, and not entirely satisfactory as it left the adventure of the novel almost incomplete. It was in truth a good ending however, and I have to rate this in the above average category as it really gripped me a number of times. recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member PghDragonMan
I like Greg Bear as an author. I enjoy Science Fiction. I like stories about quests for self discovery. Somehow, in Hull Zero Three, this added up to an almost losing combination. I'm still trying to figure out why I stayed with this book. Maybe, I was hoping it would get better, but it never rises
Show More
above mediocrity. I going to give this a mushy three star rating; if I think about it too long, I might downgrade the rating. Show Less
LibraryThing member usnmm2
I'm a sucker for this type of book, ever since I read" Orphans of the Sky" by RAH. A long interstellar trip gone bad. But this one was long and drawn out. I got tired of reading chase scenes and "who am I?" passages. As one reviewer I read somewhere said it would make a good short story. Not that
Show More
the premise wasn't good, just the story didn't seem to be going anywhere while I was reading it. Couldn't find any sympathetic characters. Show Less
LibraryThing member rmagahiz
I had seen a few reviews of this book before I checked it out of the library, and while the concept sounded interesting, some of the criticisms of the way the book was put together made me a little hesitant at first. The protagonist is plunged in medias res right from the beginning, and in a way he
Show More
never really catches up with the situation quite to my satisfaction by the end. He is the only character whose motivations and inner life are really portrayed to any great extent, also, so it was hard to feel much about the fate of the others in the band of survivor he assembles (or about their antagonists, for that matter). The idea of the generation ship and the intentions of its builders was intriguing, but I'm afraid the execution of this particular part of its story didn't quite do it for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member majackson
Not your typical "lost slow colonizing ship" story. Greg Bear adds a lot of techno-babble and "who are the good-guys/bad-guys" confusion to his typical confusing beginnings; but straightens everything out as we go along. Most of the characters are hand-grown and confused right from the get-go, and
Show More
only slowly begin to see the wider picture as they mature under the pressure of the search for truth in order to stem off the “trackers”. What I appreciate is that the story has a happy, moral ending. Show Less
LibraryThing member ChrisRiesbeck
Disappointing. It seemed exactly like a mid-range American SF short novel from the 1960's, the kind no one remembers, and only people like me with large libraries read these days. Characteristics of that period and this book include flat characters (past the gosh golly days of the 30's but not yet
Show More
the mature characterization we expect now), emphasis on plot and a single thematic idea to the exclusion of everything else, and a really tough row to hoe for the main character. The plot mixes Ellison's I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, with Budry's Rogue Moon, and others, no doubt. Perhaps this was Bear's homage to the 60's. Definitely a lesser effort. Show Less
LibraryThing member wifilibrarian
I listened to the audio version narrated by Dan John Miller.
This story is set on a kilometres long spaceship, on a very long journey to another hospitable world. The main protagonist is awoken from an utopian dream-time by a mysterious human like girl, into a cold unforgiving ship full of strange
I enjoyed this story of survival, space flight, strange creatures. Also the themes of space exploration in a possibility inhabited universe, how can we ethically colonise another planet, should we?
This story is set on a kilometres long spaceship, on a very long journey to another hospitable world. The main protagonist is awoken from an utopian dream-time by a mysterious human like girl, into a cold unforgiving ship full of strange
Show More
and deadly creatures. The girl says he's "always Teacher" and we follow Teacher as he learns who or what he is and learns to survive a ship that is constantly in "spin-down" or "spin-up", alternating between gravity and weightlessness, and chasing warmth, as parts of the ship seem to have lost life-support.I enjoyed this story of survival, space flight, strange creatures. Also the themes of space exploration in a possibility inhabited universe, how can we ethically colonise another planet, should we?
Show Less
LibraryThing member Cataloger623
307 pages Science fiction / Horror. I could not put this book down once I started to read it. I wanted to solve the mystery of the Ship. Who built it, what happened to it. This is a journey into the unknown experienced by a man who barely knows who he is .
LibraryThing member James_Patrick_Joyce
Wow. One of those "out there" type of stories. A blank-slate character in a confused, crazy, deadly world.
So, the protagonist awakes from what appears to be a cryo-sleep chamber. Apparently a crew member of an expedition sent from Earth, to allow humanity to reach the stars. Maybe. But his memory
Nothing is as it should be. Something is wrong. People are dying or dead. Monsters roam the halls of the spaceship. Impossible monsters. And the first task is to run. Run from the monsters, run from the cold as the ship freezes, run for the heat that always seems to be moving away, farther along the ship.
All he knows, all he's told, is that he is "Teacher". A teacher who knows nothing. Or, at least, who only learns to doubt what he does know. And to fear everything.
A meditation on the existential crisis? Who are we? Who am I? What is my purpose? Where are we? Why this, that, and everything else?
I quite enjoyed this. The puzzle, the answers, the answers that only lead to deeper questions... and a final resolution that is satisfying and right.
This is science fiction, set in the future, but as relevant and meaningful as a contemporary war story. Bravo, Mr. Bear!
So, the protagonist awakes from what appears to be a cryo-sleep chamber. Apparently a crew member of an expedition sent from Earth, to allow humanity to reach the stars. Maybe. But his memory
Show More
is choppy, uncertain... confused. He's saved by a little girl, who isn't forthcoming with any further details. He's on a spaceship, but not where he "should" be; not with whom he should be. Nothing is as it should be. Something is wrong. People are dying or dead. Monsters roam the halls of the spaceship. Impossible monsters. And the first task is to run. Run from the monsters, run from the cold as the ship freezes, run for the heat that always seems to be moving away, farther along the ship.
All he knows, all he's told, is that he is "Teacher". A teacher who knows nothing. Or, at least, who only learns to doubt what he does know. And to fear everything.
A meditation on the existential crisis? Who are we? Who am I? What is my purpose? Where are we? Why this, that, and everything else?
I quite enjoyed this. The puzzle, the answers, the answers that only lead to deeper questions... and a final resolution that is satisfying and right.
This is science fiction, set in the future, but as relevant and meaningful as a contemporary war story. Bravo, Mr. Bear!
Show Less
LibraryThing member jaddington
Alright. Wish I had got it on my Nook, and not a proper book.
LibraryThing member PDCRead
Another good book from Greg
LibraryThing member jaddington
Alright. Wish I had got it on my Nook, and not a proper book.
Awards
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (Finalist — 2011)
Arthur C. Clarke Award (Shortlist — 2012)
Locus Recommended Reading (2010)
Language
Original publication date
2010
ISBN
9780316072816