Greg Bear

Greg Bear

Gregory Dale Bear (born August 20, 1951) is an American science fiction and mainstream author. His work has covered themes of galactic conflict, artificial universes, consciousness and cultural practices, and accelerated evolution.

His most recent project is a trilogy of novels focusing on the Forerunner civilization for the first time, set prior to the activation of the Halo Array, before and during their war with the Flood. The first novel in the series, titled Halo: Cryptum, is set to be released on January 4, 2011.

Biography

Bear was born in San Diego, California. From 1968 to 1973 he attended San Diego State University, where 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. They live outside of Seattle, Washington.

Career

Bear is often classified as a hard science fiction author, based on the scientific details in his work. He often addresses major questions in contemporary science and culture with fictional solutions. One of Bear's favorite themes is reality as a function of observers.

Notably, Bear has been credited as being the first author to describe nanotechnology in science fiction, namely in the story Blood Music. 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 most of Bear's work is science fiction, he has also written fantasy and horror stories, as well as science fiction fantasy. He has received many accolades, including five Nebula awards and two Hugo awards for science fiction just to name a few.

Bibliography

Novels

Series

Darwin

• Darwin's Radio (1999)
• Darwin's Children (2003)

The Forge of God

• The Forge of God (1987)
• Anvil of Stars (1992)

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)

Quantico (Queen of Angels prequels)

• Quantico (2005)
• Mariposa (2009)

Queen of Angels

• Queen of Angels (1990)
• / (also known as Slant; 1997)

The Way

• Eon (1985)
• Eternity (1988)
• Legacy (1995)
• The Way of All Ghosts (1999)

Series (non-originating author)

• The Foundation Series: Foundation and Chaos (1998) (Second Foundation series: book 2)

• Man-Kzin Wars: The Man Who Would Be Kzin (with S.M. Stirling) (1991)

• Star Trek - TOS: Corona (1984)

• Star Wars: Rogue Planet (2000)

• Halo: Cryptum (2011)

Non-series

• Psychlone (1979)
• Hegira (1979)
• Beyond Heaven's River (1980)
• Strength of Stones (1981)
• Blood Music (1985)
• Sleepside Story (1988)
• Heads (1990)
• Moving Mars (1993)
• New Legends (1995)
• Dinosaur Summer (1998)
• Country of the Mind (1998)
• Vitals (2002)
• Dead Lines (2004)
• City at the End of Time (2008)
• Hull Zero Three (2010)
• The Mongoliad (expected 2010)

Short Fiction

Collections

• The Wind from a Burning Woman (1983)
• Early Harvest (February 1988)
• Tangents (1989)
• The Venging (1992)
• Bear's Fantasies (1992)
• W3 Women in deep time (2003)
• Sleepside: The Collected Fantasies (November 2005)

External links

• Greg Bear's Official Site
• Greg Bear interview on 343 Industries Podcast #1
• Interview at SFFWorld.com
• All of Greg Bear's audio interviews on the podcast The Future And You (in which he describes his expectations of the future)
• Greg Bear at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Interview with Greg Bear Conducted by Murder and Mystery Books 101
• Complete list of sci-fi award wins and nominations by novel