Description:

Bears Discover Fire is the first short story collection by the most acclaimed science fiction author of the decade, author of such brilliant novels as Talking Man and Voyage to the Red Planet. It brings together nineteen of Bisson's finest works for the first time in one volume, among them the darkly comic title story, which garnered the field's highest honors, including the Hugo, Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon, and Locus awards.

From Publishers Weekly

When Bisson ( Voyage to the Red Planet ) began to publish short fiction a few years ago, his flair and sharp but homey good humor brought him instant celebrity and won him a Nebula Award for the title story in this, his first collection. Immediately clear from this array of stories is the astonishing range of Bisson's talent. Readers turn from "Bears Discover Fire," a meditative tale that blends the irreconcilable sadness of the loss of a loved one with the weirdness of the very literal title, to the delightfully silly "They're Made Out of Meat," a dialogue between two odd aliens about the nature of life on Earth, to the elegaic "England Underway," in which a bookish Englishman confronts the New World, bringing all of England with him. Leavening even his most serious tales with humor, Bisson can deal with issues frequently blighted by stridency: three stories address environmental concerns with a black humor that enhances rather than mitigates their impact. Bisson's prose is a wonder of seemingly effortless control and precision; he is one of science fiction's most promising short story practitioners, proving that in the genre, the short story remains a powerful, viable and evocative form.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Whether narrating a parable of Earth's dying ("Carl's Lawn and Garden"), exploring the afterlife ("Necronauts"), or chronicling the relocation of a country ("England Underway"), Bisson continues to surprise his readers with his startling vision and iconoclastic imagination. These 19 stories (most published only in magazines) showcase the varied talents of a skilled and as yet unjaded writer. A good choice for sf and short story collections.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.