The Venging

Greg Bear

Jun 2012 · Hachette UK

About this ebook

This is the first published collection of short stories by one of the foremost voices in science fiction today. This significant volume contains many characters and situations that later evolved into their own novels. "Mandala" features technologically perfect cities that eject their sinful human occupants, a premise that can be found at the root of Bear's later novel, STRENGTH OF STONES. In "Hardfought", Bear brilliantly handles the classic science fiction dilemma of human communication with aliens. Other stories include "The Wind From a Burning Woman" in which a woman holds the world hostage by controlling a giant asteroid; "Scattershot", in which the inhabitants of many universes meet in an undefined limbo space; and "Petra", a story of a world where chaos rules, stone moves and the mind controls reality. Hailed by readers and critics alike, THE VENGING has been described as "an excellent collection" and its author praised as "one of the freshest writers to break into the science fiction field in many a year".

About the author

Gregory Dale Bear was born in San Francisco in 1951 and is regarded as one of the world's leading hard SF authors. He sold his first short story, at the age of fifteen, to Robert Lowndes's Famous Science Fiction, and began to write full time in 1975, since which time he has produced a body of work of huge significance and influence to the science fiction canon. He is the winner of 5 Nebulas and 2 Hugos, amongst many other awards, and is regarded as one of the natural successors to Olaf Stapledon and Arthur C. Clarke. A full-time writer, he lives in Washington State with his family. He is married to Astrid Anderson Bear, daughter of award-winning SF writer, the late Poul Anderson.