Greg Bear

Greg Bear

Bear in 2005
Born Gregory Dale Bear
(1951-08-20) August 20, 1951
San Diego, California, U.S.
Occupation Novelist
Genre Science fiction, Speculative fiction
Notable works Blood Music
Website
www.gregbear.com

Gregory Dale "Greg" Bear (born August 20, 1951) is an American writer best known for science fiction. His work has covered themes of galactic conflict (Forge of God books), artificial universes (The Way series), consciousness and cultural practices (Queen of Angels), and accelerated evolution (Blood Music, Darwin's Radio, and Darwin's Children). His most recent work is the Forerunner Trilogy, written in the Halo universe. Greg Bear has written 44 books in total. Greg Bear was also one of the five co-founders of the San Diego Comic-Con.

Early life

Bear was born in San Diego, California. He attended San Diego State University (1968–73), where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree. At the University, he was a teaching assistant to Elizabeth Chater in her course on science fiction writing, and in later years her friend.

Career

Bear is often classified as a hard science fiction author, based on the scientific details in his work. Early in his career, he also published work as an artist, including illustrations for an early version of the Star Trek Concordance and covers for Galaxy and F&SF.[1] He sold his first story, "Destroyers", to Famous Science Fiction in 1967.[1]

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 young civilizations that survive are those that don't attract their attention—by staying quiet. In Queen of Angels, Bear examines crime, guilt, and punishment in society. He frames these questions around an examination of consciousness and awareness, including the emergent self-awareness of highly advanced computers in communication with humans. In Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children, he addresses the problem of over-population with a mutation in the human genome making, basically, a new series of humans. The question of cultural acceptance of something new and unavoidable is also brought up.

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. Anvil of Stars (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" (see Digital physics)) 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 was first published as a short story (1983) and then expanded to a novel (1985). It has also been credited as 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. Its continuing character Jill was 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.

Bear, Gregory Benford, and David Brin wrote a trilogy of prequel novels to Isaac Asimov's influential Foundation trilogy. Bear is credited for the middle book.

While most of Bear's work is science fiction, he has written in other fiction genres. Examples include Songs of Earth and Power (fantasy) and Psychlone (horror). Bear has described his Dead Lines, which straddles the line between science fiction and fantasy, as a "high-tech ghost story".[2] He has received many accolades, including five Nebula Awards and two Hugo Awards.[3]

Bear cites Ray Bradbury as the most influential writer in his life. He met Bradbury in 1967 and had a lifelong correspondence. As a teenager Bear attended Bradbury lectures and events in Southern California.[4]

He also serves on the Board of Advisors for the Museum of Science Fiction.[5]

Personal life

In 1975, Bear married Christina M. Nielson; they divorced in 1981. In 1983, he married Astrid Anderson, the daughter of science fiction author Poul Anderson. They have two children, Erik and Alexandra. They reside near Seattle, Washington.

He is a deist.[6]

On September 23, 2014, Bear underwent surgery to repair an aortic artery dissection. The procedure included installation of a mechanical aortic valve.[7]

Awards and accolades

Works

Novels

Series

Darwin
The Forge of God
Songs of Earth and Power
Quantum Logic

Novels in internal chronology:[15]

War Dogs
The Way

Series (non-originating author)

The Foundation Series
Man-Kzin Wars
Halo
Forerunner Saga (trilogy)
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Wars
Foreworld Saga

Non-series

Short fiction

Collections

Anthologies edited

References

  1. 1 2 "Greg Bear: Continuing the Dialog", Locus, February 2000, p.4, 76-78.
  2. ↑ "interview". Fiction Writers of the Monterey Peninsula. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  3. ↑ "Top SF/F Authors". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  4. ↑ Adams, John Joseph (6 June 2012). "Sci-Fi Scribes on Ray Bradbury: "Storyteller, Showman and Alchemist"". Wired. Retrieved 20 October 2015 – via Wired.
  5. ↑ "Funds sought for science fiction museum lift-off". USAToday.com. 2013-11-03. Retrieved 2014-09-07.
  6. ↑ Greg Bear at adherents.com: "My religious beliefs are hardly settled--I do believe in God, but leave wide open his (or its) character."
  7. ↑ Greg Bear Has Heart Surgery
  8. ↑ "1984 Award Winners & Nominees". Locus Awards Database. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  9. ↑ Doris Lessing: Hot Dawns, interview by Harvey Blume in Boston Book Review
  10. ↑ "2000 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  11. ↑ "2004 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  12. ↑ "1988 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  13. 1 2 3 "1986 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  14. 1 2 "1985 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  15. ↑ http://www.gregbear.com/blog/display.cfm?id=5617
  16. ↑ "1991 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  17. ↑ "1998 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  18. ↑ "1994 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  19. ↑ "1987 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  20. ↑ "1996 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  21. ↑ Upcoming4.me. "Third novel in the Forerunner Saga by Greg Bear, Halo : Silentium revealed". Upcoming4.me. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
  22. ↑ Eaton, Kit (May 26, 2010). "The Mongoliad App: Neal Stephenson's Novel of the Future?". Fast Company. Retrieved July 4, 2010.
  23. ↑ "2003 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  24. ↑ http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/search-list-Greg%20Bear/~SW=Y~subject=cat3
  25. ↑ http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780345448392
  26. ↑ "2009 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
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