My Other Science Fiction Novels

Here are my stand-alone novels. Not part of my Uplift series, they are some of my best-selling and best-acclaimed novels, nonetheless.

Kiln People

You can also purchase an autographed first edition hardcover copy of Kiln People directly from the author for $50. A few other rare editions are also available. See my Brin's Offers page for more information.

The title of my new novel -- the most original thing I've done in years -- is Kiln People, which received four SECOND PLACE awards: the 2003 Hugo Award for Best Novel; the 2003 Locus Award; the 2003 Arthur C. Clarke Award; and the 2003 John W. Campbell Memorial Award.

Take the notion of golems -- temporary clay people (not clones!) -- and now imagine a near future when everybody can make them. Using a "home copier" you ditto your memories -- perhaps even a genuine imprint of your soul -- and off goes the duplicate to run your errands, attend your classes, or do all the drudgery work. Then, at day's end, you download the golem's memories.

As a citizen of this near future, you've duplicated yourself a zillion times and take it for granted, sometimes being the original, sometimes the copy. You live your life in parallel, sending expensive "study golems" to the library while cheap models clean the house and your real body works out at the gym. Two thirds of the Earth's population consists of temporaries made of clay. People seem to have even adjusted to this new way of life, until....

Oh, stuff happens. Huge fun. And with another glorious and luminous cover by the great British artist, Jim Burns.

Exclusive on this site: Read sample chapters from Kiln People.

"More than any writer I know, David Brin can take scary, important problems and turn them sideways, revealing wonderful opportunities. This talent shows strongly in Kiln People, a novel which is deep and insightful and often hilarious, all at the same time."

--Vernor Vinge

"Be careful what you wish for: being two places at once may create as many problems as it solves. David Brin unflinchingly serves up a giddy, thoughtful, and darkly comic future."

--Wil McCarthy

The Practice Effect

In The Practice Effect, Physicist Dennis Nuel was the first human to probe the strange realms called anomaly worlds -- alternate universes where the laws of science were unpredictably changed. But the world Dennis discovered seemed almost like our own -- with one perplexing difference. To his astonishment, he was hailed as a wizard and found himself fighting beside a beautiful woman with strange powers against a mysterious warlord as he struggles to solve the riddle of this baffling world.

Exclusive on this site: Read sample chapters from The Practice Effect.

The Postman

I have a limited number of rare, first edition hardcover copies of The Postman available for sale for $300. A few other rare editions are also available. See my Brin's Offers page for more information.

Gordon was a survivor -- a wanderer who traded tales for food and shelter in the dark and savage aftermath of a devastating bio-war. Fate touches him one chill winter's day when he borrows the jacket of a long-dead postal worker to protect himself from the cold. The old, worn uniform still has power as a symbol of hope, and with it Gordon begins to weave his greatest tale, of a nation on the road to recovery.

This best-selling and award-winning work (NOMINEE: 1986 Nebula and Hugo Awards; WINNER: Locus and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards for best novel; "Best" from the American Library Association), The Postman (Bantam Classics) was the core basis for a 1997 motion picture of the same name, starring and directed by Kevin Costner. For my views on the movie version, click over to Movies & Options. Better yet, read the more grown-up and thoughtful original. Widely considered the most universally "accessible" Brin novel, for those who don't normally read SF.

Exclusive on this site: Read sample chapters from The Postman.

The Postman has also been widely used in literature programs, both at university and secondary school levels. Click here to see one teacher's innovative and effective Postman Curriculum Web Site.

Heart of the Comet

In Heart of the Comet (co-authored by Gregory Benford), an ambitious expedition uses Halley's Comet as a natural spaceship to "hitch a ride" through the solar system. Their discoveries soon include a deadly viral lifeform that decimates the crew. Then, the already volatile conflicts between factions explode into violent confrontation as the Orthos attack the genetically enhanced Percells. Against this background, the novel highlights the love affair of Ortho biologist Saul Lintz, who helped create the Percells, and Percell computer engineer Virginia Herbert, who is pioneering a biologically based computer possessing genuine artificial intelligence.

Exclusive on this site: Read sample chapters from Heart of the Comet.

Earth

I have a limited number of first edition hardcover copies of Earth available for sale for $30. A few other rare editions are also available. See my Brin's Offers page for more information.

In Earth (NOMINEE: 1991 Hugo award for best novel [runner-up]), it's fifty years from tomorrow. A microscopic black hole has accidentally fallen into the Earth's core and the entire planet is in danger of being destroyed within two years. A team of scientists frantically searches for a way to prevent the ultimate disaster. But while they look for an answer, others argue that the only way to save the Earth is to let its human inhabitants become extinct: to let the million-year evolutionary clock rewind and start over.

It's been more than a decade since Earth was first published. Since then, some things have eerily come true. The prediction getting the most attention was my portrayal of a vivid, dynamic world wide web -- though under a different name. (Note how the web-address system I use differs from the URL codes that developed a few years later.) Some people credit me with foreseeing the 'web page' and self-forming internet communities, but I think the ideas were already latent -- almost obvious -- when I started writing the book in 1987.

The same holds true for 'wearable' computing... the ability to walk about in wireless contact with a seamless Net, looking up information, even through your VR sunglasses. Some say this first appeared in Earth, but I know several people who spoke of similar possibilities even earlier.

As for Global Warming, a looming refugee crisis, the need for young people to demand a place amid an aging population, the desperate struggle to preserve species and all the rest... even the notion of a micro-black hole as an ultimate "environmental threat"... none of these originated with me. I will, however, take credit for the "Helvetian War" -- a metaphor standing in for the inevitable day when the world's people will get fed up with the wretched and universally vile effects of banking secrecy. Events of late 2001 seem to have made this looming crisis all the more likely, and sooner than even I expected.

As writers go, I suppose I'm known as an optimist. So it seems only natural that this novel projects a future, (now less than forty years from now), where there's been just a little more wisdom than folly... perhaps a bit more hope than despair.

In fact, this is just about the most encouraging tomorrow I can imagine right now. What a sobering thought.

Exclusive on this site: Read sample chapters from Earth.

Stephen Colbert fans might be interested to learn that my novel Earth has been nominated for the Stephen T. Colbert Award for the Literary Excellence!

Glory Season

I have a limited number of first edition hardcover copies of Glory Season available for sale for $60. A few other rare editions are also available. See my Brin's Offers page for more information.

In Glory Season (NOMINEE: 1994 Hugo award for best novel), young Maia is fast approaching a turning point in her life. As a half-caste var, she must leave the clan home of her privileged half sisters and seek her fortune in the world. With her twin sister, Leie, she searches the docks of Port Sanger for an apprenticeship aboard the vessels that sail the trade routes of the Stratoin oceans. On her far-reaching, perilous journey of discovery Maia will endure hardship and hunger, imprisonment and loneliness, bloody battles with pirates and separation from her twin. And along the way she will meet a traveler who has come an unimaginable distance -- and who threatens the delicate balance of Stratoin's carefully maintained perfect society.

Exclusive on this site: Read sample chapters from Glory Season.

The Second Foundation Series, Based on Isaac Asimov's Foundation

Foundation's Triumph

I have a limited number of hardcover copies of Foundation's Triumph available for sale for $100. A few other rare editions are also available. See my new Brin's Offers page for more information.

Authorized by the Isaac Asimov estate, the Second Foundation Trilogy continues Isaac Asimov's famous Robots and Foundation universe. Gregory Benford started the series with his book Foundation's Fear, which tells the origins of Hari Seldon, the Foundation's creator. Greg Bear's Foundation and Chaos, the second book in the series, relates the epic tale of Seldon's downfall and the first stirrings of robotic rebellion.

And now the concluding volume -- wrapping up all of the loose ends, including clues left by Isaac himself -- my best-selling novel, Foundation's Triumph, which carries the theme of Asimov's epic universe to its logical (and satisfying) conclusion. Hari Seldon is about to escape and risk everything for one final quest -- a search for knowledge and the power it bestows. The outcome of this final journey may secure humankind's future -- or witness its final downfall.

Exclusive on this site: Read sample chapters from Foundation's Triumph.

As a treat for those of you who have already read Foundation's Triumph, you can see the famed "denouement" that never got included at the end. But be warned! This is a major spoiler alert! No cheating, please! This little lagniappe is just for those who've finished the book, and want a taste of how the adventure just might continue...