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Greg Bear

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Greg Bear
Bear in 2016
Bear in 2016
BornGregory Dale Bear
(1951-08-20)August 20, 1951
San Diego, California, U.S.
DiedNovember 19, 2022(2022-11-19) (aged 71)[1][2][3]
OccupationNovelist
EducationSan Diego State University (BA)
GenreScience fiction, Speculative fiction
Notable worksBlood Music
Website
gregbear.com

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]

He was one of the five co-founders of San Diego Comic-Con.[6][7]

Early life

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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]

Career

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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]

Personal life and death

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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]

Awards and accolades

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Work Year & Award Category Result Ref.
The Venging 1976 Locus Award Novelette Nominated [18]
Schrödinger's Plague 1982 Analog Award Short Story 4th Place [19]
Petra 1983 Locus Award Short Story Nominated
1983 World Fantasy Award Short Fiction Nominated
1983 Nebula Award Short Story Nominated
1983 SF Chronicle Award Short Story Won [20]
Blood Music 1984 Locus Award Novelette Nominated
1984 Hugo Award Novelette Won
1984 Nebula Award Novelette Won
1986 Locus Award SF Novel Nominated
1986 Hugo Award Novel Nominated
1986 John W. Campbell Memorial Award Science Fiction Novel Nominated
1986 Prix Apollo Award - Won
1986 BSFA Award Novel Nominated
1986 Nebula Award Novel Nominated
1988 Tähtivaeltaja Award - Won
Tangents 1987 Locus Award Short Story Nominated
1987 Hugo Award Short Story Won
1987 Nebula Award Short Story Won
1987 SF Chronicle Award Short Story Nominated [21]
1990 Locus Award Collection Nominated
1994 Seiun Award Best Translated Short Story Won
1998 Kurd Laßwitz Award Foreign Work Nominated [22]
Hardfought 1984 Locus Award Novella Nominated
1984 Hugo Award Novella Nominated
1984 SF Chronicle Award Novella Nominated [23]
1984 Nebula Award Novella Won
Eon 1986 Locus SF Novel Nominated
1987 Arthur C. Clarke Award - Finalist
The Infinity Concerto 1985 Locus Award Fantasy Novel Nominated
The Wind from a Burning Woman 1983 Locus Award Collection Nominated
The Serpent Mage 1987 Locus Award Fantasy Novel Nominated
The Forge of God 1988 Locus Award SF Novel Nominated
1988 Hugo Award Novel Nominated
1988 Nebula Award Novel Nominated
Eternity 1989 Locus Award SF Novel Nominated
Sisters 1990 Locus Award Novelette Nominated
1990 Nebula Award Novelette Nominated
Sleepside Story 1990 Locus Award Novelette Nominated
Heads 1991 Interzone Readers Poll Fiction 4th Place [24]
1991 Locus Award Novella Nominated
1996 Hayakawa's S-F Magazine Reader's Award Foreign Short Story Won
1996 Kurd Laßwitz Award Foreign Work Nominated [25]
1997 Seiun Award Translated Short Story Won
Queen of Angels 1991 Locus Award SF Novel Nominated
1991 John W. Campbell Memorial Award Science Fiction Novel Nominated
1991 Hugo Award Novel Nominated
Bear's Fantasies 1993 World Fantasy Award]] Collection Nominated
Anvil of Stars 1993 Locus Award SF Novel Nominated
Moving Mars 1994 Locus Award SF Novel Nominated
1994 Hugo Award Novel Nominated
1994 John W. Campbell Memorial Award Science Fiction Novel Nominated
1994 SF Chronicle Award Novel Won [26]
1995 Nebula Award Novel Won
1996 Premio Ignotus Foreign Novel Won
1998 Seiun Award Translated Long Work Nominated
Judgement Engine 1996 Locus Award Novelette Nominated
Legacy 1996 Locus Award SF Novel Nominated
1998 Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire Foreign Novel Nominated [27]
New Legends 1996 Locus Award Anthology Nominated
Strength of Stones 1997 Kurd Laßwitz Award Foreign Work Nominated [28]
Slant (/) 1998 Locus Award SF Novel Nominated
1998 John W. Campbell Memorial Award Science Fiction Novel Nominated
1999 SF Site Readers Poll SF/Fantasy Book 5th Place [29]
2000 Prix Ozone Foreign SF Novel Won [30]
2002 Kurd Laßwitz Award Foreign Work Nominated [31]
Dinosaur Summer 1998 Sidewise Award for Alternate History Long Form Nominated [32]
1999 Locus Award SF Novel Nominated
1999 Endeavour Award - Won
Darwin's Radio 2000 Endeavour Award Novel or Collection Won
2000 John W. Campbell Memorial Award Science Fiction Novel Nominated
2000 Locus Award SF Novel Nominated
2000 Hugo Award Novel Nominated
2001 Seiun Award Translated Long Work Nominated
2001 Nebula Award Novel Won
2002 Premio Ignotus Foreign Novel Nominated
The Way of All Ghosts 2000 Locus Award Novella Nominated
The Collected Stories of Greg Bear 2003 Locus Award Collection Nominated
Vitals 2003 Locus Award SF Novel Nominated
2003 John W. Campbell Memorial Award Science Fiction Novel Finalist
Darwin's Children 2004 John W. Campbell Memorial Award Science Fiction Novel Finalist
2004 Audie Awards Science Fiction Nominated
2004 Locus Award SF Novel Nominated
2004 Arthur C. Clarke Award - Finalist
2005 Kurd Laßwitz Award Foreign Work Nominated [33]
Dead Lines 2005 Locus Award Fantasy Novel Nominated
Quantico 2006 Endeavour Award - Nominated
City at the End of Time 2008 Neffy Awards Laureate Awards: SF/F Author Won [34]
2009 Locus Award SF Novel Nominated
2009 John W. Campbell Memorial Award Science Fiction Novel Finalist
Hull Zero Three 2011 Locus Award SF Novel Nominated
2011 John W. Campbell Memorial Award Science Fiction Novel Finalist
2012 Arthur C. Clarke Award - Nominated
2012 Kurd Laßwitz Award Foreign Work Nominated [35]
War Dogs 2015 Locus Award SF Novel Nominated
The Machine Starts 2016 Locus Award Novelette Nominated
Take Back the Sky 2017 Locus Award SF Novel Nominated


In addition, Bear is also a singular award winner of the 1984 Inkpot Award, the 2006 Robert A. Heinlein Award, the 2017 "Forry Award"[36] for lifetime achievement & the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association's 2022 Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award[37].

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."[38] The 2024 novel Halo: Epitaph, a continuation of Bear's Forerunner Saga, was dedicated to Bear's memory by author Kelly Gay.

Bibliography

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Novels

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Series

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

Novels in internal chronology:[39]

War dogs
  • War dogs. Orbit. 2014.
  • Killing Titan (2015)
  • Take Back the Sky (2016)
The Way

Series (non-originating author)

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The Foundation Series
Man-Kzin Wars
Halo
  • Forerunner Saga (trilogy)
    • Halo: Cryptum (2011)
    • Halo: Primordium (2012)
    • Halo: Silentium (2013)[40]
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Wars
Foreworld Saga

Non-series

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Short fiction

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Uncollected Short Fiction
  • Destroyers (1967)
  • Sun Planet (1977)
  • If I Die Before I Wake (1980)
  • Eucharist (1981)
  • RAM Shift Phase 2 (2005)
  • Object 00922UU (2015) (with Erik Bear)
  • The Machine Starts (2015)


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

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Critical studies and reviews of Bear's work

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War dogs
  • Sakers, Don (May 2015). "The Reference Library". Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Vol. 135, no. 5. pp. 104–107.

Explanatory notes

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  1. ^ Bear has credited the inspiration for the idea to Frederick Kantor's 1967 treatise "Information Mechanics" (see Digital physics).

References

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  1. ^ "Sci-fi Novelist Greg Bear Has Passed Away". November 20, 2022.
  2. ^ "Halo Author Greg Bear Passes Away Age 71". November 20, 2022.
  3. ^ "Greg Bear: News". Greg passed away peacefully yesterday, surrounded by his loving family. [...] Greg Bear 8/20/1951–11/19/2022
  4. ^ Holland, Steve (December 29, 2022). "Greg Bear obituary". The Guardian. London. Retrieved December 21, 2023.
  5. ^ a b "SFE: Bear, Greg". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  6. ^ a b Robbins, Gary (November 22, 2022). "Greg Bear, prize-winning sci-fi author and Comic-Con co-founder, dies at 71". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  7. ^ Crowther, Linnea (November 21, 2022). "Greg Bear obituary: sci-fi author dies at 71". Legacy.com. Retrieved November 18, 2024.
  8. ^ Holland, Steve (December 29, 2022). "Greg Bear obituary". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved November 18, 2024.
  9. ^ a b "Greg Bear: Continuing the Dialog", Locus, February 2000, pp. 4, 76–78.
  10. ^ "interview". fwomp.com. Fiction Writers of the Monterey Peninsula. Retrieved July 11, 2009.
  11. ^ "Top SF/F Authors". WorldsWithoutEnd.com. Retrieved July 11, 2009.
  12. ^ Adams, John Joseph (June 6, 2012). "Sci-Fi Scribes on Ray Bradbury: "Storyteller, Showman and Alchemist"". Wired. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  13. ^ "Funds sought for science fiction museum lift-off". USAToday.com. November 3, 2013. Retrieved September 7, 2014.
  14. ^ "Greg Bear, 1951-2022: Best-selling writer influenced sci-fi world, on and off the page". Yahoo Finance. November 20, 2022.
  15. ^ Glyer, Mike (November 20, 2022). "Pixel Scroll 11/19/22 Scroll And Deliver, Your Pixels Or Your Life!". File 770. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  16. ^ Bear, Astrid (November 18, 2022). "Update on Greg". Facebook. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  17. ^ Glyer, Mike (November 20, 2022). "Greg Bear (1951-2022)". File 770. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  18. ^ https://www.sfadb.com/Greg_Bear
  19. ^ https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ay.cgi?1+1982
  20. ^ https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ay.cgi?36+1983
  21. ^ https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ay.cgi?36+1987
  22. ^ https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ay.cgi?64+1998
  23. ^ https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ay.cgi?36+1984
  24. ^ https://www.sfadb.com/Interzone_Readers_Poll_1991
  25. ^ https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ay.cgi?64+1996
  26. ^ https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ay.cgi?36+1994
  27. ^ https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ay.cgi?25+1998
  28. ^ https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ay.cgi?64+1997
  29. ^ https://www.sfadb.com/SF_Site_Readers_Poll_1999
  30. ^ https://www.bdfi.net/prix/prix.php?id=ozone
  31. ^ https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ay.cgi?64+2002
  32. ^ https://www.sfadb.com/Sidewise_Awards_1999
  33. ^ https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ay.cgi?64+2005
  34. ^ https://tnfff.org/neffy-awards/
  35. ^ https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ay.cgi?64+2012
  36. ^ https://lasfs.org/the-forry-awards/
  37. ^ https://nebulas.sfwa.org/award/solstice-award/
  38. ^ Doris Lessing: Hot Dawns, interview by Harvey Blume in Boston Book Review.
  39. ^ "Greg Bear: Discussion Board". Archived from the original on August 6, 2011. Retrieved July 14, 2011.
  40. ^ Upcoming4.me. "Third novel in the Forerunner Saga by Greg Bear, Halo : Silentium revealed". Upcoming4.me. Archived from the original on July 20, 2012. Retrieved July 18, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  41. ^ Eaton, Kit (May 26, 2010). "The Mongoliad App: Neal Stephenson's Novel of the Future?". Fast Company. Retrieved July 4, 2010.
  42. ^ "Invalid Site". Archived from the original on October 12, 2014. Retrieved August 28, 2008.
  43. ^ "Del Rey Online | City at the End of Time by Greg Bear". Archived from the original on August 4, 2008. Retrieved August 28, 2008.
  44. ^ Briefly reviewed by Don Sakers in the April 2016 issue of Analog, pp.105–108.
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