Gear, W Michael
Entry updated 13 March 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1955- ) US author with extensive training in American archaeology; married to Kathleen O'Neal Gear from 1982 He began publishing sf with the competent Spider sequence – The Warriors of Spider (1988), The Way of Spider (1989) and The Web of Spider (1989), plus The Artifact (1990), which serves as a prequel – about the conflict between a newly discovered lost-colony offshoot of humanity and the reactionary Directorate which attempts to control human space. The former, who are of Native American stock and worship a god called Spider, are sexually and culturally irresistible to the women who first discover them, but fortunately Gear has too many complex interstellar irons in the fire to allow sentimental romancing to dominate the proceedings. The Forbidden Borders sequence – Requiem for the Conqueror (1991), Relic of Empire (1992) and Countermeasures (1993) – about an Earth prevented by a Gravity barrier from reaching more than a few nearby star systems; the cultural version of Arrested Development consequential upon discovery of this barrier is intriguingly examined, though the sequence soon escapes into Space Opera.
Of his singletons, Starstrike (1990) expresses – as he would in Forbidden Borders as well as much of the work in collaboration with his wife – a moderately dark sense of the consequences of our primate heritage, as an Alien force makes forbidden First Contact with the human race, selecting a batch of warriors to fight one of their battles for them, and thus perhaps awaken their own long-forgotten savagery. Dark Inheritance (2001) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear deals with a Genetically Engineered bonobo, and Raising Abel (2002) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear also deals with Genetic Engineering – this time involving the breeding of a Neanderthal child – in a thriller context.
Because of its carefully plausible venue, the First North Americans sequence – all written with Kathleen O'Neal Gear, beginning with People of the Wolf (1990) – contains little fantasy or sf beyond occasional reference to true visions derived from proper shamanistic practice; but of course the Prehistoric SF subgenre is always likely, as our knowledge of the past gains definition, to be transformed into fictionalized history, frequently, as in this case, readable as proto-Westerns. The Athena Factor (2005) is a Cloning thriller. [JC]
William Michael Gear
born Colorado Springs, Colorado: 20 May 1955
works
series
Spider
- The Warriors of Spider (New York: DAW Books, 1988) [Spider: pb/Sanjulian]
- The Way of Spider (New York: DAW Books, 1989) [Spider: pb/Sanjulian]
- The Web of Spider (New York: DAW Books, 1989) [Spider: pb/Sanjulian]
- The Artifact (New York: DAW Books, 1990) [Spider: pb/Sanjulian]
First North Americans
- First North Americans (New York: Tor, 1990) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: pb/Luis Royo]
- People of the Fire (New York: Tor, 1991) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: pb/Luis Royo]
- People of the Earth (New York: Tor, 1992) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: pb/Luis Royo]
- People of the River (New York: Tor, 1992) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: hb/Luis Royo]
- People of the Sea (New York: Tor/Forge, 1993) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: hb/Luis Royo]
- People of the Lakes (New York: Tor/Forge, 1994) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: hb/Luis Royo]
- People of the Lightning (New York: Tor/Forge, 1995) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: hb/Luis Royo]
- People of the Silence (New York: Tor/Forge, 1996) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: hb/Luis Royo]
- People of the Mist (New York: Tor/Forge, 1997) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: hb/Luis Royo]
- People of the Masks (New York: Tor/Forge, 1998) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: hb/Luis Royo]
- People of the Owl (New York: Tor/Forge, 2003) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: hb/Luis Royo]
- People of the Raven (New York: Tor/Forge, 2004) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: hb/Luis Royo]
- People of the Moon (New York: Tor/Forge, 2005) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: hb/Luis Royo]
- People of the Nightland (New York: Tor/Forge, 2007) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: hb/Luis Royo]
- People of the Weeping Eye (New York: Tor/Forge, 2008) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: hb/Luis Royo]
- People of the Thunder (New York: Tor/Forge, 2008) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: hb/Luis Royo]
First North Americans: People of the Longhouse
- People of the Longhouse (New York: Tor/Forge, 2010) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: People of the Longhouse: hb/Luis Royo]
- The Dawn Country (New York: Tor/Forge, 2011) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: People of the Longhouse: hb/Luis Royo]
- The Broken Land (New York: Tor/Forge, 2011) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: People of the Longhouse: hb/Luis Royo]
- People of the Black Sun (New York: Tor, 2012) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: People of the Longhouse: hb/Cliff Nielsen]
First North Americans: Morning Star
- People of the Morning Star: A Novel of North America's Forgotten Past (New York: Tor, 2014) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: Morning Star: hb/Cliff Nielsen]
- Sun Born (New York: Tor/Forge, 2016) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: Morning Star: hb/]
- Moon Hunt (New York: Tor/Forge, 2017) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: Morning Star: hb/]
- Star Path (New York: Tor/Forge, 2019) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: Morning Star: hb/]
First North Americans: North America's Forgotten Past
- People of the Songtrail: A Novel of North America's Forgotten Past (New York: Tor, 2015) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [First North Americans: North America's Forgotten Past: hb/Cliff Nielsen]
Forbidden Borders
- Requiem for the Conqueror (New York: DAW Books, 1991) [Forbidden Borders: pb/Sanjulian]
- Relic of Empire (New York: DAW Books, 1992) [Forbidden Borders: pb/Sanjulian]
- Countermeasures (New York: DAW Books, 1993) [Forbidden Borders: pb/Sanjulian]
Anasazi Mysteries
- The Visitant (New York: Tor/Forge, 1999) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [Anasazi Mysteries: hb/]
- The Summoning God (New York: Tor/Forge, 2000) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [Anasazi Mysteries: hb/]
- Bone Walker (New York: Tor/Forge, 2001) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [Anasazi Mysteries: hb/]
Contact
- Contact: The Battle for America: The Coming of the Storm (New York: Simon and Schuster/Gallery, 2010) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [Contact: hb/Gregory Bridges]
- Fire the Sky (New York: Simon and Schuster/Gallery, 2011) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [Contact: hb/]
- A Searing Wind (New York: Simon and Schuster/Gallery, 2012) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [Contact: hb/]
Donovan
- Outpost (New York: DAW, 2018) [Donovan: hb/Steve Stone]
- Abandoned (New York: DAW, 2018) [Donovan: hb/Steve Stone]
- Pariah (New York: DAW, 2019) [Donovan: hb/Steve Stone]
- Unreconciled (New York: DAW, 2020) [Donovan: hb/Steve Stone]
- Adrift (New York: DAW, 2021) [Donovan: hb/]
- Reckoning (New York: DAW, 2022) [Donovan: hb/]
Team Psi
- The Alpha Enigma (New York: DAW Books, 2020) [Team Psi: hb/Tim Green]
- Implacable Alpha (New York: DAW Books, 2022) [Team Psi: hb/Tim Green]
The Wyoming Chronicles
- Dissolution (Las Vegas, Nevada, Wise Wolf Books, 2021) [The Wyoming Chronicles: hb/]
- Fourth Quadrant (Las Vegas, Nevada, Wolfpack Publishing, 2022) [The Wyoming Chronicles: hb/]
individual titles
- Starstrike (New York: DAW Books, 1990) [pb/Sanjulian]
- The Artifact (New York: DAW Books, 1990) [pb/Sanjulian]
- Dark Inheritance (New York: Warner Books, 2001) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [hb/]
- Raising Abel (New York: Warner Books, 2002) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [hb/]
- The Athena Factor (New York: Tor/Forge, 2005) [hb/]
- Betrayal (New York: Tor/Forge, 2008) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [hb/from Sir Anthony van Dyck]
- Children of the Dawnland (New York: Tor/Forge, 2009) with Kathleen O'Neal Gear [hb/Cliff Nielsen]
links
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