Robert J. Sawyer

Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer

Archive for the 'Wake' Category

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 […]

Wow! Wake is a BIG book!

Friday, March 13th, 2009

It’s always an especially satisfying moment when an author adds a new book to his or her brag shelf — and I just did that with my first copy of Wake, and had quite a surprise! It’s bigger (taller and wider) than any previous hardcover by me. My previous novel hardcovers were all 8.5″ by […]

Wake in my hands!

Friday, March 13th, 2009

… and, OMG, is it ever gorgeous. The FedEx guy just delivered a copy of the finished American edition of Wake, my eighteenth novel, courtesy of my editor Ginjer Buchanan at Ace Science Fiction. This is, I think, the best-looking book I’ve ever had (and I’ve had lots of good-looking books). It’s just stunningly beautiful. […]

Wake is "made out of awesome."

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

So says the official review from McNally Robinson, Canada’s second-largest bookstore chain (which also includes the McNally Jackson store in Manhattan). You can read the full review here; the review is by Chadwick Ginther who is in charge of science fiction at McNally Robinson’s flagship store in Winnipeg. I will be signing at the McNally […]

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 […]

Publishers Weekly starred review of Wake online

Friday, February 27th, 2009

Over at Publishers Weekly, you can read all of this week’s reviews, including the full text (no spoilers) of their review of my upcoming Wake. (There are a lot of reviews on that page; do a search on “Sawyer” to find the Wake review.) I notice — cough, cough — that Wake is the only […]

PW starred review for Wake

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

Woot! Woohoo! We just received our first review for my new novel Wake, and it’s a rave! Publishers Weekly has given Wake a “starred review,” their highest distinction: starred reviews denote books of exceptional merit. The review, which appears in the February 23, 2009, edition, says in part: The wildly thought-provoking first installment of Sawyer’s […]

Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my! Trilogies everywhere you look!

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

My friend Melody Friedenthal asked me an intriguing question this morning: At what point in your creative process did you decide that Wake et al., would be a trilogy? And was it the same point for your first trilogy (or 2nd) or was the first one more of the publisher’s choice (as in “this is […]

And over on Facebook …

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

… Jonathan Vos Post just posted this assessment of my latest novel, Wake: What’s not to like? Vivid storytelling with interesting characters, during which we are rocketed through metaphysical exploration of what it is to be conscious (human versus ape hybrid versus web intelligence), lightning flashes illuminate the nature of perception through translucent eyelids and […]

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 […]

Deadlines

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

Well, I didn’t want to have to do it, but it became a necessity: I wrote today to both of my charming, wonderful editors — Ginjer Buchanan in New York and Laura Shin in Toronto — and asked for deadline extensions on Watch and Wonder, the second and third volumes of my WWW trilogy. The […]

Too obscure?

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

Anybody besides me able to tell what I’m riffing on here, in a scene I’m working on for my novel Watch? (“Caitlin” is a character’s name; otherwise, I’m directly quoting something that resonates with the scene I’m writing): His voice was its usual monotone. “Caitlin, if I may …” “If …? Oh!” She got out […]

Fictionwise finally has part one of Wake

Monday, September 8th, 2008

The first of four installments of the full-text serialization of my next novel, Wake, is in the November 2008 issue of Analog, released electronically today (weeks after it came out in hardcopy!). You can get it at Fictionwise here. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Caitlin revealed!

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

On top is the cover for my next novel, Wake, coming in April 2009 from Ace Science Fiction and Penguin Canada. The girl depicted is Caitlin Decter, the novel’s protagonist. On the bottom is a picture of my wife, Carolyn Clink, when she was in Grade 6. I think the resemblance is uncanny. :) And, no, […]

Wake part 1 in Analog out now

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

The November 2008 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact is now on newsstands. It contains the first of four installments of a full-text serialization (not an abridgment) of my 18th novel, Wake — so here’s your chance to be among the first (30,000 or so!) people to read it. :) The rest of the […]

First look at Wake cover

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

Above is the cover for Wake, the first volume of my WWW trilogy, coming from Ace Science Fiction and Penguin Canada on April 7, 2009. Here’s a larger version. I think it’s magnificent. The art and design are by Rita Frangie. The cover copy for the book will read: Caitlin Decter is young, pretty, feisty, […]

Analog teaser for Wake

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

The October 2008 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact is out, and in the “In Times to Come” section at the back, which plugs the following issue, we find this teaser for my next novel, Wake: Next month (our November issue) we begin another mind-stretching serial by Robert J. Sawyer, with a cover by […]