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

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

[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...

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.

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

[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.

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.