Exclusive Interview With Greg Bear

Joe Dickerson writes, "Aberrant Dreams, an Atlanta-based online magazine, has posted an exclusive interview with science fiction great Greg Bear. The interview covers topics from what it was like being the son-in-law of Poul Anderson, to his newest book (Quantico), to plans for upcoming books. While you're there, check out their other exclusive interviews with the likes of Alastair Reynolds, Stephen Baxter, and Gerald W. Page."

Comments

Troy McClure, is that you?

[User 956]

While you're there, check out their other exclusive interviews with the likes of Alastair Reynolds, Stephen Baxter, and Gerald W. Page.

Troy McClure, is that you?

Re:Troy McClure, is that you?

[TubeSteak]

Disclaimer: I didn't watch enough Simpsons to get the joke

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_McClure

Troy McClure is a fictional character in the television cartoon series The Simpsons, voiced by Phil Hartman...

Troy McClure is the stereotypical Hollywood has-been; ubiquitous presenter of educational videos, voiceovers, and infomercials. At one stage he had a modestly successful acting career. When introducing the latest product he is paid to add his clean-cut good looks and smooth voice. He always reminds us of his previous career with his standard introduction "Hi, I'm Troy McClure. You might remember me from such {films, educational videos, voiceovers} as," and then going on to list the kind of (often amusingly-titled) B-grade stuff that pays the bills but is hardly Oscar-winning material. He has narrated propaganda for everyone from the beef industry, to health farms, to the Springfield Nuclear Powerplant.

The question I wanted them to ask

[AaronLawrence]

"Are you deliberately moving away from science fiction to make more money?" Bear's recent novels (Vitals, Dead Lines, Quantico) have been only marginally science fictional and much more thrillers. Sounds like is new novel about "City at the End of Time" might be returning more to science fiction though.

Re:The question I wanted them to ask

[ddoctor]

"City at the End of Time" makes me think of "Restaurant at the End of the Universe"

Re:The question I wanted them to ask

[ScrewMaster]

Makes me think more of Clarke's "City and the Stars".

Re:The question I wanted them to ask

[Andyvan]

"City on the Edge of Forever"?

Re:The question I wanted them to ask

[dpilot]

Well, the mention of Poul Anderson in the interview, and then your mention of "City at the End of Time" leads me to another curiously pronounced "Poll", Frederik Pohl, and...

"The World at the End of Time"
"The Other End of Time"
"The Siege of Eternity"
"The Far Shore of Time"

(just checked the bookshelf -'P' is closer to the bottom. Eon, Eternity, etc are with 'B' near the top.)

Re:The question I wanted them to ask

[vidarh]

There's also Dancers at the end of time by Michael Moorcock, which is literally set at the end of time, where the last few inhabitants of earth live like a bunch of decadent perverts supported by technology that lets them do practically anything they want, at the cost of harvesting the energy of the stars. Unfortunately they've been at it long enough that the last stars are about to go dark, something they're blissfully unaware of since they consider space to be frightfully boring and treat one of the aliens that comes to spread the message of the end of the universe as an amusing but obviously crazy little pet.

It's one of the best treatments of the extreme far future I've seen, because it truly succeeds in a description that is so far out that it gets away with it without the nagging thought that technology would have progressed further etc.

It's a great book, but it's for people who are can't stomach some perversions in their fiction - the first scene in the book involves the main protagonist having sex with his mother...

Nice add

[Timesprout]

nuff said

Re:Nice add

[Frosty Piss]

"Add"? Well, yes, in a way a Slashdot submission is an "add". Some wish that many of the Slashdot "adds" where actually "subtractions". It's a matter of taste.

Re:Nice add

[Anonymous Coward]

Nise speling addwhole.

Not to be confused with...

[RingDev]

Greg Bear from the Johnny and Greg morning show in Madison, WI. http://www.wjjo.com/morning.php3

-Rick

Moving Mars

[brother bloat]

I actually just finished reading his book "Moving Mars," and it was excellent. I'll definitely check out other books by him in the future. I felt that some of his ideas on (science fictional) theoretical physics (for those who have read the book, I'm talking about Bell Contiuum Theory) reminded me a lot of the faster-than-light travel ideas in the later books of Card's Ender's Game series (Xenocide and Children of the Mind). For those of you who haven't tried his books yet, Robert Sawyer is also an excellent author with a similar style.

Re:Moving Mars

[dpilot]

He mentions it in the interview - read "Anvil of Stars" for some very "Moving Mars"-like concepts. "Slant" is kind of nifty on the nanotech side, too. ("Anvil of Stars" is the sequel to "The Forge of God".)

Never heard of Robert Sawyer, have to look. Or for some fiction based on non-zero vacuum energy states, try "Schilde's Ladder" by Greg Egan.

Re:Moving Mars

[brother bloat]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm always on the lookout for good science fiction books. I tend to tear through all the books I can find by an author I really like, and then I move on to the next "victim." Some good Robert Sawyer books to start with: If you're into AI, philosophy of mind, neuroscience, or related stuff: Mindscan, Terminal Experiment Philosophy or scifi in general: Calculating God, Frameshift, Flashforward Parallel Universes: Hominids series (Hominids, Humans, Hybrids)

Re:Moving Mars

[brother bloat]

Ah, sorry, I meant to select "plain text". Here's what I meant to post:

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm always on the lookout for good science fiction books. I tend to tear through all the books I can find by an author I really like, and then I move on to the next "victim."

Some good Robert Sawyer books to start with:

If you're into AI, philosophy of mind, neuroscience, or related stuff: Mindscan, Terminal Experiment
Philosophy or scifi in general: Calculating God, Frameshift, Flashforward
Parallel Universes: Hominids series (Hominids, Humans, Hybrids)

Re:Moving Mars

[Fweeky]

Try Queen of Angels and Slant ("/"); both part of the same series as Moving Mars, though set a fair bit earlier.

Re:Moving Mars

[gnalre]

Yep, when he writes about physics he's very good. However I do worry when he writes about producing stable societies via psychological monitoring and manipulation(Therapied?). It smacks a bit of eugenics. In fact one of the most interesing threads of "Moving Mars" is the paranoia between the "Therapied" Earth and the the still wild and anarchic Mars.

Re:Moving Mars

[lobotomir]

"Moving Mars" is something of a sequel to another of Greg Bears' book -- "Heads," which I enjoyed more. It tells the story of the first experiments with the technology that later, well, moved Mars. And it all takes place on the Moon, before it becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Earth. "Moving Mars" is about the distrust of stable societies towards looser social organization; "Heads" is about the hypocrisy of organized (modern) religion.

Re:Moving Mars

[mvdwege]

Unfortunately, Sawyer's Hominids series suffers from heavy-handed moralising, cardboard characters and railroad plotting. About the only book worth reading is the first, the other two are extremely disappointing.

Which is a shame, because I like his other work. I don't know what went wrong in the Hominids series.

Mart

Re:Moving Mars

[Decaff]

Yep, when he writes about physics he's very good. However I do worry when he writes about producing stable societies via psychological monitoring and manipulation(Therapied?). It smacks a bit of eugenics. In fact one of the most interesing threads of "Moving Mars" is the paranoia between the "Therapied" Earth and the the still wild and anarchic Mars.

Why the worry? He seems clearly on the side of the wild anarchists!

Re:Moving Mars

[jovlinger]

Must be something about writing about primates. Baxter did the same thing with his origins series: when he started writing about gorillas and neanderthals, he went from a momentary hiccup in form to unbearable. I've vowed to not buy another of his books until he sends me a check to cover the last installement in that series (hardcover, no less).

Thanks!

[Anonymous Coward]

I've collected all of the "invites".

Darwin's Radio / Children

[Ender Ryan]

I read Darwin's Radio, and I have to admit I really liked it. I suspected Bear took his "theory" a little too seriously -- and an extremely far fetched theory it is. Darwin's Children rather sealed the deal on that; he's a quack. And the book, well, sucked... A direct sequel going from silly-but-interesting speculative science to metaphysical nonsense and well, a quite uninspired new human race.

It was rather a letdown when his neo human race, that was supposed to be more socially adept, were just as socially retarded as us humans, in fact, even more so. Or maybe it was just off-putting that this writer thought that a socially superior hominid would be even MORE cliquey and xenophobic than us humans.

Yeah, that's what it was. I was interested in seeing how these new humans would deal with the ill treatment by the "normal" people in a superior manner, and was rather appalled that it was simply, in kind. Ie. with prejudice, fear, and menacing.

OTOH, I enjoyed the first book enough that I'm willing to give Bear another chance. Any recommendations?

Re:Darwin's Radio / Children

[blincoln]

Or maybe it was just off-putting that this writer thought that a socially superior hominid would be even MORE cliquey and xenophobic than us humans.

I haven't read the Darwin books, but one of his old novellas called "Hardfought" has what I assume is a similarly pessimistic perspective on humanity's children. I don't say that in a negative way, it's one of my favourite short stories.

OTOH, I enjoyed the first book enough that I'm willing to give Bear another chance. Any recommendations?

IMO, Anvil of Stars is his best work, but not everyone feels that way. I also am a big fan of Eon/Eternity, Queen of Angels/Slant, and Blood Music, although I really like everything of his that I've read. I'm still kicking myself for not waiting around to ask him for an autograph when I found out he was sitting a few rows in front of me at the sci fi short film festival Paul Allen threw a year or two ago.

Re:Darwin's Radio / Children

[wileyAU]

OTOH, I enjoyed the first book enough that I'm willing to give Bear another chance. Any recommendations?

Bear is rather hit or miss to me, but The Forges of God is one of my favorite novels of all time, sci-fi or otherwise. I also dug Blood Music and Moving Mars. Eon is probably his most popular, but I thought it was kind of over-rated and its two sequels Eternity and Legacy were pretty much a waste of time.

Re:Darwin's Radio / Children

[Ignominious Cow Herd]

"The Forge of God" and "Anvil of Stars" (sequel) are the best IMHO
"Moving Mars" was a bit dry and political in places, but had a really interesting ending (let slip the hounds of war).
"Queen of Angels" was a bit weird, but in a good way. Kind of Gibson-esque I thought.

Re:Darwin's Radio / Children

[bitrex]

I've also read Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children - and while I thought the premise of the two books was extremely interesting, I think Bear falls into the trap that other "hard" sci-fi writers fall into, which is that the characters end up just being mouthpieces for "cool ideas" that the author wanted to put into a novel. Bear is better at disguising this than some authors (Baxter, though he's gotten better), but I felt that for some reason Bear chose to make the two main adult protagonists of the novels (aside from when they launch into speculative rants on Bear's ideas) particularly unlikeable. By the end of the first novel, I found myself not particularly caring what happened to them. I'm not sure how well Bear is going to do if he decides to go into the "thriller" genre, as Darwin's Radio absolutely PLODS along - you'll sometimes get the feeling that some huge plot twist is coming, but then it's foreshadowed to death for 100 pages and when something actually happens it's not even that interesting.

Re:Darwin's Radio / Children

[Anonymous Coward]

"Blood Music" - A fantistic rewriting of Arthus C. Clarke's "Childhood's End"

"Eon" - The sequel "Eternity" and the prequel "Legacy" aren't as good but provide closure and some interesting set-up, respectively. If you can find it, I also recommend the novella "The Way of All Ghosts", set between "Legacy" and "Eon"; Bear incorporates part of William Hope Hodgeson's infamous surrealist/horror novel "The Night Land".

The short story "Hardfought" - Incredibly grim, and one of the best anti-war works written.

"The Forge of God" and the sequel "Anvil of Stars".

Re:Darwin's Radio / Children

[Farrside]

I started with Eon. It's got a much better Sci-Fi feel to it. The sequel Eternity is good.
I think you'll find that a lot of Bear's writing has some metaphysical stuff tacked on at the ending, but Eon's pretty light on that.

Re:Darwin's Radio / Children

[asuffield]

I think Bear falls into the trap that other "hard" sci-fi writers fall into, which is that the characters end up just being mouthpieces for "cool ideas" that the author wanted to put into a novel.

Yes, heaven forbid that hard SF authors might fall into the trap of writing hard SF.

The whole point of hard SF is the ideas. The rest is accidental. That's what the term means. If you want character-driven fiction, that's soft SF.

Re:Darwin's Radio / Children

[asuffield]

Or maybe it was just off-putting that this writer thought that a socially superior hominid would be even MORE cliquey and xenophobic than us humans.

Those are excellent survival traits. He didn't call it "Darwin's Children" just for laughs. Evolution does not care about your notions of morality. If you don't like having your preconceptions challenged, SF is not for you.

Re:Darwin's Radio / Children

[Anonymous Coward]

I read Darwin's Radio, and would agree with other posters here that he is moving away from Sci-Fi, and more towards the thriller part of the spectrum.

My favourite Bear book would have to be his book of short stories Tangents (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangents_(collection )), which two stories in particular left me blown away (breathless, but that sounds too wanky). I recently re-read Eon, and enjoyed it immensely, but I still think that the set-up is all a bit Rendezvous with Rama(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezvous_with_ Rama).

Re:Darwin's Radio / Children

[aussie_a]

That's funny I thought the hard and soft referred to the sort of science a book has. If it's pretty unrealistic with what we know today (any Star Trek novel, ever) it's soft, whereas if it's fairly realistic (say Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy) then it's hard.

Absolutely nothing about characterization in those definitions.

Re:Darwin's Radio / Children

[Flendon]

In the strictest sense you are right. However, both descriptions are used. Many of the masters of hard SF focus on the people and their thoughts just as much as the science which is part of what blurs the line so much. So while you're definition is right that does not mean that asuffield's definition is wrong.

Re:Darwin's Radio / Children

[Ender Ryan]

Those are excellent survival traits.

Funny that, even in the book, that didn't prove to be the case. And in our real world we live in every day, those traits have proven highly detrimental -- in many ways, I'm not saying universally -- in modern times. In the goddamn book itself those traits only served to spark conflict.

Evolution does not care about your notions of morality.

I don't really believe in morals. My criticism has fuck all to do with morals.

If you don't like having your preconceptions challenged, SF is not for you.

Uhm, wow. You SO know me... Actually, it was the opposite problem. He didn't challenge my preconceptions. His neo humans were (almost) just like people, as I already said. Well, people with some silly traits.

Thanks for trying to offend me though, as it was quite obviously your intent. I take it you enjoyed the book?

Re:Darwin's Radio / Children

[psybre]

Yes. I believe you would find some worth in reading Queen of Angels.
Mark Irons says it best.
~psybre

Atlanta-based online....?

[oleop]

Objection - what does it mean "Atlanta-based" whe you are talking about online magazine? Authors, editors, ISP provider?

Re:Atlanta-based online....?

[Anonymous Coward]

Amazon.com is an 'online store'. Rest assured there is a city where it has its main headquarters. If I weren't so lazy I would look it up.

Re:Atlanta-based online....?

[Anonymous Coward]

The site says that they are based out of Atlanta, Georgia and that they do have a print version available.

ray=out

[Asztal_]

More theories on the scab coral, I'll warrant. I'm waiting for it in this month's ray=out.

Re:ray=out

[Anonymous Coward]

Great series. It's too bad the english dub is complete trash.

ASM

Long lost blood

[Anonymous Coward]

Greg Bear has got to be Fred Bears relative. Just ask Ted Nugent, he'll verify it!

Obscure Simpsons Reference

[The Hobo]

I didn't even really read the summary, but I got the word Bear, and was reminded of the reality series Billionaire vs Bear

Hm

[srcosmo]

I read his Infinity Concerto and found it extremely dull, overly metaphysical, and hard to finish. Strange considering that another novel of his, Legacy , was totally engrossing, and is among my favourite science fiction books ever.

Re:Hm

[Anonymous Coward]

Legacy was pretty ok compared to the original book "Eon" I would say that is the best SF book I have read. Maybe because it was my first introduction to Mr Bear. I really liked "Blood Music" too but the ideas have been pretty talked about lately. A really good short story from him is "Hard Fought"

Re:Hm

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Songs of Earth and Power is one of my favorite fantasies, the first even. Only Tad Williams even comes close. Fred Saberhagen's Empire of the East would be the distant third.

Forge Of God and Anvil Of The Stars

[Anonymous Coward]

Two excellent books, IMO. Clanking replicators and the notion of the problems associated with super advanced technological societies are just fantastic things to think about.

A race of Mary Sues.

[Grendel Drago]

They're Mary Sues! Come on, their eyes change color! And they have magical scent-based mind-control powers! And the grownups just don't understand them!

All Bear would have had to do is give them pink hair and epic flying unicorn mounts. And make them all Dumbledore's daughter.

And you're absolutely right. Radio was kind of interesting; I wanted to see where he was taking the concept. But the sequel didn't do anything SFnal; it was as though Bear was afraid of heaping too many ideas on his audience and decided to play it as a straight thriller, which isn't nearly as interesting. And that weirdness about religious experiences which never went anywhere--what was up with that?

I had read The Forge of God some years earlier, and I'd really enjoyed it. I was pretty damned disappointed in the Darwin books.

I read his Second Foundation Trilogy book...

[Jason1729]

...I don't need to read any more of his crap to know he's one of the worst published sci-fi authors ever.

Re:I read his Second Foundation Trilogy book...

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Of anyone still writing, he's one of the best. I'd put him up there with James Hogan.

Please make Century Rain into a film

[gnalre]

When I read Century Rain by Alistair Reynolds, I just could'nt get it out of my head what a great film it would make. It would be a bit like the Matrix admittedly, but with a alternative history France(One which did not lose the 2nd world war and was a far-right as the defeated Nazi state).

Unfortunately with Hollywoods tendency only to follow trends it is probably to late since it would be two Matrix like, but I would love to see it if it was done well(Mr Cameron are you listening?).

Re:Please make Century Rain into a film

[Anonymous Coward]

Century Rain didn't work for me. I love Reynolds' stuff (the inhibitors stuff was ace), but CR just fell flat. The /. jokes at the beginning really made me laugh, but the rest just didn't seem to work too well.

It wasn't bad or anything, but it seemed like failed attempt to mix a detective story with SF.

Re:Please make Century Rain into a film

[gnalre]

I agree that it did not have the scale and depth of something like Redemption Ark, but I guess thats why I could see it easily made into a film(More Michael Crichton than anything else). His other books are very good, but not really filmable.

Re:Please make Century Rain into a film

[jovlinger]

Century rain is indeed one of the better books I've found rencently.

highly recommended.

I also like the recent stuff from Jack McDevitt. I think omega was one which I read most recently.

Ahhhh. THAT explains it.

[nagora]

I didn't know he was Poul Anderson's son-in-law. I remember when Eon came out; I and all the SF readers I knew were asking how the hell such crap got a publisher. Now I know.

TWW

Re:Ahhhh. THAT explains it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Couldn't agree more. A friend recommended Eon to me, so I read it and couldn't understand why they had. I figured they just weren't very well read. I gave Greg Bear a second chance and tried another book. I forget the title now, something about living things freezing solid? The plot was so poor that half way through I felt so dirty I had to take a shower.

Re:Ahhhh. THAT explains it.

[angel'o'sphere]

Interesting: I remember when Eon came out; I and all the SF readers I knew were asking how the hell such crap got a publisher.
I always found Eon on of the best SF novels ever ... hopefully only a matter of taste ;D

angel'o'sphere

EON should be made into a film (or give it a shot)

[Anonymous Coward]

Was reading EON - that's a pretty amazing book when it comes to imagination. Anyway - I was looking up some illustrations for the book and found this site - the CG Society's competition (cleared by Bear) to create your own visuals for the book.

The interview I'd really like to read.

[niktemadur]

Or rather, a reconstruction of the conversations Greg Bear had with Gregory Benford and David Bryn (the three Killer B's), while sorting out the corner Isaac Asimov painted himself into with the latter Foundation books, specifically Foundation And Earth.

I picture these three guys getting together over dinner and drinks, every week for months, just shooting ideas back and forth, mapping out the panoramic scenario of their grand finale trilogy for the Foundation saga.

Bear's contribution to the trilogy, Foundation And Chaos, gripped me by the throat on the very first chapter, where an undercover robot named Lodovic Trema is travelling on an Imperial astrophysical survey vessel in the galactic backwaters. Suddenly, the spaceship is violently knocked out of hyperspace by the gamma ray shock front of a mischarted supernova explosion (remember, the Empire is crumbling, incompetence runs high). While the spaceship drifts helplessly, Lodovic realizes that the crew has received a lethal dosage of radiation, as well as sensing something had snapped in his own positronic brain: he had been liberated from the laws of robotics.

I won't get into further detail, but it's a great read, one of the better Foundation installments.

What is the purpose of spell checkers?

[lobotomir]

From the interview with Alastair Reynolds:
"If Alastair Reynolds ends up pairing the good Doctor with Sky's rabid porpoise, somebody had better watch out!"

A sobering thought, indeed.

Re:What is the purpose of spell checkers?

[SirMeliot]

I thought it was a psychotic dolphin that Sky had...

Re:What is the purpose of spell checkers?

[lobotomir]

Damn, you're right.

Thanks for "Songs of Earth and Power"

[Marrow]

What a wonderful book.

Thanks.

horrible interviews

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, that's some crappy interviews. The questions consist for 90% of statements that appear designed to show off how well informed the interviewer already is, and don't allow the authors to say anything that I, the reader, would actually be interested in learning about. Such a shame. :(

When I first saw this article

[elrous0]

For a second when I read this article I thought of Greg Egan and Fredrick Pohl, and had a brief hope that someone was finally appreciating serious science fiction here for a change and not just the standard pulp crap that's usually talked about on /.

Then I realized my mistake.

-Eric

What's an "exclusive interview"?

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

How does it differ from an "interview"?

Best Second Foundation Trilogy book...

[Anonymous Coward]

Of the three prequal books, his was the only one worth finishing.

Re:Best Second Foundation Trilogy book...

[Jason1729]

Calling something the best Second Foundation Trilogy books is like calling it the best way to see a beloved childhood pet tortured slowly to death.

if you want to be taken seriously ...

[godless dave]

If you want to be taken seriously as an interviewer, make sure to spellcheck. "Lose" is spelled "loose" at least twice. Why put all the work into making the website look professional if you're not going to bother with the basics?