| Gregory Benford is an excellent hard science-fiction writer who concentrates mainly on speculative physics. Adding credibility to his fiction is the fact that he has a PhD in physics, and works as a professor at the University of California, Irvine. His work is intensely scientific, often taking ideas from the cutting edge of physics when each book is published. Fortunately, it is also very well written, with deeper-than-cardboard characters (something of an achievement in sf) and each scientific theory explained brilliantly with metaphor.
Benford was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1941. In 1963 he earned a BS in Physics from the University of Oklahoma, and continued his education at University of California, San Diego, where he received his PhD in physics in 1967. Sometime during his PhD work he found the time to write his first two short stories, Stand-In in 1965 and Flattop in 1966. Benford became part of the University of California, Irvine faculty in 1971, and is now a tenured professor of physics there. His research focuses on plasma turbulence, and its relationship with cosmological entities such as quasars and pulsars.
Quite the prolific author, Benford has over 20 novels (as listed below), dozens of short stories and essays, plus all of his academic journal publications. He has also served as an astrophysics consultant to NASA, and written material for the television serieses A Galactic Odyssey and Japan 2000. Benford is also responsible for the Galactic Cluster series, which is made up of In the Ocean of Night, Across the Sea of Suns, Great Sky River, Tides of Light, Furious Gulf, and Sailing Bright Eternity.
Gregory Benford's books, in chronological order:
Deeper Than the Darkness (1970, retitled and reworked in 1978 as The Stars in Shroud)
Jupiter Project (1975)
If the Stars are Gods (1977 with Gordon Eklund, Nebula Award)
In the Ocean of Night (1977)
Find the Changeling (1980 with Gordon Eklund)
Shiva Descending (1980 with William Rotsler)
Timescape (1980 Nebula Award, Campbell Award, Ditmar Award, British SF Award)
Against Infinity (1983)
Across the Sea of Suns (1984)
Artifact (1985)
Heart of the Comet (1986 with David Brin)
A Darker Geometry (1986 with Mark O. Martin)
In Alien Flesh (1986)
Great Sky River (1987)
Tides of Light (1989)
Chiller (1992 as Sterling Blake)
Furious Gulf (1994)
Sailing Bright Eternity (1995)
Matter's End (1995)
Foundation's Fear (1997)
Cosm (1998)
Deep Time (1999, Non-fiction)
The Martian Race (1999)
Eater (2000)
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