Glen David Brin (born October 6, 1950) is an American science fiction author. He has won the Hugo Award,[ 1984 Hugo Awards , Best Novel:Startide Rising by David Brin (Bantam, 1983), The Hugo Awards][ Who's Getting Your Vote? , October 29, 2008, Reason magazine] Locus Award,[ Startide Rising , Science Fiction & Fantasy Books, WWEnd][ The Postman , Science Fiction & Fantasy Books, WWEnd][ The Uplift War , Science Fiction & Fantasy Books, WWEnd] Campbell[ 1986: 1st – The Postman, David Brin , 2003: 2nd – Kiln People, David Brin, The John W. Campbell Memorial Award] and .[" Nebula Award Winners: 1965–2011 ". Section: 1983. Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. sfwa.org. "Best Novel: Startide Rising by David Brin". Retrieved 2018-02-04.] His novel The Postman was adapted into a 1997 feature film starring Kevin Costner.
Early life and education
Brin was born in Glendale, California, in 1950 to Selma and
Herb Brin. He graduated from the California Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in
astronomy, in 1973.
["David Brin". Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2004. Retrieved via Biography in Context database, 2018-02-01. Available online via Encyclopedia.com .] At the University of California, San Diego, he earned a Master of Science in electrical engineering (optics) in 1978 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in
astronomy in 1981.
["David Brin." St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers. New York: St. James Press, 1996. Retrieved via Biography in Context database, 2018-02-01.]
Career
From 1983 to 1986, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the California Space Institute, of the University of California, at the San Diego campus in La Jolla.
In 2010, Brin became a fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.
He helped establish the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at UCSD. He serves on the advisory board of
NASA's Innovative and Advanced Concepts group and frequently does futurist consulting for corporations and government agencies.
As of 2013, he served on the Board of Advisors for the Museum of Science Fiction.
Personal life
Brin has
ancestry, from the area around
Konin. His grandfather was drafted into the Russian army and fought in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905.
As of 2022, Brin was living in San Diego County, California, with his wife and children.
Works
Most of Brin's fiction is categorized as hard science fiction, in that they apply some degree of plausible scientific or technological change as important plot elements. About half of Brin's works are in his
Uplift Universe. These have twice won the Hugo Award for Best Novel.
Much of Brin's work outside the Uplift series focuses on technology's effects on human society.
Bibliography
Fiction
Uplift
Novels:
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Sundiver (1980),
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Startide Rising (1983), . Hugo and Locus SF Awards winner, 1984;
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The Uplift War (1987), . Hugo and Locus SF Awards winner, 1988;
Uplift trilogy, a.k.a. Uplift Storm:
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Brightness Reef (1995) . Hugo and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1996
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Infinity's Shore (1996),
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Heaven's Reach (1998),
Short fiction:
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"Aficionado" (1998) was first published as "Life in the Extreme" in Popular Science magazine, republished in the 2003 limited-edition collection Tomorrow Happens, and included in Brin's 2012 novel Existence. It is available on Brin's website. "Aficionado" takes place before the novels.
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"Temptation" (1999) appeared in Robert Silverberg's anthology Far Horizons: All New Tales from the Greatest Worlds of Science Fiction and is set after the events of Infinity's Shore.
Other works:
-
Contacting Aliens: An Illustrated Guide to David Brin's Uplift Universe (2002), (co-written by Brin and Kevin Lenagh)
High Horizon
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Colony High (February 2021) ; reprinted June 2023
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Castaways of New Mojave (August 2021) ; reprinted October 2023 – with Jeff Carlson
Stand-alone novels
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The Practice Effect (1984),
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The Postman (1985), – Campbell and Locus SF Awards winner, Hugo Award nominee, 1986;
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Heart of the Comet (1986), (with Gregory Benford) – Locus SF Award nominee, 1987
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Earth (1990), – Hugo and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1991.
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Glory Season (1993), – Hugo and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1994
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Kiln People (2002; published in the UK as Kil'n People), – Campbell, Clarke, Hugo, and Locus SF Awards nominee, 2003.
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Existence, Tor Books (2012),
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The Ancient Ones, self-published (2020),
Comics
Short fiction collections
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The River of Time (1986),
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Otherness (1994),
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Tomorrow Happens (2003),
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Insistence of Vision (2016),
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The Best of David Brin (2021),
Fiction set in worlds created by others
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Foundation's Triumph (1999), novel set in Isaac Asimov Foundation Universe,
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"71" in Ring of Fire IV (2016) anthology, short story set in Eric Flint 1632-verse,
Games
Brin designed the game
Tribes, published in 1998 by Steve Jackson Games,
and wrote the storyline for the 2000
Dreamcast video game .
Nonfiction
Ongoing:
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Articles in professional journals, including The Astrophysical Journal and Information Technology and Libraries; as well as popular magazines, such as Omni, Nature, and Popular Science.
Books:
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Extraterrestrial Civilization by Thomas Kuiper and Glen David Brin, (1989)
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(1998) —won the Eli M. Oboler Award for intellectual freedom from the American Library Association
-
(2006)
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Polemical Judo: Memes for our Political Knife-fight (2019)
Honors and awards
-
1984 Nebula Award for Best Novel
-
1984, 1988 Hugo Award for Best Novel
-
1985 Inkpot Award
[ Inkpot Award]
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1984, 1986, 1988 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
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1985 Hugo Award for Best Short Story
-
Small Solar System body 5748 Davebrin, discovered by Eleanor Helin in 1991, is named in his honor.
External links
- Interviews
