Far Thoughts and Pale Gods — Greg Bear

6 dazzling stories, freshly revised for this volume, plus new introductions, commentary, and reminiscences from the Hugo- and Nebula Award-winning author of "War Dogs," "Eternity," and "The Forge of God."

Greg Bear is the author of more than 30 books, from thrillers ("Darwin s Radio," "Vitals") to science fiction ("Blood Music," "Eon," "Hull Zero Three") to pure fantasy ("The Infinity Concerto," "The Serpent Mage"). But his skills are not confined to writing at full-length novels: He is also the author of dozens of brilliant short stories, novellas, and novelettes. "Far Thoughts and Pale Gods" contains 6 highly acclaimed stories, each newly revised by the author, that illustrate Bear's abundant breadth of talent. The volume includes: Heads, which marks the first time the concept of quantum computing appears in science fiction though it is a vision of 400 frozen heads that will remain in the reader's memory; The Wind from a Burning Woman, the first story set in the universe that spawned the novels "Eon" and "Eternity"; Plague of Conscience, which explores what it means to be alien and whether that can be comprehended without understanding what it means to be human; Scattershot,