Grail - Elizabeth Bear [0]
Winner of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best New Writer, 2005
“Bear proves herself to be one of the most talented writers currently working in the field.”
—Romantic Times
“A remarkable SF writer who’s leaving many of her contemporaries in the dust.”
—SFReviews
And for her novels
CHILL
“Bear enhances the usual generation ship themes—social amnesia, decaying infrastructure, and mission-threatening grand calamities—with enough new flourishes, including a biotechnology-based class system and cruel experiments based on misapprehensions of Darwin, to keep readers happily engaged.”
—Publishers Weekly
DUST
Nominated for the 2007 Philip K. Dick Award
2008 Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Nominee for Best Science Fiction Novel
“Bear takes on the well-worn sf device of the generation ship and, seasoning with Roger Zelazny–esque family politics and Mervyn Peake–ish behind-the-scenes intrigue, concocts a delicious blend of science so advanced it’s like magic and people, the ship’s royalty, who are somehow altered by the nanotech colonies that make them Exalt but remain neurotic and struggling like ordinary humans.… Bear’s approach to the story results in exactly the kind of brilliantly detailed, tightly plotted, roller-coaster book she has led her readers to expect, replete with a fantastic cast of characters. When Bear revamps the genre’s standard furniture, the results are extraordinary.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“Bear proves there’s still juice in one of science fiction’s oldest tropes, the stranded generation ship, in this complex coming-of-age tale.… Standard plot devices litter the familiar landscape: tarot, pseudo-angels, named swords with powers, and politics as a family quarrel. But Campbell Award–winning author Bear uses them beautifully to turn up the pressure on her characters, who respond by making hard choices. And—as she did in Carnival and Hammered—Bear breaks sexual taboos matter-of-factly: love in varied forms drives the characters without offering easy redemption.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A novel of sharp invention with a conclusion propelled by a love that, in the end, drowns out all distractions.”
—The Washington Post Book World
“[Bear’s] language is sharp and strong and playful. Her technology is up-to-date and cleverly deployed. The cultures she creates are a spiffy blend of futuristic and anachronistic. The plot is never totally predictable. And her characters, including the demiurges, are easy to get next to and relate to. Taken all in all, this is a fine addition to the generation-ship canon, and will reward your attention with many delights.”
—Fantasy Book Critic Blogspot
“Dust is deftly paced and plotted; the main characters are well-constructed; the action scenes exciting; and the prose is descriptive, elegant, and accessible.”
—SciFi.com
“Dazzlingly conceived … has all the makings of a work of unfettered genius … Bear [is] a remarkable SF writer who’s leaving many of her contemporaries in the dust.”
—SFReviews
“Bear’s language, pacing, and the gradual unfolding of the mysteries of the world of Jacob’s Ladder are pitch-perfect.”
—Fantasy & Science Fiction
“A tightly plotted, fast-moving story with great characters, loads of science and a brilliant premise … The neat construction of this story, its leanness, with nary a wasted word, reminded me of Silverberg’s brilliant novels of the seventies.… Dust is a great book and I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
—SF Crowsnest.com
HAMMERED
Winner of the Locus Award for Best First Novel, 2005, for Hammered, Scardown, and Worldwired
“Hammered is a very exciting, very polished, very impressive debut novel.”
—MIKE RESNICK
“Gritty, insightful, and daring—Elizabeth Bear is a talent to watch.”
—DAVID BRIN, author of the Uplift novels
“A gritty and painstakingly well informed peek inside a future we’d all better hope we don’t get, liberally seasoned with VR delights and enigmatically weird alien artifacts. Genevieve Casey is a pleasingly original female lead, fully equipped with the emotional life so often lacking