As always, Greg Bear's characters have depth and design. Agent Griffin is the son of a legend within the Bureau, and partly as a result of that pressure, has struggled his way through academy training. Only just avoiding being slung out on more than one occasion. Agent Al-Husam, a Muslim, gets to use his Arabic heritage on stealth missions in the Middle East. Jane Rowland, plays a comparatively minor role, but helps to stop this being a boys own novel. But it is the oddball team of Griffin, Al-Husam and the more experienced Rose around whom the story is built.

A man with mismatched eyes, (no, not David Bowie), is claiming the ability to manufacture a gene specific variant of anthrax, which would enable fanatics to commit selective genocide against their innate enemies. As usual, Bear's speculative science and characterisation are top notch stuff, very cinematic in style, but rarely stingy when it comes to credible background. For example, factional domestic politics are shown to inadvertently hamper the FBI's efforts, and his mad genius terrorist is imbued with a certain degree of sympathy. In other words, this is not a book for anyone of the "you're either with us or against us" mentality. Like the real world, Bear's creation is a lot more complicated than that, with every action creating a reaction. The Dome of the Rock is destroyed, and as a direct result there is another, 9/11 level attack on the United States. However, the threatened genetic plague has its origins in domestic terrorism, and a man who sees it as his duty to forcibly erase what political policy cannot.

Occasionally, the plot does seem to drag a little, but the intriguing arc of the story carried me through the dull spots. The idea of Western and Eastern extremists finding common cause is indeed chilling, and easy to believe. Bear's SF roots are evident, but at no point threaten to overwhelm the solid thriller theme. Scientific specifics are kept in the background when it comes to the mechanisms of the bio-tech threat, which according to Bear is something he did for security reasons. It's an explanation that made me rather uncomfortable, as anyone crazy enough to want to emulate the plot would surely Google major science sites long before they read this book. What bothers me is that if a writer as well-known and respected as Bear is self-censoring his fiction, how long will it be before anyone who does include the details is branded a terrorist sympathiser? Setting such concerns aside, Quantico is a quality work that sits well among Bear's previous titles. Personally, I preferred his seminal dark fantasy, most recently republished as Songs of Earth And Power, but that was then and this is now. If Bear wants to compete with the likes of Tom Clancy and Dan Brown, the evidence here is that he is up to the task.