The Novels of Greg Bear

Last updated 1997

Greg Bear and David Brin share more than last names that start with B. They are two of the best SF writers currently active. Bear is not quite as good a Brin, he has a tendency to let his stories run away from him. But when it comes to big ideas, Bear is your man. If you want to have a mind expanding experience, read Eon.

The Anvil of the Stars

1992 - This novel is Bear's finest work (so far). Anvil is nominally a sequel to The Forge of God which is your typical end-of-the-world novel. Anvil uses none of the same characters but uses the destruction of the earth as the prime motive force for the plot of the story. I was completely engaged by the book, I thought the characters were strong and real, I thought the moral questions were deep and troubling, and the ending was just perfect. Bear has never ended a book so well.

One person made the comment that the moral question posed by Anvil was very much a question of the nuclear age. Namely, when is it justified to annihilate someone?

Eon

1985 - This is a story that starts in one place with one plot and then, midway through, becomes something totally different. Its is a bit like making a movie that combines the first half of Apollo 13 and the last half of Star Trek, The Motion Picture. While Bear does both halves of the book reasonably well, the book just does not hang together. Bear has tried to deal with this problem. First, he wrote a sequel called Eternity (1988) which tries to clarify things but is not overly successful. Second, he wrote a prequel, which I talk about shortly.

There is no denying the power of Bear's ideas here. Eon is a mind expanding experience. But as a novel, it doesn't quite work.

Legacy

1995 - This is a book set in the same time line as Eon. It is called a prequel but it really has almost nothing to do with the books Eon and Eternity. That said, Legacy is a good book. By turns puzzling and bizarre it is really a sea journey across the ocean of an alien world. It reminds me somewhat of the book The One Tree by Stephan Donaldson. The narrative flow in Legacy is good as are several of the main characters. Once again, Bear invents some really big, interesting things, this time living things, and sends his characters right into the center of them. I'm still waiting for a book by Bear that explains more of the back history of Eon.

Moving Mars

1994 - This novel makes use of the wiz-bang technology the Bear invented in Anvil of the Stars and puts it to use for a rather more peaceful end, namely to move Mars out of the solar system. If you have read Anvil and understood what he is saying, you won't be very surprised by the plot in this book. Compared to the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanely Robinson Moving Mars is not as detailed but it is better plotted and has more straight-forward characters.

Queen of Angels

1993 - In parts, this is a lot like Earth by David Brin, it is an exploration of the near future of our own world. In other parts of the story it is a wild ride into the subconscious of a man. This part of the story is really fascinating and quite disturbing. Overall, the book does not hang together, but it is still an interesting novel.

Other Bear Books

• Blood Music. This was Bear's first big success, a short story about nano-technology before nano-technology was talked about (actually Drexler was slightly ahead of Bear with a technical paper, and Feynman was ahead of them both).
  
  
• Songs of Magic and Power. This is an interesting, though very personal, fantasy novel. Like most early works, it speaks more the hopes and dreams of the writer as a young adult than it addresses the world at large. After reading it, I would say that Bear is better off in the world of Science Fiction.

There is a good web page devoted to Greg Bear and his works at this location.

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