Greg Bear is the author of more than thirty books of science fiction and fantasy, including BLOOD MUSIC, THE FORGE OF GOD, DARWIN'S RADIO, and QUANTICO. He is married to Astrid Anderson Bear and is the father of Erik and Alexandra. Awarded two Hugos and five Nebulas for his fiction, one of two authors to win a Nebula in every category, Bear has been called the "Best working writer of hard science fiction" by "The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Science Fiction." His most recent novel is QUANTICO, a near-future examination of law enforcement, politics, and terror both domestic and religious. DARWIN'S RADIO and DARWIN'S CHILDREN (1999, 2003) form a sequence about viruses and human evolution and are published by Del Rey and HarperCollins UK. His stories have been collected into an omnibus volume by Tor Books. Bear has served on political and scientific action committees and has advised Microsoft Corporation, the U.S. Army, the CIA, Sandia National Laboratories, Callison Architecture, Inc., and other groups and agencies. His novels THE FORGE OF GOD and ANVIL OF STARS have been optioned by Warner Brothers, and DARWIN'S RADIO and DARWIN'S CHILDREN have been optioned by Michael DeLuca and Howard Braunstein."
Hello Greg, and thank you for wanting to answer my questions. I knew you as an author many years ago with
the wonderful series Eon. Writing about the Thistledown you switched imho from space opera to the most modern
topics concerning travels in time, and so on. Is it still possible to write sagas like Eon?
I’m working on something just as epic—perhaps more epic—right now. EON will probably remain unique in its mix of politics, physics, space, and high tech—but this new novel, in terms of scope, far exceeds it.
At a certain point in science fiction it looked as if every book should be "cyberpunk". You seemed not to have loved
the genre very much, did you?
I didn’t like being pigeonholed, and there was nothing cynical or “punk” about what I was writing, so I climbed down off that bandwagon pretty quickly. Frankly, I shy away from anything that others describe as “cool.” It’s just a knee-jerk response, and not very rational. I probably would have gotten more mileage by enthusiastically hooking my star to the cyberpunk label. Ironically, Bruce Sterling anthologized one of my least cyberpunk stories, “Petra,” in MIRRORSHADES—so I got in by the skin of my teeth, and what a good anthology that still is today. I’ll hook myself to Bruce’s “slipstream” label anytime—I like that one, for some reason.
Science fiction is moving to new and different topic; space opera seems to be forgotten, anf many authors are
switching to the new frontier of genetics and biology. Do you think this is the future of science fiction?
I’m not sure. Space fiction is still very popular, and I certainly enjoy writing it. DARWIN’S RADIO and my later novels had to be written because biology is making such huge strides—but it now seems that physics and astronomy are shaking off a period of confusion, and could become equally interesting in the next few years.
Robert Sheckley and Stanislaw Lem died not so long ago. What do you think science fiction has lost with the two of them?
Sheckley was a marvel. He could handle satire and humor brilliantly—and probably paved the way for writers like Vonnegut and to some extent even Lem in the English-speaking world. As well, Sheckley had a considerable number of film and TV adaptations—from TV’s THE PEOPLE TRAP in the late sixties to THE TENTH VICTIM. Lem himself was an original—a European satirist with a penchant for cranky, visionary works. I think SOLARIS is on of the finest novels of the latter half of the 20th century. Both will be sorely missed.
Until recently alternate history and science fiction did not seem to be good partners, even if both genres belong in a way to the fantastic field.
Would you imagine yourself creating a parallel world from a point of divergence, just like Harry Turtledove or Kim Stanley Robinson?
I’ve done so, actually, in both EON and ETERNITY, and also—to a lesser extent—in my fantasy novels, where I create alternate film and Hollywood histories. Harry Turtledove is obviously the modern master of the field, but let’s not forget L. Sprague de Camp, Poul Anderson, and quite a few others—including Kingsley Amis, Len Deighton, and so on! There are so many examples of alternate histories in literature that I hesitate to even attempt a more complete list in this short a space. Alternate history can be pretty compelling stuff, even today.
Which is the way to make a bestseller out of a science fiction novel?
I wish I knew! Michael Crichton’s approach is unique to him—no one else has achieved his level of success—but I suspect that has a lot to do with a pretty spectacular series of film adaptations, going back to THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN.
Speaking of book market: after the Da Vinci Code was published, the
impression is that in order to make a bestseller out of a book you must put
a little bit of everything inside, from the thriller story to the science
fiction inspiration. Do you agree with this statement?
Certainly helps. A rich novel is always fun, and most readers are looking
for distraction-as well as a touch of surprise, and a touch of affirmation.
The biggest sellers tend to confirm what readers thought they knew all
along-and then, give them a few jolts along the way.
And speaking for a little while of the Da Vinci Code: do you think it
could be considered as a science fiction novel?
Probably not. Religious or philosophical or historical speculation,
certainly.
How would you explain the success of Dan Brown?
Tight story-telling, religious scandal that rocks the ages, a big dollop of
paranoia-cryptography, hidden mysteries, gasp-inducing revelations! What's
not to like?
Working on series means sooner or later to say goodbye to a good character. Did you ever find yourself feeling sad while putting an end to a good story with a good set of characters?
Always. Letting go of what feels like a real person is painful—and sometimes it’s unfair. Like us, good characters always have something more to contribute!
What are you working to at the very moment?
A novel called CITY AT THE END OF TIME. I think I can say, without qualification, that this book will combine the greatest time scale, the strangest and most outré physics, and the weirdest philosophical speculations of any of my novels.
