There's a roadblock on the corner, they put from time to time

I am in the middle of Greg Bear's Quantico and I wonder why I haven't heard more about it. It is a bleak techno thriller set in the second decade of the 21st century with a US chastened by the Iraq experience and now trying to deal with multiple terrorist organizations, both domestic and international, within its borders.

Maybe it will go horribly wrong in the back half, but so far I find a scary look at a possible future. It is more frightening than the Execution Channel because that one seems a bit more over the top. Bear's protagonists are FBI agents, who have as much trouble from other government agencies as they do from the terrorists. The principal plot concerns biological weapons and involves right wing abortion clinic bombers and radical Islamists.

What I like best is how Bear quietly shows the creeping authoritarianism that results from the counter terror war. Agents make offhand references to the mandatory shutdown systems that police cars can use to stop any vehicle, the official hidden prison system in the US, the increased use of renditions and other little signs that all is not well in the Republic.

Techno-fans will love all his ideas about new training at Quantico, the arms race between criminals and cops that includes robots (like this one?) and of course biological weapons.

I suppose it could be that this is a thriller and Bear is a science fiction author, so his typical audience just wasn't interested. Or it could be it is too dark. I guess I will wait and see.