From Publishers Weekly
Hard science and human interest intersect ingeniously in this prequel to Bear's Eon (1987) and Eternity (1988). Twenty-five years after the opening of The Way, a kind of tunnel through space that permits access to different planets and time continua, Olmy Ap Sennon is sent through it to spy on 4000 "divaricates" who fled the starship Thistledown for a utopian existence on the sylvan world of Lamarckia. What he finds, instead, is a full-blown divaricate civil war, whose opposing sides mirror his own ambivalent feelings about life aboard the strictly regimented starship. Olmy and the divaricates work through their respective identity crises against the exuberantly imagined backdrop of Lamarckia, a planet whose integrated ecosystem adapts readily to change. While occasionally numbing in their detail, Bear's meticulous descriptions of flora and fauna serve an important function: they authenticate Lamarckia as a world that assimilates and learns from other organisms, making it the perfect crucible for examining the personal and political dramas staged within it. This is a stunning SF novel that extrapolates a scientifically complex future from the basic stuff of human nature. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
In Legacy's predecessor, Eon (1985), part of Earth's population escaped a nuclear war by traveling through time along a path called the Way. As the sequel commences, the Way has been in use for some time, and dissidents have found ways to drop out more thoroughly than any 1960s hippie ever did. One such dropped-out group consists of 4,000 antitechnological Naderites, to whom a troubleshooter named Olmy is dispatched. He finds them on a settled, Earthlike world and their society taking a host of radically different directions, all of which Bear works out with his accustomed literacy, scientific accuracy, and deft characterization. As much an exercise in world building and social experimentation as a conventional story, the novel will not disappoint Eon's fans and, since Bear really keeps it moving, stands well enough to be read on its own. Roland Green


Review
"A remarkable and utterly convincing feat of creation." --Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"Hard science and human interest intersect ingeniously in the prequel to Bear's Eon and Eternity....This is a stunning SF novel that extrapolates a scientifically complex future from the basic stuff of human nature." --Publishers Weekly (starred)



Review
"A remarkable and utterly convincing feat of creation." --Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"Hard science and human interest intersect ingeniously in the prequel to Bear's Eon and Eternity....This is a stunning SF novel that extrapolates a scientifically complex future from the basic stuff of human nature." --Publishers Weekly (starred)



Review
"A remarkable and utterly convincing feat of creation." --Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"Hard science and human interest intersect ingeniously in the prequel to Bear's Eon and Eternity....This is a stunning SF novel that extrapolates a scientifically complex future from the basic stuff of human nature." --Publishers Weekly (starred)



Book Description
The Way is a tunnel through space and time. The entrance is through the hollow asteroid Thistledown and the space station Axis City that sits at the asteroid's center. From there the Flawships ride the center of the Way, traveling to other worlds and times.

Now the rulers of Axis City have discovered that a huge group of colonists has secretly entered one of the interdicted worlds along the Way. In some ways Lamarkia is very Earth-like--but its biology is extraordinary. A single genetic entity can take many forms, and span a continent. There are only a few of these "ecos" on Lamarkia, and the effect of human interaction on them is unknown.

Olmy Ap Sennon has been sent to secretly assess the extent of the damage. But he will find far more than an intriguing alien biology--for on their new world the secret colonists have returned to the old ways of human history: war, famine, and ecological disaster. On this mission, Olmy will learn about the basics: love, responsibility, and even failure...



Download Description
In this sequel to EON, Greg Bear continues to explore the possibilities presented by the asteroid Thistledown, a remnant of a lost human civilization. The Way is a tunnel through space and time that leads to other worlds, some more like planet Earth than Earth itself. It is perhaps the most formidable discovery in Thistledown and with it come disputes as to the nature of the Way and how it should be used. The Way can be reached only through Axis City, the only space station of Thistledown. The ruling body of Axis City, the Hexamon, has decreed that other worlds reached by The Way must be left untouched as an insurance against future needs of the human race. But then the Hexamon hear of a group of clandestine colonists who have settled on one of the new worlds. Olmy Ap Sennon is an eager young career soldier who must go and investigate this illegal colony, and at the same time confront his own humanity. As he witnesses the hardship and beauty of the outlaw human colony, he learns what it means to struggle with war, ecological disaster, love, and death.


About the Author
Greg Bear sold his first short story, at the age of fifteen, to Robert Lowndes's Famous Science Fiction. Since then, he has written some twenty novels. A winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards, Bear is married to Astrid Anderson, and they, and their two children, live near Seattle, Washington.

FROM OUR EDITORS

In this sci-fi novel, young Olmy Ap Sennon embarks on an unusual mission to the protected world of the Earth-like Lamarckia to find out more about the planet and its life, and discovers how a huge group of illegal immigrants has changed it. "If anyone is the complete master of the grand-scale SF novel, it's Bear..."-- Booklist.

ANNOTATION

Bear's stunning creation, The Way--a tunnel through time and space, with exits into a million different versions of Earth--has intrigued readers for years. In this SF blockbuster, the Way is further explored, when a young Hexemon agent is given the assignment to investigate the illegal emigration of 4,000 Naderites to this world.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In this sequel to EON, Greg Bear continues to explore the possibilities presented by the asteroid Thistledown, a remnant of a lost human civilization. The Way is a tunnel through space and time that leads to other worlds, some more like planet Earth than Earth itself. It is perhaps the most formidable discovery in Thistledown and with such an important discovery comes dispute as to the nature of the Way and how it should be used.

The Way can only be reached through Axis City, the only space station of Thistledown. The ruling body of Axis City, the Hexamon, has decreed that other worlds reached by The Way must be left untouched as an insurance against future needs of the human race. But then the Hexamon hear of a group of clandestine colonists who have settled in one of the new worlds. Olmy Ap Sennon is an eager young career soldier who must go and investigate this illegal colony, and at the same time confront his own humanity. As he witnesses the hardship and beauty of the outlaw human colony, he learns what it means to struggle with war, ecological disasters, love, and death.

SYNOPSIS

" In this sequel to EON, the Way is a tunnel through space and time that leads to other worlds; some very similar to earth. It's a most formidable discovery and with such an important find comes disputes as to the nature of the Way and how it should be used. "

FROM THE CRITICS

BookList - Roland Green