Film option on The Terminal Experiment renewed

Toronto's Divani films has renewed its option on Robert J. Sawyer's Nebula Award-winning The Terminal Experiment for a fifth year. Pictured above: the new Canadian paperback edition, in stores now!

And Terminal Experiment director Srinivas Krishna's latest film, Athletes in Motion, premieres on Canadian TV this Saturday. Says Srinivas:

A series of short films I produced have been packaged into an hour-long special called Bravo!FACT Presents: Athletes in Motion that will premiere in HD on Saturday, February 6 at 4 p.m. on CTV.

Inspired by winter sports and Olympic athletes, these 11 entertaining, moving, cutting-edge shorts combine the brightest directors, actors, musicians, cinematographers, designers, animators, and choreographers with world-class Canadian athletes to create two-minute films that celebrate their passion. Featuring talents such as Jason Priestley, Gord Downie, Liz Manley, Douglas Coupland, Jennifer Jones, and more, the films were shot in B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Quebec last summer and fall.

Musical artists contributing scores/soundtracks include Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip, Jay Malinowski of Bedouin Soundclash, Deadmau5, and JUNO award-winning bass guitarist/music producer Orin Isaacs. Additionally, one of the shorts features CTV’s “The Hockey Theme” while another features fashions from Canadian designer Paul Hardy.

In addition to the shorts, the one-hour special, hosted by CTV’s Seamus O’Regan, includes commentary and introductions by both filmmakers and athletes, as our cameras go behind-the-scenes to capture athletes and artists collaborating in action.

ATHLETES IN MOTION has already made it’s mark internationally -- the 11 shorts recently won the Best Drama/Fiction Award at the 2010 European Video and Mobile TV Forum in Paris.

Encore presentations will air on Bravo!:

Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT

Feb. 10 at 8:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. PT

Feb. 12 at 8:00 p.m. ET / 5:00 p.m. PT

Feb. 12 at 8:00 a.m. ET / 8:00 a.m. PT

You can also catch a half hour version of the show on CTV’s ‘A’ Channels on Feb. 13:

-8:30 p.m., London , Vancouver Island and Barrie

-11:00 p.m. Ottawa and Vancouver Island .

In addition, you can check out on going commentaries and enjoy multiple viewing opportunities for the shorts outside of television online at CTVOlympics.ca/bravofact along with bonus interactive elements including bios, photos, interviews, and behind-the-scenes footage. For full film synopses and to download hi-res photos, visit ctvmedia.ca/bravo.

The Globe and Mail has published a story in today’s edition, read it on-line here.

Finally, catch Kurt Browning chatting about AHLETES IN MOTION tomorrow, Friday, evening on ETalk ( 6 p.m. ET on STAR! and at 7 p.m. on CTV ) .

ATHLETES IN MOTION is produced by Divani Films and Crowsnest Films in association with Bravo!FACT and CTV Inc. with the participation of CFC/Telus Innovation Fund, Rogers Telefund and the Alberta Film Development Corporation. Producers are John Kerr and Srinivas Krishna.

Robert J. Sawyer online:
Website • Facebook • Twitter • Newsgroup • Email

New Canadian editions of The Terminal Experiment and Illegal Alien

In stores now across Canada: new premium mass-market paperback editions from Penguin Canada of the Nebula Award-winning The Terminal Experiment and the Seiun Award-winning Illegal Alien by Robert J. Sawyer. (For American readers, Ace Science Fiction recently acquired reprint rights to these titles, and will be doing their own editions later.)

The Globe and Mail on The Terminal Experiment: "A terrific mix of science, technological derring-do, and murder. A great story; a crackerjack novel."

The Globe and Mail on Illegal Alien: "This is one fine courtroom drama, with enough twists in the plot to keep any mystery fan flipping the pages; it puts Perry Mason and John Grisham to shame. The novel is far too good to attempt to summarize; let's just say that Sawyer delves into all sorts of strange and wonderful conflicts, including the war between science and belief, and just what God may or may not be. Illegal Alien is the best Canadian mystery of the year."

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

Covers for new Canadian editions of The Terminal Experiment and Illegal Alien

Coming December 1, 2009, from Penguin Group Canada: new premium mass-market editions of two of my novels: The Terminal Experiment, which won the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's Nebula Award for Best Novel of Year for 1995, and Illegal Alien, which the Globe and Mail's mystery-fiction reviewer Margaret Cannon said was "the best Canadian mystery of 1997."

Premium mass-market is the format used for most bestselling fiction paperbacks these days; it's about an inch taller than regular mass-market (and has bigger type); Penguin Canada's paperback edition of my latest hardcover, Wake, coming in March 2010, will also be done in premium mass-market.

Ace Science Fiction in the United States has separately acquired US rights to these titles, and will be producing their own editions, with their own covers, later.

SF Site on The Terminal Experiment: "Robert J. Sawyer won the Nebula Award with this novel, and I would have voted for it. There is so much of interest in this book -- artificial intelligence, a good murder mystery, a nicely realized near-future, and, as I've come to expect from Sawyer's novels, thought-provoking philosophy."

The Washington Post on Illegal Alien: "Innovative, imaginative, and pioneering — not just excellent sf but also excellent popular literature. A fast-paced, exciting book that shows the imaginative heights to which science fiction writers can climb when they combine sf with something else."

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

The Terminal Experiment and Illegal Alien coming back into print

I'm delighted to announce that my 1995 Nebula Award-winning novel The Terminal Experiment and my 1997 Seiun Award-winning novel Illegal Alien are both coming back into print.

Ginjer Buchanan at Ace Science Fiction just bought U.S. rights to them both, and Adrienne Kerr at Penguin Canada separately just bought Canadian rights. Ace will do them in mass-market, and Penguin Canada will do them in premium mass-market (an inch taller than regular mass-market, the format favored these days for bestsellers). Penguin Canada will have their editions out in time for Christmas.

"Robert J. Sawyer won the Nebula Award with this novel, and I would have voted for it. There is so much of interest in this book -- artificial intelligence, a good murder mystery, a nicely realized near-future, and, as I've come to expect from Sawyer's novels, thought-provoking philosophy. This is science fiction at its most thought provoking." -- SF Site on The Terminal Experiment

"Innovative, imaginative, and pioneering — not just excellent sf but also excellent popular literature ... a fast-paced, exciting book that shows the imaginative heights to which science fiction writers can climb when they combine sf with something else." -- The Washington Post on Illegal Alien

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

"Are you a religious man yourself?"

A grade-12 student sent me an email today about my novels The Terminal Experiment and Calculating God (the former a Nebula Award winner; the latter a Hugo Award finalist), because she's doing her final project for English class on them. She asked:

I don't mean to ask anything personal, but are you a religious man yourself? Or do you tend to be more like Tom, in 'Calculating God', and not really believe in anything other than science? Or on the flip side, was this book a way for you to explain your reasoning to the idea that a supreme being must exist through Hollus' character?

Here's my response:

I'm not a religious person. It would take proof to convince me that souls, or God, exist -- so I wrote books in which scientists found proof of those things to play with the notion of how skeptical people might react. I'm fascinated by the fact that many skeptics are as dogmatic in their anti-religious beliefs (nothing could convince them that they are wrong) as many religious people are dogmatic in their beliefs. I liked playing with the notion of whether skepticism/atheism was really a reasoned position, or simply another belief system that would endure regardless of the evidence, or lack thereof, for its veracity.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

My Nebula Award trophy

Carolyn decided the picture of my Nebula Award trophy on my website sucked -- and it did; it was a low-res scan of a print that we'd put up back in 1996.

So she took a new one, and here it is:



I won the Nebula in 1996 for my novel The Terminal Experiment.

That was the period when William Rotsler, the artist who hand-crafted the trophies each year, was designing the best-novel trophies based on the winning author's work.

For Greg Bear, the year before, who had won for Moving Mars, the Lucite block contained a large polished red sandstone sphere that looked like Mars; for Nicola Griffith, who won the following year for Slow River, the lapidary stones in the Lucite had mostly settled to the bottom.

For me, he actually honored my Far-Seer trilogy by featuring a giant polished agate that resembled a Jupiter-like planet, with a too-close moon orbiting around it (you can't see the little moon on the face-on view, but it's clearly visible in the side at the right of the picture and also at the top).

At the top, there's a spiral nebula -- the one constant element in all nebula designs.

The Nebulas are given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America; they are the field's "Academy Award."

Oh, and here's an essay about the night I won the award.

Here's another new shot:



And here's the now-retired old .gif photo:

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Film option on The Terminal Experiment renewed

I'm thrilled to report that Toronto's Divani Films and director Srinivas Krishna have just renewed their option on motion-picture rights to my 1995 Nebula Award-winning novel The Terminal Experiment for a fourth year. Woot!

The movie is being developed with the participation of Telefilm Canada and Astral Media's The Harold Greenberg Fund.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site