Everything about Greg Bear totally explained
Gregory Dale Bear (born
August 20,
1951) is an
American science fiction and mainstream author. His work has covered themes of galactic conflict (
Forge of God books), artificial universes (
Eon series), consciousness and cultural practices (
Queen of Angels), and accelerated evolution (
Blood Music,
Darwin's Radio, and
Darwin's Children). Bear,
Gregory Benford, and
David Brin also wrote a trilogy of prequel novels to
Isaac Asimov's famous
Foundation trilogy with Bear credited for the middle book in the trilogy.
Biography
Bear was born in
San Diego, California. From
1968 to
1973 he attended
San Diego State University, from which he received a
Bachelor of Arts degree. In
1975, he married Christina M. Nielson, but they divorced in
1981. He remarried in
1983, to Astrid Anderson, the daughter of science fiction author
Poul Anderson. They have two
children, Erik and Alexandra. Erik is currently a Painting and Drawing major at the University of Washington. They live outside of
Seattle,
Washington.
Career
The scientific details in his work are such that he's often classified as a
hard science fiction author.
Bear often addresses major questions in contemporary science and culture with fictional solutions. For example,
The Forge of God offers an explanation for the
Fermi paradox, supposing that the galaxy is filled with potentially predatory intelligences, and that those young civilizations which survive are those which don't attract the attention of the predators — by staying quiet. In
Queen of Angels Bear examines crime, guilt and punishment in society, framing these questions around an examination of consciousness and awareness, including the emergent self-awareness of highly-advanced computers in communication with humans.
One of Bear's favorite themes is reality as a function of observers. In
Blood Music reality becomes unstable as the number of observers — trillions of intelligent single-cell organisms — spirals higher and higher. Both
Anvil of Stars — a sequel to
The Forge of God — and
Moving Mars postulate a physics based on information exchange between particles, capable of being altered at the "bit level". (Bear has credited the inspiration for this idea to Frederick Kantor's 1967 treatise, "Information Mechanics.") In
Moving Mars this knowledge is used to remove Mars from the solar system and transfer it to an orbit around a distant star.
Blood Music (first published as a short story in 1983, and expanded to a novel in 1985) has also been credited as being the first account of nanotechnology in science fiction. More certainly, the short story is the first in science fiction to describe microscopic medical machines, and to treat DNA as a computational system, capable of being reprogrammed--that is, expanded and modified. In later works, beginning with
Queen of Angels and continuing with its sequel,
Slant, Bear gives a detailed description of a near-future nanotechnological society. This historical sequence continues with
Heads — which may contain the first description of a so-called "quantum logic computer" — and with
Moving Mars. This sequence also charts the historical development of self-awareness in AIs, with its continuing character, Jill, inspired in part by
Robert A. Heinlein's self-aware computer Mycroft Holmes ("High-Optional, Logical, Multi-Evaluating Supervisor") in
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.
More recent works such as the
Darwin's Radio/
Darwin's Children pair of novels, which deal with the impact of a strange
disease which appears to drive evolutionary transitions, stick closely to the known facts of
molecular biology of
viruses and
evolution. While some fairly speculative ideas are entertained (it is after all, fiction) they're introduced in such a rigorous and disciplined way that
Darwin's Radio gained praise in the science journal
Nature.
While most of Bear's work is
science fiction, two of his early works,
The Infinity Concerto and
The Serpent Mage, which are now published together as one novel
Songs of Earth and Power, are clearly
fantasies, and
Psychlone is horror.
Dead Lines, which straddles the line between science fiction and fantasy was described by Bear as a "high-tech ghost story" (
interview, Fiction Writers of the Monterey Peninsula
). First and foremost, Bear is an author of works of
speculative fiction that are intended to entertain, edify, and inspire, and the sheer audacity of his scope and vision, as well as the expertise and intelligence that he's exhibited throughout his career, have made him one of science fiction's most respected authors. He has received many accolades, including five Nebula awards and two Hugo awards for science fiction. New readers wanting to familiarize themselves with his writing could start with the award winners from the list below.
Blood Music,
Moving Mars, and
Darwin's Radio serve as a fine introduction to Greg Bear's body of work.
Bibliography
Collection of Short Stories
Darwin
Darwin's Radio (1999) (winner 2000 Nebula award for best novel and 2000 Endeavour Award)
Darwin's Children (2003)
The Eon Series
Eon (1985)
Eternity (1988)
Legacy (1995)
The Forge of God series
The Forge of God (1987)
Anvil of Stars (1992)
Foundation and Chaos (1998) (Second Foundation series: book 2)
Songs of Earth and Power
The Infinity Concerto (1984)
The Serpent Mage (1986)
Songs of Earth and Power (1994 - combines The Infinity Concerto and The Serpent Mage)
Star Trek: The Original Series
Corona (1984)
The Man Who Would Be Kzin (with S.M. Stirling)
Rogue Planet (2000)
Queen of Angels
A group of novels featuring a shared history and some common characters.
Queen of Angels (1990)
Heads (1990)
Moving Mars (1993) (won the 1994 Nebula award for best novel)
/ (aka Slant) (1997)
Non-series Novels
Psychlone (1979)
Hegira (1979)
Beyond Heaven's River (1980)
The Strength of Stones (1981)
Blood Music (1985) (won the 1984 Nebula award for best novella, and the Hugo award)
Sleepside Story (1988)
New Legends (1995)
Dinosaur Summer (1998) (winner 1999 Endeavour Award)
Country of the Mind (June 1998)
Vitals (2002)
Dead Lines (2004)
Quantico (2005)
Awards and accolades
Hayakawa Award "Heads" Best Foreign Short Story (1996)
Doris Lessing, winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in literature, wrote, "I also admire the classic sort of science fiction, like Blood Music, by Greg Bear. He's a great writer."Further Information
Get more info on 'Greg Bear'.
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