The Canadian publishing trade journal Quill & Quire just reported that Sharon Fitzhenry, the CEO and majority shareholder of Canadian publishing company and book distributor Fitzhenry & Whiteside, passed away on August 26, 2023, at the age of 73. Sharon and I had worked together since 2005, when she acquired the smaller Calgary-based Red Deer […]
Ten years ago today, on September 13, 2013, the biggest and best academic conference about Canadian science fiction ever held began. McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, hosted the three-day conference entitled “Science Fiction: The Interdisciplinary Genre — A Conference in Honour of Robert J. Sawyer’s Archival Donation to the University Library Collections.” My archives, which […]
The opening credits for The Six Million Dollar Man were created by the legendary Jack Cole, and they use radio chatter during the crash sequence of the lifting body Steve Austin is operating that was never actually heard in the pilot movie. There’s been lots of debate online about what the dialog actually says, with […]
I no longer write short stories, but I had a nice little career as a short-story writer, with 45 stories published. The stories appeared in a mix of classic genre venues such as Analog, Amazing Stories, and On Spec, original anthologies, and places that don’t normally publish fiction, such as The Toronto Star, The Globe and […]
Today’s mail brought my contributor’s copy of the just-published anthology State of the Ark: Canadian Futurefiction. I’m delighted to see that editor Lesley Choyce used my “Star Light, Star Bright” as the lead story in this follow-up to his landmark 1992 anthology Ark of Ice: Canadian Futurefiction (which I was also published in). Contributors to […]
Yesterday, my great friend John Robert Colombo (pictured on the right with me at the 2009 Worldcon in Montreal) was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. I was one of those who nominated him; this was my nominating letter: It is my privilege and honour to nominate John Robert Colombo […]
We saw Christopher Nolan’s movie Oppenheimer last night as it was meant to be seen: in 70 mm IMAX. It’s a very good film; I recommend it. That said, is it the best cinematic treatment of the subject? No, that’s still the 1989 movie Day One. And is Cillian Murphy going to win the Academy […]
The atomic age began 78 years ago today, on July 16, 1945, with the first-ever atomic bomb explosion, the Trinity Test near Alamogordo, New Mexico. This is how I described that momentous event in my novel The Oppenheimer Alternative: Chapter 15 From The Oppenheimer Alternative by Robert J. Sawyer I am sure that at the […]
I have a metric ton of programming at Pemmi-con, the North American Science Fiction Convention, which starts in four days in Winnipeg, including a joint session with my old pal paleontologist Phil Currie (pictured). Come join me at these events: Welcome to Canada Format: Panel 20 Jul 2023, Thursday 10:00 – 11:15, Charleswood B (Delta […]
Author of #1 bestseller available for interviews tying into Christopher Nolan’s summer blockbuster movie OPPENHEIMER As this summer’s hottest blockbuster movie Oppenheimer is about to open, you’re going to need someone to talk about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, and we have the expert you’ve been looking for. Bestselling futurist ROBERT J. […]
The province of Ontario, where I went to school, was unique in North America for having a grade 13, an extra year of high school. Forty-four years ago, when I was 19, I was valedictorian for Northview Heights Secondary School’s Class of 1979. Below is my valedictory address; the final line echoes lyrics from the […]
A great friend has suggested to me that the best social-media platform for authors trying to sell books these days is TikTok, so I’ve dived in. I now have six TikTok videos up. On this page, it shows them, left to right, from most-recent to least-recent, but the better way to watch them is from […]
The wisdom of Erle Stanley Gardner, from the Perry Mason novel The Case of the Careless Kitten, published eighty years ago in 1942. Defense attorney Perry Mason is speaking to Hamilton Burger, the district attorney: “Because the public has sat idly by and let the organized prosecutors amend the law until the constitutional guarantees of […]
Today in Gainesville, there’s a celebration of Barbara Haldeman, sister-in-law to Joe Haldeman and the widow of Joe’s late brother, Jack.I can’t be there, but I’m thinking fondly about my friend Barbara today. Those, like me, who used to frequent the CompuServe Science Fiction and Fantasy Forum may remember her as Barbara Delaplace, where she […]
I was interviewed today on the CTV Calgary Noon News about my WWW trilogy of Wake, Watch, and Wonder winning the Machine Intelligence Foundation for Rights and Ethics (MIFRE) Media Award. You can watch the six-minute sement here. Robert J. Sawyer online: Website • Patreon • Facebook • Twitter • Email
Christmas shopping? A friendly reminder that I sell autographed copies of my books online. Robert J. Sawyer online:Website • Patreon • Facebook • Twitter • Email
Yesterday (Tuesday, June 2, 2020) was the official publication date of my 24th novel, The Oppenheimer Alternative — and where better to launch the book than the place where it all began? I spent an hour in conversation with Mike Shinabery of the New Mexico Museum of Space History on his morning show on KRSY-AM […]
The times they are a-changin’ in publishing, and so I’ve set up a Patreon page at patreon.com/robertjsawyer, where my readers can support my work directly. Please check it out! Many thanks! Robert J. Sawyer online:Website • Facebook • Twitter • Email
Foresight consultancy Idea Couture publishes a wonderful magazine called MISC. For their Fall 2015 issue, they asked me to contribute a piece on a “looming potential crisis nobody is talking about.” This is what I had to say in MISC; I explore this theme in much greater depth in my upcoming 23rd novel Quantum Night, […]
Yesterday on my Facebook wall, we played this game:Describe the plot of your favorite book in exactly six words — but don’t say what it is, let us guess.I described seven favorite books thusly. Here are the descriptions, along with the books’ titles: “Computer psychoanalyzes astronaut paralyzed by guilt.” Gateway, the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning […]
Here’s the cover blurb for Quantum Night, my 23rd novel, being published three months from today, on Tuesday, March 1, 2016, simultaneously in hardcover, audiobook, and ebook: QUANTUM NIGHT ROBERT J. SAWYER’s novels are “intelligent, literate, and immensely readable explorations of the biggest ideas there are.”* Now the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of Red Planet […]
Here’s my programming schedule for Sasquan, the 2015 World Science Fiction Convention, coming up in August in Spokane: “Writing for TV” (Moderator) (45 mintues) Thursday, August 20, at 3:00 p.m. Bays 111A (CC) with Michael Cassutt, David Gerrold, Melinda Snodgrass, Charlie Reeves Autographing Friday, August 21, at 11:00 a.m. Exhibit Hall B (CC) Reading from […]
Ten years ago today, on 21 May 2005, Pat York — SF-writing colleague and friend — was killed in a car crash at the age of 57. She was a mainstay of SF conventions in this part of the world, a Nebula Award finalist, and twice a Writers of the Future Award finalist. The SFWA […]
If you actually read what Simon Pegg says in this Radio Times article — not just react in a knee-jerk fashion as you might when you think someone’s dissing your favorite things — there’s much truth in it. In 1968, we had two great science-fiction films, 2001: A Space Odyssey, which terrifically captured the sense […]
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I had the pleasure, however virtually and metaphorically, to sit down recently with Edward M. Lerner and discuss his latest novel. InterstellarNet: Enigma is the newest addition to Ed’s popular InterstellarNet future history. Here’s a little of what we discussed.RJS: I’ve read InterstellarNet: Enigma, and it has a lot of moving parts. How do you […]
Four rules for living a better and happier life that seem sensible to me: Make amends Accept apologies Don’t discard people Care Robert J. Sawyer online:Website • Facebook • Twitter • Email
Of course Idris Elba can play James Bond. Below is how Sam Spade is described by his creator Dashiell Hammett in the first paragraph of The Maltese Falcon novel, and the picture is Sam Spade as portrayed by Humphrey Bogart in the definitive film version; Bogart looks nothing like Space — but nonetheless nailed the […]
Some early publicity for my Red Planet Blues book tour had my event on Tuesday, April 30, listed as being at the Waterloo Public Library. That’s not correct. The event actually takes place Tuesday, April 30, at 7:00 p.m. at the Kitchener Public Library, Country Hills Community Branch, 1500 Block Line Road, Kitchener. The library […]
My great friend and mentor Mike Resnick is Guest of Honor at Chicon 7, the 2012 World Science Fiction Convention, which begins next week in Chicago. To commemorate that, here’s the introduction I wrote for Mike’s 2003 collection Resnick at Large: Resnick Speaks His Mind on Everything. Here’s something most people don’t know about Mike […]
