This is one paranoid hard SF novel by Greg Bear. A clear majority of his Amazon critics seemed to hate it. I rather enjoyed it, but it certainly was a weirdie. Did you know Stalin was still alive, barely, in a bacteria-filled tank in Manhattan?
Good thing I’m not a conspiracy buff, into things like government mind control. Otherwise I could be losing sleep over this one. Instead, I always remember the words of an old friend who retired from fed law enforcement: “They (the feds) couldn’t find their own posterior with both hands.” Or the Russians, either, who are the real bad guys in this one.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 