By David Brin
ENCINITAS, California — I suppose a major influence must have been my father, Herb Brin, a pioneering poet, journalist, and publisher – for many decades – of the Heritage family of Jewish newspapers, including the San Diego edition. His father had been a writer, as well, and as a child I always felt the “bug”… the sense that if I didn’t write, I’d be wrong.
The realms of fiction and nonfiction overlap within my roiling brain. Starting at age eleven, with articles in my father’s community newspaper, I’d pick topics to investigate, explore and illuminate, augmenting Herb Brin’s pugnaciously determined style with some of the prim fact-seeking that came from years as an engineer with Hughes Aircraft, and then my doctoral dissertation on the astrophysics of comets. While I have some minor nonfiction works, the most important — The Transparent Society: Will Technology Make Us Choose Between Freedom and Privacy? — won the Freedom of Speech Award of the American Library Association. It explores many aspects of onrushing change, in this fast-paced Information Age. The Transparent Society is one of the few public policy books from the 20th Century to still be in print and sell more each year.
But, of course, I am better known for novels and other works of fiction that attempt to explore the years and centuries that lie ahead. Why choose that area of concentration and style?
Well, on those occasions when I used to teach novice writers, I would tell them that their first novels should be murder mysteries! This elicited surprise, as I am known for other genres. But the reason is simple. A detective story takes the reader on a plot arc that only works if the pace of information and revelation contains all the right elements of foreshadowing, character, motivation, technique and especially surprise. But the surprise has to make senses. The clues had to be there, all along, or you are being unfair to the reader. Hence, my own first published work — SUNDIVER — was a murder mystery that checked off all the inventory boxes of basic plotting… indeed, the first homicide victim was kept away from CSI by dumping his body into the sun! That novel was published almost two years before my doctoral thesis, so I suppose I was a published author before I was a credentialed scientist.
My second novel, set in the same universe as SUNDIVER, sent my career rising rapidly. STARTIDE RISING featured a starship crewed mostly by dolphins who had been “uplifted” to use tools and to speak and to argue and to be full and equal members of Earth civilization. This novel — and the later UPLIFT WAR — won the Hugo Award for best novel, voted by the active fans of science fiction literature. Subsequent books in that series include BRIGHTNESS REEF, INFINITY’S SHORE, and HEAVEN’S REACH.
My third novel, THE PRACTICE EFFECT, was written for pure fun, to make readers laugh and enjoy a rollicking time. Much later, the same spirit imbued another novel, KILN PEOPLE, though the latter is also viewed as having some philosophical heft. Both of these (and STARTIDE) are regularly “nibbled-at” by Hollywood.
Most famous book? My most-accessible “beach-read”? THE POSTMAN is one that I guarantee you’ll like, even if science fiction ain’t your cuppa tea. Go ahead and compare it to Kevin Costner’s movie adaptation. His flick is big-hearted… and visually gorgeous… but I think you’ll find a lot more brains in the original novel. Um… a lot more.
In GLORY SEASON I explored the implications, should some of our descendants choose to alter human reproduction, with a goal of permanently enhancing the status and authority of women. I’m happy that all the women scientists I know who read this book, say they liked it.
HEART OF THE COMET, my collaboration with Gregory Benford, takes an Israeli sabra — a cynically hardened physician — on an expedition to colonize and divert Halley’s Comet. This tale contains some of my best speculations about medicine and biology… as well as making good use of my astrophysics background!
EARTH is one of my two “novels for grownups” that explore the very near future, along with some of the technologies and social disruptions — both hopeful and dangerous changes — on the horizon. More recently published, EXISTENCE explores many of the issues of our time, such as the widening disparities of wealth in the world, our accelerating power to alter biology and our minds, a teetering planet, and our possible place in the universe. Have a look at the amazing video preview-trailer for Existence, with incredible art by Patrick Farley!
For those who love short fiction, I have two collections, THE RIVER OF TIME and OTHERNESS. Another will be published soon, and announced on my web site.
There are a few others, but that should suffice. I’ve slowed down my production, while the kids were teens. Here’s hoping for more soon! Meanwhile, let’s stay a people of literary vigor, adventure, caring… but above all — curiosity!
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David Brin is a science fiction writer and astrophysicist. You may comment to david.brin@sdjewishworld.com, or
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