David Brin

Last updated

David Brin
David Brin at ACM CFP 2005dsc278c.jpg
Brin at an Association for Computing Machinery conference in 2005
Born
Glen David Brin

(1950-10-06) October 6, 1950 (age 73)
Education University of California, San Diego (PhD, MS)
California Institute of Technology (BS)
Occupation(s)Novelist, NASA consultant
Parent
Writing career
Genre Science fiction
Notable works Uplift series , The Postman , Earth , "The Transparent Society"
Scientific career
Fields
  • Astronomy
  • Exobiology
Institutions
Thesis Evolution of cometary nuclei as influenced by a dust component  (1981)
Doctoral advisor D. Asoka Mendis
Website davidbrin.com
Signature
David Brin signature (cropped).jpg

Glen David Brin (born October 6, 1950) is an American science fiction author. He has won the Hugo, [1] [2] Locus, [3] [4] [5] Campbell [6] and Nebula Awards. [7] His novel The Postman was adapted into a 1997 feature film starring Kevin Costner. [8]

Contents

Early life and education

Brin was born in Glendale, California, in 1950 to Selma and Herb Brin. He graduated from the California Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in astronomy, in 1973. [9] [10] At the University of California, San Diego, he earned a Master of Science in electrical engineering (optics) in 1978 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in astronomy in 1981. [11] [12]

Career

From 1983 to 1986, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the California Space Institute, of the University of California, at the San Diego campus in La Jolla. [9] In 2010, Brin became a fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. [13] [14] He helped establish the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at UCSD. He serves on the advisory board of NASA's Innovative and Advanced Concepts group and frequently does futurist consulting for corporations and government agencies. [ citation needed ]

As of 2013, he served on the Board of Advisors for the Museum of Science Fiction. [15]

Personal life

Brin has Polish Jewish ancestry, from the area around Konin. His grandfather was drafted into the Russian army and fought in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. [16]

As of 2022, Brin was living in San Diego County, California, with his wife and children. [17]

Works

Most of Brin's fiction is categorized as hard science fiction, in that they apply some degree of plausible scientific or technological change as important plot elements. About half of Brin's works are in his Uplift Universe. These have twice won the Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Much of Brin's work outside the Uplift series focuses on technology's effects on human society, [18] a common theme of contemporary North American science fiction.

Bibliography

Fiction

Uplift

Novels:

  • Sundiver (1980), ISBN   0-553-13312-8
  • Startide Rising (1983), ISBN   0-553-23495-1. Hugo and Locus SF Awards winner, 1984; [19] Nebula Award winner, 1983 [20]
  • The Uplift War (1987), ISBN   0-932096-44-1. Hugo and Locus SF Awards winner, 1988; [21] Nebula Award nominee, 1987 [22]

Uplift trilogy, a.k.a. Uplift Storm:

Short fiction:

  • "Aficionado" (1998) was first published as "Life in the Extreme" in Popular Science magazine, republished in the 2003 limited-edition collection Tomorrow Happens, and included in Brin's 2012 novel Existence. It is available on Brin's website. "Aficionado" takes place before the novels.
  • "Temptation" (1999) appeared in Robert Silverberg's anthology Far Horizons: All New Tales from the Greatest Worlds of Science Fiction and is set after the events of Infinity's Shore.

Other works:

  • Contacting Aliens: An Illustrated Guide to David Brin's Uplift Universe (2002), ISBN   978-0553377965 (co-written by Brin and Kevin Lenagh)

High Horizon

Stand-alone novels

Comics

Short fiction collections

Fiction set in worlds created by others

Other works by Brin include his addition to Asimov's Foundation Universe:

Comics

Brin designed the game Tribes, published in 1998 by Steve Jackson Games, [30] and wrote the storyline for the 2000 Dreamcast video game Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future .

Nonfiction

Ongoing:

Books:

Honors and awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken MacLeod</span> Scottish science fiction writer

Kenneth Macrae MacLeod is a Scottish science fiction writer. His novels The Sky Road and The Night Sessions won the BSFA Award. MacLeod's novels have been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke, Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Campbell Memorial awards for best novel on multiple occasions. A techno-utopianist, MacLeod's work makes frequent use of libertarian socialist themes; he is a three-time winner of the libertarian Prometheus Award. Prior to becoming a novelist, MacLeod studied biology and worked as a computer programmer. He sits on the advisory board of the Edinburgh Science Festival. MacLeod has been chosen as a Guest of Honor at the 82nd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Niven</span> American science fiction writer (born 1938)

Laurence van Cott Niven is an American science fiction writer. His 1970 novel Ringworld won the Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. With Jerry Pournelle he wrote The Mote in God's Eye (1974) and Lucifer's Hammer (1977). The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America gave him the 2015 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greg Bear</span> American writer and illustrator (1951–2022)

Gregory Dale Bear was an American writer and illustrator best known for science fiction. His work covered themes of galactic conflict, parallel universes, consciousness and cultural practices, and accelerated evolution. His last work was the 2021 novel The Unfinished Land. Greg Bear wrote over 50 books in total.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack McDevitt</span> American science fiction author

Jack McDevitt is an American science fiction author whose novels frequently deal with attempts to make contact with alien races, and with archaeology or xenoarchaeology. Most of his books follow either superluminal pilot Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins or galactic relic hunters Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath. McDevitt has received numerous nominations for Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell awards. Seeker won the 2006 Nebula Award for Best Novel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gene Wolfe</span> American SF and fantasy writer (1931–2019)

Gene Rodman Wolfe was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He was noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith. He was a prolific short story writer and novelist, and won many literary awards. Wolfe has been called "the Melville of science fiction", and was honored as a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Connie Willis</span> American science fiction writer

Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis, commonly known as Connie Willis, is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. She has won eleven Hugo Awards and seven Nebula Awards for particular works—more major SF awards than any other writer—most recently the "Best Novel" Hugo and Nebula Awards for Blackout/All Clear (2010). She was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Science Fiction Writers of America named her its 28th SFWA Grand Master in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Wells</span> American speculative fiction writer (born 1964)

Martha Wells is an American writer of speculative fiction. She has published a number of fantasy novels, young adult novels, media tie-ins, short stories, and nonfiction essays on fantasy and science fiction subjects. Her novels have been translated into twelve languages. Wells has won four Hugo Awards, two Nebula Awards and three Locus Awards for her science fiction series The Murderbot Diaries. She is also known for her fantasy series Ile-Rien and The Books of the Raksura. Wells is praised for the complex, realistically detailed societies she creates; this is often credited to her academic background in anthropology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naomi Novik</span> American author (born 1973)

Naomi Novik is an American author of speculative fiction. She is known for the Temeraire series (2006–2016), an alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars involving dragons, and her Scholomance fantasy series (2020–2022). Her standalone fantasy novels Uprooted (2015) and Spinning Silver (2018) were inspired by Polish folklore and the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale respectively. Novik has won many awards for her work, including the Alex, Audie, British Fantasy, Locus, Mythopoeic and Nebula Awards.

Lou Aronica is an American editor and publisher, primarily of science fiction. He co-edited the Full Spectrum anthologies with Shawna McCarthy. As a publisher he began at Bantam Books and formed their Bantam Spectra science fiction and fantasy label. Later he moved on to Avon and helped create their Avon-Eos science fiction and fantasy label.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pyr (publisher)</span> American specialty publishing imprint

Pyr was the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Prometheus Books, launched in March 2005 with the publication of John Meaney's Paradox. In November 2018 it was sold to Start Publishing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Robinette Kowal</span> American author and puppeteer (born 1969)

Mary Robinette Kowal is an American author, translator, art director, and puppeteer. She has worked on puppetry for shows including Jim Henson Productions and the children's show LazyTown. As an author, she is a four-time Hugo Award winner, and served as the president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America from 2019-2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nebula Award</span> Literature prize for science fiction and fantasy works from the United States

The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), a nonprofit association of professional science fiction and fantasy writers. They were first given in 1966 at a ceremony created for the awards, and are given in four categories for different lengths of literary works. A fifth category for film and television episode scripts was given 1974–78 and 2000–09, and a sixth category for game writing was begun in 2018. In 2019 SFWA announced that two awards that were previously run under the same rules but not considered Nebula awards—the Andre Norton Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction and the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation—were to be considered official Nebula awards. The rules governing the Nebula Awards have changed several times during the awards' history, most recently in 2010. The SFWA Nebula Conference, at which the awards are announced and presented, is held each spring in the United States. Locations vary from year to year.

Rachel Swirsky is an American literary, speculative fiction and fantasy writer, poet, and editor living in Oregon. She was the founding editor of the PodCastle podcast and served as editor from 2008 to 2010. She served as vice president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Liu</span> Chinese-American writer

Ken Liu is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. Liu has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards for his novel translations and original short fiction, which has appeared in F&SF, Asimov's, Analog, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, and multiple "Year's Best" anthologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Leckie</span> American science fiction author (born 1966)

Ann Leckie is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. Her 2013 debut novel Ancillary Justice, which features artificial consciousness and gender-blindness, won the 2014 Hugo Award for "Best Novel", as well as the Nebula Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the BSFA Award. The sequels, Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy, each won the Locus Award and were nominated for the Nebula Award. Provenance, published in 2017, and Translation State, published in 2023, are also set in the Imperial Radch universe. Leckie's first fantasy novel, The Raven Tower, was published in February 2019.

This is the complete list of works by American science fiction and fantasy author Lois McMaster Bujold.

A list of works by, or about, the American science fiction author Larry Niven.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Silverberg bibliography</span> List of works by Robert Silverberg

List of the published work of Robert Silverberg, American science fiction author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tamsyn Muir</span> New Zealand writer (born 1985)

Tamsyn Muir is a New Zealand fantasy, science fiction, and horror author best known for The Locked Tomb, a science fantasy series of novels. Muir won the 2020 Locus Award for her first novel, Gideon the Ninth, and has been nominated for several other awards as well.

World of the Five Gods is a fantasy series by American writer Lois McMaster Bujold. It was awarded the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2018. It consists of four novels and eleven novellas, with six of the novellas included in the award. Three novels and two of the novellas were nominees for or winners of major awards.

References

  1. 1984 Hugo Awards Archived 2007-12-25 at the Wayback Machine , Best Novel:Startide Rising by David Brin (Bantam, 1983), The Hugo Awards
  2. Who's Getting Your Vote? Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine , October 29, 2008, Reason
  3. Startide Rising Archived 2009-03-30 at the Wayback Machine , Science Fiction & Fantasy Books, WWEnd
  4. The Postman Archived 2009-03-29 at the Wayback Machine , Science Fiction & Fantasy Books, WWEnd
  5. The Uplift War Archived 2009-03-29 at the Wayback Machine , Science Fiction & Fantasy Books, WWEnd
  6. 1986: 1st - The Postman, David Brin Archived 2011-10-25 at the Wayback Machine , 2003: 2nd - Kiln People, David Brin, The John W. Campbell Memorial Award
  7. "Nebula Award Winners: 1965 – 2011 Archived 2015-01-31 at the Wayback Machine ". Section: 1983. Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. sfwa.org. "Best Novel: Startide Rising by David Brin". Retrieved 2018-02-04.
  8. Jones, Fiona M (March 20, 2021). "David Brin: The Postman". Mythaxis Review. Retrieved October 26, 2021.
  9. 1 2 3 "David Brin". Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2004. Retrieved via Biography in Context database, 2018-02-01. Available online via Encyclopedia.com Archived 2018-02-03 at the Wayback Machine .
  10. "Caltech Commencement Program" (PDF). Caltech Campus Publications. June 8, 1973. p. 5. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 9, 2015. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
  11. "David Brin." St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers. New York: St. James Press, 1996. Retrieved via Biography in Context database, 2018-02-01.
  12. Brin, Glen David (1981). Evolution of cometary nuclei as influenced by a dust component (Ph.D.). University of California, San Diego. OCLC   8067212 via ProQuest.
  13. "David Brin". ieet.org. Archived from the original on January 23, 2010.
  14. "David Brin | Closer to Truth". www.closertotruth.com. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
  15. Snider, Mike (November 3, 2013). "Funds sought for science fiction museum lift-off". USA Today . Archived from the original on August 8, 2014. Retrieved September 7, 2014.
  16. Wojtowicz, Slawek (2002). "DAVID BRIN REVEALED: A two-year-long interview with Slawek Wojtowicz". www.slawcio.com. Archived from the original on October 2, 2011.
  17. "David Brin's biography". davidbrin.com. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
  18. "David Brin on future societies of transparency and freedom". Future Thinkers. March 31, 2016. Archived from the original on November 7, 2017.
  19. "1984 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award | WWEnd". Worldswithoutend.com. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
  20. "1983 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award | WWEnd". Worldswithoutend.com. Archived from the original on July 22, 2012. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
  21. "1988 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award | WWEnd". Worldswithoutend.com. Archived from the original on February 25, 2012. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
  22. 1 2 "1987 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award | WWEnd". Worldswithoutend.com. Archived from the original on February 25, 2012. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
  23. "1996 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award | WWEnd". Worldswithoutend.com. Archived from the original on April 19, 2012. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
  24. "1986 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award | WWEnd". Worldswithoutend.com. Archived from the original on July 22, 2012. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
  25. "1985 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award | WWEnd". Worldswithoutend.com. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
  26. "1991 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award | WWEnd". Worldswithoutend.com. Archived from the original on February 15, 2009. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
  27. "1994 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award | WWEnd". Worldswithoutend.com. Archived from the original on October 1, 2009. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
  28. "2003 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award | WWEnd". Worldswithoutend.com. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
  29. "Forward | Graphic Novel". Forward.msci.org. Archived from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
  30. Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. p. 110. ISBN   978-1-907702-58-7.
  31. The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1985. New York: Newspaper Enterprise Association, Inc. 1985. p. 415. ISBN   0-911818-71-5.
  32. Inkpot Award
  33. "(5748) Davebrin". Dictionary of Minor Planet Names. Springer. 2003. p. 486. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_5421. ISBN   978-3-540-29925-7.
Interviews