Robert J. Sawyer

Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer

Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

The Downloaded #1 bestseller

Friday, March 1st, 2024

Delighted that my THE DOWNLOADED is the #1 Science Fiction bestseller on the Audible.com monthly bestsellers list as reported in the March 2024 issue of Locus, the trade journal for the science fiction and fantasy fields, which came out today. Get THE DOWNLOADED here: Canada: https://adbl.co/45WsEqI US: https://adbl.co/49kuCEc UK: https://adbl.co/3tUfJbJ

New ebook editions of Hominids and its sequels

Saturday, February 24th, 2024

I’m thrilled to announce new ebook editions of my Hugo Award-winning novel Hominids, its Hugo Award-nominated sequel Humans, and the bestselling final volume Hybrids. Together, they are the Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, which won the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Award (“the Aurora”) for best work of the entire decade. The trilogy tells of a parallel […]

On the 40th anniversary of the Macintosh computer

Wednesday, January 24th, 2024

In honour of today being the 40th anniversary of the Macintosh computer, here’s an article I wrote in 1985 (the year I turned 25) for the Canadian computing magazine InfoAge (for which, back in the day, I was a regular contributor); of course, I wrote the article with WordStar on an Osborne 1 CP/M computer: […]

1983 in Review: The Canadian SF Year

Saturday, December 16th, 2023

Forty years to the day after I wrote it, here’s the first thing I ever wrote in WordStar. This was published in The Bakka Bookie Sheet, the newsletter of Bakka, Toronto’s science-fiction specialty bookstore, and it provides an interesting snapshot of the state of Canadian science-fiction and fantasy publishing four decades ago: 1983 in Review: […]

Forty years of using WordStar!

Saturday, December 16th, 2023

Forty years ago today, on December 16, 1983, I started using the word-processing program WordStar. Two days earlier, I’d acquired my first computer, an Osborne 1B, which came bundled with the CP/M operating system, SuperCalc spreadsheet, Microsoft BASIC, and WordStar 2.26. And, today, I still use WordStar: WordStar for DOS 7.0 Revision D, the final […]

Specifications for The Six Million Dollar Man

Monday, November 27th, 2023

There doesn’t seem to be an accurate version of the specifications for cyborg Steve Austin’s bionic parts anywhere online, so I have put one together. Below are screen-accurate reproductions of the text. The only change I made from Jack Cole’s faux computer-graphic displays used in the opening credits of The Six Million Dollar Man was […]

Please subscribe to my newsletter

Friday, November 24th, 2023

Short version: Please subscribe — or re-subscribe — to my newsletter: https://robertjsawyer.substack.com Long version: the downside of being an online pioneer! I sent out my first by-email newsletter 23 years ago (announcing the publication of Calculating God). I’ve never been aggressive about building an email list, but in the almost quarter-century since then, I’d accumulated […]

Oppenheimer and the death of JFK

Wednesday, November 22nd, 2023

Sixty years ago today, on November 22, 1963, American president John F. Kennedy was assassinated — an event that had a big impact on J. Robert Oppenheimer, as portrayed in this scene from my novel The Oppenheimer Alternative: From Dallas, Texas, the flash apparently official: President Kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. Central Standard Time — two o’clock […]

My new novel is out now!

Thursday, October 26th, 2023

My new novel is out now! Got an Audible account? The Downloaded, the twenty-fifth novel by Hugo Award-winning author Robert J. Sawyer, came out today in a six-month exclusive window as an audiobook on Audible—and it’s FREE to anyone who has an Audible account! It’s part of the Audible Plus catalogue and therefore doesn’t require […]

The Joy of Diversity!

Tuesday, October 17th, 2023

I was asked in Chengdu about diversity in Canada. It’s one of the things I love most about my country; I’ve always said it’s like the bridge of Kirk’s Enterprise writ large: everyone is welcome here and everyone is equal. Although I’m thrilled to be guest of honour at Chengdu Worldcon, the greatest honour of […]

R.I.P., Canadian publisher Sharon Fitzhenry

Wednesday, September 13th, 2023

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 […]

The best-ever academic conference on Canadian science fiction!

Wednesday, September 13th, 2023

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 […]

Six Million Dollar Man: what was actually said

Monday, September 11th, 2023

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 […]

All of my short fiction in three ebook collections

Monday, September 11th, 2023

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 […]

State of the Ark: Canadian Futurefiction

Tuesday, September 5th, 2023

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 […]

John Robert Colombo inducted into Hall of Fame

Sunday, August 20th, 2023

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 […]

My review of Oppenheimer

Tuesday, July 25th, 2023

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 […]

Anniversary: The birth of the atomic age

Sunday, July 16th, 2023

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 […]

My programming at the Winnipeg NASFiC

Saturday, July 15th, 2023

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 […]

Expert commentator on J. Robert Oppenheimer

Sunday, July 9th, 2023

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. […]

My valedictory address

Thursday, June 15th, 2023

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 […]

I’m now on TikTok

Sunday, November 27th, 2022

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

Thursday, July 28th, 2022

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 […]

Remembering Barbara Delaplace

Saturday, July 23rd, 2022

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 […]

CTV Calgary Noon News interview about MIFRE Media Award

Monday, April 25th, 2022

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 gift ideas!

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2021

Christmas shopping? A friendly reminder that I sell autographed copies of my books online. Robert J. Sawyer online:Website • Patreon • Facebook • Twitter • Email

Day-of-launch interview near Trinity site

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2020

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 […]

I have a Patreon page!

Sunday, February 4th, 2018

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

A repeat from one year ago today; more apropos than ever

Sunday, December 18th, 2016

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, […]

Favorite books in six words

Wednesday, December 16th, 2015

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 […]