Gregory Dale Bear
(August 20, 1951 ? November 19, 2022) was an
American
science fiction
author. He wrote about war across the galaxy, artificial universes, consciousness, and evolution.
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, Erik and Alexandra. They live outside of
Seattle
,
Washington
.
Bear is often called a
hard science fiction
author because he uses many scientific details in his work.
Bear often answers major questions in contemporary science and culture with fictional solutions. For example,
The Forge of God
tries to explain the
Fermi paradox
. If the galaxy is filled with intelligences that could be very dangerous, young civilizations could only survive by staying quiet so nobody would notice them and attack. In
Queen of Angels
Bear examines crime, guilt and punishment in society. He does this by examining consciousness and awareness. Part of the novel is about highly advanced computers that begging to become intelligent and aware of themselves as they communicate with humans. In the two books "Darwin's Radio" and "Darwin's Children" he writes about the problem of overpopulation with a mutation the human genome making, basically a new series of humans. The books bring up the question of cultural acceptance of something brand new that cannot be stopped.
One of Bear's favorite themes is how observers effect or create reality. In
Blood Music
reality becomes unstable as the number of observers?trillions of intelligent single-cell organisms?gets higher and higher. Both
Anvil of Stars
?a sequel to
The Forge of God
?and
Moving Mars
propose 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. The short story described microscopic medical machines. He described DNA as a computer system that could be changed. In
Queen of Angels
and
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 "quantum logic computer"?and with
Moving Mars
. These books also show the historical development of self-awareness in AIs. One AI character called Jill is in all of these books. Bear was influenced by
Robert A. Heinlein
's self-aware computer Mycroft Holmes ("High-Optional, Logical, Multi-Evaluating Supervisor") in
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
when creating Jill.
More recent works, such as the two novels
Darwin's Radio
and
Darwin's Children
stick closely to the known facts of
molecular biology
of
viruses
and
evolution
. These books are about the impact of a strange
disease
that appears to make evolutionary transitions happen. Bear includes some very speculative ideas, but he wrote about them so carefully that
Darwin's Radio
gained praise in the science journal
Nature
.
Bear,
Gregory Benford
, and
David Brin
wrote a series of three novels that take place before
Isaac Asimov
's famous
Foundation
series. Bear is named as the author of the second of the three books.
While most of Bear's writing is
science fiction
, he also wrote in other genres. Two of his early works,
The Infinity Concerto
and
The Serpent Mage
are clearly
fantasies
. These are now published together as one novel called
Songs of Earth and Power
.
Psychlone
is horror. Bear called his story
Dead Lines
a "high-tech ghost story."
[4]
He has received many accolades, including five Nebula awards and two Hugo awards for science fiction.
[5]
Bear died from multiple
strokes
on November 19, 2022, at the age of 71.
[6]
- Darwin's Radio
(1999) Nebula Award
winner
, Hugo, Locus SF, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards nominee, 2000
[7]
- Darwin's Children
(2003) Locus SF, Arthur C. Clarke, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards nominee, 2004
[8]
Quantico (books set before the Queen of Angels series)
[
change
|
change source
]
- Queen of Angels
(1990) Hugo, Locus, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards nominee, 1991
[12]
- /
(also known as
Slant
; 1997) John W. Campbell Memorial Award nominee, 1998
[13]
Series he added to, but did not begin
[
change
|
change source
]
- Psychlone
(1979)
- Hegira
(1979)
- Beyond Heaven's River
(1980)
- Strength of Stones
(1981)
- Blood Music
(1985) Hugo, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards nominee, 1986;
[10]
British Science Fiction Award nominee, 1986;
[10]
Nebula Award nominee, 1985
[11]
- Sleepside Story
(1988)
- Heads
(1990)
- Moving Mars
(1993) Nebula Award winner; Hugo, Locus SF, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards nominee, 1994
[16]
- New Legends
(1995)
- Dinosaur Summer
(1998) (winner 1999
Endeavour Award
)
- Country of the Mind
(
June 1998
)
- Vitals
(2002) John W. Campbell Memorial Award nominee 2003
[17]
- Dead Lines
(2004)
- City at the End of Time
(
Gollancz
edition published 7/17/2008;
[18]
Del Rey Books
edition August, 2008
[19]
) (Nominated for the Locus and Campbell Awards, 2009
[20]
)
- Hull Zero Three
(to be released November 2010)
- The Mongoliad
(expected 2010
[21]
)
- Before
Blood Music
was a novel, it was a story published in the June 1983 issue of Asimov's. It won the Best Novelette Nebula Award (1983) and Hugo Award (1984).
[22]
- Darwin's Radio
won the Endeavor Award in 2000
- 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."
[23]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Greg Bear
.
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Greg Bear
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