Zebrowski, George
Entry updated 22 July 2024. Tagged: Author, Editor.
(1945- ) Austrian-born author of Polish descent, born Jerzy Tadeus Zebrowski; in the USA from 1951, one of the first alumni of the Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshop to achieve recognition in the sf world. He has lived with Pamela Sargent for many years. After two short collaborations with Jack Dann – "Traps" (March 1970 If) and "Dark, Dark, the Dead Star" (July 1970 If) – Zebrowski began publishing sf stories solo with "The Water Sculptor of Station 233" for Infinity One (anth 1970) edited by Robert Hoskins. He remained active as a short-story writer, releasing nearly 100 titles by 2012; they have been assembled in The Monadic Universe (coll 1977; exp 1985), Swift Thoughts (coll 2002), In the Distance, and Ahead in Time (coll 2002) and Black Pockets and Other Dark Thoughts (coll 2006). A metaphysical bent of mind, usually for good, informs much of this work (see Eschatology; Religion). He was editor of the SFWA Bulletin from 1970 to winter 1974-1975, and from 1983 to 1991 with Pamela Sargent.
Zebrowski's first published novel was the second instalment, in terms of internal chronology, of his Omega Point sequence – comprising Ashes and Stars (1977) and The Omega Point (1972), both revised and assembled along with the previously unpublished "Mirror of Minds" as The Omega Point Trilogy (omni 1983). Within a Space-Opera frame, a metaphysical drama is enacted, pitting the sole survivors of a destroyed culture – created through Genetic Engineering, and whose rationale owes something to the Omega Point theories of the evolutionary theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) – against the inimical Earth Federation responsible for its elimination; after his father's death, Gorgias finds the eponymous Weapon, but Omega Point turns out to be fundamentally a focus of Transcendental empathy. The Star Web (1975) is an unambitious space opera, but the two star-spanning forms of Transportation featured in the text were of potential interest; revised, the book became the first third of Stranger Suns (1991), a long novel written in the Stapledon-esque vein that marks Zebrowski's most highly regarded single work, Macrolife (1979; rev 1990). Though otherwise unconnected, the two books share an elevated purposefulness about the depiction of humanity's future in dramatized Future History terms, suffering at times from a tendency to depend on insufficiently plausible lines of plot to carry their ambitious burdens. Macrolife begins on Earth, but soon departs the home planet for self-sufficient star-travelling Space Habitats or World Ships, and carries onwards to the end of the Universe (see End of Time); Stranger Suns views with considerable bleakness the opportunities taken – and missed – by humanity when given the chance to use a complex Stargate that gives access not only to the Universe as we know it but also to alternate universes (see Parallel Worlds). The connected Cave of Stars (1999), which set on the Roman Catholic planet of New Earth after it is visited by a World Ship, pits Religion against secular experimentalism, with the victory going narrowly to the Posthumans whose potential Immortality promises Transcendence.
Later work includes the Bernal One sequence beginning with Sunspacer (1984). In Brute Orbits (1998), which won the John W Campbell Memorial Award, Prison Asteroids (see Crime and Punishment) are secretly transformed into unpowered World Ships adrift in interstellar space, each of them a closed quarter where Utopias and Dystopias are variously promulgated. Empties (2009), a noir tale of urban vacancy (see Horror in SF), in which New York is seen as metaphorically decorticated.
Zebrowski's anthologies include Tomorrow Today (anth 1975), containing original material, Faster than Light (anth 1976) with Jack Dann and Human-Machines (anth 1975) with Thomas N Scortia, a collection of whose stories, The Best of Thomas N. Scortia (coll 1981), Zebrowski also edited In the 1980s he produced the Synergy series of Original Anthologies beginning with Synergy: New Science Fiction #1 (anth 1987). With Pamela Sargent he wrote several Ties contributed to the Star Trek universe, beginning with A Fury Scorned (1996). Beneath the Red Star: Studies on International Science Fiction (coll 1991) assembles his essays on the sf of Eastern Europe. A constant seriousness of intent and demeanour have not led to the popularity that may have seemed warranted; but Zebrowski's body of work as a whole demands attention. [JC]
see also: Cosmology; Cyborgs; Generation Starships; Nebula; Sociology; White Holes.
George Thaddeus Zebrowski
born Villach, Austria: 28 December 1945
works
series
Omega Point
- The Omega Point (New York: Ace Books, 1972) [Omega Point: pb/Bob Pepper]
- Ashes and Stars (New York: Ace Books, 1977) [Omega Point: pb/Bob Pepper]
- The Omega Point Trilogy (New York: Ace Books, 1983) [omni of revised versions of the above two plus "Mirror of Minds": Omega Point: pb/Attila Hejja]
Macrolife
- Macrolife (New York: Harper and Row, 1979) [Macrolife: hb/Rick Sternbach]
- Macrolife (Norwalk, Connecticut: The Easton Press, 1990) [rev of the above: Macrolife: hb/nonpictorial]
- Macrolife: A Mobile Utopia (Amherst, New York: Pyr, 2006) [vt of the above: Macrolife: pb/John Picacio]
- Macrolife (Norwalk, Connecticut: The Easton Press, 1990) [rev of the above: Macrolife: hb/nonpictorial]
- Cave of Stars (New York: HarperPrism, 1999) [Macrolife: pb/Bob Eggleton]
Bernal One
- Sunspacer (New York: Harper and Row, 1984) [Bernal One: hb/Bob Walters]
- The Stars Will Speak (New York: Harper and Row, 1985) [Bernal One: hb/Ivan Powell]
- The Sunspacers Trilogy (Stone Mountain, Georgia: White Wolf Publishing/Borealis, 1996) [omni of the above two plus the book-length "Behind the Stars" (June-July 1993 Amazing): Bernal One: pb/Bob Eggleton]
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation
- A Fury Scorned (New York: Pocket Books, 1996) with Pamela Sargent [tie to Star Trek: The Next Generation: Star Trek: The Next Generation: pb/]
- Dyson Sphere (New York: Pocket Books, 1999) with Charles R Pellegrino [tie to Star Trek: The Next Generation: Star Trek: The Next Generation: pb/]
Star Trek Original Series
- Heart of the Sun (New York: Pocket Books, 1997) with Pamela Sargent [tie to Star Trek: Star Trek: pb/]
- Across the Universe (New York: Pocket Books, 1997) with Pamela Sargent [tie to Star Trek: Star Trek: pb/]
- Garth of Izar (New York: Pocket Books, 2003) with Pamela Sargent [tie to Star Trek: Star Trek: pb/]
individual titles
- The Star Web (Toronto, Ontario: Laser Books, 1975) [pb/Kelly Freas]
- Stranger Suns (New York: Bantam Spectra, 1991) [first appeared January-March 1991 Amazing: first third of text based on The Star Web above: pb/Bob Eggleton]
- The Killing Star (New York: William Morrow/AvoNova, 1995) with Charles R Pellegrino [hb/Vincent Di Fate]
- Brute Orbits (New York: HarperPrism, 1998) [hb/Paul Dinnocenzo]
- Empties (Urbana, Illinois: Golden Gryphon Press, 2009) [hb/Thomas Canty]
collections
- The Monadic Universe (New York: Ace Books, 1977) [coll: pb/Paul Alexander]
- The Monadic Universe (New York: Ace Books, 1985) [coll: exp of the above: pb/Colin Hay]
- Swift Thoughts (Urbana, Illinois: Golden Gryphon Press, 2002) [coll: hb/Bob Eggleton]
- In the Distance, and Ahead in Time (Waterville, Maine: Five Star, 2002) [coll: hb/Bob Eggleton]
- Black Pockets and Other Dark Thoughts (Urbana, Illinois: Golden Gryphon Press, 2006) [coll: hb/Bob Eggleton]
- Decimated: Ten Science Fiction Stories (Rockville, Maryland: Wildside Press/The Borgo Press, 2012) with Jack Dann [coll: dos: pb/]
- Personas (Cabin John, Maryland: Wildside Press, 2023) [coll: pb/]
nonfiction
- Beneath the Red Star: Studies on International Science Fiction (San Bernardino, California: The Borgo Press, 1991) [nonfiction: hb/nonpictorial]
- Talks with the Masters (Cabin John, Maryland: Wildside Press, 2018) [nonfiction: coll: interviews: pb/]
works as editor
series
Nebula Awards
See also Nebula Anthologies.
- Nebula Awards 20 (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985) [anth: Nebula Awards: hb/H Wendler]
- Nebula Awards 21 (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986) [anth: Nebula Awards: hb/Lanson Moles]
- Nebula Awards 22: SFWA's Choices for the Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 1986 (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988) [anth: Nebula Awards: hb/Vaughn Andrews]
Synergy
- Synergy: New Science Fiction Number One (New York: HBJ/Harvest Books, 1987) [anth: Synergy: pb/Catherine Deeter]
- Synergy: New Science Fiction Number Two (New York: HBJ/Harvest Books, 1988) [anth: Synergy: pb/Lambert Davis]
- Synergy: New Science Fiction Number Three (New York: HBJ/Harvest Books, 1989) [anth: book is dated 1988: Synergy: pb/Alan Okamoto]
- Synergy: New Science Fiction Number Four (New York: HBJ/Harvest Books, 1989) [anth: Synergy: pb/John Dispenza]
individual titles as editor
- Tomorrow Today (Santa Cruz, California: Unity Press, 1975) [anth: hb/Eric Mathes]
- Human-Machines: An Anthology of Stories about Cyborgs (New York: Vintage Books, 1975) with Thomas N Scortia [anth: Cyborgs: pb/]
- Faster than Light (New York: Harper and Row, 1976) with Jack Dann [anth: Faster Than Light: hb/]
- Thomas N Scortia. The Best of Thomas N. Scortia (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1981) [coll: hb/Robert Aulicino]
- Creations: The Quest for Origins in Story and Science (New York: Crown Publishers, 1983) with Isaac Asimov and Martin H Greenberg [anth: hb/Luigi Castiglione]
- Skylife: Space Habitats in Story and Science (New York: Harcourt, 2000) with Gregory Benford [anth: containing some nonfiction: hb/Chesley Bonestell]
- Synergy SF: New Science Fiction (Waterville, Maine: Five Star, 2004) [anth: not connected to the Synergy anth series above: hb/Bob Eggleton]
- Sentinels: In Honor of Arthur C. Clarke (Overland Park, Kansas: Hadley Rille Books, 2010) with Gregory Benford [anth: Arthur C Clarke: hb/Chesley Bonestell]
about the author
- Jeffrey M Elliot and Robert Reginald. The Work of George Zebrowski (San Bernardino, California: The Borgo Press, 1996) [nonfiction: exp from 1990 first edition: pb/]
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