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

Mickey Sandoval is a junior administrator of his Binding Multiple – his extended family organization – who works together with his brother in-law William Pierce, a scientist who is conducting experiments on absolute zero. Living on the Moon, the underground is ideal for implanting a laboratory for that kind of research and get extremely low temperatures.

When Rho, Mickey’s sister and William’s wife, buys a load of human heads from a company that deals with cryogenic preservation on the brink of bankruptcy with the goal of trying to read the contents of their brains, William’s laboratory is ideal for this new project. Why is the Task-Felder Binding Multiple doing everything to stop the experiments on the heads?

After writing some remarkably long novels, Greg Bear in a sense came back and wrote one that is short for today’s standards, similar to his early novels. Bear has been compared a number of times to Arthur C. Clarke to the themes of his novels, “Heads” instead seems in many ways written by Robert A. Heinlein.

“Heads” is in fact set on the Moon, where over the next two centuries a colony consisting of several families who have maintained a pioneering spirit has been developed. The government has minimum functions because the Moon’s inhabitants see politics in a negative way. The description of the lunar society really reminds of Heinlein and young Mickey is advised by the elder director of his Binding Multiple, another element seen in many stories of the old science fiction master.

The plot connected to the scientific research is typical of Greg Bear instead. In “Heads” there are two scientific experiments that eventually intertwine, one relating to the absolute zero and the reading of the brains content of people whose heads were preserved cryogenically. There’s also the presence of quantum computers, which today are still at a very experimental stage and when this novel was written existed only as a theoretical concept.

Scientific developments in Greg Bear’s stories tend to give unexpected results and in “Heads” there are further complications. The inhabitants of the Moon are hostile to politics yet around the management of the heads purchased by the Sandoval Binding Multiple an intrigue develops which is definitely out of the ordinary in the Moon government. In this situation, Mickey has to learn to handle himself among political maneuvering and the Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

The political action is connected to the Task-Felder Binding Multiple, which is different from the other Moon’s Binding Multiples because it’s linked to the logologist religion, much more widespread on Earth. This religion and its founder are reminiscent of a really existing one generally known among science fiction readers. 😉

The short length of “Heads” means that the pace of the narrative is fast but ends up being a feature mostly negative because the development of the novel’s characters and themes is limited. The story is told in the first person by Mickey so it’s inevitable that he’s the character most developed.

“Heads” contains various themes because the interplay between scientific experiments and political and religious problems raises a number of ethical issues. Unfortunately, the novel has a rather thin final part so Greg Bear leaves any reflections on these items to the readers.

“Heads” is part of a series of novels called Quantum Logic set in the same fictional universe. Some of them are linked to others more, some less. This one can be read in a totally independent way.

Overall, I think “Heads” isn’t bad, unfortunately it doesn’t live up to its potential. It’s still a source of some food for thought and at least Greg Bear’s fans should read it.