Remember when MRIs were called NMRs? The N standing for "nuclear" scared people so they had to change the name. Researchers at a company like Genetron would have been on the Internet back then (which still had a capital 'I') but ordinary humans hadn't heard of it and Greg Bear was either ordinary or writing for the ordinary. There was still a World Trade Center and a Soviet Union and a West Germany. This is the future-past of Blood Music. The world will end before 9-11, taken over by smart blood cells who encode us all on a micro level. The original "Downsizing."

In one chapter, a paranoid Dr. Bernard asks himself about the BAD people. Will they be miniatured and preserved as is? The question is never answered but needs to be. It could have been resolved by showing us what happened to Vergil's father, a bad person, but he never appears. Other characters wander off and we never find out what ultimately becomes of them. Vergil's mother, for one. And Candice deserved more of a future too. Mr. Bear writes well enough to have developed these characters better. He could have gotten a 4th star from me.