[1] She is one of a small number of writers who have gone on to win multiple Hugo Awards for fiction after winning the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (the others include C. J. Cherryh, Orson Scott Card, Spider Robinson, Ted Chiang and Mary Robinette Kowal).

The trilogy features Canadian Master Warrant Officer Jenny Casey, who is also the main character in the short story "Gone to Flowers".

Blood and Iron, the first book in the fantasy series entitled The Promethean Age, debuted June 27, 2006.

In 2008, she donated her archive to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University.

[6] Annalee Newitz of io9 wrote that Bear "is famous for combining high-octane military/spy tales with eccentric and subversive subplots".