Human readers (the only kind I’ve encountered) enjoy reading about people not greatly unlike themselves. We enjoy watching the lives of others we can relate to. For relaxation, or a historical refresher, we also enjoy reading about the mores and social patterns of the past, in Dickens and Austen and Joyce, or Tolstoy and Hemingway and Dostoevsky. But what involves us most of all is fiction that directly or indirectly models our present situation and stimulates thought about the choices we have and the decisions we make. We enjoy discovering patterns and relationships between strangers and ourselves, and between different societies in different times.
In a sense, science fiction takes its cues from historical fiction, but with no specific arrow of time. The future as well as the past is open. (Alternate times and realities may qualify as well!)
Since there are few if any societies where change from outside—forced by history, the weather, or other natural phenomena—does not have a major impact on individual lives, to focus on change coming about solely through the willed actions of the individual is a very artificial limitation. It produces attractive and moving works, but these works are no more than an aspect, perhaps just a genre. At their worst, they give a false sense of comfort. Even at their best, they do not define the range of literature.
Most of my stories draw the lives of characters within larger characters, exploring how individuals react to change within a larger setting. Science fiction stories at their most ambitious model changes in nations, in cultures, even in species and worlds.
Writing science fiction puts added burdens on me as a story-teller. I have to do more than just closely observe: I have to extrapolate. This takes me into dangerous territory, since to extrapolate, I must try to understand the laws and forces that direct the greater characters. I see sociology, psychology, technology, and history as interrelated subsets of biology. This is far from the static and isolating world view common in many religions and much philosophy; it is also far from the gooey and shapeless “holistic” approach of New Age thinking, where anything goes, and the universe caters to our personal whims.
Just as a sharp observer of individual character strives not to be guided by sentiment and personal animus, an observer of larger characters must adopt a similar objectivity. In my stories, individuals are often shaped by environments that may be only marginally familiar, if at all, to the average reader. Bringing the environment to life is important, and inevitably takes some of the center spotlight away from so-called “pure” exploration of character and motive. But it returns the focus with additional rewards by giving insight into how characters shape and are shaped.
No character great or small lives in splendid isolation. Everything an individual does reflects back, and the mirror is not just society, but nature. Discovering how a larger nature works in a story is as thrilling (and dangerous) to my characters as internal discovery.
Letitia’s world has changed in significant ways, and offers her challenges no modern young woman has to face. Facing those challenges reveals her inner self as no contemporary setting can.
Moving between the internal world, the social world, and the external world, breaks down the barriers between. Inside becomes outside. There is no mirror, after all.
About the Author
Greg Bear is the author of over twenty-five books, which have been translated into seventeen languages. He has won science fiction’s highest honors and is considered the natural heir to Arthur C. Clarke. The recipient of two Hugo Awards and four Nebula Awards, Bear has been called “the best working writer of hard science fiction” by the Science Fiction Encyclopedia. Many of his novels, such as Darwin’s Radio, are considered to be classics of his generation. Bear is married to Astrid Anderson—who is the daughter of science fiction great Poul Anderson—and they are the parents of two children, Erik and Alexandria. Bear’s recent publications include the thriller Quantico and its sequel, Mariposa; the epic science fiction novel City at the End of Time; and the generation starship novel Hull Zero Three.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this book or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
These are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Greg Bear
Cover art by Greg Bear
“The Venging” first appeared in Galaxy, 1975
“Perihesperon” first appeared in Tomorrow, 1975
“The Fall of the House of Escher” first appeared in Beyond Imagination, 1996
“The Way of All Ghosts” first appeared in Far Horizons, 1999
“MDIO Ecosystems” first appeared in Nature, 2001
“Hardfought” first appeared in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, 1983
“Judgment Engine” first appeared in Artificial Life (Insects), 1993
Cover design by Mauricio Díaz
978-1-5040-2143-2
This edition published in 2016 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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Greg Bear, Beyond the Farthest Suns
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