Greg Bear

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title: "Greg Bear" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["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", "20th-century-american-illustrators", "21st-century-american-illustrators", "american-male-novelists", "american-male-short-story-writers", "american-science-fiction-writers", "american-transhumanists", "american-anthologists", "endeavour-award-winners", "american-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", "presidents-of-the-science-fiction-and-fantasy-writers-association", "american-electronic-literature-writers"] description: "American writer and illustrator (1951–2022)" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Bear" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American writer and illustrator (1951–2022) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox writer "]

Field	Value
name	Greg Bear
image	Greg-bear-by-kyle-cassidy-L1008770 (cropped).jpg
caption	Bear in 2016
birth_name	Gregory Dale Bear
birth_date
birth_place	San Diego, California, U.S.
death_date
occupation	Novelist
education	San Diego State University (BA)
genre	Science fiction, Speculative fiction
notableworks
website
::

| name = Greg Bear | image = Greg-bear-by-kyle-cassidy-L1008770 (cropped).jpg | caption = Bear in 2016 | pseudonym = | birth_name = Gregory Dale Bear | birth_date = | birth_place = San Diego, California, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Novelist | education = San Diego State University (BA) | genre = Science fiction, Speculative fiction | notableworks = | website =

Gregory Dale Bear (August 20, 1951 – November 19, 2022) was an American science fiction writer. 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.

He was one of the five co-founders of San Diego Comic-Con.

Early life

Greg Bear was born in San Diego, California. 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; in later years, they were friends.

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. He sold his first story, "Destroyers", to Famous Science Fiction in 1967.

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." 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 wrote in other fiction genres. Examples include Songs of Earth and Power (fantasy) and Psychlone (horror). Bear described his Dead Lines, which straddles the line between science fiction and fantasy, as a "high-tech ghost story". | url = http://www.fwomp.com/interview_gregbear.htm | title = interview | work = fwomp.com | publisher= Fiction Writers of the Monterey Peninsula | access-date=July 11, 2009 | url = http://www.worldswithoutend.com/authors.asp | title = Top SF/F Authors | work = WorldsWithoutEnd.com | access-date=July 11, 2009

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.

He also served on the Board of Advisors for the Museum of Science Fiction. Bear was one of the five co-founders of San Diego Comic-Con.

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, Washington.

Bear died on November 19, 2022, at the age of 71, from multiple strokes, caused by clots that had been concealed in a false lumen of the anterior artery to the brain since a surgery in 2014. 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.

Awards and accolades

::data[format=table]

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

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

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

Bibliography

Novels

Series

; Darwin

• Darwin's Radio (1999)
• Darwin's Children (2003)

; The Forge of God

• The Forge of God (1987)
• Anvil of Stars (1992)

; Songs of Earth and Power

• The Infinity Concerto (1984)
• 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)
• Slant (1997)
• Heads (1990)
• Moving Mars (1993)

; War dogs

• Killing Titan (2015)
• Take Back the Sky (2016)

; The Way

• Eon (1985)
• Eternity (1988)
• Legacy (1995)
• 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 Who Would Be Kzin (with S. M. Stirling) (1991)

; Halo

• Forerunner Saga (trilogy)
  • Halo: Cryptum (2011)
  • Halo: Primordium (2012)
  • Halo: Silentium (2013)

; Star Trek: The Original Series

• Corona (1984)

; Star Wars

• 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)
• Dinosaur Summer (1998)
• Dead Lines (2004)
• City at the End of Time (Gollancz edition published July 17, 2008; Del Rey Books edition August 2008)
• Hull Zero Three (2010)
• The Unfinished Land (2021)

Short fiction

; 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

• 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

Explanatory notes

References

References

1. (November 20, 2022). "Sci-fi Novelist Greg Bear Has Passed Away".
2. (November 20, 2022). "Halo Author Greg Bear Passes Away Age 71".
3. "Greg Bear: News".
4. Holland, Steve. (December 29, 2022). "Greg Bear obituary". The Guardian.
5. Crowther, Linnea. (2022-11-21). "Greg Bear obituary: sci-fi author dies at 71".
6. Holland, Steve. (2022-12-29). "Greg Bear obituary". The Guardian.
7. "SFE: Bear, Greg".
8. "Greg Bear: Continuing the Dialog", [[Locus (magazine). ''Locus'']], February 2000, pp. 4, 76–78.
9. Adams, John Joseph. (June 6, 2012). "Sci-Fi Scribes on Ray Bradbury: "Storyteller, Showman and Alchemist"".
10. (November 3, 2013). "Funds sought for science fiction museum lift-off". USAToday.com.
11. Robbins, Gary. (2022-11-22). "Greg Bear, prize-winning sci-fi author and Comic-Con co-founder, dies at 71".
12. (November 20, 2022). "Greg Bear, 1951-2022: Best-selling writer influenced sci-fi world, on and off the page". Yahoo Finance.
13. Glyer, Mike. (2022-11-20). "Pixel Scroll 11/19/22 Scroll And Deliver, Your Pixels Or Your Life!".
14. Bear, Astrid. (Nov 18, 2022). "Update on Greg".
15. Glyer, Mike. (2022-11-20). "Greg Bear (1951-2022)".
16. "Sfadb : Greg Bear Awards".
17. "1982 Analog Award".
18. "1983 SF Chronicle Award".
19. "1987 SF Chronicle Award".
20. "1998 Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis".
21. "1984 SF Chronicle Award".
22. "Sfadb: Interzone Readers Poll 1991".
23. "1996 Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis".
24. "1994 SF Chronicle Award".
25. "1998 Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire".
26. "1997 Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis".
27. "Sfadb: SF Site Readers Poll 1999".
28. "Pages prix".
29. "2002 Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis".
30. "Sfadb: Sidewise Awards 1999".
31. "2005 Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis".
32. "Laureate Awards – National Fantasy Fan Federation".
33. "2012 Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis".
34. "The Forry Awards".
35. "Nebula Awards® Nominees and Winners: Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award Nebula Awards®".
36. ''[http://www.dorislessing.org/boston.html Doris Lessing: Hot Dawns]'', interview by Harvey Blume in Boston Book Review.
37. "Greg Bear: Discussion Board".
38. "Third novel in the Forerunner Saga by Greg Bear, Halo : Silentium revealed". Upcoming4.me.
39. Eaton, Kit. (May 26, 2010). "The Mongoliad App: Neal Stephenson's Novel of the Future?". [[Fast Company (magazine).
40. "Invalid Site".
41. "Del Rey Online | City at the End of Time by Greg Bear".
42. Briefly reviewed by [[Don Sakers]] in the April 2016 issue of ''[[Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Analog]]'', pp. 105–108.

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