# What's happened with David Brin?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happened-with-david-brin/331619>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 18, 2005, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happened-with-david-brin/331619 "2005-11-18T07:05:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happened-with-david-brin/331619/1 "2005-11-18T07:05:12Z")

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David Brin’s one of the most popular authors in science fiction (and a personal favorite of mine). But he hasn’t published a novel since _Kiln People_ in 2002. And his shorter work has also pretty much dried up. Go to his websites and he isn’t talking about working on any new fiction. He has become concerned with a lot of political issues and written a lot of essays on these subjects. Has he said he’s taking a break from writing fiction?

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**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happened-with-david-brin/331619/2 "2005-11-18T11:57:48Z")

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Not that I’ve heard of. But he’s always been a guy to work at a geological pace. I get the impression he’s a slow worker on his fiction because he likes to do other things and gets interested in all sorts of stuff.

Heck, I seem to recall at one point he took a break from writing because he’d decided to go live with a group of aborigines in Australia for a while.

Can’t begrudge a man his interests. If he’s got the whole ‘keep body and soul together’ thing sufficiently solved he’s under no obligation to keep writing just to keep me happy.

From his site it looks like he’s edited a set of essays on King Kong, worked on a deal with Amazon for his essays to appear there, contributed to a Future Tech TV show for the History Channel, and been involved in the space where politics meets science.

Do I wish he’d write more? Sure thing. But it looks like it’s only one of his priorities at the moment.

I will say that you should pick up his collection of shorts and essays called ‘Tomorrow Happens’. It’s a limited edition published by NESFA and it’s excellent and thought-provoking.

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happened-with-david-brin/331619/3 "2005-11-19T06:36:29Z")

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I’ve got _Tomorrow Happens_. I’ve got all of Brin’s books, even the more obscure ones like _The Transparent Society_, _The Life Eaters_, and _Contacting Aliens_.

And I know he’s a slow writer (although not as bad as some of my other favorites like Donald Kingsbury, John Varley, or Vernor Vinge) but in the past he’s generally put out a new novel every other year. It’s now been almost four years since his last novel and he isn’t even talking about any work in progress.