The forge of God
by Greg Bear, Stephen Bel Davies · first published 1987
68% recommend26% neutral6% critical
Why HN recommends it
Dark hard-SF first-contact story in which hostile alien machines destroy Earth, steering clear of space-navy battles. Suits readers who like the dark forest idea; best with its sequel Anvil of Stars.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
A vanished moon of Jupiter, a 500-foot -high cinder cone in Death Valley never before seen, and an enormous granite mountain in Australia also never seen before all point the way to an alien invasion of planet Earth.
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If you want some first contact stories that are better (IMO) than The Three Body Problem, try: - Blindsight by Peter Watts (cannot recommend this strongly enough) - The Forge of God and sequel Anvil of Stars by Greg Bear - Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds - Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky I appreciated getting a non-Western take on one of the most durable SF tropes…
on “China's Race to Find Aliens First” ↗Anvil of Stars is my favorite Greg Bear book. It's the sequel to Forge of God which is also a great read: http://www.amazon.com/Anvil-of-Stars-ebook/dp/B003XRERB0
on “The Best Science Fiction Books (According to Reddit)” ↗Fred Saberhagen got there decades earlier with his _Berserker_ novels. AFAIK every "alien machines that wipe out intelligent life" story is descended from them. Greg Bear's _The Forge of God_ / _Anvil of Stars_ (which are both excellent, IMO) followed similar lines in the late 80s.
on “Evidence for nuclear explosions on Mars [pdf]” ↗Also 'The Forge of God' [0] by Greg Bear [1987]: "We've been sitting in our tree chirping like foolish birds for over a century now, wondering why no other birds answered. The galactic skies are full of hawks, that's why.…
on “Was there a civilization on Earth before humans?” ↗Not quite the same thing, but you might be interested in _The Forge of God_ by Greg Bear.
on “What If Planet 9 Is a Primordial Black Hole?” ↗Greg Bear's novels Forge of God (1987) and Anvil of Stars (1993) explore the same idea. They feel a little dated now but the first one in particular is still well worth a read imo.
on “Beyond “Fermi’s Paradox” XVI: What Is the “Dark Forest” Hypothesis?” ↗So many sci-fi books come across as basically the same, I like Forge of God precisely because it is so dark and uncompromising and is like works like Gateway and Worlds or Ballard’s works that read more as literature than genre sci-fi. Also from the view point of SETI there…
on “Greg Bear has died” ↗…complicated SF epics right now. (Possible mild spoiler ahead) [1] Basically: "the forest is full of hunters of unknown strength, so either stay quiet or kill all the hunters." I thought that Greg Bear's Forge of God and Anvil of Stars did a much better job on this aspect of Fermi.
on “Greetings, E.T. (Please Don’t Murder Us.)” ↗Greg Bear wrote an excellent pair of books based on this premise : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forge_of_God and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anvil_of_Stars Anvil of Stars is often said to be the weaker of the pair, but it haunted me for several reasons, not least the extremely spooky ending!
on “Broadcasting from Deep Space, a Mysterious Series of Radio Signals” ↗Greg Bear is a good option if you like hard sci-fi. I really liked Forge of God and Anvil of the Stars. There are a few of the themes you talk about but in a more realistic sense.
on “Something Is Broken in Our Science Fiction. Why Can’t We Move Past Cyberpunk?” ↗Greg Bear's The Forge of God explores exactly this issue, as does the sequel Anvil of Stars.
on “Two potentially life-friendly planets found orbiting a nearby star” ↗Forge of God and Anvil of Stars are 2 of my favourite books, as is Eon. He really helped me soar among the stars. Thank you Greg Bear, rest easy now.
on “Greg Bear has died” ↗Check out Greg Bear’s Forge Of God and Anvil of Stars 2 book series . Not exactly the same plot you mentioned but covers an interesting variant plot including fall out of a situation where Earth is killed by killer probes and remnants…
on “A deep-learning search for technosignatures from 820 nearby stars” ↗…and over again and don't get into the rest of Herbert never mind any other authors. I'd also blame Tor press for the downfall of sci-fi. Some of their books were groundbreaking like Ender's Game and Forge of God but because they represented a counter-reformation to the "new wave" which made Smith look cool again (great!) but really diminished the range of stories people would tell instead of expanding it. There…
on “Nobody Wants to Buy the Future: Why Science Fiction Literature Is Vanishing” ↗In my mind his work was the best of the 1980s and that's a decade that produced some pretty powerful stuff like Ender's Game and Forge of God. Vinge coined the term "The Singularity" which is now almost a given to be a future event in some circles. His then wife also wrote some pretty good sci-fi such as The Outcasts of Heaven Belt I liked…
on “New interpretations suggest the "heat death" hypothesis might not hold (2023)” ↗