Anvil of Stars: A Sequel to The Forge of God

Bear produced a delicious and fascinating sequel when he wrote this book. I love the original. The sequel is wonderful but in different ways. Where the original was about average people dealing with a very earthly doom, the follow on is about a group of young but diverse people seeking revenge under very alien circumstances and surroundings. It is Hard Science fiction at its best. There are so many incredible elements of technology explored in the book, it is captivating.
The characters are vivid and very well developed. The conflicts and growth they go through during their voyage are very realistic and moving.
This is one of my all time favorite sci-fi novels and deserves a place beside quite a few Hugo Award winning novels.
Highly Recommended!

Great book and character development. Mainly about kids/young adults on huge spaceship with robots and another alien race trying to find and destroy the killers of planet Earth. Fast paced and not too bogged down. Book will appeal to late teens as most of the characters in that age group.

Zero tension, too little conflict, and very little action. Characters are uninteresting and they're all pretty much alike. Only a couple of secondary characters actually stood out.

It picks up about a decade after the Forge of God and earth being destroyed. The children have been separated from parents. Parents are sent to Mars, and the children are sent to find the bad guys who destroyed earth, and destroy the bad guys. The story is told from the children's ship and point of view.

They called "children" but now the oldest is 21 (not sure as to the youngest, but teens, I think) Apparently, in all the time they've been training for war by their mechanical benefactors, you would expect infighting, a Lord of the Flies kind of environment. They don't have any guidance. The mechanical "mom" that's constantly around never interferes. If somebody wants to commit suicide, that's okay. If you want to sex up the whole joint, that's fine, too, and they do. These children are free to do whatever they want, there's no apparently discipline, but they all just follow the rules?

I love Greg Bear (as a rule, his books are awesome.) Couldn't finish this one. I forced myself through the first 1/3 of the novel, and there just wasn't enough going on to keep me interested. It almost felt like a different person wrote it, or perhaps it was written early in his career and adapted to follow the Forge of God. Either way, it didn't live up to expectations. When it comes to Greg Bear, my expectations are high.

In Anvil, Bear combines speculations on quantum physics with war-story melodrama, immense ethical quandaries with teen romance, exobiology with whodunit. Yet with all this intellectual weight, the novel proceeds at a brisk and exciting pace.
Anvil picks up where Forge of God left off: the earth has been destroyed by alien machines, and aliens from a different civilization have rescued a small population and resettled them on Mars. From the survivors are drawn adolescents to serve as crew on a Ship of the Law, charged with carrying out a death sentence passed by humanity's benefactors on the race which created the planet-killing machines. Fans of SF writer Orson Scott Card will see many parallels to the Battle School milieu from Ender's Game: youths incongruously training for war under the tutelage of inscrutable teachers.
We join Earth's last children some years into the mission, when they are beginning to draw close to a prime suspect civilization. Bear does not shy away from the titanic moral questions raised by Galactic Law and its harsh retribution, as youths who might otherwise be arguing capital punishment or abortion in Philosophy 101 must weigh the evidence against the suspect civilization. Simultaneously, they must stuggle within the constraints of an alien justice system that has no provision for such human notions as mitigating factors, statutes of limitations, or redemption.
Bear's young protagonists (and antagonists) stand out in the often bland universe of SF characters. The crew has established a unique shipboard society of pseudofamilies and shifting allegiances, a kind of co-ed Lord of the Flies. At times they embrace the shortsighted, hedonistic tendencies that would be the invevitable consequence of college-age kids cut off from polite society, parents, and pregnancy. But when they must focus on "the Job," the youths become a cadre of genius mercenaries, armed with - and burdened with - the ability to destroy suns.
Particularly conflicted is the main character, Martin, from whose perspective the story is told. As the crew's leader at the outset, Martin is the focus of all their emotional turmoil as they struggle to balance their quest for justice with their revulsion at the prospect of slaughtering innocents. He must combat his own doubts and dreads while attempting to hold togeher the crew that includes cynical boatrocker Ariel, gung-ho Machiavellian Hans, and serene intellectual Hakim. The interplay becomes even more complex when the crew are joined by the Brothers, aliens that attest to Bear's supreme inventiveness.
Even with all of Martin's introspection, the novel proceeds quickly through an obstacle course of unconventional skirmishes, disheartening setbacks, and mounting evidence against the suspects. The background is a milieu of superadvanced science featuring intelligent biomechanical ships and intriguing speculations on the nature of matter.
The climax is exciting, and its aftermath devastating. The poignant coda serves to add even greater depth to the main characters and the story as a whole.
It's been several years since I first read Anvil, but I pick it up occasionally to relive the enjoyment it originally brought me.

Basic outline: Earth has been destroyed by killer robot spaceships. The few remaining survivors send some of their children to avenge the planet. Supposedly there is another race called the Benafactors who, having built spaceships of their own to hunt down the robot killers, take the children (young adults, really) to hunt them down because it's the "LAW". I have to ask: What kind of beings make a Law that can only be understood poorly, if at all, since the Benafactors who sent out these Ships of the Law cannot be questioned directly (out of a sense of self preservation)? I give this book only 4 stars not because the book is bad (it's great) but because it's frustrating that the humans are obviously in over their heads in terms of carrying out a completely ALIEN system of justice that has no limits on time or distance. In other words they can travel for hundreds, if not thousands, of years across unimaginable distances (something the book conveys well) to find what? A civilization that has forgotten its horrible past and doesn't know enough to FEEL guilty let alone BE guilty. As the book lamely asks: what about redemption? It's not answered to my satisfaction. My biggest complaint is that the Benefactors don't seem to care that Earthlings (or perhaps any race they happen to save) don't have any idea what kind of moral/legal/social/galactic framework they are becoming involved in. Sure, it's great that they get these ships to go out and avenge Earth but who ARE the Benefactors? Why do they care about revenge and if they care so much why don't they just do it themslves instead of going to all the trouble of "training" the survivors and telling them only that it's for dear old earth? We don't get any other explanation 'cause the benafactor built robots who guide the children either can't or won't tell. Giving out info is apparently against the best interests of the race(s) that sent the Ships of the Law out in the first place since the ship might be captured by the machines they are trying to destroy. Implying that earthlings might turn into equally dangerous predators as the killer robots doesn't seem reason enough not to give out as much info as possible concerning WHAT you're doing, HOW you're doing it, WHOM you're doing it to, and WHY it must be done. Blind faith and desire for revenge can only go so far.
Anyway, I enjoyed the book despite these questions and recommend it. The science is engaging/realistic (more or less) and the characters are deep enough to be enjoyable. I do NOT see this book as derivative of Ender's Game at all. IMHO they are polar opposites. One is a revenge seeking space opera and the other is a quest for redemption. One last caveat: Both Ender's Game and AOS recognize that as humans we don't always have the option of forgiveness. Not right away, anyway.

While nominally a sequel to Forge of God, Anvil of Stars is very different and can probably be read without having to know too much about events in the previous book as most that apply are addressed. I was really looking forward to this sequel. I thoroughly enjoyed Forge of God. It had a great ending - the bad guys won - and it probably could have been left at that.

Anvil of Stars takes place several years after the previous book. We're now following the children of the survivors who have volunteered to serve on a "Ship of Law" provided by their Benefactors in order to track down and destroy the source of the attack on Earth.

It felt to me as though I were reading more of a half-finished outline than a full-blown book. I couldn't relate to the characters in any way. We're told that they're children and yet they act, both mentally and emotionally far advanced in their years. The self-contained world they occupy within their spaceship lends itself to a Lord of the Flies feeling, without the bloodshed, though that comes later. Perhaps part of the problem is that Bear has to introduce us to so many characters that there just isn't space in the book to know and understand them all.

The storyline veers in many directions with a few twists, but nothing terribly unexpected. The end is rather obvious and actually, the last couple of dozen pages feel as though Bear himself was tired of the book and just wanted to wrap it up.

His style of writing is different in this book too. It has an almost "artsy" feel. Verne meets Asimov and they don't hit it off. Perhaps its the setting. After all, it is years in the future and everything that is commonplace and everyday is so alien to us that it's hard to grasp. There is somewhat of "deus ex machine" feel in many places where the children survive impossible odds thanks to their technology and you really don't feel that they're in any real danger. Sure, we may lose one or two, but no one we really care about, whereas in Forge of God, you felt the anticipation - and you cared.

Now, I say all this from the point of view of an expectant sequel reader. As a sequel I don't think Anvil of Stars works terribly well. It's as different in narrative style and storyline as The Hobbit is to The Lord of the Rings. They're related but very very different.

I finished the novel more out of a sense of obligation than anything else. Overall, I'm not sure that this book needed writing. I'm not convinced that there was enough of a story to do so. It was nice to learn the fate of humanity but it just wasn't' compelling enough.

I've read hundreds of science fiction books where humans have military conflict with aliens (though not yet the Forge of God). In nearly all of them, there are World-War-II-Naval-like space battles with weapons/ships/shields at near parity. I have always thought this to be highly implausible, and I thought the most interesting aspect of this book was to consider three possible battle situations in space:

1) Your ship encounters a ship at a vastly higher tech level. If they detect you before you detect them, you are dead. Period. Your only possibility to win such a battle is to detect them first and destroy them instantly - and your chances of being able to do that are slim.

2) Your ship encounters a ship at a vastly lower tech level. Using the logic above, all that matters is you being able to detect them before they detect you. The technologies of stealth, electronic counter measures, detection, etc. are therefore all extremely vital in order to never be defeated by aliens with a lower tech level.

3) There is a possibility that you encounter an enemy close enough to your own tech level that the battle could last more than a split second. It is only in these instances that all the other things often written in other science fiction stories might matter - amount and type of shielding, weapons systems, quality of personnel, etc. But such battles are very unlikely, because technological progress is so fast. Consider what it would be like for any of today's industrialized nations with a substantial military to combat the most powerful nation on earth from 200 years ago - there would be no contest at all. The universe has been around for billions of years, so the chance of two races encountering each other that are within a few hundred years of each others' technology level is very low.

The above logic also applies to planetary defense as well, though with even more emphasis on not being detected.

This is the only SF book I've read that envisions future military conflict this way, and for that I give the book 4 stars. In my mind, this clearly deserves a place among the top 10 science fiction books in the military SF genre.

However, I did not care for the characters and character development and dialog which occupied the sluggish first half of the book. It wasn't until they started exploring the killers home system that I had trouble putting the book down. I did enjoy the dialog about ethical considerations of what the human ship was going to do, and the aliens they joined forces with were an interesting twist to the story and well done.

Bottom Line - the key to this book for me was an exploration of military encounters in space that struck me as vastly more plausible than the typical SF novel. Rewrite the book to remove most of the first half - and it would have been 5 stars for me.

Although technically, one can appreciate the paradox of faster than light travel, Bear laid it out for me, and I could truly understand the differences in time when FTL is introduced.

As we follow the exploits of the young characters as they are guided by aliens to the ultimate revenge, and the mind-bending breakthroughs in science that they invent to help carry it out, I could not help but finally break the weeks of depression that I had after reading the Forge of God.

Good storyline, complicated about twice as long as it needs to be. Gets caught up in itself sometimes and digresses to much on narrative not relevant to to story or characters. That said if yogi trudge through to the end it will leave you thinking and pleasantly satisfied with the effort.

Never-never land = space.

The few people that survived the destruction of Earth are now travelling by spaceship.

Not sure that political organisation via Peter Pan is really that great an idea, however that is what they do.

Infighting problems to be overcome before they can think about alien destroyer slaying, though.

Just another decent read.

3.5 out of 5

Anvil of Stars is an incredibly slow burn. The conclusion I felt justified the ramp up, however it took quite a while to get there. As regards the Kindle Edition, I am not certain if this is the case in the print book as well, but aside from the divides between each of the 3 major sections, there are no chapter markers at all. This can make the reading somewhat confusing as the narrative will all of the sudden jump between paragraphs.

A mighty fine read. A real page turner filled with interesting characters and sci-fi ideas. Would make an awesome film. In ways it's similar to Ender's Game in regards to kids in space fighting a war. But the similarities end there. It would make a much better film than Ender's Game did. Great Bear is awesome and this is another awesome story!

The first book, Forge of God, was a true masterpiece. This sequel however is less than worthy to be called a sequel. The story it self is not very interesting, therefore I will not mention it. The characters are ever so wrongly put to words, most of them are children, it's mentioned quite a few times, but none of them acts like children. Sure they might be last children to have seen Earth, but is this a reason to have them act like grown-ups? I think not, they act illogical and one dimensional.
A shame, the first book was truly enjoyable, the second book wasn't even a true sequel.

Note that this is the Kindle edition. For some reason, the numerous reviews of the paper editions have not been brought over.

In brief, if you like this genre, this is a classic you should not pass by. as

As I'm typing this on a Kindle, I'll not elaborate; read the other reviews for that. Highly recommended.

A very thought-provoking read. The characters are drawn with real depth and their personal change as a result of the events they experience is the real heart of the story. The Brothers are one of the most original, yet believable, depictions of an alien race I have ever come across.

Personally, I found this book, overall, to be decent. This is mainly due to the theme of Earth's survivors getting revenge on the planet-killers, which I found quite interesting. However, the main story is not what struck me as memorable. Rather, Bear's ultra-graphic descriptions of sexual situations between the "children" is what I remember best. For a sci-fi novel, this is a shame. In fact, many of the sex scenes could be labeled X-rated. Obviously, I can't be explicit, but he describes EVERYTHING. Imagine an XXX film put into words and that's what you have.
I realize that these situations are natural, but so is defication, and I don't need a description of that in detail (maybe in a Romance novel, but not hard sci-fi)!
As a result, Bear's main story often got lost for a few pages while the "children" were pleasuring themselves.
Maybe I'm too used to the Asimov/AC Clarke style of writing, but I just couldn't get into this book, mainly due to the excessive sex scenes.

This is an astounding book. It combines hard SF with human drama in a way that will keep you up at night. Plot and characters are well developed. Bear is able to captue both the induvidual and the global reactions to the mystifying events presents in this book. If you like hard SF with strong human elements get this book.

I disagree with some reviewers, maybe they are bored after too many bad sci-fi books. But This one is really good : scientific details and new theories, good characters with different and changing personnalities and good suspense.
If you enjoyed Eon, read Anvil of Stars (The forge of Gods isn't a pre-requisite) !. Enjoy !

Personally, I found this book, overall, to be decent. This is mainly due to the theme of Earth's survivors getting revenge on the planet-killers, which I found quite interesting. However, the main story is not what struck me as memorable. Rather, Bear's ultra-graphic descriptions of sexual situations between the "children" is what I remember best. For a sci-fi novel, this is a shame. In fact, many of the sex scenes could be labeled X-rated. Obviously, I can't be explicit, but he describes EVERYTHING. Imagine an XXX film put into words and that's what you have.
I realize that these situations are natural, but so is defication, and I don't need a description of that in detail (maybe in a Romance novel, but not hard sci-fi)!
As a result, Bear's main story often got lost for a few pages while the "children" were pleasuring themselves.
Maybe I'm too used to the Asimov/AC Clarke style of writing, but I just couldn't get into this book, mainly due to the excessive sex scenes.

This is an astounding book. It combines hard SF with human drama in a way that will keep you up at night. Plot and characters are well developed. Bear is able to captue both the induvidual and the global reactions to the mystifying events presents in this book. If you like hard SF with strong human elements get this book.

I disagree with some reviewers, maybe they are bored after too many bad sci-fi books. But This one is really good : scientific details and new theories, good characters with different and changing personnalities and good suspense.
If you enjoyed Eon, read Anvil of Stars (The forge of Gods isn't a pre-requisite) !. Enjoy !

The first book "The Forge of God" was an excellent novel and fun to read. This one is not. It is easily twice as long as it should be if not more. The story suffers from the idea that more pages makes for a better novel and soon becomes monotonous.