Robert J. Sawyer

Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer

Archive for the 'WWW' Category

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

WWW trilogy wins MIFRE Media Award

Tuesday, April 19th, 2022

I am pleased as punch to have just won the 2021 Media Award from the Machine Intelligence Foundation for Rights and Ethics (MIFRE) for my WWW trilogy of Wake, Watch, and Wonder. The award trophy is truly gorgeous, consisting of layers of laminated wood under glass — I just love the look of it. machineintelligencefoundation.org/mifreAward.html […]

A good day for Shoshana and Max

Friday, June 26th, 2015

A good day for Shoshana and Max, two characters from my 2010 novel Watch. Sho is a primatologist, working with a chimpanzee-bonobo hybrid named Hobo who paints representational art. This scene about marriage equality is from Chapter 30: Shoshana spent the next couple of hours with Hobo; he did seem to be back to his […]

Helen Keller paper

Wednesday, October 30th, 2013

The 1996 paper “Helen Keller as Cognitive Scientist” was one of my inspirations for writing my WWW trilogy of Wake, Watch, and Wonder, about a formerly blind girl gaining sight via a post-retinal implant — while a nascent consciousness evolving on the World Wide Web learns to see the world through her. The paper’s author […]

Wonder nominated for the CBC Bookie Awards

Wednesday, March 14th, 2012

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has unveiled the five finalists for its second annual Bookie Awards, and my Wonder is on the list. Anyone may vote for the awards, and you’re allowed to cast a ballot every day — you can vote today, tomorrow, the next day, and so on, once a day, until March 31. […]

Finished with the WWW books

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

Just sent corrections for the paperback of Wonder to Ace and Penguin Canada — the very last work I’ll ever do on the WWW trilogy books. It’s the end of an era that began getting on to nine years ago, on Friday, January 10, 2003, when I wrote this in my journal:Wrote 300 words explaining […]

WWW: Watch now out!

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Today is the official publication date for WWW: Watch, second volume in my WWW trilogy. The US edition is out in hardcover from Ace Science Fiction, and the Canadian edition is out in hardcover from Viking Canada (Penguin). Sawyer shows his genius in combining cutting-edge scientific theories and technological developments with real human characters. —The […]

Five years of working on the WWW books

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Holy cow! It was five years ago today — Friday, November 5, 2004 — that I wrote the first words of what went on to become my WWW trilogy. Back then, it was only going to be a single book (to be called Webmind). I began writing that first book at a Write-Off writing retreat […]

Getting better

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

In the interview I did recently with the CBC’s Shelagh Rogers, Shelagh and I talked about the difference between Margaret Atwood’s SF and my own. I think we’re getting better over time, and Margaret thinks we’re getting worse. I elaborate on this a lot in Wonder, the third WWW book, which I’m working on right […]

First look at Watch cover

Monday, June 15th, 2009

Click for a larger version.Click again if your browser reduces image to fit your screen.Here’s the first look at the cover for Watch, second volume of my WWW trilogy. This is the American version for Ace Science Fiction; the Canadian version for Penguin Canada will be similar, but will lack the “WWW:” in front of […]

WWW milestones

Saturday, April 11th, 2009

Yesterday, Wake started showing up in Canadian bookstores (and I myself saw the nice display of copies at the Indigo on Yonge Street just north of the 407 in Greater Toronto). And I got to do something that’s very special: I got to autograph the first copy of the finished book. I always annotate that […]

Penguin Canada accepts Watch

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

I have separate editors in New York and Toronto. Ginjer Buchanan, my New York editor at Ace, accepted Watch on Tuesday, March 17, and today Laura Shin, my editor at Penguin Group (Canada), accepted it, too, saying, “Watch is wonderful!” Yay! The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Watch

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

Ginjer Buchanan, my editor at Ace Science Fiction in New York, just emailed me to say she thinks Watch, the second volume of my WWW trilogy, is “even better than Wake.” W00t! As Caitlin woud say, “I am made out of awesome!” :D The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Twentieth anniversary of the World Wide Web idea

Friday, March 13th, 2009

I was talking with my friend Virginia O’Dine just a couple of days ago about coincidences (after she’d watched Supernatural Investigator, which I host on Vision TV; this week’s topic — people who had dreams that seemed to presage the events of 9/11 — we both agreed could be chalked up to coincidences). Well, how’s […]

To serialize a sequel?

Friday, February 27th, 2009

Over in my Yahoo! Groups newsgroup, Martin Bennedik wrote: I read Wake on my phone by downloading the ebook version of Analog from Fictionwise. Not only was the novel excellent, but I found this was a good way to get the book early and in a format which allowed me to take it with me […]

WWW#2: Watch delivered

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

I delivered the manuscript today for Watch, Volume 2 of my WWW trilogy, to Ginjer Buchanan at Ace in New York and Laura Shin at Viking (Penugin Canada) in Toronto. The book will be published in April 2010. This is my 19th novel — a number that frankly astonishes me. :) I’m going to reward […]

Rob reads Chapter 1 of Wake

Saturday, February 7th, 2009

Now available: Robert J. Sawyer reading Chapter 1 of his forthcoming novel Wake as a 14-minute MP3 file: you can listen to it right here. More about Wake is here. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

And speaking of Audible …

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

I just recorded a small portion of the Audible.com multiple-cast unabridged reading of my next novel, Wake. I am the voice in the novel of the “Online Encylopedia of Computing,” and I recorded my parts with my brand-spanking new Audio-Technica AT2020 USB Cardioid Condenser Microphone, which Wired recently recommended, and I picked up new on […]

Wake opening chapters now online

Sunday, January 18th, 2009

There are now pages devoted to my next novel, Wake, on my website at SFwriter.com, including: A master page about the book The opening chapters A techie press release (done for computer-related publications; PDF) Wake will be published in hardcover in April 2009. And you can read all my blog posts about Wake here (including […]

How to tell science fiction from fantasy

Sunday, January 18th, 2009

It’s easy. This is science fiction: And this is fantasy: The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Text from the Wake US dustjacket

Friday, January 16th, 2009

BACK FLAP: Robert J. Sawyer was born in Ottawa and lives just outside of Toronto, Canada. He has won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novel. Visit his Website at www.sfwriter.com. Photo by Carolyn Clink Jacket design by Rita Frangie Jacket photos:“Teenage Girl” Steven Biver/Getty“Light Trails” John Lund/Getty Visit our website at www.penguin.com […]

Wake US dustjacket

Friday, January 16th, 2009

Voilà! My US editor Ginjer Buchanan just sent me the final version of the dustjacket for my novel Wake, which will be released April 7, 2009, in hardcover by Ace Science Fiction in the States. Shown above is the final front cover (slightly revised from what I’d posted before), and if you click on the […]

Wake to be a Main Selection of the SFBC

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

Woot! I’m thrilled to announce that my next novel, Wake, will be a Main Selection of the Science Fiction Book Club! This is my second Main Selection in a row (after Rollback). I’m totally delighted about this. :) The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Caitlin gets a boob job

Monday, January 12th, 2009

My friend Debi Ancel is a librarian in Montreal, and she just forwarded me the Library of Congress catalog information for Wake, my upcoming novel about 15-year-old blind math genius Caitlin Decter. Among the Library of Congress subject headings are “Women mathematicians” and “Implants, Artificial.” Hee hee. (The full list of subject headings: “Blind women,” […]

Analog electronic back issues with Wake

Sunday, January 11th, 2009

Did you miss any of the four installments of my novel Wake as it was serialized recently in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine? The electronic versions of the four issues in question are all still available for a while longer from Fictionwise.com: November 2008 (Part One) December 2008 (Part Two) January-February 2009 (Part Three) […]

The voice of Caitlin

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

Audible.com is doing unabridged recordings of my novels Wake, Watch, and Wonder. Today was the first recording session for Wake, and actress Jessica Almasy, who is voicing Caitlin Decter, reports that it went well. Other voicing is being done by Aze Fellner, who, like me, turns out to be a fan of Julian Jaynes’s The […]

Orion to publish Sawyer in UK and Australia

Monday, January 5th, 2009

British and Australian rights to Robert J. Sawyer‘s new novels Wake, Watch, and Wonder, plus backlist title Flashforward, have gone to Malcolm Edwards at Orion Publishing Group in a handsome deal negotiated by agent Ralph Vicinanza. (Orion publishes most of its SF under the Gollancz imprint; their other SF&F authors include Stephen Baxter, Arthur C. […]

First review of Wake

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

Niteblade News has weighed in with the first review I’ve seen of Wake, volume one of my upcoming WWW trilogy. The very kind review, by Aaron Clifford, calls the book “plausible and touching” (and contains no spoilers). You can read the full review here. Wake will be published in April 2009. (By the way, I […]

Miracle Worker author passes

Friday, November 28th, 2008

Before writing it, when I was pitching my current novel Wake to publishers, I said it was “William Gibson meets William Gibson.” Back then, you see, there were two William Gibsons, and the one who’d been read the most probably isn’t the one you’re thinking of. Yes, indeed, there’s Bill Gibson of Vancouver, British Columbia, […]

Will the real Kuroda please stand up?

Saturday, November 22nd, 2008

Those of you who have been enjoying my new novel Wake as it is being serialized in Analog will have met the character of Dr. Masayuki Kuroda, the information theorist who specializes in how the human retina encodes data; he is, as you will have seen, a major character in the book. And he’s named […]