Dead Lines

By Greg Bear

With his acclaimed novels Darwin’s Children and Vitals, award-winning author Greg Bear turned intriguing speculation about human evolution and immortality into tales of unrelenting suspense. Now he ventures into decidedly more frightening territory in a haunting thriller that blends modern technology and old-fashioned terror, as it charts one man’s inexorable descent into a world of mounting supernatural dread.For the last two years, Peter Russell has mourned the death of one of his twin daughters—who was just ten when she was murdered. Recent news of his best friend’s fatal heart attack has now come as another devastating blow. Divorced, despondent, and going nowhere in his career, Peter fears his life is circling the drain. Then Trans comes along. The brainchild of an upstart telecom company, Trans is (as its name suggests) a transcendent marvel: a sleek, handheld interpersonal communication device capable of flawless operation anywhere in the world, at any time. “A cell phone, but not”—transmitting with crystal clarity across a newly discovered, never-utilized bandwidth . . . and poised to spark a new-technology revolution. When its creators offer Peter a position on their team, it should be a golden opportunity for him. If only he wasn’t seemingly going mad.Everywhere Peter turns, inexplicable apparitions are walking before him or reaching out in torment. After a chilling encounter with his own lost child he begins to grasp the terrifying truth: Trans is a Pandora’s box that has tapped into a frequency not of this world . . . but of the next. And now, via this open channel to oblivion, the dead have gained access to the living. For Peter, and for humankind, a long, shadowy night of the soul has descended, bringing with it the stuff of a horrifying nightmare from which they may never awaken.By turns spine-tingling, provocative, and heart-wrenching, Dead Lines marks a major turning point in the consistently dazzling storytelling career of Greg Bear. Alongside its hero, Dead Lines peers into the darkest place we can imagine and wonders—fearfully—what might be peering back.From the Hardcover edition.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jun 1, 2004
• ISBN: 9780345478344

Greg Bear

Greg Bear was born in San Diego, California. His father was in the US Navy, and by the time he was twelve years old, Greg had lived in Japan, the Philippines, Alaska – where at the age of ten he completed his first short story – and various other parts of the US. He published his first science fiction story aged sixteen. His novels and stories have won prizes and been translated around the world.

Reviews for Dead Lines

[pgchuis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

#4 in the series and this time Liz is trying to prevent a Middle East peace conference to be held at Gleneagles from being derailed. Lots of double dealing involving Mossad, Syria, the CIA etc and it all got a bit convoluted. The conversation at the end between Liz and her CIA counterpart, where they methodically explain the loose ends to each other was a bit clunky, but perhaps necessary. The Gleneagles setting was well described.The "love triangle" between Charles, Joanne and Liz seems finally to be reaching some sort of resolution, which pleases me as only Joanne comes out of it with any credit as far as I am concerned. It puzzles me why Liz is so irresistible to the men who have authority over her at work and why she seems to be seeking a father figure. It's distracting and makes me like her less.

[gmmartz · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

'Dead Line', the 4th in Stella Rimington's Liz Carlyle series, is a tricky one. The British secret service is made aware of the potential for the disruption of an international conference in Scotland, and from there it becomes a sometimes tedious search for the who, what, when, where, and why. As with her prior novels, Ms. Rimington provides great descriptions of tradecraft and the inner workings of both the security services and the political atmosphere surrounding them. What I most enjoy about the series, though, is the lead character. Liz isn't a killing machine or a bloodless analytical robot, but is rather a hyper-competent agent with a conscience and other very human qualities and needs. The author has done fine work in developing this character and, with the announcement at the very end of the book, we can look forward to what I can assume to be new entanglements on her social side.The writing is crisp but the book doesn't move as quickly as I expected. That's probably on me- security investigations mixed with diplomacy and international competition between services don't move fast, and Ms. Rimington obviously knows what's involved there. Two problems I had with 'Dead Line': the dialogue of one of the American CIA officers didn't ring very true. He was an ex-Ivy league Anglophile who spoke as if he were British. The other issue was with the conclusion- at the risk of being a spoiler, I didn't think the level of cunning and precision of the perpetrator would have resulted in the dependence on the final group of involved characters and the complicated type of attack that was carried out.So, this was definitely a worthwhile read by an author who has spun a fine series out of her experience as the head of Britain's MI5.

[magentaflake · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

a bit contrived

[picardyrose · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Matter-of-fact and unexpected.

[philogos_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is the third (and worst) Liz Carlyle novel I've read. As such, I was expecting the cardboard characters and the author's close identification with her protagonist. Liz Carlyle is clearly perfect - or perhaps she is how the author would see herself in an ideal world, complete with a hero (heroine?) worshipping acolyte, an idealised boss and a load of untrustworthy and self-seeking colleagues.I was, however, taken aback this time by the apology for a plot and the complete lack of consistency and motivation with extraneous and contradictory plot lines and loose ends never tied up. The following questions might constitute spoilers, so stop here if that worries you:1. Having met the villain, why does Liz not recognise him in the garden?2. Why on earth does he try to run her over with a car?3. How can he be sitting next to himself at the cricket?4. Why does he disappear at the airport when there is no need to and it jeopardises his entire plan?By the way, the plot is so convoluted and obscure that I could have got the wrong end of the stick regarding any or all of the above and my wife threw the book away in disgust so that I can't check unless I waste money on a new copy.Perhaps the most worrying aspect of this whole book is the fact that it purports to have been written by the ex head of MI5. If this is the intellectual level of the secret service, no wonder they seem to stumble from catastrophe to disaster. We should be afraid for the future of civilisation. Very afraid.

[john257hopper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This fourth novel in the author's series of intelligence-themed thrillers featuring MI5 officer Liz Carlyle features a threat to a Middle East peace conference in Gleneagles in Scotland, from a source with their own particular motives. The number of agents running other agents in double or triple bluffs confused me a bit, but as ever Liz is a sympathetic figure and her colleagues are becoming clearer and more well-rounded ongoing characters, some of them rather likeable like her boss Charles Wetherby and her her assistant Peggy Kinsolving. I am enjoying this series more now and, as always any scepticism about the apparent implausibility of some of the plot twists, is offset by the fact of the author's former position as MI5 Director General.

[henrimoreaux · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I was drawn to this book by the blurb, it sounded like the basis for an exciting spy thriller. Sadly, whilst this book has the elements of an exciting spy thriller, it is far from such.

The narrative it at times rather dry and the plot isn't unique in terms of the method of getting to the climax, it's merely a rehash of the methods of a hundred other spy movies & books implemented in a way that makes you feel drowsy.

It's set in Britain so predictably there is no gun play, but there's also not much in the way of actual spying either just some dull scenes of meeting on a cliff top, a car toppling over a cliff and a bland description of someone being hit by a car. Clichéd British phrases such as 'jolly dangerous time' also didn't aid the narrative.

If I were to describe this book in two words: resoundingly average, in one word: dull.

[eyejaybee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I would be interested to know to what extent Liz Carlyle, the appealing protagonist of Stella Rimington’s espionage novels, is based upon the author herself. Liz is pragmatic, resourceful and quick thinking, relying upon her own abilities rather than the high tech accessories that so often clutter spy novels.On a related point, having been rereading the sequence, I also wonder how far the character of Zoe Reynolds, who featured so notably in the first three seasons of the television series Spooks is based upon Liz Carlyle. They share the same practical approach to the numerous challenges and operations thrown their way, and both display an occasional healthy cynicism, or even despair, about the value or rectitude of their role.Dead Line represents the fourth outing for Liz Carlyle, and once again she finds herself feeling as wary of her MI6 and CIA counterparts as of the ‘official’ enemy. A major Middle East peace summit has been scheduled to be held at the luxury Scottish hotel complex of Gleneagles, but intelligence filters down to MI6 about a Syrian plot to disrupt it. Liz is assigned to investigate potential links to the plot in the UK, and to ensure that the peace talks can proceed safely.One of the great qualities of Liz Carlyle as a character is her humanity. She isn’t perfect, and occasionally makes mistakes. She is also as susceptible to mistaken first impressions as anyone else, and finds herself having to reconsider various assumptions she has made about her family and personal life. Where Rimington shows her deftness as a writer is in balancing Liz’s personal hinterland with the requirements of the plot, and never allowing the former to overshadow or dwarf the latter.This is not an edge of the seat thriller – that is not the sort of book that Stella Rimington is aiming for. It is, however, a well-crafted, well written and entertaining story, that captures (and then retains) the reader’s attention right from the start.