Greg Bear's Mariposa, A New Quantico Thriller, Now Available as E-Book

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.

Inscribe-It: Personalized Paperbacks From E-Reads

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)

SciFi Writers Tell Uncle Sam How to Imagine

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

A War to the Death Against an Unknowable Alien

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

Bear's Magnificent Eon Trilogy United in E-Book Format

In Nebula and Hugo Award winner Greg Bear's Eon, the arrival of a 300-kilometer long stone was the answer to humanity's desperate plea to end the threat of nuclear war. Inside the deep recesses of the stone lay the remnants of a human society versed in English, Russian and Chinese. The artifacts of this familiar people foretell a great Death caused by the ravages of war. Deeper still within the stone is the Way. For some the Way meant salvation from death, for others it was a parallel world where loved ones live again. Here is some of the outpouring of acclaim for Eon:

"Eon may be the best constructed hard SF epic yet."
—The Washington Post

"Sharing aspects of Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama, its uniqueness arises from Bear's bold imagination. Bear is a writer of passionate vision. Eon is his grandest work yet."
—Locus

"A powerful, imaginative novel."
—Library Journal

"The only word for it really is blockbuster. It is big and breathtaking; the story and the concepts are ambitious to the point of mind boggling."
—Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine

Now, in Eternity, Bear returns to the Earth of Eon and it's clear that the first novel was a prequel to an even grander story. The crew of the asteroid-starship Thistledown has thwarted an attempt to sever the link to the Way, an endless corridor that spans universes. The asteroid had settled into orbit around Earth and discovered that the tunnel snaked away, forming a contained universe of its own. Forty years later, war breaks out to reopen The Way. And humankind is about to discover just how completely it has underestimated its ancient adversaries.

Eternity completes a trilogy that includes the prequel Legacy, and all three titles are now available for download at E-Reads as well more than a dozen other unforgettable works by the author rightfully described as the heir to the late Arthur C. Clarke's mantle.

RC

Greg Bear's Pasts: as Compelling as His Futures

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's Collected Fantasy Tales in One Volume

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

An Award-Winning Story That Comes With Its Own Study Guide

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

Update: Greg Bear's Blood Music Ready for Download

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's Blood Music Back in Print

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

Greg Bear's City at the End of Time Selected One of Seven Best F&SF Books of 2008

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

"The best constructed hard SF epic yet."

That's how The Washington Post greeted Greg Bear's Eon.

The passing of the colossus Arthur C. Clarke reminds us that Greg Bear has frequently been mentioned as the heir to Clarke's mantle, and it was novels like Eon that inspired what would otherwise be considered a presumptuous comparison. But in the dimension of its concepts and Bear's vision, his near-encyclopedic command of science, government, civilizations ancient and future, the mantle clearly fits comfortably on his shoulders. Locus, the magazine of the science fiction and fantasy field, said, "Sharing aspects of Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama, its uniqueness arises from Bear's bold imagination. Bear is a writer of passionate vision. EON is his grandest work yet." Isaac Asimov Magazine's reviewer was even more fulsome: "The only word for it really is blockbuster. It is big and breathtaking; the story and the concepts are ambitious to the point of mind boggling."

Download the E-Reads e-book edition or buy the Tor paperback.

- Richard Curtis

Moving Another Planet

A few weeks ago I wrote about an alien race's scheme to capture Jupiter (Psst. Want to Buy a Hot Planet?) and haul it out of the solar system. E-Reads happens to carry another book about moving a planet, Greg Bear's Moving Mars. Aside from the astonishing but completely valid scientific basis for transporting a planet from one locus to another, its a wonderful novel about a young colony yearning to free itself from the influence of the parent world's exploitive government. The parent world happens to be Earth. And the government is not happy. Not happy at all. Its planning to punish the wayward colonists, and there's absolutely nothing the populace of the Red Planet can do.

Or is there? There's this nerdy kid Charles who has a scheme so risky and preposterous that in all likelihood it will blow up in his face like some schoolboy chem lab experiment. Except its not a chem lab. It's a planet.

Well, how many schoolboys have let that discourage them?

But Casseia believes in him. She's the rebellious daughter of a conservative family, and she sees Charles's cockeyed idea as fuel for the student protests she's leading. It's hard to imagine a less likely love object than Charles, but maybe Casseia could learn to get attached to someone who thinks he knows how to save their world. Maybe this tender love story explains why it wasn't just the science fiction reviewers that loved Moving Mars ("...an accomplished, thoroughly mature novel that should be placed at the top of anyone's 'to be read' stack" - Science Fiction Age), but the romance reviewers too ("...a grand adventure in hard science fiction" - Romantic Times).

E-Reads carries a great list of Greg Bear's backlist titles and there are more to come!

- Richard Curtis

(Above image of Mars courtesy of NASA.)

Interview with Greg Bear, author of Quantico

As we mentioned in a previous post, QUANTICO by Greg Bear, there's a dedicated site for the book with lots of features including an interview with the author. We had our own questions, some of which were, unsurprisingly, ebook-related and Mr. Bear was kind enough to spend some time answering them with these exclusive comments.

E-Reads: You have been quoted as saying that QUANTICO is the poster child for alternative publishing. What occasioned the remark and what did you mean by it?

GB: QUANTICO was originally contracted to a very large New York publisher, as part of a three-book deal. When it was delivered, it was summarily rejected--with prejudice. Every other big publisher rejected it as well. The book seemed cursed. To say I was dejected is putting it mildly--I thought my career in books was teetering. Then, Andrew Wheeler at Science Fiction Book Club picked it up for a multi-club deal. That was encouraging, but I thought that would be it--no trade edition to speak of in the U.S. When Richard Curtis proposed working with Roger Cooper at Perseus, on an unorthodox basis--no advance, double royalties, quarterly royalty statements--what did we have to lose? I had worked with Roger before at iBooks, where he had nicely repackaged books such as BLOOD MUSIC, selling many copies--he was a very good publisher. Roger took the bull by the horns, handed it over to his excellent team, who packaged it in a very attractive cover, then solicited and received large orders from chain bookstores and distributors. Generous quotes from excellent writers helped a lot--but the orders were impressive, to me, even before we received their lovely words. Within a few weeks of publication, we began to see wonderful results. Through hard work, ingenuity, and focus, Perseus-Vanguard worked a major miracle--they turned a cursed book into a charmed book. By the time Jennifer Richards, our magnificent publicist, informed me that I was invited to be on THE DAILY SHOW, we were already shipping better numbers than I had ever seen in my career. We have yet to learn what the actual "bump" will be from THE DAILY SHOW appearance, but already I'm happy--and encouraged. It appears my career is far from dead. QUANTICO has already sold more copies--as reported in the first royalty statements--than any of my previous hardback editions, including DARWIN'S RADIO.

E-Reads: Do you have any ideas about why you are the biggest-selling Science Fiction writer in ebooks?

GB: That's certainly true for some titles. Del Rey/Random House did a fine job with DARWIN'S RADIO and DARWIN'S CHILDREN, putting them in the top ten of all electronic book fiction sales. Richard and I have always tried to reserve electronic rights, and we immediately put many of my available novels into good programs, including his excellent E-Reads catalog. Most publishers seem to have little idea what to do with the electronic rights they've reserved--certainly no idea how to market them. I have to guess why the DARWIN'S books sold so well. I told my publishers that a significant audience was going to be found among working biologists and geneticists--many of whom travel the world and pass recommendations on to their colleagues in other countries, who read English fluently. Before foreign editions could be made available, the electronic editions were ready to be downloaded.

E-Reads: It seemed initially that UK publishers were more receptive to QUANTICO than U.S. publishers were. Was the subject of the story too touchy or do you think there was another explanation for the issue?

GB: I have no actual evidence that politics of any sort played a role in the U.S. editorial decisions. I would be dismayed if it did, since QUANTICO appears to be so thoroughly in the mainstream of current public opinion. I'd like to think my editors in the U.S. were more dialed in. QUANTICO might have been a little radical two years ago--but now, its take on the near-future--right down to a growing alliance with the Sunnis in Iraq, against the Shiites of al-Maliki and Iran--seems eerily prophetic.

E-Reads: Technology plays an ever-increasing role in U.S. war expenditures and the defense budget. The evidence in Iraq is that we don't seem to be buying much of an advantage for our troops with this huge investment. You're publicly known to have been involved in advising branches of the government about specific possible future scenarios. What overall advice would you offer on how things should be done differently?

GB: The military and security professionals "on the ground" have been
acutely aware of these difficulties since before the beginning. A guerrilla war is always long and costly and difficult to finesse with big weapons systems. The same is true with any so-called "war on terror." Large military solutions seem a poor fit. The problem we still face has to do with our leadership at the top. Incompetent leaders take bad advice, get too many soldiers killed, and waste huge sums of money without tangible result. The wrong leaders chose to fight the wrong enemy at the wrong time--with a lot of inferior equipment. A perfect storm of FUBAR. I still hope we can pull some fat out of the fire--for the sake of the troops and their families, who have given so much. (No one can understand that sacrifice who has not experienced it. I can sympathize, but I cannot feel about any of this the way they do.) But our leadership seems to have run out of solutions. They seem stymied and exhausted--those who still remain in power.

E-Reads: If you were writing QUANTICO from scratch right now in light of current experiences in the Iraq war, what would you change about the book, if anything?

GB: Not much. A few small details. I'm on tenterhooks about this growing relationship with the Sunnis. The irony of that is breathtaking. As for the American Anthrax case, the FBI seems to have abandoned all previous theories.

E-Reads: What's next? I hear that your next book is called CITY AT THE END OF TIME. Can you tell us something more about it? Is it finished? What kind of book is it? When will it be published?

GB: CITY AT THE END OF TIME is completed in draft, and I'm revising it now. It's as far afield from QUANTICO as can be--an adventure sf-fantasy novel with literary, philosophical, and strong physics overtones, set in both the very far future, and present-day Seattle. Del Rey currently plans to publish in the U.S. next year, perhaps in the summer, if I can get off my duff and get the manuscript to them in time.

Quantico by Greg Bear

We’ve got a legitimate ebook bestseller here at E-Reads with Quantico by Greg Bear. The trade hardcover was published in April 2007 and we finally caught up to things with the ebook edition released about two weeks ago. Since we released Quantico, we’ve sold in those two weeks about fifteen times the number of copies that the average ebook title sells in a month. It’s not quite to the point yet where we need to bug the New York Times about starting a new bestseller list for ebooks but we’ve clearly tapped into some pent-up demand so we thought we should tell the world and try to keep those sales numbers moving up.

Greg Bear is the author of more than thirty books of science fiction and fantasy, including Blood Music, The Forge of God, and Darwin's Radio. He has won two Hugo Awards and five Nebula Awards for his fiction, and is one of two authors to win a Nebula in every fiction category. Bear has been called the "best working writer of hard science fiction" by The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Bear has served on political and scientific action committees and has advised Microsoft Corporation, the U.S. Army, the CIA, Sandia National Laboratories, Callison Architecture, Inc., and other groups and agencies. His last few books, while continuing to use the technological extrapolation and imagination that Bear has always demonstrated, have moved in the story and setting direction toward a more thriller-oriented feel and presentation and Quantico has demonstrated that Bear is taking giant steps in developing a more mainstream, popular audience for his work and this latest examination of bioterrorism in a near-future world gone mad with ever-escalating acts of terror, is a gripping read, a tour-de-force of imagination and a thrill-ride of a story.

Quantico has garnered enthusiastic praise from a broad spectrum of sources:

Entertainment Weekly said: “Far from the typical FBI procedural, Bear’s latest is a dark look at the near future. Quantico confidently delivers a mix of forensic handiwork, bureaucratic insight, and futuristic speculation.”

Bestselling author (The Watchman) Robert Crais said: "Quantico is a terrifying glimpse into the nightmare of global bio-terror. Greg Bear combines real-world science, headline news, and five-minutes-from-now extrapolation into an adrenaline-amped thriller that will scare the hell out of you.”

Publishers Weekly said: "Bear’s near-future science is, as always, eerily plausible…"

Bear’s hardcover publisher, Vanguard Press, has launched a special website just for the book and it’s worth checking out since, among other things, Bear has compiled an interesting timeline history of terrorism through the centuries, an extensive bibliography, a Q&A about his work in conceiving and writing the book and numerous related articles. And, while you’re checking out websites, you should look at Bear’s own website which has information on all of his titles, a number of which are also available as E-Reads ebooks.

Save a tree, buy an ebook. All the excitement of this thriller is available at a price that beats that hardcover edition by a considerable margin (Amazon lists the book, cover price $24.95, for $16.47 but the ebook price is only $8.99. Buy it today!