Since 1970 George Zebrowski has been a prolific
short story writer of uniformly high quality, and has
also written numerous novels. There was a considerable gap of time between his first collection, The
Monadic Universe (1977), and the next two, In the
Distance, and Ahead in Time and Swift Thoughts,
both published in 2002. There still remains a considerable body of worthy but uncollected short fiction. Zebrowski has also edited several anthologies,
including the short-lived but impressive Synergy series of original collections.
His first novel, The Omega Point (1972), would
eventually become the middle volume in a trilogy,
preceded by Ashes and Stars (1977) and followed
by Mirror of Minds, which was never published separately and can be found only in the omnibus edition, The Omega Point Trilogy (1983). The human
race has been triumphant in an interstellar war,
their enemy hunted to near extinction. Members
of that race are determined to avenge their people,
and eventually employ a radical new technology in
an effort to reverse the outcome of the war. The
Star Web (1975) was rewritten and became a portion of the vastly superior Stranger Suns (1991). An
expedition to Antarctica uncovers an abandoned
alien starship, inadvertently reactivates it, and has
various exciting adventures among the stars.
In Macro-Life (1979), humans have abandoned Earth and traveled to the stars, a broad
narrative that shows the influence of Olaf STAPLEDON. The Sunspacers trilogy—Sunspacer (1984),
The Stars Will Speak (1985), and Behind the Stars
(1996)—is ostensibly for young adult readers, but
is written with adult sensibilities. A young man
struggles to make a life for himself in the colony on
Mercury, and has his life changed when aliens
warn of a danger menacing the entire human race.
The third in the series appeared only in the omnibus The Sunspacers Trilogy (1996). Earth disposes
of its hardened criminals and dissidents by imprisoning them on a self-sustaining starship and
launching it to the stars in Brute Orbits (1998).
Zebrowski has also written a number of media tiein novels, often in collaboration with Pamela SARGENT, and an innovative story of war with aliens,
The Killing Star (1995), with Charles Pellegrino.