Gregory Dale Bear (photo ©Geoffrey A. Landis) was born on August 20, 1951, in San Diego, California.

Greg Bear started writing when he was still very young, selling his first story in 1967. In the following years, he attended San Diego State University graduating in physics and mathematics.

In 1975, Greg Bear became a full-time writer and though he’s known as a hard science fiction writer he also wrote a couple of fantasy novels: “The Infinite Concert” in 1984 and “the Serpent Mage” in 1986, combined into a single book in 1994 titled “Songs of Earth and Power”.

The first science fiction novels by Greg Bear revealed the great potential of this author but critics noted how “Hegira” (1979) and “Strength of Stones” (1981) were still quite chaotic in their narrative.

In 1981 Greg Bear married Astrid Anderson, science fiction writer Poul Anderson’s daughter.

In the following years, Greg Bear refined his skills as a writer and in 1983 he won the Hugo and Nebula awards with the novelette “Blood Music”, which he later expanded turning it into a novel with the same title published in 1985. This is the first science fiction story based on nanotechnology.

In the following years, further success arrived for Greg Bear with “Eon” (1985) and its sequels “Eternity” (1988) and “Legacy” (1995) but also with “The Forge of God” (1987) and its sequel “Anvil of Stars” (1992).

In 1998 Greg Bear published his novel “Foundation and Chaos”, part of a trilogy of prequels to Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy written with Gregory Benford and David Brin.

Some other novels by Greg Bear are independent but set in the same fictional world: “Queen of Angels” (1990), “Heads” (1990), the Nebula Award-winner “Moving Mars” (1993), “/ Slant” (1997), “Quantum” (2005), and “Mariposa” (2009) (the last two are the first in the internal chronology).

Greg Bear won the Nebula Award again with the novel “Darwin’s Radio” (1999), which was followed by its sequel “Darwin’s Children” in 2003.

During his career, Greg Bear has tackled almost every science fiction topic. Often in his stories humanity faces potential disasters of various kinds and profound changes. Hopefully, he’ll bring the Earth to the brink of destruction again and again!

Edit. Greg Bear passed away on November 19, 2022. He had complications during surgery and had a series of strokes. After a week, in accordance with his directives, life support was switched off.