The novel “Queen of Angels” by Greg Bear was published for the first time in 1990.

In December 2047, on the eve of the new binary millennium – 2047 in binary is 1111111111 and 2048 in binary is 1000000000000 – poet Emmanuel Goldsmith kills a group of kids. The crime is all the more shocking because people of high social class such as him can have mental therapies to eliminate any criminal impulse. Goldsmith, however, disappeared and police detective Mary Choy has to find him as quickly as possible.

While a track leads Mary Choy to Hispaniola, the former Haiti, someone hides Goldsmith and hires Martin Burke, a psychotherapist in disgrace, to discover why the poet has committed the murders. Secrecy is essential not only to avoid being discovered by the police but also by the Selectors, a group of vigilantes that deals with criminals they capture inflicting them severe punishments.

AXIS, the most expensive and sophisticated space probe in history, is exploring the Alpha Centauri B system and finds what could be signs of intelligent life. The evolution of its artificial mind is worrying mission control and to try to understand what’s happening they use Jill, an artificial intelligence that created a simulation of AXIS.

After having ravaged the Earth in various ways in his previous novels, Greg Bear wrote a story more focused to the inner universe. Of course, in the past he already included elements of that kind in his novels but in “Queen of Angels” the theme of consciousness is central.

Greg Bear imagines a future in which mental therapies have become incredibly sophisticated. People who have undergone these therapies have a well integrated personality so they can be good members of society have become a sort of elite in it.

Some people have a well-organized mind in a natural way and can have the good jobs as well, all the other people who have undergone no treatments even if they needed one are becoming more and more marginanlized in the society.

Violent crimes are rarer and rarer so the murders committed by Emmanuel Goldsmith are a disturbing event. “Queen of Angels” has two parallel plots concerning Goldsmith: one in which Mary Choy looks for him and one in which psychotherapist Martin Burke is asked to secretly submit him to a therapy. Although physically Goldsmith is rarely present, he’s a protagonist because in the course of the novel his life is reconstructed with its secrets until a deep exploration of his mind.

The theme of consciousness is also dealt with in the subplot concerning the AXIS space probe and its simulation created by the artificial intelligence Jill. During its exploration of the Alpha Centauri B system, AXIS’ artificial mind evolves and at mission control on Earth scientists need to understand if it has achieved self-consciousness and what would be the consequences.

This exploration of consciousness is linked to developments in the field of nanotechnology achieved in the periodo “Queen of angels” is set. It’s a central theme in the novel “Blood Music” that in his case isn’t particularly developed. It’s in fact a technology that in the 2047 depicted by Greg Bear is fully developed and has enabled remarkable progress in various fields so it’s only a tool to develop other elements of the story.

The mental therapies in “Queen of Angels” are carried out using nanotechnology. The AXIS space probe was built using nanotechnology. In the novel various other applications of nanotechnology are mentioned such as radical physical changes such as that of the protagonist Mary Choy. The theme is therefore the application of this type of technology rather than its development.

Another theme of “Queen of Angels” is justice. In the future U.S.A. the judicial system sees crimes as mental aberrations that require therapy to turn criminals into well integrated citizens. Not everyone agrees with this approach so in 2047 there’s the group of the Selectors that subjects the criminal cought before the police to a kind of punitive mental therapy. In Hispaniola justice is still seen as a punishment against criminals too and during the novel Mary Choy has to deal with those points of view.

The various themes are interwoven in a very complex story but I think it’s only partially successful. Greg Bear already wrote novels over 400 pages long of great complexity in which there were several subplots with different points of view. In those cases, the beginning serves to introduce the elements of the plot and the main characters to allow the story to take off later and bring together the various subplots. “Queen of Angels” is different because about three quarters of the novel are the preparation and the subplots never merge.

“Queen of Angels” has an end that is in some ways still strong and full of events but the story remains fragmented. Superficially, the novel is at least partly a detective story but in reality there’s very little of that genre while there’s more of the psychological thriller though honestly the tension is limited. Because of its complexity, it’s a novel for which each label is limiting.

Overall, “Queen of Angels” is a fascinating inner journey but has its flaws. I think it’s a good novel but is controversial among readers and even among Greg Bear’s fans. For this reason it’s difficult to recommend if but you aren’t afraid of a complex and intellectual story and you’re looking for something original I think it’s worth trying to read it.