In Greg Bear’s new futuristic FBI thriller Mariposa, the world just keeps getting tougher and more complicated. America teeters on the edge of bankruptcy because of crushing foreign debt and an apparent savior, The Talos Corporation, delivers training for soldiers and security forces around the world, logistical support and badly-needed troops economically. But there’s a sinister hidden cost. The three rookie FBI agents who survived the challenges portrayed in Quantico are drawn back together in an alliance against a deadly challenge for which no one seems prepared. The code name is “Mariposa”, and only a desperate combination of misfits and survivors can combat a threat spelling nothing less than the collapse of American democracy.

E-Reads is happy to bring you the e-book edition of Mariposa. For those who prefer to read the print edition, click here. If you want to read the novel that launched this futuristic FBI thriller series, you can buy the e-book of Quantico here or the print edition here.

And for a menu of eighteen unforgettable novels by this award-winning master of science fiction, visit Greg Bear’s page on E-Reads.

RC

About Greg Bear

Greg Bear, author of over 25 books, which have been translated into 17 languages, has won science fiction’s highest honors and is considered the natural heir to Arthur C. Clarke. The recipient of two Hugos and four Nebulas for his fiction, he 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 this generations’ classics. He is married to Astrid Anderson, daughter of science fiction great Poul Anderson, and they are the parents of two children, Erik and Alexandria. His most recent thriller novel, Quantico, was published in 2007. He has since published a new, epic SF novel, City at the End of Time.

This summer, E-Reads is proud to announce that 20 of our best-selling titles are now available in very special editions where you can order them to be printed with your own unique dedication messages and photos, thanks to the Inscribe-It services by Shared Book™, a new E-Reads distribution partner.

E-Reads uses Shared Book to provide consumers with the opportunity to make their favorite books even more valuable and special through the addition of personalized pages. These custom creations allow the reader’s affinity for the book to increase with the new version, an on-demand one-of-a-kind rarity. Simply type your own dedication and upload a picture from your computer when you shop for your book online at our Shared Book print-on-demand webstore.

What does the service cost? Actually, nothing! It’s included in the regular price of the book, and they have free shipping in the U.S.!

Among the titles presently available are our best-selling books by Greg Bear, Janet Dailey, Bill Dietz, Dave Duncan, Hannah Howell and John Norman. What are you waiting for? Buy your personalized, one-of-a-kind editions today! (Click here)

Scientists and government officials are commonly invited to brief science fiction writers on recent discoveries and policies. But it’s quite a different matter for the writers to brief the scientists and lawmakers. Yet, in the last couple of years, that’s just what’s happened: the US government has been inviting science fiction writers to Washington DC to do some brainstorming. What’s more significant, the government actually listens to what they have to say. Small wonder: many of the officials read science fiction, and some of them write it.

It all started when writer Arlan Andrews founded an organization called Sigma. It sounds black ops but is actually composed of sci-fi and other writers with science credentials and even advanced degrees. They’ve shared their visions with the US Army, Air Force, NATO “and other agencies they care not to name,” writes Washington Post staff writer David Montgomery. Except for travel expenses, the authors provide their services pro bono. As for those travel expenses, journeys through time and space are excluded. Sigma’s authors visit the future, Andrews explains, and “we owe it to mankind to come back and report what we’ve found,”

The most recent convocation took place in May when a delegation of writers writers led by award-winning SF novelist Greg Bear was invited to the Homeland Security Science & Technology Stakeholders Conference to do a little blue-skying. Bear served as master of ceremonies and, as author of Quantico, an adventure projecting a future FBI, he was right at home. (The e-book edition of Quantico is one of seventeen Bear novels published by E-Reads.)

“Rolf Dietrich, Homeland Security’s deputy director of research, says the writers help managers think more broadly about projects, especially about potential reactions and unintended consequences,” writes Montgomery, quoting Dietrich:”They have a different way of looking at things.’”

Well yes, science fiction writers certainly do, and it’s great to know that a federal agency actually appreciates them for it.

You can check out their brainstorms here.

RC

How do you write a sequel to a science fiction novel in which you’ve destroyed Earth and killed off most of its inhabitants? Greg Bear asked himself that question after completing Forge of God. But he did not shrink, or even hesitate, before the challenge. Not too many authors would have even attempted it; fewer would have triumphed so thoroughly. But behold Anvil of Stars, offered at last in e-book format.

After Earth’s devastation by self-replicating robots, a handful of human survivors aided by a benevolent race of aliens sets out to confront the planet-killers. Turning their backs on their sundered mother world, they seek revenge against a race so vast, so technologically advanced and so heartless that the odds of succeeding are infinitesimal.

“A knotty philosophical question–how moral is “eye for an eye” revenge preoccupies Bear in this provocative and entertaining follow-up to Forge of God…Employing plausible new hard-science concepts, Bear fashions an action-packed and often thrilling plot; by using each of the well-depicted alien races to mirror human behavior, he defines what it means to be Homo Sapiens. Bear draws on the full range of his gifts, seamlessly pulling together action and characterization to create a gripping story.” — Publishers Weekly (Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

“Like Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, this sequel to The Forge of God explores the issues of morality and justice, using children as its vehicle. Bear’s treatment differs, however, in that his characters have already lost their innocence and face their destiny with open eyes. As a stylist, Bear writes with a heady brilliance that communicates a sense of immediacy and credibility.” – Library Journal

Our e-book edition of Forge of God is in production, so watch this space for announcement of its release.

RC

Greg Bear is famous for his award-winning futuristic science fiction, but in Dinosaur Summer he brings us back to a lost world frozen in time for 70,000 years, replete with avisaurs, centrosaurs and ankylosaurs.

A professor mounts a daring expedition to return these Jurassic giants to the wild. Two filmmakers, a circus trainer, a journalist, and a young Peter Belzoni must find a way to take the dinosaurs across oceans, continents, rivers, jungles, and, finally up a mountain.

Read it either as an e-book or trade paperback, and when you’re finished with Bear’s prehistory, return to the future. E-Reads carries the largest selection of his science fiction of any publisher – seventeen at last count!

RC

Greg Bear is best known – celebrated — for his science fiction. Less well known are his fantasy stories. But they evince the same imagination and meticulous craftsmanship as the works he has produced in the so-called “hard” genre, and they too are reason to celebrate.

Bringing together six stories in old paradigms, Sleepside features “Webster,” “The White Horse Child,” “Sleepside Story,” “Dead Run,” “Through Road No Whither,” and “Petra.” This edition also includes a special introduction by the author: “On Losing the Taint of Being a Cannibal.”

Round out your collection of Beariana with Sleepside Stories, and watch this space for announcements of new uploads.

RC

The centerpiece of Women in Deep Time, Greg Bear’s trio of stories with a common theme, is the Nebula Award-winning novella Hardfought. The common theme is “the female psyche, multiplied and divided,” says Bear in the book’s introduction. “There’s probably something Jungian in common with all three. At any rate, throughout my writing career (and for whatever reason) I’ve been fascinated by the feminine voice.”

Featured in this special collection are “Sisters,” “Scattershot,” in which the inhabitants of many universes meet in limbo, and Hardfought, which deserves more than passing mention. In Bear’s own words,

“Hardfought tells of a small portion in an eons-long war between humanity and the very ancient species of the Senexi. The narrative focuses on Prufax, a girl barely entering her adolescence, and Aryz, a Senexi whose job is to first understand humans and then, if successful, commit suicide. The violent coming together of these very different beings illustrates how understanding between humans and Senexi might be achieved and how such understanding could lead to peace.”

In response to intense fascination with the story, Bear prepared a Study Guide in BookRags, but you will benefit best from it after you read the story and its sisters. “Hardfought is very densely written, intense in action and theme, and it demands that readers think,” Bear advises. So, read it and come to your own conclusions before immersing yourself in the Study Guide.

The collection is available at once in paperback, and will soon be online for download, so revisit our site for updates, and check out the other superb works by this master science fiction storyteller for sale on E-Reads.

RC

Earlier this week we told you that Greg Bear’s Blood Music was back in paperback. Now it’s available as an e-book as well.

Here’s what we wrote about it.

Greg Bear didn’t invent the word “Nanotechnology”. But he did produce what is arguably the finest novel ever written incorporating the principle. E-Reads is proud to announce the rerelease in paperback of Blood Music.

In Blood Music, a rogue genetic engineer named Vergil Ulam has been freelancing work on a formula he discovered on his job at a research firm. When his employers discover his activities and order him to destroy the formula, he injects himself with it and walks off the job, having no idea of just how the concoction will affect him. What is far more ominous, he has no idea that his formula will have a profound effect on the world. Bear’s tale of scientific hubris takes you far beyond the boundaries of science fiction stories about the evils of uncontrolled science. Indeed, few authors could project their imaginations into the fantastic and exquisitely limned realm where Bear takes his readers.

E-Reads is the leading publisher of Greg Bear’s backlist. Check his author page for his novels and story collections. Some formats are still in production, so keep your eye peeled on our home page for updates.

RC

Greg Bear didn’t invent the word “Nanotechnology”. But he did produce what is arguably the finest novel ever written incorporating the principle. E-Reads is proud to announce the rerelease in paperback of Blood Music.

In Blood Music, a rogue genetic engineer named Vergil Ulam has been freelancing work on a formula he discovered on his job at a research firm. When his employers discover his activities and order him to destroy the formula, he injects himself with it and walks off the job, having no idea of just how the concoction will affect him. What is far more ominous, he has no idea that his formula will have a profound effect on the world. Bear’s tale of scientific hubris takes you far beyond the boundaries of science fiction stories about the evils of uncontrolled science. Indeed, few authors could project their imaginations into the fantastic and exquisitely limned realm where Bear takes his readers.

The paperback is available now. The e-book is in production; watch this page for announcement of its release.

E-Reads is the leading publisher of Greg Bear’s backlist. Check his author page for his novels and story collections. Some formats are still in production, so keep your eye peeled on our home page for updates.

RC

Publishers Weekly, the official trade magazine of the publishing industry, released its list of of “the very best of what American publishing had to offer in fiction, poetry,nonfiction, comics, religion, lifestyle and children’s. In the Fantasy and Science Fiction category, Greg Bear’s City at the End of Time (Del Rey) was named among the best, sharing honors with six other titles. Writes PW’s Louisa Ermelino, “Bear returns triumphantly to large-scale science fiction with this complex, difficult tale of Seattle drifters sent on a mission to preserve the universe’s last vestiges of consciousness.”

E-Reads carries nine classic Greg Bear titles with more on the way.

RC