Instruct: Classify a given Amazon review as either positive or negative.
Query: Boooooooring

Very talky, slow-moving and WAY too long. The central idea is interesting but not enough to carry a 500+ page book. Much of the action, such as it is, takes place "off-camera", being reported by characters or summarized briefly instead of being depicted. The collapse of society amidst paranoia about an unknown disease could have made for a gripping thriller but instead it is treated as incidental. The characters are a bit better realized than in some of Bear's previous novels though not by much. On the other hand the flow of thought-provoking ideas which made many of his earlier novels enjoyable seems to have dried up here. Very disappointing.