RIP Greg Bear

Science fiction author Greg Bear died recently. He was 70 years old.

He wrote a lot of good sci-fi over the years. I consider two of his works, Forge of God and Anvil of the Stars, to be in the “great” category. He also wrote Eon, Blood Music and a lot of other noteworthy sci-fi. His heyday was the 80s and 90s but I was enjoying his recent War Dogs series as well.

He is missed.

Queen of Angels was a spectacular book. It’s still in my head some 30 years after the first time I read it.

I saw a post yesterday that he had suffered a series of strokes recently and was likely to be taken off life support. Huge talent, wrote some really great sci-fi. Hats off to one of the greats.

Yeah I had forgotten both Queen of Angels and Slant aka / . Both very good sci-fi novels. He had a strong and deep catalogue.

Loved Forge of God. Sequel not quite as much, but a formative book for me in my college days.

Forge of God and Anvil of the Stars are interesting to discuss. When Forge of God was released I thought it was great but I also thought it wasn’t really THAT unique relative to so many “end of the world” sci-fi books of that era. Then Anvil of the Stars came along a few years later and blew me away.

Then a few years back, I reread both after having not touched either for over 20 years. And Forge of God held up, rock solid, and in fact was better on this more recent read. I think I consider Forge of God to now be the best “End of the world” sci-fi novel of all time, which is a very very high bar. Anvil of the Stars on the other hand, lost a step. I still consider it a worthy read but it’s been superseded both in terms of tech/sci-fi and also attitudinally. Spoiler as the way Anvil has IMO faded a bit with time: For example, one big conflict in Anvil of the Stars is whether to trust “the Moms”. At the time it seemed a real conflict. As a modern reader, I’m screaming from early on “DON’T TRUST THE MOMS!!!”

I started Hegira in a bookshop in 1989 and found it to finish a couple of years ago. Need to find Forge of God and Queen of Angels now :)

… and look at that, the library is full of Bears. Thanks Greg :)

I’m so sorry to hear this. Met Bear briefly a few years ago at the Locus Awards dinner in Seattle and ended up seated at a table with him and Astrid. You could just feel the positive energy from him as he was enjoying being in the company of fellow writers.

It’s sad he’s gone, especially so suddenly. He’ll be long-remembered through his wonderful work.

Ah, man. :(. One of my favourite authors. RIP sir.