[Rob B]

Greg Bear - a fairly big name in recent SF. There hasn't been much discussion of his works in this forum. Well his name comes up, but no real specific topics about him.

I know Erebus really likes his work and a few others have mentioned him as well. I liked Darwin's Radio quite a bit, liked Eon a lot but couldn't get into the sequel, Eternity.

The sequel to Darwin's Radio, Darwin's Children has just been released and I will eventually read it. Anybody read it yet?

He has won awards, most recently the Nebula for Darwin's Radio. He is also the son-in-law of the late Poul Anderson.

The majority of his other SF books look very interesting too, just haven't gotten around to reading them yet.

Any thoughts?

[alan empty]

I like Bear.

I thought Eon was great - I've read it a few times over the years and I've enjoyed it each time. Eternity seemed to take some of the magic & mystery away somehow - really disappointing. Legacy (a prequel I think) was pretty enjoyable though - a more basic story but a good read.

I'd highly recommend everyone reads Blood Music. One of his earlier novels but one of the best. Try not to read too much about it beforehand.

I read Darwins Radio a couple of months ago and enjoyed it, but it felt like more of a 'mainstream' Michael Crichton-style novel. I wonder whether this was Bear trying to break out of the SF ghetto? I hadn't heard about a sequel - I'll look out for it.

I think he's a very interesting author. A solid writer who explores a variety of SF ideas. He's not an author that I'd rush out to buy, but I'm rarely disappointed when I do.

[Hobbit]

Thought this list might help:

Anvil of Stars - February 1993, Warner Books ISBN:0-446-36403-7

Beyond Heaven's River - 1980

Blood Music 1985, July 1996, Ace Books ISBN:0-441-00348-6

Darwin's Radio - Nebula (2000, Best Novel) May 1999, Voyager (UK) Hardcover ISBN:0-0-022-5731-9. August 1999, Ballantine Hardcover ISBN:0-345-42333-X. May 2000, HarperCollins paperback ISBN:0-006-51138-4. July 2000, Ballantine Books Mass Market Paperback ISBN:0-345-43524-9.

Dinosaur Summer - February 1998, Warner Books Hardcover ISBN:0-446-52098-5 Illustrated by Tony Diterlizzi

Early Harvest short.stories. 1988

Eon May 1995, Tor Mass Market Paperback Reissue Edition ISBN:0-812-52047-5. Sequel - Eternity 1988, December 1994, Warner Books ISBN:0-446-60188-8. Legacy - Prequel to Eon, 1995, Tor Hardcover ISBN: 0-312-85516-8. Cover by Bob Eggleton .

The Forge of God 1987, February 1993, Tor Books Mass Market Paperback Reissue Edition ISBN:0-812-52433-0

Foundation and Chaos - In the Isaac Asimov Foundation series
March 1998, Harper Prism Hardcover ISBN:0-061-05242-6

Heads - Illustrated novella - June 1992, Tor Books Mass Market Paperback ISBN:0-812-51996-5

Hegira 1979, 1987

The Infinity Concerto - 1984

Moving Mars - 1994 Nebula, Tor SF

New Legends - Anthology, Editor. A Tor Hardcover ISBN:0-312-85930 1st US Ed. Includes stories by: Sonia Orin Lyris, et al.

Psyclone 1979 aka Lost Souls

Queen of Angels

The Serpent Mage 1986

Slant - paperback 1998, ISBN: 1857236114. Set in the same environment as Queen of Angels.

Songs of Earth and Power 1995, Tor

Star Trek: Corona 1984, June 1994, Pocket Books

Strength of Stones 1981

Vitals January 2002, Del Rey Hardcover ISBN:0-345-43528-1
April 2003, Ballantine Books Mass Market Paperback ISBN:0-345-42334-8

The Wind from a Burning Woman - short.stories. 1983

Pretty much all short stories collected together in (logically enough) The Collected Stories of Greg Bear, Tor Books, hardback, September 2002 ISBN: 0765301601, paperback March 2003, ISBN: 076530161X.

Hobbit

Like Greg Bear a lot - loved Darwin's Radio, though I can see the Crichton references, and it took me a little while to follow the science. The sequel is out in the US already but not here in the Uk for a month or so yet.

I loved Moving Mars, Forge of God and Anvil of Stars and Eon. Vitals I haven't read, though I understand it is an attempt to write a more thriller-ish mainstream novel. Agree about Blood Music too.

Dinosaur Summer was an entertaining lighter read (Young adult?) - rather Bradbury-esque in its style & use of circuses and Dinosaurs.

Hobbit

[Kamakhya]

I have also read a couple of Bear's Books: Darwin's Radio, Blood Music, Foundation and Chaos and Moving Mars.


I enjoyed them all. I really liked Moving Mars. It's funny you should mention him, I was just thinking about starting The Forge of God. I'ts been staring up at me from one my piles of books and given how I've enjoyed other works by him, wanted to give it a try. I also have Dinosaur Summer and Eternity, but neither have really appealed to me. Thanks for the list Hobbit.

Kamakhya

edit: Oh yeah, I have Vitals, but haven't gotten around to that book either.

[Hiro Protagonis]

I really liked Eon. I thought the characters were really good. Although the end in Egypt was kind of weird. I'm sure i'll read the sequel soon.

[lemming]

I've read Blood Music, Darwin's Radio, Moving Mars, Eon (a long time ago, don't remember it too well), Songs of Earth and Power (fantasy) and Slant. Bear's been so hit-or-miss for me that I now only read him if something is specifically recommended to me. But the ones I've liked have been quite worthwhile.

As for that: I would give high scores to Moving Mars, Darwin's Radio (a little mainstream but very well-paced, and I loved Stella Nova), and Slant. I think I may actually like Slant a little more than its quality deserves... its darkness, the group intelligence stuff and the quotes from "Alive contains a Lie" all appeal to me quite a bit. Anyway, it's the only one I actually own. Oddly enough, the same qualities of darkness and some randomness were a real barrier to my enjoyment of Songs of Earth and Power. Guess I'm inconsistent that way.

[Rumfuddle]

I thought Moving Mars was excellent; absorbing and exciting with pretty good characterisation. He's "paints" scenes very well too.
The science felt a bit like magic, but you trusted the bells and whistles were as in place as they could be.

I read Heads a couple of weeks ago, along with the BIG SF ideas stuff it also deals very nicely with a young man's coming of age and baptism of fire into the world of real politics. I was interested to see Hobbit's list mentioning it as an illustrated novella. What are the pictures like in that edition?

Bear's definitely an author I'll be reading more of.

[Hobbit]

What are the pictures like in that edition?

Here's a picture of the book:
Very exciting cover of the book :) (http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?ph=2&bi=18190649)


Rum, the story is in the collected stories, and actually that might be a good place to start if you were looking to try some of his stuff.

The illustrated novella was a UK HB here as a Legend book in 1990 too (I forgot to mention that!) I did look at it at the time, but I couldn't afford it.
This is the cover i remember:
Heads US/UK cover (http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?ph=2&bi=148311508)

BUT I can't remember much about the internal drawings other than the fact that they were pencil/ink black and white ones ( I think!) by Fred Gambino (who went onto bigger things!)

Hobbit

[Colonel Worf]

I read a good bit of Eon. It's pretty good so far. It's really not a pageturner, though.

[Shehzad]

Originally posted by lemming
and Slant. I think I may actually like Slant a little more than its quality deserves... its darkness, the group intelligence stuff and the quotes from "Alive contains a Lie" all appeal to me quite a bit. Anyway, it's the only one I actually own. Oddly enough, the same qualities of darkness and some randomness were a real barrier to my enjoyment of Songs of Earth and Power. Guess I'm inconsistent that way.

I liked Eon but /Slant, though interesting, didn't quite catch my imagination. True, it was dark and there were some novel concepts in there, but the characters weren't appealing enough to draw me in.