Robert J. Sawyer

Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer

Archive for September, 2015

On the fifth anniversary of Ralph Vicinanza’s death

Saturday, September 26th, 2015

Five years ago today, on September 26, 2010, my literary agent, the legendary Ralph Vicinanza, passed away, at the age of 60. Here’s the tribute I wrote to him back then: Ralph Vicinanza was my agent for the past fifteen years. I remember when I was looking for a new agent calling many of his […]

Lost in Space conclusion

Friday, September 25th, 2015

One of the special features on the 50th-anniversary LOST IN SPACE Blu-ray set is a 2015 table read of the proposed series finale Bill Mumy himself co-wrote in 1980, with Bill Mumy, Mark Goddard, Marta Kirsten, and Angela Cartwright reading their own classic parts, Guy Williams Jr. standing in for his father, and Angela’s sister […]

Putting SF characters on the couch

Thursday, September 24th, 2015

One of my favourite schticks as a writer is the psychological counselling of my science-fictional characters. I built the entire novel FOREIGNER around it (with the alien counterpart of Galileo being psychoanalyzed by the alien counterpart of Freud), and it is also the framing device in my Hugo Award-nominated HUMANS (where a Neanderthal shrink, Jurard […]

A hot dense state

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015

I tuned into the season 9 premiere of The Big Bang Theory because my friend Sherry Peters​ tipped me off that my buddy Jim Meskimen was guest-starring (he played the officiant), but, man, was I disappointed. I haven’t watched TBBT for a few years, and except for one science joke at the end (which was […]

Fairest of Them All

Monday, September 21st, 2015

If you’re not yet watching Star Trek Continues, you should be. They’ve produced four brilliant classic-era Star Trek episodes so far, with the fifth debuting soon. I love them all, but, even though I have a cameo in the fourth episode, “The White Iris,” my favorite is the third one, “Fairest of Them All,” directed […]

Hyping the dubious Homo naledi

Sunday, September 20th, 2015

The lede is buried in this excellent article by Ray Hartley from South Africa’s Rand Daily Mail. The meat begins with the tenth paragraph, which starts, “There was only one moment during the press event when the giant bubble of hype was threatened by a sharp question.” Read from that point down, at least, then […]

2nd anniversary of best-ever Canadian academic conference on science fiction

Sunday, September 13th, 2015

Two years ago today, the biggest and best academic conference ever held about science fiction in Canada began at McMaster University. “Science Fiction: The Interdisciplinary Genre” — three days with multiple tracks — was hosted there in honour of the receipt by McMaster of my professional archives (subsequently certified as being of “outstanding significance and […]

Taschen’s 2001 making-of book

Thursday, September 3rd, 2015

My review of Piers Bizony’s The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (published by Taschen) is up now at SFRevu. Robert J. Sawyer online:Website • Facebook • Twitter • Email

Ask Me Anything transcript

Thursday, September 3rd, 2015

A year ago today – 3 September 2014 — I did an Ask Me Anything session for Reddit. Here’s a transcript: [–]Drakkenfyre For Rob Sawyer: Your books seem very thematically strong to me. What do you try to do with your books, in terms of having a theme and a message? And do you start […]

Quantum Night cover reveal

Tuesday, September 1st, 2015

Six months from today, on Tuesday, March 1, 2016, my twenty-third novel, Quantum Night, will be released simultaneously in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook. Click the image above for a high-resolution / print-quality version. Robert J. Sawyer online:Website • Facebook • Twitter • Email