Monday, March 22, 2010

New edition of Starplex is gorgeous


Received my author's copies today of the new Red Deer Press edition of Starplex, my 1996 novel that was nominated for the Hugo and the Nebula and won the Aurora Award. I gotta say this is one gorgeous-looking trade paperback! W00t! It'll be in stores across Canada shortly, and out in the US in October 2010 (having the US release later is the norm for Red Deer Press's parent company, Toronto-based Fitzhenry & Whiteside -- sorry about that!).
"An epic hard-science adventure tempered by human concerns. Highly recommended." -- Library Journal

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Monday, December 14, 2009

New edition of Starplex coming in March 2010


Red Deer Press (a Fitzhenry & Whiteside Company) is re-issuing my 1996 novel Starplex in trade paperback in March 2010. Starplex won the Aurora Award, and was the only novel of its year to be nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula. The cover for the new edition is shown above.

More about Starplex
Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com

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Sunday, November 8, 2009

Starplex now available from Audible.com


Audible.com's unabridged reading of my 1996 novel Starplex is now available. The narrator is Mark Boyett, and the audiobook also includes an exclusive introduction read by me.

The Audible.com catalog page for Starplex is pretty bare-bones, so I'll mention a few things they fail to: Starplex was the only novel of its year to be nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards, and it won Canada's Aurora Award and the CompuServe Homer Award, both for best SF novel of the year.

In addition it was a selection of the Science Fiction Book Club, was serialized in Analog, and was a Locus bestseller.

You can get Starplex and all my other audio books from Audible.com right here.

For those who prefer print, the new trade-paperback edition is coming in March 2010 from Red Deer Press.

REVIEWS OF STARPLEX:

Science Fiction Chronicle: "Excellent hard SF, with Sawyer tossing stars, people and time travel around with reckless abandon. One of the best SF novels of the year."

The Halifax Chronicle-Herald: "Starplex appears to be traditional science fiction — it takes place aboard a spaceship, and several characters are extraterrestrial — but it's actually a rumination on several very deep questions, including: Where did we come from? Where are we going? And the deepest of the deep, Is there a God?"

Sci-Fi Weekly: "An audacious engineering effort that makes Larry Niven's Ringworld look like a high-school science project."

About Books: "Very, very cool. This is a book not to be missed."

Andrew Weiner, author of Getting Near the End: "Mind-blowing! Who says there are no more big ideas?"

Asimov's Science Fiction: "Starplex should gladden the hearts of readers who complain that nobody's writing real science fiction anymore, the kind of story that has faster-than-light spaceships and far-off planets and interstellar combat and all the neat things they gobbled up so greedily when 'Doc' Smith was dealing them out. Here's a story with plenty of slam-bang action but no shortage of material to attract thinking readers, either. Sawyer deftly juggles half a dozen sweeping questions of cosmology (not to mention everyday ethics and morality) while keeping the story moving ahead full speed. His scientific ideas are nicely integrated into the plot, yet they also hint at larger metaphorical levels. Enjoy."

Gregory Benford, author of Timescape: "Complex but swift, inventive but real-feeling, with ideas coming thick and fast. For big-time interstellar adventure, look no farther."

Astronomer Andrew Fraknoi, co-author of Voyages Through the Universe: "Complex hard-science novel by a Canadian amateur astronomer with intriguing ideas about the nature of dark matter and even dark matter life forms. Includes more cosmological concepts than any novel we have seen."

Library Journal: "An epic hard-science adventure tempered by human concerns. Highly recommended."

Jack McDevitt, author of Time Travelers Never Die: "Starplex takes us on the ultimate grand tour: an elegant intergalactic ride with Sawyer's signature mix of cosmic concepts and solid characterization. This one is a treat for the mind; I enjoyed it thoroughly."

The New York Review of Science Fiction: "An enormous grab bag of ideas — and a whole lot of fun."

Analog Science Fiction and Fact: "Mind-boggling. A complaint often heard these days is that there's not enough 'sense of wonder' in today's science fiction. Robert J. Sawyer's Starplex ought to lay that complaint to rest for quite a while."

Quill & Quire: "A swift, inventive, enjoyable book. Unexpected twists keep the plot moving briskly, but Sawyer is able to do this while raising intriguing philosophical issues."

James Schellenberg on the Crystalline Sphere web page: "Starplex is an astonishing novel, hard science fiction with heart, with a grand overarching vision. This book contains many of Sawyer's trademarks — addictive readability, a frank engagement with ethical questions, and a fondness for Canadiana. The grand sweep of the story and Sawyer's graceful manipulation of the reader's sympathies combine to make this a fine book; Starplex outdoes any book in Sawyer's oeuvre, and the majority in the field of science fiction. Sawyer uses a heady mix of big ideas and crafty storytelling, and he challenges the reader intellectually while grabbing their emotional sympathy. Quite the accomplishment."

The Toronto Star: "Here, at last, is an ambitious attempt to exploit the possibilities that the genre is capable of."

More about Starplex is here.

Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com

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Saturday, August 1, 2009

Starplex coming in March 2010


I'm delighted to announce that Red Deer Press, a division of Canadian publisher Fitzhenry & Whiteside, will be reissuing my 1996 novel Starplex in March 2010 (next spring) in trade paperback (with an unabridged audiobook available from Audible.com).

Starplex

by Robert J. Sawyer

The only novel of its year to be nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards

From the author of FlashForward, a far-future spaceships-and-alien hard-SF extravaganza in the tradition of Larry Niven.

The interstellar shortcuts are open. Discovery awaits.

Winner of the Aurora Award!

"Sawyer's latest should gladden the hearts of readers who complain that nobody's writing real science fiction anymore, the kind of story that has faster-than-light spaceships and far-off planets and interstellar combat. Sawyer deftly juggles half a dozen sweeping questions of cosmology (not to mention everyday ethics and morality) while keeping the story moving ahead full speed. His scientific ideas are nicely integrated into the plot, yet they also hint at larger metaphorical levels. Enjoy." -- Asimov's Science Fiction

"Mind-boggling. A complaint often heard these days is that there's not enough `sense of wonder' in today's science fiction. Starplex ought to lay that complaint to rest for quite a while." -- Analog Science Fiction and Fact

"An epic hard-science adventure tempered by human concerns. Highly recommended." -- Library Journal

Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com

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Monday, March 30, 2009

Audible.com and Starplex


W00t! I'm thrilled to announce that Audible.com has just bought audiobook rights to my novel Starplex -- without doubt, the hardest hard-SF novel I've ever written.

Starplex was the only novel in its year to be nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula, and it won Canada's Aurora Award and CompuServe's Homer Award, and was a finalist for Japan's Seiun Award.

This brings to eleven the number of my novels that have, or will have, unabridged audiobook editions. I'm absolutely thrilled, needless to say.
Asimov's Science Fiction: "Sawyer's latest should gladden the hearts of readers who complain that nobody's writing real science fiction anymore, the kind of story that has faster-than-light spaceships and far-off planets and interstellar combat and all the neat things they gobbled up so greedily when `Doc' Smith was dealing them out. Here's a story with plenty of slam-bang action but no shortage of material to attract thinking readers, either. Sawyer deftly juggles half a dozen sweeping questions of cosmology (not to mention everyday ethics and morality) while keeping the story moving ahead full speed. His scientific ideas are nicely integrated into the plot, yet they also hint at larger metaphorical levels. Enjoy."

Analog Science Fiction and Fact: "Mind-boggling. A complaint often heard these days is that there's not enough `sense of wonder' in today's science fiction. Robert J. Sawyer's Starplex ought to lay that complaint to rest for quite a while."

Gregory Benford, author of Timescape: "Complex but swift, inventive but real-feeling, with ideas coming thick and fast. For big-time interstellar adventure, look no farther."

The Halifax Chronicle-Herald: "Starplex appears to be traditional science fiction — it takes place aboard a spaceship, and several characters are extraterrestrial — but it's actually a rumination on several very deep questions, including: Where did we come from? Where are we going? And the deepest of the deep, Is there a God?"

Library Journal: "An epic hard-science adventure tempered by human concerns. Highly recommended."

Science Fiction Chronicle: "Excellent hard SF, with Sawyer tossing stars, people and time travel around with reckless abandon. One of the best SF novels of the year."

Sci-Fi Weekly: "An audacious engineering effort that makes Larry Niven's Ringworld look like a high-school science project."

The Toronto Star: "Here, at last, is an ambitious attempt to exploit the possibilities that the genre is capable of."

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

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