This collection of Greg Bear's major short fiction ably demonstrates why Bear is one of science fiction's most popular authors. The multiple Hugo and Nebula Award winner offers here a feast of his most famous stories and novellas, accompanied by thoughtful introductions and afterwords that provide insight into the writer and his process.This collection contains Bear's earliest published fiction from the late 1960s and early 1970s as well his remarkable award-winning work from the 1980s and 1990s-stories like the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novella-length version of "Blood Music" and the Hugo and Nebula Award-winner "Tangents." Also included are The Wind from a Burning Woman," in which despair and anger inspire a young woman's terrible act of vengeance; "The White Horse Child," a loving look at the nascence of the creative impulse; "Dead Run," in which the road to hell is paved with concrete, and not all intentions are good; and over twenty others.
This gets a five out of five easily. No, not every story is that good, and as a matter of fact there are a couple stories that I didn't like and I think one or two that I couldn't even get through. But this compilation has the novella Hardfought, a story that Bear himself says may be the best thing he's ever written in the foreword, and I think it may be as well. It would earn this collection 5 out of 5 even if the rest of the stories were nothing but Harry Potter fan fiction. Hardfought is one of the best far future stories thats been written, and ranks up there with Frank Herbert and such as far as quality goes... just ignore most of the poetry in the story. The compilation also has the short story Blood Music, which I thought was much better than the full novel, so that may be of interest to Bear fans. There are a few other stories of very good quality, such as Judgment Engine and The Venging, and the rest with a few exceptions are all good. At 16$ this book is a really good deal. I'm pretty sure I paid around more than that and I don't regret it at all.
Not Free SF Reader
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 17 years ago
A large collection from Bear. He talks about how he is not really too comfortable with producing anything particularly short. There are also some supernatural and the odd horror story included, as well, something with doesn't particularly seem to be his forte, going by the numbers. A 3.38 average for this lot, if you just wanted the top stuff you could probably get Tangents instead, other than Hardfought, that is. Anyway, this is a decent bunch, and that is about it. Collected Stories of Greg Bear : Blood Music [SS] - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : Sisters - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : A Martian Ricorso - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : Schrödinger's Plague - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : Heads - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : The Wind from a Burning Woman - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : The Venging - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : Perihesperon - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : Scattershot - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : A Plague of Conscience - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : Always Never - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : The White Horse Child - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : Dead Run - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : Petra - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : Webster - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : Through Road No Whither - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : Tangents - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : The Visitation - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : Richie by the Sea - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : Sleepside Story - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : Judgment Engine - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : The Fall of the House of Escher - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : The Way of All Ghosts A Myth from Thistledown - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : MDIO Ecosystems Increase Knowledge of DNA Languages (2215 C.E.) [Deep Ice and DNA Languages] - Greg Bear Collected Stories of Greg Bear : Hardfought - Greg Bear Microcolony kill failure transfer overrun. 4 out of 5 Designer defect death. 3.5 out of 5 First contact rapid overtaking. 2.5 out of 5 Coin toss experimental global philosophy pandemic probability. 3.5 out of 5 Scientology scummy scammer's skull storage shocker shattered. 4.5 out of 5 Floating megaboom backdown refusal. 3.5 out of 5 Singular h*ll. 3 out of 5 Sunny end. 3 out of 5 There's a bear in there, and a chair as well. Really, if you get hit by a probability disruptor enough times you might berry likely pick up anything, girly. 4 out of 5 Bloke not the messiah. 2.5 out of 5 Son story sins. 2.5 out of 5 Trucking h*ll, man. 3.5 out of 5 Gargoyle boys and girls. 3.5 out of 5 Dictionary definition not the same as the real thing. 3 out of 5 I see bad things for the SS. 3.5 out of 5 Music just adds that extra dimension. 4 out of 5 G0d-thr
Greg Bear Stuns!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 21 years ago
This is an astonishing series of stories. It seems almost impossible that one mind could cover this kind of scope and do it so entertainingly and well.As you can tell, I LOVED this book!
Strong anthology
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 22 years ago
Greg Bear is the winner of numerous prestigious awards in all the categories. This particular collection contains many of his short stories (21), and three novellas. The stories have all been printed before, but not in one volume and would be impossible to obtain in their original format. Each tale includes an introduction that is new. Fans of the author and science fiction readers in general will relish The Collected Works of Greg Bear in spite of the near breaking of the $30.00 barrier as this anthology displays the talent of one of the late twentieth century genre's top spinners.Harriet Klausner
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