Books by Gregory Benford
Born: 01/30/1941Gregory Benford Biography & Notes
Gregory Benford (born January 30, 1941) is a science fiction author and physicist who teaches at the University of California, Irvine.
* 30 January 1941 - born in Mobile, Alabama
* 1963 - received Bachelor of Science in physics from University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma
* 1965 - received Master of Science from University of California, San Diego
* 1967 - received Doctor of Philosophy from University of California, San Diego
* 1967 - married Joan Abbe
Benford has an identical twin brother, Jim Benford, with whom he has collaborated on science fiction stories and projects. Both got their start in science fiction fandom. Benford was the co-editor of the fanzine Void. His first professional sale was the story "Stand-In", which appeared in the June 1965 issue of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. In 1969, he began writing a regular science column for Amazing Stories.
Benford tends to write hard science fiction which incorporates the research he is doing as a practical scientist. He has worked on several collaborations with authors including William Rotsler, David Brin and Gordon Eklund, but has really made a name for him self with the Galactic Center Saga beginning with In the Ocean of Night (1977). This series postulates a galaxy in which sentient organic life is in constant warfare with sentient mechanical life.
His breakthrough novel may have been the time travel classic Timescape (1980), co-authored with his brother's wife Hillary Forester Benford, which won the Nebula Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. A scientific procedural, the novel eventually loaned its title to a line of science fiction published by Pocket Books.
Benford has also served as an editor of numerous alternate history anthologies as well as collections of the Hugo Winners. In the 1990s, he wrote Foundation's Fear, one of an authorized sequel trilogy to Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, the other two books being written by Brin and Greg Bear. Other novels published in the 1990s include several near-future science thrillers: Cosm (1998), The Martian Race (1999) and Eater (2000). Benford has been nominated for four Hugo Awards (two short story, two novella) and 12 Nebula Awards (in all categories). He won the Nebula for his novel Timescape and the novelette "If the Stars Are Gods" (with Gordon Eklund).
He also proposed a corollary to Clarke's third law: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced".
* 30 January 1941 - born in Mobile, Alabama
* 1963 - received Bachelor of Science in physics from University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma
* 1965 - received Master of Science from University of California, San Diego
* 1967 - received Doctor of Philosophy from University of California, San Diego
* 1967 - married Joan Abbe
Benford has an identical twin brother, Jim Benford, with whom he has collaborated on science fiction stories and projects. Both got their start in science fiction fandom. Benford was the co-editor of the fanzine Void. His first professional sale was the story "Stand-In", which appeared in the June 1965 issue of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. In 1969, he began writing a regular science column for Amazing Stories.
Benford tends to write hard science fiction which incorporates the research he is doing as a practical scientist. He has worked on several collaborations with authors including William Rotsler, David Brin and Gordon Eklund, but has really made a name for him self with the Galactic Center Saga beginning with In the Ocean of Night (1977). This series postulates a galaxy in which sentient organic life is in constant warfare with sentient mechanical life.
His breakthrough novel may have been the time travel classic Timescape (1980), co-authored with his brother's wife Hillary Forester Benford, which won the Nebula Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. A scientific procedural, the novel eventually loaned its title to a line of science fiction published by Pocket Books.
Benford has also served as an editor of numerous alternate history anthologies as well as collections of the Hugo Winners. In the 1990s, he wrote Foundation's Fear, one of an authorized sequel trilogy to Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, the other two books being written by Brin and Greg Bear. Other novels published in the 1990s include several near-future science thrillers: Cosm (1998), The Martian Race (1999) and Eater (2000). Benford has been nominated for four Hugo Awards (two short story, two novella) and 12 Nebula Awards (in all categories). He won the Nebula for his novel Timescape and the novelette "If the Stars Are Gods" (with Gordon Eklund).
He also proposed a corollary to Clarke's third law: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced".
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Against Infinity by Gregory Benford ( 1983)
The annual hunt for the Aleph, the near-mythical being that appears and disappears on Ganymede, a Jovian moon, has a far-reaching impact on the life of Manuel Lopez, the son of the hunt's leader.
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Alien Horizons The Fantastic Art of Bob Eggleton by Nigel Suckling ( 2000)
One picture is worth a thousand words, and thus Bob Eggleton's illustrations can speak for themselves-eloquently and elegantly.--Robert Bloch. ...a compilation of Eggleton's cover art and sketches with text...A four time Hugo winner, Eggleton makes highly detailed and vibrant artwork for book covers of such prominent authors as Greg Bear, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. To complement the more than 100 pages of colorful illustrations, a comprehensive interview between Suckling and Eggleton provides snippets about the painter's background and techniques as well as his views on everything from aliens and science to love and death.--Publisher's Weekly.
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Amazing Stories No 7 by Dunn, James Alan Gardner, Gregory Benford ( 1992) |
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Artifact by Gregory Benford ( 1998)
Archaeologists have unearthed a strange artifact buried in a 3500-year-old Mycenaen tomb. A small cube of black rock topped with an amber horn, it contains the heat of a sun within and its discovery has unleashed a global storm of intrigue and espionage, and has led nations to the brink of war. And now a team of dedicated scientists must unlock the secrets of its origins and its purpose, before a mysterious relic that may have already obliterated one world destroys another.
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Beyond Human Living With Robots and Cyborgs by Elisabeth Malartre, Gregory Benford ( 2008)
Evaluates scientific and technological advances that are enabling the development of artificial intelligence and the extension of human life and capabilities through mechanical means, in a provocative account that considers such topics as cyborg body parts, robots, and the landscape of human self-change. Original. 10,000 first printing. Scientific American.
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Beyond Infinity by Gregory Benford ( 2004)
Escaping from the unbending constraints of Earth in the company of a brilliant beast, a young woman soon discovers that Alien agencies have mastered the ability to span parallel universes, which are undetectable by man-made devices, when she encounters these beings and the unthinkable happens.
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Beyond the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke, Gregory Benford ( 1990)
Alvin of Loronei escapes Diaspar, the last living city on Earth, to seek his destiny by revitalizing humankind and by salvaging Earth from stagnation.
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Chiller by Gregory Benford ( 1993)
On the verge of a breakthrough with his experiments in cryonics--the practice of freezing a corpse for future revival--Alex Cowell finds his experiment has brought about a confrontation with society's outdated conception of mortality.
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Cosm by Gregory Benford, Gregory Bendord ( 1999)
After an accident in a brilliant young physicist's most ambitious experiment, it appears: a wondrous sphere the size of a basketball, made of nothing known to science. Before long, it will be clear that this object has opened a vista on an entirely different universe, a newborn cosmos whose existence will rock this world and test one woman to the limit: the physicist who has ignited this thrilling adventure.
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Deep Time How Humanity Communicates Across Millennia by Gregory Benford ( 2000)
States how the human race is sending strong messages about itself into the cosmos in the form of nuclear waste, global warming, and the extinction of species, considering the legacy we are constructing for future generations and the next occupants of the planet. Reprint.
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Eater by Gregory Benford ( 2001) Impending personal tragedy is dimming the brilliant light of Dr. Benjamin Knowlton's world. On the threshold of their greatest achievement, the renowned astrophysicist's beloved wife and partner -- ex-astronaut-turned astronomer -- is dying. But something looms alarningly on the far edge of the solar system: at once a scientific find of unparalleled importance that could ensure the Knowltons' immortality, and a potential earth-shattering cataclysm that dwarfs their private one. For Benjamin and Channing have discovered "Eater," an eons-old black hole anomaly that devours stars and worlds. Yet its most awesome and devasting secrets are still to be revealed...and feared. |
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Far Futures by ( 1997)
Gregory Benford, one of the great SF writers of our day, has assumed the mantle of editor to produce this ambitious hard SF anthology, with works by Poul Anderson, Greg Bear, Joe Haldeman, Donald M. Kingsbury, and Charles Sheffield. The five original novellas--all set at least 10 thousand years in the future--cover vast panoramas in a vigorously scientific approach and confront the very largest issues of cosmology, evolution and biology.
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Foundation's Fear by Gregory Benford ( 1998)
Isaac Asimov's "Foundation Trilogy" has become an SF classic. Now, HarperPrism continues the legacy with the second "Foundation Trilogy", three new novels written by the brightest stars in contemporary SF. In this first volume, the quiet academic life of Hari Seldon is turned upside down when he is nominated as First Minister by Emperor Cleon. A rousing adventure that combines intellectual debate with the ingenious possibilities of true SF, this novel gives Asimov's greatest creation new life.
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Great Sky River Galactic Center Series, Book 3 by Gregory Benford ( 1987)
At the center of the galaxy, a small band of humans facing extinction discover that they will play a new role in the order of the universe.
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Heart of the Comet by Gregory Benford ( 1995) |
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Heart of the Comet by Gregory Benford, David Brin ( 1986)
In the middle of the twenty-first century, the multinational crew of scientists stationed on Halley's Comet set aside personal prejudices and unite to survive in the bleak, ice-covered environment and transform it into a source of life.
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Human Being by Gregory Benford ( 2003) |
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If the Stars Are Gods by Gregory Benford, Gordon Eklund ( 1998)
A repackaging of the Nebula Award-winning classic places Earth representative Bradley Reynolds in the awesome role of meeting the first aliens humankind has ever encountered and taking on their difficult challenge of unlocking secrets to the universe. Reissue.
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Jupiter Project by Gregory Benford ( 1998)
The Jovian Astronautical-Biological Orbital Laboratory circles Jupiter and its moons--a metal shell bathed in lethal radiation, held in tenuous place by the gravity of the massive gas giant like a fragile glass ornament in a monstrous fist. For seventeen-year-old Matt Bohles and his friends, "the Can" is home. Life onboard the aging space station is cramped, spartan, and dangerous. Its mission--to monitor incoming signals and transmissions in search of alien life--has so far proven fruitless. it is the only world Matt has ever known. But now, as the threshold of adulthood--with its onset of new questions, confusions and feelings --Matt Bohles faces an impending crisis that threatens everything he knows and is. For unless he can prove himself an invaluable member of the scientific team--and quickly--he will be exiled to a filthy, perilous and unfamiliar hell called Earth.
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The Key What You Should Know About Science by Michael R. Rose, Gregory Benford ( 2008) |
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Man-Kzin Wars VI by Gregory Benford, Larry Niven, Mark O. Martin ( 1994)
The man-killing cats from Kzin are back in short novels by Gregory Benford, Mark O. Martin and Donald Kingsbury. The Kzin Third Fleet has decided a change of strategy is in order after two unpleasant defeats at the hands of the humans (or "monkeys") from Earth. Only luck or the Outsiders can save us now. . . .
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The Martian Race by Gregory Benford ( 1999)
With NASA's mission to Mars scrapped because of a tragic accident, billionaire John Axelrod steps in to compete with the European-Chinese effort to reach the fourth planet first, and the race is on.
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Matter's End by Gregory Benford ( 1995)
A collection of twenty-one stories features unexpected revelations at a masquerade party, a devastating California earthquake, a complex computer game that becomes a matter of life and death, and more. Original.
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Merlin by Gregory Benford ( 2004)
Camelot's legendary wizard comes to life in an anthology of enchanting original stories from Jane Yolen, Charles de Lint, Andre Norton, Diana Paxton, and other popular fantasy authors. Original.
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Murasaki by Poul Anderson, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford ( 1992)
After twenty years of travel, the first ships bearing humans arrive in the Murasaki system, where they encounter the inhabitants of Murasaki's two mysterious worlds and where they unravel the mysteries of an alien ecosystem.
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Nebula Awards Showcase 2000 The Year's Best Sf and Fantasy Chosen by the Science-Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America by ( 2000)
A collection of the best of the fiction and poetry that earned 1999 Nebula Awards, bestowed by the Sciencefiction and Fantasy Writers of America, includes original essays on the latest achievements in the genre and stories by Jane Yolen, Joe Haldeman, Geoffrey A. Landis, and other notables. Simultaneous.
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The New Hugo Winners by Gregory Benford ( 1997)
Since 1953, the annual Hugo Awards presented at the World Science Fiction Convention have been as coveted by SF writers as is the Oscar in the motion picture field--and SF fans recognize it as a certain indicator of the finest in science fiction. Now bestselling author Gregory Benford presents the Hugo winners for 1992, 1993, and 1994 in a book that will be a must-buy for all SF readers.
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Of Space/time and the River by Gregory Benford, Judy King-Rieniets ( 1985) |
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Sailing Bright Eternity by Gregory Benford ( 2005)
In the epic conclusion to the Galactic Center series, the hope of human survival comes down to one man, an ancient scientist from the distant past who leads a struggle against a gigantic race called the Old Ones. Reprint.
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Seeing Ear Theatre A Sci-Fi Channel Presentation by Brian Smith, John Kessel, Terry Bisson, Gregory Benford, Allen Steele, James Patrick Kelly ( 1998)
With introductions by Harlan Ellison, this collection features "Three Odd Comedies" by Terry Bisson; "Into the Sun" by Brian Smith; "Think Like a Dinosaur" by James Patrick Kelly; "The Death of Captain Future" by Allen Steele and Brian Smith; "A Clean Escape" by John Kessel; and "The Bigger One" by Gregory Benford. Unabridged. November '98 publication date.
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Shiva Descending by Gregory Benford, William Rotsler ( 1996)
A gigantic asteroid the size of a mountain, Shiva is set to hit Earth with the force of a hundred thousand nuclear bombs, poised to destroy all life on Earth and blast the human race into instant extinction. Only a last-ditch space mission has a chance of saving the Earth--or what's left of it after the first asteroid rainshower.
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Swift Thoughts by George Zebrowski ( 2002)
This career retrospective (which has the only a few stories in common with Zebrowski's earlier anthologies) includes stories written between 1973 and 2001, and features among them the Nebula Award nominee "The Eichmann Variations," "In the Distance, and Ahead in Time," and the title story, "Swift Thoughts."
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Tides of Light by Gregory Benford ( 1989)
Follows the struggles of the small band of humans who have escaped the machine intelligence and have populated a new planet where grave dangers--including part-organic-part-machine beings--await them.
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Timescape by Gregory Benford ( 1996)
The author of Tides of Light offers his Nebula Award-winning SF classic--a combination of hard science, bold speculation, and human drama. In the year 1998, a group of scientists works desperatey to communicate with the scientists of 1962, warning of an ecological disaster that will destroy the oceans in the future--if it is not averted in the past.
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Under the Wheel by Gregory Benford ( 1987)
Three stories deal with a conformist utopia, government mind control, and a powerful tyrant.
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What Might Have Been Alternate Wars by ( 2004) |
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Worlds Vast and Various Stories by Gregory Benford ( 2000) SF readers have come to expect the universe from Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Gregory Benford: fascinating multilayered characters, thrilling plots, and mind-bending scientific speculations firmly based in cutting-edge technological fact. When it comes to literate, human, unassailably possible science fiction, Benford is in a class by himself--as he proves once again in a stunning array of tales that have never been collected in one volume before. A time-traveler on an illegal trip into the past learns a chilling truth about her own destiny... As a deadly Superflu runs rampant through a polluted, overpopulated Earth, a husband-and-wife scientific team races to salvage a livable future...On a planet where the laws of physics are strangely twisted, a brilliant scientist work undermines an ancient faith and leads to a shattering revelation...An ore-hauler on Mercury, desperate to save her endangered ship and career findsa remarkable way out: a wormhole trapped in the hellish flux of magnetic fieldsand fiery plasma generated by the nuclear furnace of the sun... These are but a few of the various worlds the respected astrophysicist and SF luminary now transports us to in ships constructed of evocative words and ingenious ideas. Astonishing, provocative, and intellectually stimulating, each selection is a glittering star in the vast cosmos of Gregory Benford's unparalleled imagination. |