Gregory Dale Bear (August 20, 1951 – November 19, 2022) was an American writer and illustrator best known for science fiction. His work covered themes of

galactic conflict ''Galactic Conflict'' is a space-based, computer-moderated, play-by-mail game originally published by Flying Buffalo in 1982. As August 2021, Rick Loomis PBM Games took over as game publisher. During gameplay, six to fifteen players expand acr ...

('' Forge of God'' books), parallel universes ('' The Way'' series),

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

and cultural practices ('' Queen of Angels''), and accelerated

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

('' Blood Music'', '' Darwin's Radio'', and '' Darwin's Children''). His most recent work was the 2021 novel ''The Unfinished Land''. Greg Bear wrote over 50 books in total.

Early life

Greg Bear was born in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. He attended San Diego State University (1968–1973), where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree. At the university, he was a

teaching assistant A teaching assistant or teacher's aide (TA) or education assistant (EA) or team teacher (TT) is an individual who assists a teacher with instructional responsibilities. TAs include ''graduate teaching assistants'' (GTAs), who are graduate stud ...

Elizabeth Chater Elizabeth Eileen Chater (August 22, 1910 – November 10, 2004) was a Canadian writer of novels and poetry, and a professor at San Diego State University. Biography Chater was born August 22, 1910 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Her ...

in her course on science fiction writing, and in later years her friend.

Career

Bear is often classified as a hard science fiction author because of the level of scientific detail in his work. 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 ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy fiction magazine, fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence E. Spivak, Lawrence Spiva ...

''. He sold his first story, "Destroyers", to ''Famous Science Fiction'' in 1967."Greg Bear: Continuing the Dialog", ''Locus'', February 2000, pp. 4, 76–78. 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 Overpopulation or overabundance is a phenomenon in which a species' population becomes larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scale ...

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 Observation is the active acquisition of information from a primary source. In living beings, observation employs the senses. In science, observation can also involve the perception and recording of data via the use of scientific instruments. The ...

. In '' Blood Music'', reality becomes unstable as the number of observers (trillions of intelligent single-cell organisms) spirals higher and higher. ''

Anvil of Stars ''Anvil of Stars'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Greg Bear, a sequel to '' The Forge of God''. The book was initially released in 1993 by Warner Books. Overview In the novel, volunteers from among survivors of the recently destr ...

'' (sequel to ''The Forge of God'') and ''

Moving Mars ''Moving Mars'' is a science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exp ...

'' postulate a physics based on information exchange between particles, capable of being altered at the "bit level." 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). It has also been credited as the first account of

nanotechnology Nanotechnology, also shortened to nanotech, is the use of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale for industrial purposes. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal ...

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''. The sequence also charts the historical development of

self-awareness In philosophy of self, self-awareness is the experience of one's own personality or individuality. It is not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia. While consciousness is being aware of one's environment and body and lifest ...

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech ...

. 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'' (1966). Bear,

Gregory Benford Gregory Benford (born January 30, 1941) is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is professor emeritus at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. He is a contributing editor of ''Reas ...

, and David Brin wrote a trilogy of prequel novels to

Isaac Asimov yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...

's influential '' Foundation'' trilogy. Bear is credited with 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 A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature'' ...

". He has received many accolades, including five

Nebula Award The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a nonprofit association of prof ...

s and two

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier ...

s. Bear cited

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and ...

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. He also served on the Board of Advisors for the

Museum of Science Fiction The Museum of Science Fiction (MOSF) is a 501c(3) nonprofit museum that has plans to be based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in the spring of 2013 by Greg Viggiano and a team of 22 volunteer professionals with a goal of becoming the world's ...

. Bear was also one of the five co-founders of the

San Diego Comic-Con San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is ...

Personal life and death

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 Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

, Washington. 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. After being on life support for two days and not expected to recover, per his

advance healthcare directive An advance healthcare directive, also known as living will, personal directive, advance directive, medical directive or advance decision, is a legal document in which a person specifies what actions should be taken for their health if they are no ...

life support was withdrawn.

Awards and accolades

* 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) and Hugo Award (1984). * "

Tangents In geometry, the tangent line (or simply tangent) to a plane curve at a given point is the straight line that "just touches" the curve at that point. Leibniz defined it as the line through a pair of infinitely close points on the curve. Mo ...

" won both the

Hugo Award for Best Short Story The Hugo Award for Best Short Story is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The short story award is available for works of fiction of ...

and the

Nebula Award for Best Short Story The Nebula Award for Best Short Story is a literary award assigned each year by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy short stories. A work of fiction is defined by the organization as a short sto ...

* '' 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 The is an annual poll conducted by '' Hayakawa's S-F Magazine'' for the best Japanese short story, illustrator, and foreign short story, voted by the readers from their issues in the previous year. The honor has been awarded since 1989. Award wi ...

"Heads" Best Foreign Short Story (1996). * Inkpot Award (1984) *

Doris Lessing Doris May Lessing (; 22 October 1919 – 17 November 2013) was a British-Zimbabwean novelist. She was born to British parents in Iran, where she lived until 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she remain ...

, 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."

Bibliography

Novels

Series

;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 * ''

'' (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 * '' Quantico'' (2005) * '' Mariposa'' (2009) ;Quantum Logic Novels in internal chronology: * '' Queen of Angels'' (1990) Hugo, Locus, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards nominee, 1991 * ''Slant'' (1997) John W. Campbell Memorial Award nominee, 1998 * ''Heads'' (1990) * ''

'' (1993) Nebula Award winner; Hugo, Locus SF, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards nominee, 1994 ;War dogs * * ''Killing Titan'' (2015) * ''Take Back the Sky'' (2016) ; The Way * '' Eon'' (1985) Arthur C. Clarke Award nominee, 1987 * ''

Eternity Eternity, in common parlance, means infinite time that never ends or the quality, condition, or fact of being everlasting or eternal. Classical philosophy, however, defines eternity as what is timeless or exists outside time, whereas sempit ...

'' (1988) * ''

Legacy In law, a legacy is something held and transferred to someone as their inheritance, as by will and testament. Personal effects, family property, marriage property or collective property gained by will of real property. Legacy or legacies may refer ...

'' (1995) Locus SF Award nominee, 1996 * '' The Way of All Ghosts'' (1999)

Series (non-originating author)

; The Foundation Series * '' Foundation and Chaos'' (1998) (Second Foundation series: book 2) ;

Man-Kzin Wars ''The Man-Kzin Wars'' is a series of military science fiction anthologies and is the name of the first. The short stories detail the eponymous conflicts between mankind and the Kzinti, set in Larry Niven's ''Known Space'' universe. However, Ni ...

* '' The Man Who Would Be Kzin'' (with

S.M. Stirling Stephen Michael Stirling (born September 30, 1953) is a Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author who was born in France. Stirling is well known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and his later time travel/alternate his ...

) (1991) ; Halo : The Forerunner Saga (trilogy) * ''Halo: Cryptum'' (2011) (Forerunner trilogy book 1) * ''Halo: Primordium'' (2012) (Forerunner trilogy book 2) * ''Halo: Silentium'' (2013) (Forerunner trilogy book 3) ; Star Trek: The Original Series * '' Corona'' (1984) ;

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...

* '' Rogue Planet'' (2000) ;Foreworld Saga *'' The Mongoliad'' (2012–2013)

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; British Science Fiction Award nominee, 1986; Nebula Award nominee, 1985 * '' Dinosaur Summer'' (1998) (winner 1999 Endeavour Award) * '' Vitals'' (2002) John W. Campbell Memorial Award nominee 2003 * '' Dead Lines'' (2004) * ''

City at the End of Time ''City at the End of Time'' is a 2008 science fiction novel by American writer Greg Bear. It was published in August 2008 by Del Rey in the United States, and Gollancz in the United Kingdom. The story follows three drifters in present-day Se ...

'' ( Gollancz edition published July 17, 2008;

Del Rey Books Del Rey Books is a branch of Ballantine Books, which is owned by Random House and, in turn, by Penguin Random House. It is a separate imprint established in 1977 under the editorship of author Lester del Rey and his wife Judy-Lynn del Rey. It ...

edition August 2008) (Nominated for the Locus and Campbell Awards, 2009 ) * '' 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) * ''

'' (1989) * ''Bear's Fantasies'' (1992) * ''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)

Critical studies and reviews of Bear's work

;''War dogs'' *

Notes

References

External links

*
2010 Interview on the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy Podcast

By Dag R., February 1, 2000, at
All of Greg Bear's audio interviews on the podcast ''The Future And You''
(in which he describes his expectations of the future) * *
The 20th challenge of the ''society of digital artists'', which made use of ''EON''.
In the
about
' part it includes the chapters 1, 2, 10 and 33.
Quantico: Official Website

Complete list of sci-fi award wins and nominations by novel

Greg Bear
on Worlds Without End * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bear, Greg 1951 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers American alternate history writers American fantasy writers American horror writers American illustrators American male novelists American male short story writers American science fiction writers American transhumanists Anthologists Endeavour Award winners Futurologists Hugo Award-winning writers Inkpot Award winners Nebula Award winners Novelists from Washington (state) San Diego State University alumni Writers from San Diego Writers from Seattle