'Doing Extraordinary Stuff'

 

“It's kind of a misnomer about science fiction that science fiction is about anything other than people. It's about people doing stuff, sometimes doing extraordinary stuff.” – Greg Bear

 

Born in San Diego on this date in 1951, Sci-Fi writer and illustrator Bear published more than 30 novels and 5 story collections, earning nearly all the top writing awards including 5 Nebulas, 2 Hugos, 2 Endeavours and the Galaxy Award from China.  He was one of the original founders of San Diego’s Comic-Con. 

 

Among the best known of his books are the Forge of God and The Way series, and his works on “accelerated evolution” – Blood Music, Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children.   Bear’s last title, published just before his death in 2022, is The Unfinished Land.

 

Blood Music, first published as a short story, is the first in science fiction to describe microscopic medical machines and treat DNA as a computational system capable of being reprogrammed.  Often classified as a “hard” science fiction author due to the level of scientific detail in his work, his tales often addressed major questions in contemporary science and culture and then proposed solutions.   

 

 “Science fiction works best,” he said, “when it stimulates debate.”