Bears Discover Fire

by Terry Bisson

• Page count: 7

Bears Discover Fire is a multiple award winning science fiction short story by Terry Bisson. It is about bears that have started making campfires on interstate medians.

Bears Discover Fire follows the story of a man who lives near Bowling Green, Kentucky. As the nation is captivated by the bears that are skipping their hibernation periods and gathering around campfires, he tries to deal with his elderly mother who thinks she is about to die, teach his young nephew to fix flat tires and make a living selling insurance.

A gently humorous tale, Bears Discover Fire lets the reader peek into the personal lives of its characters while exploring the broader backdrop of an amazing natural event. The writing is excellent, the humor is subtle, the message is soft and the story is just downright amazing.

Bears Discover Fire is one of the most famous science fiction short stories in the last forty years. It won the 1991 Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Theodore Sturgeon Award, SF Chronicle Reader Award, Locus Award and Asimov's Reader Award. It was also nominated for the 1991 World Fantasy Award and HOMer award. Not bad huh?

The light went out again, then came back better than ever as I was fitting the spare over the lugs. "Much better," I said. There was a flood of dim orange flickery light. But when I turned to find the lug nuts, I was surprised to see that the flashlight the boy was holding was dead. The light was coming from two bears at the edge of the trees, holding torches. They were big, three-hundred pounders, standing about five feet tall. Wallace Jr. and his father had seen them and were standing perfectly still. It's best not to alarm bears.

Where you can find Bears Discover Fire:

• Bears Discover Fire first appeared in the August 1990 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction.

• You can read Bears Discover Fire for free online at LightSpeed Magazine.

• Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories^† is the name of Terry Bisson's book of collected short stories which, amazingly enough, includes the short story Bears Discover Fire.

• You can listen to an audio version of this story for free at The Drabblecast website (thanks to Free SF Online for the link!)

Michael Swanwick, an award winning science fiction author himself, has some very insightful things to say about Terry Bisson on his website.

If you liked Bears Discover Fire you may also enjoy macs, another award winning story by Terry Bisson.

† - This is an affiliate link.  Learn more on my Privacy & Disclosure page.

(This is a revised version of a post which was originally published on BestScienceFictionStories.com on Feb 22nd, 2008.)