Eon is a pretty good story overall. The first half of it suffers from outdated political motifs such as the threat and eventuality of mutually assured nuclear destruction between the U.S., Russia and China, resulting in a nuclear winter called "the Death." Some of the sections that dwell on these obsolete political posturings are humorous, but many are merely tiresome.

The story hits its stride when it sticks to the science fiction and leaves the political intrigue behind. The incredibly cool technology of the chambers within the Stone and the synthetic universe of the Way are what kept me coming back to the story. It seems like these sections were fewer and shorter than the others, but it may just be that I read through them faster.

Of course, if there is a moral to the story, it's wariness. One finds out that all of the new technology is, just like the nuclear warheads that caused the Death, nothing more than a political tool to be manipulated by the descendants of humanity. It's not necessarily an overt message, but it's not a hidden one either -- I give Greg Bear credit at least for not making more or less out of it than it should be.

And I'm still laughing about the concept of Naderites.