Fiction Subjects, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Bears Discover Fire

Name: Bears Discover Fire
Author: Terry Bisson
ISBN: 9781597290807

by Terry Bisson

Write a review

Overview

From the gentle fantasies that include the wry title story-winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards-to ecological allegories; a horrific novelette about experimental excursions into the realm of death; and a first-contact mini-epic, this collection of short fiction showcases the wide range of Bisson's powerful talent. In every piece, Bisson's characters are just as absurd as their fantastic landscape, yet thoroughly ordinary, recognizable, and authentic. His pack of scientists, artists, rednecks, insurance salesmen, astronauts, truck drivers, owlish British gentlemen, and others will stay with you like your best friends and quirkiest relations.

About the Author, Terry Bisson

Terry Bisson is an American science fiction and fantasy author, born on February 12, 1942, in Owensboro, Kentucky. His many novels include Talking Man (1986), Fire on the Mountain (1988), Voyage to the Red Planet (1990), Pirates of the Universe (1996), and The Pickup Artist (2001). His 1990 short story “Bears Discover Fire” won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards, and his all-dialogue story “They're Made Out of Meat” is one of the most widely-reprinted SF stories of the last several decades. He has published several volumes of short fiction, including Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories (1993), In the Upper Room and Other Likely Stories (2000), and Greetings (2005).

Reviews

There are no reviews yet. Log in to write one.

Editorials

Carl Hays

Bisson's critically acclaimed novel, Voyage to the Red Planet (1990), and this first collection of short stories together demonstrate why his name has quickly become one of the most popular in contemporary sf. Including the Hugo and Nebula award-winning title story in which bears forsake hibernation during an improbable evolutionary leap, Bisson's collection ranges in style from surrealistic satire to more traditional hard sf. His trademark wit is abundantly evident, for example in the burlesque, "Two Guys from the Future," spotlighting a pair of time-traveling art collectors, and in "Next," a dark farce on future racial laws that is skillfully rendered entirely in dialogue. In the high-tech category, "The Shadow Knows" is a brilliantly original variation on the theme of alien first contact wherein a retired lunar explorer attempts communication with an anomalous, shadowlike entity piggybacking a returning Voyager space probe. Every story showcases Bisson's keen intelligence and distinctive gift for deliciously wry prose -- which make him highly recommendable to story enthusiasts regardless of their genre preference.