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Gregory Dale Bear (August 20, 1951 – November 19, 2022) was an American science fiction writer.[4] His work covered themes of galactic conflict (Forge of God books), parallel universes (The Way series), consciousness and cultural practices (Queen of Angels), and accelerated evolution (Blood Music, Darwin's Radio, and Darwin's Children). His last work was the 2021 novel The Unfinished Land. Greg Bear wrote over 50 books in total.[5]
Greg Bear | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Bear in 2016 | |
| Born | Gregory Dale Bear August 20, 1951 San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Died | November 19, 2022 (aged 71)[1][2][3] |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Education | San Diego State University (BA) |
| Genre | Science fiction, Speculative fiction |
| Notable works | Blood Music |
| Website | |
| gregbear | |
He was one of the five co-founders of San Diego Comic-Con.[6][7]
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Greg Bear was born in San Diego, California.[8] He attended San Diego State University (1968–1973), 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.[citation needed]
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Bear is often classified as a hard science fiction author because of the level of scientific detail in his work.[5] Early in his career, he also published work as an artist, including illustrations for an early version of the reference book Star Trek Concordance and covers for periodicals Galaxy and F&SF.[9] He sold his first story, "Destroyers", to Famous Science Fiction in 1967.[9]
In his fiction, Bear often addresses major questions in contemporary science and culture and proposes 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 do not attract their attention but stay 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 overpopulation 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 indicated.
One of Bear's favorite themes is reality as a function of observation. 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."[a] In Moving Mars, that 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) features nanotechnology. 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. The sequence also charts the historical development of self-awareness in artificial intelligence. Its continuing character Jill was inspired in part by Robert A. Heinlein's self-aware computer Mycroft HOLMES in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966).
Bear, Gregory Benford, and David Brin wrote a trilogy of prequel novels to Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy. Bear wrote the middle book named Foundation and Chaos.
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".[10] He has received many accolades, including five Nebula Awards and two Hugo Awards.[11]
Bear cited 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.[12]
He also served on the Board of Advisors for the Museum of Science Fiction.[13] Bear was also one of the five co-founders of San Diego Comic-Con.[6]
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In 1975, Bear married Christina M. Nielson; they divorced in 1981. In 1983, he married Astrid Anderson, the daughter of the science fiction and fantasy authors Poul and Karen Anderson. They had two children, Chloe and Alexandra, and resided near Seattle, Washington.[14]
Bear died on November 19, 2022, at the age of 71, from multiple strokes, caused by clots that had been hiding in a false lumen of the anterior artery to the brain since a surgery in 2014.[15] After he had been on life support for two days and was not expected to recover, per his advance healthcare directive, life support was withdrawn.[16][17]
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- The story on which the novel Blood Music was based, published in the June 1983 issue of Analog, won the Best Novelette Nebula Award (1983)[18] and Hugo Award (1984).[19]
- "Tangents" won both the Hugo Award for Best Short Story[20] and the Nebula Award for Best Short Story[21]
- Darwin's Radio won the Endeavour Award in 2000.
- Hull Zero Three was short-listed for the Arthur C. Clarke (Book) Award in 2012.
- Hayakawa Award "Heads" Best Foreign Short Story (1996).
- Inkpot Award (1984)[22]
- 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]
- The 2024 novel Halo: Epitaph, a continuation of Bear's Forerunner Saga, was dedicated to Bear's memory by author Kelly Gay.
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Novels
Series
- Darwin
- Darwin's Radio (1999) Nebula Award winner, Hugo, Locus SF, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards nominee, 2000[24]
- Darwin's Children (2003) Locus SF, Arthur C. Clarke, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards nominee, 2004[25]
- The Forge of God
- The Forge of God (1987) Hugo, and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1988;[26] Nebula Award nominee, 1986[27]
- Anvil of Stars (1992)
- Songs of Earth and Power
- The Infinity Concerto (1984) Locus Fantasy Award nominee, 1985[28]
- The Serpent Mage (1986)
- Songs of Earth and Power (1994 – combines The Infinity Concerto and The Serpent Mage)
- Quantico
- Quantum Logic
Novels in internal chronology:[29]
- Queen of Angels (1990) Hugo, Locus, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards nominee, 1991[30]
- Slant (1997) John W. Campbell Memorial Award nominee, 1998[31]
- Heads (1990)
- Moving Mars (1993) Nebula Award winner; Hugo, Locus SF, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards nominee, 1994[32]
- War dogs
- War dogs. Orbit. 2014.
- Killing Titan (2015)
- Take Back the Sky (2016)
Series (non-originating author)
- Foundation and Chaos (1998) (Second Foundation series: book 2)
- The Man Who Would Be Kzin (with S.M. Stirling) (1991)
- Forerunner Saga (trilogy)
- Halo: Cryptum (2011)
- Halo: Primordium (2012)
- Halo: Silentium (2013)[35]
- Corona (1984)
- Rogue Planet (2000)
- Foreworld Saga
- The Mongoliad (2012–2013[36])
Non-series
- Hegira (1979)
- Psychlone (1979)
- Beyond Heaven's River (1980)
- Strength of Stones (1981)
- Blood Music (1985) Hugo, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards nominee, 1986;[27] British Science Fiction Award nominee, 1986;[27] Nebula Award nominee, 1985[28]
- Dinosaur Summer (1998) (winner 1999 Endeavour Award)
- Vitals (2002) John W. Campbell Memorial Award nominee 2003[37]
- Dead Lines (2004)
- City at the End of Time (Gollancz edition published July 17, 2008;[38] Del Rey Books edition August 2008[39]) (Nominated for the Locus and Campbell Awards, 2009[40])
- Hull Zero Three (2010)
- The Unfinished Land (2021)
Short fiction
- Hardfought (1983)
- Collections
- The Wind from a Burning Woman (1983, vt The Venging 1992)
- Early Harvest (February 1988)
- Tangents (1989)
- Bear's Fantasies (1992)
- The White Horse Child (1993)
- The Collected Stories of Greg Bear (2002)
- W3: Women in Deep Time (2003)
- Sleepside: The Collected Fantasies (November 2005)
Anthologies edited
- New Legends (1995, with Martin H. Greenberg)
- Multiverse: Exploring Poul Anderson's Worlds (2014, with Gardner Dozois)
- Nebula Awards Showcase 2015 (2015)[41]
Critical studies and reviews of Bear's work
- War dogs
- Sakers, Don (May 2015). "The Reference Library". Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Vol. 135, no. 5. pp. 104–107.
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- Bear has credited the inspiration for the idea to Frederick Kantor's 1967 treatise "Information Mechanics" (see Digital physics).
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