Greg Bear

**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.

## 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, Erik and Alexandra. They live outside of Seattle, Washington.

### Career

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." He has received many accolades, including five Nebula awards and two Hugo awards for science fiction.

### Death

Bear died from multiple strokes on November 19, 2022, at the age of 71.

##### Darwin

- _Darwin's Radio_ (1999) Nebula Award **winner**, Hugo, Locus SF, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards nominee, 2000
- _Darwin's Children_ (2003) Locus SF, Arthur C. Clarke, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards nominee, 2004

##### The Forge of God

- _The Forge of God_ (1987) Hugo, and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1988; Nebula Award nominee, 1986
- _Anvil of Stars_ (1992)

##### Songs of Earth and Power

- _The Infinity Concerto_ (1984) Locus Fantasy Award nominee, 1985
- _The Serpent Mage_ (1986)
- _Songs of Earth and Power_ (1994 - combines _The Infinity Concerto_ and _The Serpent Mage_)

##### Quantico (books set before the Queen of Angels series)

- _Quantico_ (2005)
- _Mariposa_ (2009)

##### Queen of Angels

- _Queen of Angels_ (1990) Hugo, Locus, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards nominee, 1991
- _/_ (also known as _Slant_; 1997) John W. Campbell Memorial Award nominee, 1998

##### The Way

- _Eon_ (1985) Arthur C. Clarke Award nominee, 1987
- _Eternity_ (1988)
- _Legacy_ (1995) Locus SF Award nominee, 1996
- _The Way of All Ghosts_ (1999)

##### 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: The Original Series

- _Corona_ (1984)

##### Star Wars

- _Rogue Planet_ (2000)

#### Non-series

- _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; British Science Fiction Award nominee, 1986; Nebula Award nominee, 1985
- _Sleepside Story_ (1988)
- _Heads_ (1990)
- _Moving Mars_ (1993) Nebula Award winner; Hugo, Locus SF, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards nominee, 1994
- _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
- _Dead Lines_ (2004)
- _City at the End of Time_ (Gollancz edition published 7/17/2008; Del Rey Books edition August, 2008) (Nominated for the Locus and Campbell Awards, 2009)
- _Hull Zero Three_ (to be released November 2010)
- _The Mongoliad_ (expected 2010)

#### 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)

## Other awards

- 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).
- _Darwin's Radio_ won the Endeavor Award in 2000
- Hayakawa Award "Heads" Best Foreign Short Story (1996).

## Praise from other authors

- 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."

## Other websites

- Greg Bear's Official Site
- All of Greg Bear's audio interviews on the podcast _The Future And You_ (in which he describes his expectations of the future)
- Quantico: Official Website
- Complete list of sci-fi award wins and nominations by novel
- Greg Bear on Worlds Without End

## Infobox (writer)

- **name**: Gregory Dale Bear
- **image**: Greg_Bear.jpg
- **caption**: Greg Bear (2005)
- **birth name**: Gregory Dale Bear
- **birth place**: San Diego, California, U.S.
- **occupation**: Novelist
- **genre**: Science fiction
- **notableworks**: _Blood Music_