Science Fiction Author Launches into New World of Publishing

March 8, 2012 - PRLog -- After several years of relative quiet, Gregory Benford, author of top-selling novels, including Artifact, Cosm, Against Infinity, Eater, and Timescape, has jumped back into the science fiction world with a revised and updated version of Chiller, a 1993 book that delves into the science and politics of cryonics. And he's got more coming.

Known as one of the inner circle of smart science fiction writers, Benford, a physics professor at the University of California and author of more than two  hundred academic papers on the subject, applies his in-depth knowledge of physics to all of his science fiction stories and novels, extrapolating and pushing the edges of science and imagination.

Benford excels at taking the known into unknown realms. Chiller takes readers into the cold reality of cryonics as it butts up against society's resistance to the idea of frozen bodies, along with its incredulity. And then Benford goes further, asking: Even if cryonics can work scientifically, is it supportable in today's society?

"Response to the very idea (of cryonics) is quite emotional, I've found, especially among both scientists and the religious – a fervently felt resistance," says Benford in his new afterword to Chiller. (http://www.gregorybenford.com/books) Titled "A Somewhat Numerical Afterword," it is similar to the hefty additions Benford has written to his other books scheduled for release this year.

More Books to Come

Many of Benford's books are available only as used copies, and he intends to fix that unhappy situation. Plus, in true Benford fashion, he's adding a few smart twists of his own. "You've got to think of the readers when you re-release older titles," Benford says. "What do they want? They want to know that the physics in the books is up-to-date, that the stories hold up to today's scientific microscope as well as to today's fast-paced style." Most of his books can be seen on his website, http://www.gregorybenford.com.

His publisher, Lucky Bat Books (http://www.luckybatbooks.com), has begun to announce the release of Benford's titles, and the company says that the books are set for publication with launch dates beginning early spring and continuing through the year.

Benford is at the forefront of writers seizing the moment as readers, excited about e-books, search the Internet for their favorite authors, looking for downloads of the authors' entire lists. "He's giving the readers more than the original," says Benford. "If they just wanted the old book, they could buy it used. But with e-books, part of the excitement is using this new technology to augment, to update, and to spin a new perspective on the ideas."

The science fiction is great narrative and thrilling to read in its original form; add to that the new introductions, afterwards and forwards, and readers have something fresh and exciting on top of the story itself.

Benford the Scientist

An award-winning SF author, Benford has scooped up Science Fiction's top awards, twice winning the Nebula Award. He has also won the John W. Campbell Award, the Australian Ditmar Award, and the 1990 United Nations Medal in Literature.

Benford is a scholar and professor as well, a University of California faculty member since 1971. He has conducted research in plasma turbulence theory and experiment, and in astrophysics. His published scientific articles include well over a hundred papers in fields of physics from condensed matter, particle physics, plasmas and mathematical physics, and several in biological conservation.

His scientific credits go on: He is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University, has served as an advisor to the Department of Energy, NASA and the White House Council on Space Policy; in 1995 received the Lord Foundation Award for contributions to science and the public comprehension of it.

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