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| David
Brin
Astrophysicist and author David Brin is an award-winning science fiction writer who is best known for his "Uplift" series, which begins with the novel Sundiver. By the time the second book, Startide Rising, was released, Brin had become famous as one of the genre's most promising new writers. Sweeping the field's major awards, this 1983 novel won the Hugo for its popularity among readers and the Nebula for impressing the critics. Brin has also won numerous other awards, including the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel for The Postman. Few science fiction writers are as well-versed in the facts of science as David Brin; he holds a doctorate in astrophysics and has brought his knowledge to bear on his writing. Of particular interest to Brin is the notion of interspecies genetic mutation, that is, the conversion of dolphins (to use one of his examples) to higher, human forms of thinking. As he once told Jean W. Ross in Contemporary Authors (CA), "all of the best writers play with reality. They ask the questions that are normally asked, inefficiently, by college sophomores and they do it in a manner that illuminates a self or a world. Maybe someday I will be able to do that." With his large-scale novels that deal with ethical questions and problems beyond the limits of science fiction--and that happen to be very popular-- Brin has accomplished that goal. Brin became interested in writing while an undergraduate in astronomy at Cal Tech. In an interview with Ross, Brin was casual about writing: "I would have liked very much to have been a better scientist, but at least I can take part in the adventure. And certainly my education has helped in my writing career.... Perhaps I tried so hard to become a scientist was because it was difficult, whereas I always figured I'd get around to writing sooner or later." His first novel, Sundiver, combined a futuristic setting with a murder mystery. Sally A. Lodge, writing in Publishers Weekly, described the story as "complex and well-constructed," her only difficulty being with the "all-too-human aliens." Besides writing on this subject, Brin has become more involved in advancing computer communications directly in his recent efforts to establish a company that will produce new realtime communication software that will represent a leap in human-to-human online interactions. He has also become involved in creating several new computer games. But despite these ventures, Brin
will likely remain best known for his fiction writing, which has
continued to be notable for its speculations into how technology and
biological manipulations may one day affect human society. From: Contemporary Authors
Online, Gale, 2008. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008.
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