The Forge of God

infobox Book |
name = The Forge of God
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Cover of first edition (hardcover)
author = Greg Bear
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = The Forge of God series
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = Tor Books
release_date = 1987
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
pages = 474 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-312-93021-6
preceded_by =
followed_by = Anvil of Stars

"The Forge of God" is a 1987 science fiction novel by Greg Bear. Earth faces destruction when an inscrutable and overwhelming alien form of life attacks.

"The Forge of God" was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1987 and was also nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1988.

Plot introduction

The novel features scenes and events including the discovery of an alien in the desert, who clearly says in English, "I'm sorry, but there is bad news," and this alien's subsequent interrogation and autopsy; the discovery of an artificial geological formation and its subsequent nuclear destruction by a desperate military; and the Earth's eventual destruction by the mutual annihilation of a piece of neutronium and a piece of antineutronium dropped into Earth's core.

There is another alien faction at work, however, represented on Earth by small spider-like robots that recruit human agents through some form of mind control. They frantically collect all human data, biological records, tissue samples, seeds, and DNA from the biosphere that they can, and evacuate a handful of people from Earth. In space, this faction's machines combat and eventually destroy the attackers, though not before Earth's fate is sealed. The evacuees eventually settle a newly terraformed Mars while some form the crew of a Ship of the Law to hunt down the home world of the killers, a quest described in the sequel, "Anvil of Stars".

The two books show at least one solution to the Fermi paradox, with electromagnetically noisy civilisations being snuffed out by the arrival of self-replicating machines designed to destroy any potential threat to their (possibly long-dead) creators. (A similar theme is explored in Fred Saberhagen's Berserker novels.)

Trivia

It features a character, Lawrence Van Cott, that is modelled on science fiction author Larry Niven, whose full name is "Laurence van Cott Niven".

Movie

In the early 2000s, The Forge of God and Anvil of Stars, as well as a as-yet-unwritten third book, were optioned by Warner Bros. to be made into movies. It was reported that Stephen Susco worked on a script for The Forge Of God. In July 2006 Greg Bear mentioned on his website that the movie is "Still under option. Studio engaged in "silent running."" [cite web |url=http://www.gregbear.com/blog/archive_2006_2.cfm |last=Bear |first=Greg |authorlink=Greg Bear |date=2006-07-28 |accessdate=2007-07-13 |title=Response: Anvil/Forge |work=Greg Bear: Blog Archives] . Although no director has been appointed, it is considered that due to the sheer scope and scale of the novels, a proven 'major studio' film-maker (eg, Ridley Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher, Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson etc) would be entrusted to take on the immense task of putting images to Bear's words.

References

External links

*isfdb title|1910