David Brin
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| Born: | October 6 1950 Glendale, California |
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| Occupation: | Novelist, physics professor, NASA consultant |
| Genres: | Science fiction |
| Debut works: | Sundiver |
Glen David Brin, Ph.D. (October 6, 1950) is an American author of science fiction. He is the winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. He lives in southern California.
Biographical timeline
- 1950 - born in Glendale, California
- 1973 - received Bachelor of Science in astronomy from California Institute of Technology
- 1978 - received Master of Science in applied physics from University of California, San Diego
- 1981 - received Doctor of Philosophy in space science from University of California, San Diego
Work
Fiction
Science Fiction authors are sometimes best-known for groups of stories or novels set in a common "universe" or projected future history. Although they make up a minority of David Brin's works, his Uplift stories have won a large following in the SF community, twice winning the international Science Fiction Achievement Award (Hugo Award) in the Best Novel category. This future history depicts a huge galactic civilization responsible for "uplifting" all forms of life which are potentially capable of building and operating interstellar spaceships for themselves. The stories focus almost exclusively on oxygen breathing species but make it clear that there are other "orders of life", of which hydrogen-breathers are the most important. In the "Uplift" novels humans are economically and technologically the weakest spacefaring race, and are an anomaly since they have no "patron" species responsible for their uplift from animal pre-sapience. As a result several races are eager to force humans to become their clients, but galactic law saves humans from this fate because they are patrons themselves, having already made considerable progress in uplifting dolphins and chimpanzees before developing faster-than-light space travel and thus attracting the attention of galactic civilization. Some of the more aggressive races regard as heresy the humans' claim to have evolved naturally to their current level of intelligence, and therefore wish to exterminate them; while many of the others see humans' lack of patrons as an opportunity to bully them mercilessly. It does not help that humans have a relatively non-hierarchical society with rather informal habits of speech, while most of galactic society is rather feudal and very particular about etiquette, especially deference.
The Uplift Series
- Sundiver (1980)
- Startide Rising (1983)
- The Uplift War (1987)
- The Uplift Storm Trilogy:
- Brightness Reef (1995)
- Infinity's Shore (1996)
- Heaven's Reach (1998) ISBN 0-553-57473-6
- Contacting Aliens: An Illustrated Guide to David Brin's Uplift Universe written with Kevin Lenagh
Additionally, Aficionado, currently published in the limited-edition collection Tomorrow Happens, is a short-story prequel to the novels. This story was originally published as "Life in the Extreme" in Popular Science Magazine Special Edition, 8/98. This story is freely available on Brin's website for reading.
There is also an Uplift supplement for the roleplaying game GURPS allowing players to play out adventures in the universe described in these novels. Although Brin did not write the GURPS supplement, he did contribute information to it.
Brin has contrasted the Uplift saga -- in which humans find themselves one minor species among a universe of many thousands of more advanced races -- with his short story The Crystal Spheres (available in the collection The River of Time), in which humans begin searching for extraterrestrial life only to learn that the universe is empty of other sentient life . . . almost.
Other well-known works by David Brin include his book that completes and ties up all of the loose ends in the legendary Asimov's Foundation Universe:
- Foundation's Triumph (1999)
and his stand alone novels:
- The Practice Effect (1984)
- The Postman (1985) Originally appeared, in substantially different form, as a three-part novella in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. (Filmed by Kevin Costner as a major motion picture with disappointing box-office numbers; Brin has spoken kindly of the film, a generosity shown by few of his fans, who found it deeply disappointing.)
- Heart of the Comet (1986) (with Gregory Benford)
- Earth (1990) (Hugo Award 2nd place, with many Predictive "hits" http://earthbydavidbrin.pbwiki.com/
- Glory Season (1993)
- Kiln People (2002)
- Kiln People (published in the UK as Kil'n People) had the dubious distinction of finishing second in four different awards for best SF/fantasy novel of 2002--the Hugo, the Locus, the John W. Campbell Award[disambiguation needed], and the Arthur C. Clarke Award; each time finishing behind a different book.
- Forgiveness (2002) (Graphic novel set in the Star Trek: The Next Generation universe)
- The Life Eaters (2003) (Graphic novel published by the Wildstorm imprint of DC Comics, art by Scott Hampton)
His short fiction has been collected in:
- The River of Time (1986)
- Otherness (1994)
- Tomorrow Happens (2003)
Brin wrote the storyline for Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future.
Several of his novels refer to the fictional Anglic language, a future
Brin also wrote a number of articles criticising several science-fiction and fantasy series, such as Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Star Wars, and The Lord of the Rings. On Star Wars Brin focused on what he called an "agenda" on the part of George Lucas, describing how he believed the basis of the Star Wars universe was profoundly anti-democratic. These essays inspired a debate-format book: Star Wars On Trial which clashed "defense vs prosecution" testimony covering a dozen political and philosophical and storytelling charges against the Star Wars Universe. Brin also criticised The Lord of the Rings for what he perceived to be their unquestioning devotion to a traditional elitist social structure, their positive depiction of the slaughter of the opposing forces, and their romantic backward-looking worldview.
Concerns and themes of his work
Brin's work focuses on a number of themes common to contemporary North American science-fiction literature. Speaking of Brin's 'original' works (works not set into pre-existing series or "universes"), his primary focus is the impact on human society of technology man develops for himself. This is obviously most noticeable in The Practice Effect, Glory Season and Kiln People. His Uplift collection, while embracing a wide set of concerns, can also be so characterised: ultimately, the story of the series is Humanity's re-ordering and reconception of the universe through the genetic engineering of dolphins and chimpanzees to sentience.
Also interesting to note is the impact of Brin's Jewish heritage — especially, the concept of Tikkun Olam ("repairing the world" — the notion that persons have a duty to make the world a better place to live in). While originally a religious concept, Brin, like many non-orthodox Jews, has reconfigured this into a secular notion of working, as one can, to aid the general status of the human condition, increase knowledge, and to prevent long-term evils from occurring. Brin has confirmed that this notion in part underscores the notion of humans as "caretakers" of sentient-species-yet-to-be, as he explains in a concluding note at the end of Startide Rising. Another interesting motif is the importance of laws and legality in many of his novels, whether intergalactic law in the Uplift series or the more mundane law of near-future California in Kiln People.
Unlike some sf writers who revel in the extremity of their imagined human societies, while Brin's novels feature profound, fundamental changes to the human condition (wrought by technology change and various events), these changes are always mediated by an intrinsic human instinct towards moderation. In short, these are different worlds but ones where the basic subjectivity of human experience, belief and rationality are easily recognizable as those that have governed most of the liberal West since the Enlightenment.
Nonfiction
- The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom? (1998) ISBN 0-7382-0144-8 - won the Freedom of Speech Award of the American Library Association
- Star Wars on Trial : Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Debate the Most Popular Science Fiction Films of All Time (2006) ISBN 1-932100-89-X
- Various scientific papers have punctuated the years since his doctoral and postdoctoral work in space physics, cometary studies, optics and spacecraft design for the California Space Institute
Brin consults and speaks for a wide variety of groups interested in the future, ranging from Defense Department agencies and the CIA to Procter & Gamble, SAP, Google and other major corporations.[1] He has also been a participant in discussions at the Philanthropy Roundtable and other groups seeking innovative problem solving approaches.[2]
External links
- Official website
- David Brin's blog, Contrary Brin
- Interview with David Brin at SFFWorld.com
- Brin-L.com, home of Brin-L: The David Brin Mailing List. Site includes a collection of David Brin's essays.
- Brin's mailing list/discussion group
- David Brin at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- All of David Brin's audio interviews on the podcast The Future And You, in which he describes his expectations of the future
- Critical Resources :: David Brin
- Metareview, Kiln/Kil'n People
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brin, Glen David |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Brin, David |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | American author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 6 1950 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Glendale, California |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
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