Glen David Brin (born October 6, 1950) is an American science fiction author. He has won the Hugo, Locus, Campbell and Nebula Awards. 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. 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.
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 Polish Jewish 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, a common theme of contemporary North American science fiction.
Bibliography
Fiction
The Uplift stories
The Uplift novels are: Sundiver (1980), Startide Rising (1983), . Hugo and Locus SF Awards winner, 1984; Nebula Award winner, 1983 The Uplift War (1987), . Hugo and Locus SF Awards winner, 1988; Nebula Award nominee, 1987 The Uplift Trilogy (sometimes called the Uplift Storm trilogy): Brightness Reef (1995) . Hugo and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1996 Infinity's Shore (1996), Heaven's Reach (1998),
Short stories: "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. "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.
Contacting Aliens: An Illustrated Guide to David Brin's Uplift Universe (2002), is co-written by Brin and Kevin Lenagh
High Horizon
Colony High (February 2021) Castaways of New Mojave (August 2021) – with Jeff Carlson
Other fiction
Stand-alone novels: The Practice Effect (1984), The Postman (1985), – Campbell and Locus SF Awards winner, Hugo Award nominee, 1986; Nebula Award nominee, 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. Heart of the Comet (1986), (with Gregory Benford) – Locus SF Award nominee, 1987 Earth (1990), – Hugo and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1991. Contains many successful predictions of current trends (such as email spam) and technologies. Glory Season (1993), – Hugo and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1994 Kiln People (2002), – Campbell, Clarke, Hugo, and Locus SF Awards nominee, 2003. Kiln People (published in the UK as Kil'n People) was shortlisted in four different awards for best SF/fantasy novel of 2002—the Hugo, the Locus, the John W. Campbell Award, and the Arthur C. Clarke Award; each time finishing behind a different book. Existence, Tor Books, (2012), The Ancient Ones, self-published, (2020),
Graphic novels: Forgiveness (2002), – set in the Star Trek: The Next Generation universe The Life Eaters (2003), – published by the Wildstorm imprint of DC Comics, art by Scott Hampton Tinkerers (2010) – discussion of the causes of the decline of American manufacturing
His short fiction has been collected in: The River of Time (1986), Otherness (1994), Tomorrow Happens (2003) Insistence of Vision (2016),
Other works by Brin include his addition to Asimov's Foundation Universe: Foundation's Triumph (1999),