David Brin


Glen David Brin 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 October 6, 1950 in Glendale, California, to Jewish parents 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 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.

Fiction

Uplift

Novels:
  • Sundiver,
  • Startide Rising,. Hugo and Locus SF Awards winner, 1984; Nebula Award winner, 1983
  • The Uplift War,. Hugo and Locus SF Awards winner, 1988; Nebula Award nominee, 1987
Uplift trilogy, a.k.a. Uplift Storm:
  • Brightness Reef . Hugo and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1996
  • Infinity's Shore,
  • Heaven's Reach,
Short fiction:
  • "Aficionado" 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" 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,

    High Horizon

  • Colony High ; reprinted June 2023
  • Castaways of New Mojave ; reprinted October 2023 – with Jeff Carlson

    Stand-alone novels

  • The Practice Effect,
  • The Postman, – 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, – Locus SF Award nominee, 1987
  • Earth, – Hugo and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1991. Contains many successful predictions of current trends and technologies.
  • Glory Season, – Hugo and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1994
  • Kiln People, – Campbell, Clarke, Hugo, and Locus SF Awards nominee, 2003. It 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,
  • The Ancient Ones, self-published,

    Comics

  • Forgiveness,
  • The Life Eaters,
  • ''Tinkerers''

    Short fiction collections

  • The River of Time,
  • Otherness,
  • Tomorrow Happens,
  • Insistence of Vision,
  • The Best of David Brin,

    Fiction set in worlds created by others

  • Foundation's Triumph, novel set in Asimov's Foundation Universe,
  • "71" in Ring of Fire IV anthology, short story set in Eric Flint's 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 Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future.

Nonfiction

Ongoing:
  • 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: