Robert J. Sawyer

Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer

Getting better

by Rob - 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 now. In fact, I was re-reading this bit from that book this evening, in which Caitlin’s mom, the game theorist Dr. Barbara Decter, compares the older founding documents of the United States with the newer ones of the UN:

“When the Founding Fathers said, `We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,’ they still hadn’t expanded that community of moral consideration to include blacks, for instance; Thomas Jefferson held slaves.

“But when the United Nations proclaimed its Universal Declaration of Human Rights, first, they explicitly removed any ambiguity about who was a person, saying, `Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion,’ and so on. And they went on to forbid what the Founding Fathers had seen nothing wrong with: `No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.’

“That’s not mere economics, Caitlin; that’s moral progress, and, despite occasional backsliding, there’s no doubt that our morality hasn’t just changed over time, it’s measurably increased. We treat more people with dignity and as equals than ever before in human history; the progress has been measurable even on time scales as small as decades.”

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CBC’s Shelagh Rogers interviews RJS

by Rob - September 7th, 2009



CBC Radio One’s The Next Chapter, hosted by Shelagh Rogers, interviewed Robert J. Sawyer on Saturday, September 5, about his novel FlashForward, which is the CBC’s Book Club pick this month. You can download the interview here (48-minute MP3 file; Rob comes on at the 20 minute 50 seconds mark, and goes to the 32 minute 30 second mark).

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"Robert J. Sawyer Thinks Scientists are Sexy"

by Rob - September 7th, 2009

That’s title of the first of several short videos produced by the CBC in honour of the selection of my novel FlashForward as the CBC Book Club pick for September 2009. You can watch the video — and get some glimpses of my home — here.

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Canadian Press newswire on the spate of Canadian novels coming to TV this fall

by Rob - September 7th, 2009

… including, of course, FlashForward, based on my novel of the same name. The article is here.

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News from Science Fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer: September 2009

by Rob - September 6th, 2009


My latest email newsletter, sent out today:

Hello, Robert J. Sawyer reader!

Here’s the latest news from Hugo and Nebula Award-winning science-fiction writer Rob Sawyer:

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FLASHFORWARD TV SERIES PREMIERE

The TV series FLASHFORWARD, based on my novel of the same name, premieres in the United States (on ABC) and Canada (on CTV’s A channels) on Thursday, September 24, 2009, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific (7:00 p.m. Central).

More info

UK viewers: watch for it on Five this fall.

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FLASHFORWARD NOVEL REISSUED

My Aurora Award-winning novel FLASHFORWARD has been continuously in print since it was first published in 1999. But Tor Books, New York, just reissued it in both mass-market (regular) and trade (large-format) paperback with new covers to tie in to the ABC TV series of the same name (and the Science Fiction Book Club will be offering it in hardcover shortly).

UK and Australian readers: look for a new edition of FLASHFORWARD from Orion/Gollancz, coming soon.

The new Tor trade paperback:
978-076532413-9

The new Tor mass-market paperback:
978-076536383-1

More about the novel (including the new cover!) and links to online retailers:

More info

FLASHFORWARD is also available for the Kindle and from Audible.com.

“A creative, soul-searching exploration of fate, free will, and the nature of the universe. This first-rate, philosophical journey, a terrific example of idea-driven SF, should have wide appeal.” — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review, denoting a book of exceptional merit)

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CBC BOOK CLUB PICKS FLASHFORWARD

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Book Club pick for September 2009 is FLASHFORWARD by Robert J. Sawyer. You can join in the fun online from anywhere in the world:

More info

A book-club discussion guide for FLASHFORWARD is here:

More info

“Great storytelling. Sawyer’s FLASHFORWARD has well-developed characters that you care about.” — BOSTON GLOBE

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ROLLBACK ON CBC SIRIUS RADIO / PODCASTS

CBC Sirius Satellite Radio’s BETWEEN THE COVERS is broadcasting — and podcasting! — Rob’s Hugo Award-nominated novel ROLLBACK in twenty-five 15-minute installments weekdays from Monday, September 7, to Friday, October 9. Narrator is ALESSANDRO JULIANI, who played Felix Gaeta on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

* Sirius Satellite Radio: channel 137 at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time

* Podcasts will be here:
Podcasts

RSS: RSS

More about ROLLBACK:
More info

“Beyond the SF trappings, ROLLBACK is a story about love and commitment, about humanity at its most basic — a novel to be savoured by science-fiction and mainstream readers alike.” — THE GLOBE AND MAIL

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CALCULATING GOD WINS AUDIE

Audible.com’s unabridged reading of my Hugo Award-nominated novel CALCULATING GOD recently won the Audie Award — the highest honor in the audiobook industry — for best SF/F audiobook of the year:

More info

“Guaranteed to expand the minds of believers and non-believers alike.” — TORONTO STAR

And check out Audible’s brilliant production of my WWW:WAKE — it knocked my socks off!

RJS on Audible.com

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MISSISSAUGA LITERARY FESTIVAL

ROBERT J. SAWYER, KENNETH OPPEL, LINWOOD BARCLAY, and others, at the Living Arts Centre, Sunday, September 13:

More info

Rob’s event is in the Rogers Theatre at 2:15 p.m.

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WATCH THE FLASHFORWARD PREMIERE WITH ROB

If you’ll be in Winnipeg on Thursday, September 24, come watch the first episode as it airs with me at McNally Robinson Pollo Park in a special public viewing sponsored jointly by CTV and Thin Air: Winnipeg International Writers Festival. The evening will begin with a talk by me at 7:30 p.m., followed by a Q&A and book signing after the show is over at 9:00.

More info

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AND SPEAKING OF WINNIPEG …

Hugo winners ROBERT J. SAWYER and ROBERT CHARLES WILSON and Hugo finalist NICK DiCHARIO headline Thin Air: Winnipeg International Writers Festival on Friday, September 25:

More info

And on Wednesday, September 23, at 4:30 p.m., Rob will be giving a “Big Ideas” talk on “Science Fiction as a Mirror for Reality” as part of Thin Air:

More info

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WORD ON THE STREET

Hugo Award-winner ROBERT J. SAWYER and World Fantasy Award nominee TERENCE M. GREEN will be at Word on the Street, Toronto’s open-air book festival, in booth WB17 all day long.

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RAVE REVIEWS FOR WWW:WAKE

WAKE, the first volume in my WWW trilogy, continues to garner rave reviews:

WAKE reviews

WATCH, the second volume, will be published in April 2010.

More about WAKE:

More about WAKE

“Sawyer continues to push the boundaries with his stories of the future made credible. His erudition, eclecticism, and masterly storytelling make WAKE a choice selection.” — LIBRARY JOURNAL

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RJS on the Web:

Website
Blog
Twitter: RobertJSawyer
Facebook
Newsgroup

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Links to online ordering of new editions of FlashForward

by Rob - September 4th, 2009


Whether you want to get the new mass-market or trade paperback edition of my novel FlashForward — basis for the ABC TV series that premieres in 20 days — from Amazon or Barnes and Noble or Borders or McNally Robinson or Chapters or Books-A-Million or a nearby independent, you can easily order copies online through the links at the bottom of this page.

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The Terminal Experiment and Illegal Alien coming back into print

by Rob - September 3rd, 2009


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

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Colombo and Savory edit Tesseracts 14

by Rob - September 2nd, 2009

The editors of Tesseracts 14 will be John Robert Colombo and Brett Savory (Carolyn and I edited Tesseracts 6).

Details are here.

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The Death of Science Fiction?

by Rob - September 2nd, 2009

I was asked to comment on “the death of science fiction” today; here’s what I had to say:

Science fiction isn’t dead; it’s in the witness-protection program, and thriving under a new identity. The term “science fiction” is downplayed by Hollywood and American publishing, so that movies like The Time Travelers Wife, TV shows like my own FlashForward and even Battlestar Galactica, and writers like Michael Crichton and J.D. Robb are all hits but not presented as being science fiction. Even the SciFi Channel is now going under the alias Syfy! Sometimes it makes sorry I got sfwriter.com for my web address …

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FlashForward is the CBC’s September Book Club pick

by Rob - September 2nd, 2009


My Aurora Award-winning novel FlashForward, basis for the upcoming ABC TV series of the same name, is the CBC’s Book Club pick for September 2009. Join the fun all month long here — regardless of where you live in the world.

To help your along, here’s a Book Club discussion guide for FlashForward (spoiler warning — don’t read the questions until after you’ve finished the book!).

Pictured: Robert J. Sawyer and CBC Book Club host Hannah Sung, at Rob’s home in Mississauga.

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New editions of FlashForward

by Rob - August 30th, 2009


My Aurora Award-winning novel FlashForward has been continuously in print from Tor Books, New York, since it was first published in 1999. However, this week two new editions of the book come out to tie-in with the ABC TV series of the same name, which debuts on Thursday, September 24, 2009. The new cover, incorporating the official series logo courtesy of ABC Entertainment, is above. The book is available in both mass-market (regular-sized) paperback and trade (large format) trade paperbback. Woohoo!

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FlashForward promo in Times Square

by Rob - August 30th, 2009

Check out the promo for the TV series based on my novel FlashForward running in New York’s Times Square in this YouTube video courtesty of my friend Lorne Kates.

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Federations review: "strongest story in the book"

by Rob - August 26th, 2009


There’s a lovely review of the anthology Federations edited by John Joseph Adams right here, which says in part:

The strongest story in this anthology is Robert J. Sawyer’s “The Shoulders of the Giants.” It’s a beautiful story. It’s worth the price of admission.

w00t!

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Mississauga News profiles Carolyn and Rob

by Rob - August 24th, 2009


The Mississauga News has a nice profile of writing couple Robert J. Sawyer and Carolyn Clink in the current edition; the online version is here.

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Calgary Herald profile

by Rob - August 20th, 2009


Very nice, thoughtful profile of me on page 1 of the Entertainment section of today’s (20 August 2009) Calgary Herald, the largest-circulation newspaper in the Canadian province of Alberta. The online version is here; the print version includes the above photo and the cover of Wake.

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An interview with … Caitlin Decter!

by Rob - August 19th, 2009


Check it out!

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Wake on the Locus bestsellers list for a second month!

by Rob - August 18th, 2009


W00t! Woohoo! My Wake, first of my WWW trilogy, is on the Locus hardcover bestsellers list for a second consecutive month. It was #2 last month (and the highest-ranked SF, rather than fantasy book); this month it holds on at #5 (and is the second-highest-ranked SF book).

This is my 28th appearance on the Locus bestsellers list.

Also of note is that the beautiful new trade paperback of Calculating God is the new “runner-up” (that is, 6th place) title on the trade-paperback bestsellers list (it hit #1 on the Locus list when it first came out in mass-market paperback in 2000). Go me! :) [Yes, I’ve been writing too much Caitlin of late … ;) ]

The full list is here (data period May 2009, reported in the August 2009 issue).

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The voice of Caitlin

by Rob - August 18th, 2009


Carolyn and I just finished listening to Audible.com’s unabridged production of my novel Wake. We were blown away!

Audible used four narrators: Jessica Almasy (as Caitlin Decter), Jennifer Van Dyck (as Shoshana Glick), A.C. Fellner (as Sinanthropus), and Marc Vietor (as Phantom) (plus myself, reading the entries attributed to The Online Encyclopedia of Computing; I also read an exclusive introduction I wrote for the audiobook).

It’s a magnificent production, and all of the narrators are fabulous — and I now hear Jessica Almasy’s voice in my head when writing Caitlin in Wonder, the third book in the series, which I’m working on now (that’s Jessica pictured above).

A truly amazing production — and I’d say that even if it wasn’t of my work; I’m a big consumer of audibooks (and have been an Audible.com subscriber since March 2001), and I can honestly say this is one of the best productions I’ve ever heard; I actually had tears in my eyes listening to the final scene, they did it so well.

You can get the Audible.com production of WWW:WAKE, and other audio books by me (including FlashForward and Audible’s production of Calculating God, which won this year’s Audie Award for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Audio Book of the Year), right here.

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Fair Warning!

by Rob - August 17th, 2009


After a Herculean effort, I am done. I critiqued 29 manuscripts when I was writer-in-residence at the Canadian Light Source, and I’ve just finished going through a dozen more (most of them 8,000 words long) for the writers’ workshop I’m running staring on Wednesday in Calgary.

I’ve written the last book introduction I was committed to write (for Campus Chills, edited by Mark Leslie); I’ve blurbed the last book I had to blurb (indeed, I haven’t been blurbing at all this year, but made an exception for a special case). I’ve written all the letters of reference I had to write, and all the convention biographies I needed to do.

I’ve written the catalogue copy and cover copy for the next title I’m involved with coming from Red Deer Press.

I’ve answered every by-email interview question, caught up on my mail, etc. etc. etc.

My plate is clean, except for:

1) Finishing my novel Wonder, which is due at my publishers at the end of April 2010, and

2) Writing my script for FlashForward (which has its season finale the day before my novel deadline).

Neither of those are small tasks; in fact, they’re gigantic. And I’m not taking on anything else until they’re done. The next eight months are mine, for my writing.

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You can’t copyright ideas but …

by Rob - August 17th, 2009

So a nice fellow wrote me, very politely, to say he had been working on a book and only recently was it pointed out to him that one of the core concepts was very similiar to something I’d written about, and would I sign off on him being able to continue with his project? My response:

You’re asking for blanket permission to do something similar to something that I created; you don’t require my permission to do your own thing, but I’m really not in a position to say no matter how close you come to what I did I’m not going to object. Now that you’re conscious of the antecedent for your idea, it’s incumbent on you to make it as freshly and distinctly your own as possible — just as I’ve done with things in my own work that are inspired by other people’s writings. :)

And I wished him luck.

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My Worldcon highlight: John Robert Colombo

by Rob - August 17th, 2009


Anticipation, the Montreal World Science Fiction Convention, had John Robert Colombo as keynote speaker for its academic track. I introduced him, and he gave an amazing speech. My introductory remarks:

It is my staggering privilege and honour to introduced to you John Robert Colombo, the keynote speaker here at the Montreal World Science Fiction Convention’s academic track.

John is a towering presence in Canadian letters, a member of the Order of Canada — Canada’s equivalent of knighthood — and is Canada’s premier folklorist and collector and compiler of Canadiana, as well as a significant poet, broadcaster, editor, and publisher.

Although he has 200 books to his credit, it is his six pioneering works in the field of Canadian speculative fiction that we celebrate this weekend, most significantly his massive historical retrospective Other Canadas, published in 1979 — thirty years ago — the first-ever anthology of Canadian science fiction and fantasy, a beautiful hardcover gathering 21 fiction pieces and 28 poems drawn from 400 years of Canadian history.

Prior to that book, no one had made the case that there was such a thing as Canadian science fiction and fantasy: it was John who proved to Canada’s publishers, editors, academics, writers, and readers that the field actually existed. When my wife and I edited Tesseracts 6, we dedicated the book thus:

“To John Robert Colombo, whose pioneering Other Canadas blazed the trail for the all the Canadian science fiction and fantasy anthologists who followed.”

Colombo’s other significant genre books include:

  • Mostly Monsters (1977), a collection of “found poetry” — prose text that Colombo has rearranged as verse, gathered mostly from SF sources;
  • Friendly Aliens (1981), a collection of thirteen SF stories by foreign authors set in Canada;
  • Years of Light: A Celebration of Leslie A. Croutch (1982), a biography of Canadian fanzine publisher Croutch (1915-1969), as well as a general look at SF fandom in Canada; and
  • Worlds in Small (1992), an anthology of stories of fifty words or less, most of which are SF.

He has also published two significant genre bibliographies.

And on a personal note, he was the first member of the Canadian literary establishment to take my own contributions to science fiction seriously; in 1982, he published new stories by myself and two other emerging writers: Andrew Weiner and Terence M. Green in Leisure Ways, the magazine of the Canadian Automobile Association.

John is my friend, my mentor, and my hero, and it is with great joy that I present him today to you, Canada’s master gatherer — and Canada’s master catalyst for the fields of fantastic literature.

Photo: Robert J. Sawyer and John Robert Colombo at Anticipation; photo by C. Mak.

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Thank you, Liana K!

by Rob - August 17th, 2009


I sent this note directly to the wonderful Liana Kerzner, who organized and hosted the Aurora Awards ceremony at the Montreal Worldcon earlier this month, but I’d like to share it publicly here as well:

Dear Liana,

You did a magnificent job. You were right, and I was wrong: the whole thing came off beautifully, despite the time constraints. Please accept my apology. I had a fabulous time, and was very, very impressed.

Congratulations!

All best wishes.

Rob

And, of course, let me add my congratulations to all the winners!

Pictured: Liana K and Robert J. Sawyer at San Diego Comic-Con 2008.

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Speaking to the Hansard Association of Canada

by Rob - August 13th, 2009


My keynote address today for the Hansard Association of Canada, given on the floor of the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly in Regina (pictured above), was very well received.

Indeed, I freely confess to being mightily inspired by getting to speak in the same place that giants like Tommy Douglas had spoken in (for my non-Canadian readers, and apropos of the current debate in the US, Douglas was the man named “the Greatest Canadian” of all time by a cross-country poll conducted by the CBC; he was the architect of our health-care system).

I was introduced in the coolest possible way: by the Executive Director of the Hansard Association of Canada reading to the assembly from Canada’s Hansard record of the House of Commons in Ottawa, on the occasion of me winning the Hugo Award for Best Novel of the Year in 2003; Ottawa Member of Parliament Mauril Bélanger had risen in the House back then to make note of that fact.

My talk was wide-ranging, and everyone seemed to love it; I’m feeling very pumped as I wait here at the Regina airport for my flight home.

I had a lot of fun when some tourists were brought into the observation gallery, looking down on the chamber floor; of course, they had no idea who I was but I could conceivably have been an important government official, and so I interrupted my speech to say, “… and so I announce that Canada has gone to war with the United States.” Brought the House down (so to speak). ;)

On a more serious note, I observed:

“The respective legislatures that you each work in are engines of change, the places where Canada has always embarked on new directions. You’ve been witnesses to that — the official witnesses, in fact. It’s what makes the House of Commons or the Senate or a provincial chamber such as this one so fascinating a place: the heady combination of history and tradition with incisive debate, bold policy-making, and the taking of giant leaps forward.” — Robert J. Sawyer, 13 August 2009

Information on me as a speaker is here.

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Anatomy of RJS

by Rob - August 13th, 2009


I visited Toronto’s Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy on Tuesday, and had a look at the expensive but comprehensive standard reference work Anatomy of Wonder: A Critical Guide to Science Fiction, edited by Neil Barron. I own an old edition from the 1980s, but the Merril had the most recent one, the Fifth, from 2004.

The book contains hundreds of capsule reviews, and a list of the field’s “Best Books.” Four of my titles were reviewed (which is a lot; most authors are represented by only one or two works, if at all), and two of the reviews were starred (meaning, in the reviewer’s opinion, they belonged on the list of the Best Books); the reviews of my work were all by academic Michael Levy, past president of the Science Fiction Research Association.

A blue-ribbon panel of the top critics in the science-fiction field were invited to concur or disagree with the principal reviews. That panel included John Clute (Hugo-winning co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction), Don D’Ammassa (long-time book reviewer for Science Fiction Chronicle), James Gunn (director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas), and David G. Hartwell (co-editor of The New York Review of Science Fiction).

Here are excerpts from the reviews by Michael Levy of my novels (the entries in the actual book are longer, and contain plot synopses):

Calculating God
Sawyer does a fine job of developing both his human and alien protagonists. This is an unusually thoughtful novel, which finished second for the Hugo Award and features serious discussion of issues not often considered in science fiction. Compare Blish’s A Case of Conscience. [And Calculating God was named to the “Best Books” list by David G. Hartwell.]

Factoring Humanity
Sawyer’s novel differs from most tales of first contact in that it centers on important, but small-scale effects such an event might have on individual human beings. Compare Sagan’s Contact.

Hominids * [starred review]
Sawyer does a brilliant job of highlighting the differences between human and Neanderthal society. Later, equally well-done volumes in the series are Humans and Hybrids. [Hominids was also named a “Best Book” by both David G. Hartwell and John Clute, and Clute added “and sequels,” meaning that in his view Humans and Hybrids qualify as “Best Books,” too.]

The Terminal Experiment * [starred review]
[A] well-done thriller. More-action oriented than most of his later work, this novel nonetheless features Sawyer’s trademark interest in the thoughtful extrapolation of important ideas. Compare Cadigan’s Synners. [Also named a “Best Book” by John Clute, Don D’Ammassa, and James Gunn.]

In total, that puts all of these on the “Best Books” list: Calculating God, Hominids, Humans, Hybrids, and The Terminal Experiment. Needless to say, I’m delighted.

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The view from Sunset Boulevard

by Rob - August 13th, 2009


Courtesy of my Hollywood agent Vince Gerardis of Created By, a view today down Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. How cool is that?

Pictured: Giant billboard for FlashForward covering the side of a ten-story building.

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Ottawa Citizen blogs Worldcon

by Rob - August 12th, 2009

Check it out: The Ottawa Citizen — the largest circulation newspaper in Canada’s capital city — sent a reporter named Kate Heartfield to the Montreal Worldcon, and she blogs about it here in an entry entitled “Gaiman, Krugman, Sawyer and Ottawa writers at the Auroras.”

Included in the blog post: Photo of Ottawa writers Hayden Trenholm and Peter Atwood, plug for the new books by Hayden and Matthew Johnson from Bundoran Press, and, I must say, a super nice concluding paragraph:

Then we trooped over to a launch party for Trenholm’s book Steel Whispers, and for a book called Fall from Earth by another very nice Ottawa writer (they’re everywhere!) named Matthew Johnson. Both were published by Bundoran Press. Robert Sawyer was at the party (and was a presenter and nominee at the Auroras). It seems like everywhere I go, people are talking about what an incredible friend Sawyer is to young SF writers, how much he gives back to the community. And from what I saw from the fringes of the party, he’s a friendly, humble guy who seemed to always have his attention on someone else’s needs, whether it was lugging a box of books for a younger writer or giving a big hug to a former student.

Blush. The full blog post is here.

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Canadian booktour for Watch starting to shape up

by Rob - August 12th, 2009


Had a fabulous meeting with Adrienne Kerr, my new editor at Penguin Canada, yesterday, followed by an amazing meeting with the whole marketing team there.

We’re definitely going to have a cross-Canada book tour for Watch next spring. Anchor points will include Ad Astra in Toronto (at which I’m guest of honour); Keycon in Winnipeg (which will be the Canadian National Science Fiction Convention next year, and at which, fandom willing, perhaps Wake will be an Aurora finalist), plus Halifax (which I missed — except for a radio interview at the CBC studios there — last time).

Other cities will almost certainly include Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, plus more of Southwestern Ontario, which got short-shrift last time.

(That’s the US cover above; the Canadian one will lack the “WWW:” prefix and have a different quote.)

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Let Me Help

by Rob - August 12th, 2009

“‘Let me help.’ A hundred years or so from now, I believe, a famous novelist will write a classic using that theme. He’ll recommend those three words even over ‘I love you.'” — James T. Kirk, “The City on the Edge of Forever”

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National Post calls FlashForward a "tectonic shift"

by Rob - August 11th, 2009


Canada’s National Post — a major daily newspaper — today reported on the pilot for FlashForward, saying this:

Every so often, a new TV show comes along that’s so eye-filling, so visually startling and so emotionally gripping that it feels like a tectonic shift may be about to occur in the popular culture.

ABC saved the best for last, unveiling its pilot episode of the secretive, big-budget futuristic thriller FlashForward, based on the novel by Canadian Robert J. Sawyer.

In an age when broadcast TV faces across-the-board cost-cutting and scaled-down ambitions, FlashForward represents a throwback to an earlier age. Not since the pilot episode of Lost has a single hour of network TV looked — or felt — more like a feature film.

FlashForward, about a two-minute, 17-second blackout that affects every person on Earth, is full of suspense and unanswered questions. Based on its initial screening, though, it’s also full of genuine, human emotion.

FlashForward is more than just a futuristic What If’ tale. In a notably buzz-free fall season, it’s a reminder of just how powerful the medium of TV can be, how it can move a mass audience to tears, laughter and excitement by turns.

FlashForward is, quite simply, the most eye-filling, heart-wrenching pilot episode of a new network drama series since Lost — and it gives us all hope that this may not be such a bad fall TV season after all.

Who are we to argue? You can read the full article here.

[Update: it also appeared on Tuesday, August 11, 2009, in The Montreal Gazette: you can read that version here.]

Photo: Robert J. Sawyer, author of the novel FlashForward, flanked by the writers of the pilot script based on his book: David S. Goyer on the left, and Brannon Braga on the right.

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Distant Early Warnings #1 Saskatoon bestseller

by Rob - August 8th, 2009

… on the McNally Robinson Saskatoon trade-paperback bestsellers list and Calculating God is #10 on the trade list.

Meanwhile, Wake is #10 on the hardcover list, and Flash Forward is #5 on the mass-market list. Great way to end my residency at the Canadian Light Source!

Current McNally Robinson Saskatoon trade-paperback bestsellers’ list:

1. Distant Early Warnings
By Robert J. Ed Sawyer

2. My Stroke Of Insight
By Jill Bolte Taylor

3. The Book of Negroes
By Laurence Hill

4. Waiter Rant
By Dublanica Steve

5. The Gargoyle
By Andrew Davidson

6. Water for Elephants
By Sara Gruen

7. Secret Lives Of Sargeant John Wilson
By Lois Simmie

8. 1434
By Gavin Menzies

9. Our Towns: Saskatchewan Communities from Abbey to Zenon Park
By David Mclennan

10. Calculating God
By Robert J. Sawyer

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