Everything about Robert J Sawyer totally explained
Robert J. Sawyer is a
Canadian hard
science fiction writer, born in
Ottawa in 1960 and now resident in
Mississauga. He has published 17 novels, and his short fiction has appeared in
Analog Science Fiction and Fact,
Amazing Stories,
On Spec,
Nature, and numerous anthologies.
Awards and Honors
Robert James Sawyer has won forty-one national and international awards for his fiction, most prominently the
1995 Nebula Award for his novel
The Terminal Experiment; the
2003 Hugo Award for his novel
Hominids, first volume of his
Neanderthal Parallax trilogy; and the 2006
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for his novel
Mindscan. He has had two additional Nebula nominations, ten additional Hugo nominations, and two additional Campbell Memorial Award nominations.
His books have appeared on the major top-ten national mainstream bestsellers' lists in Canada, as published by
The Globe and Mail newspaper and
Maclean's magazine, and they've reached number one on the bestsellers' list published by
Locus, the trade-journal of the SF field. Translated editions have appeared in Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, and Spanish, and he's won major SF awards in Canada, China, France, Japan, Spain, and the United States.
In 2002, Sawyer received Ryerson University's Alumni Award of Distinction in honor of his international success as a science fiction writer (Sawyer graduated from Ryerson in 1982 with a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Radio and Television Arts). On June 2, 2007, Sawyer received an honorary doctorate (Doctor of Letters,
honoris causa) from
Laurentian University in
Sudbury,
Ontario.
Critical Studies
Critical studies and scholarly reviews of Sawyer's work have appeared in
The Gospel According to Science Fiction by Gabriel McKee; in
Worlds of Wonder: Readings in Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature edited by Jean-Francois Leroux and Camille R. La Bossiere; in
The Everyday Fantasic: Essays on Science Fiction and Human Being edited by Michael Berman; in
The New York Review of Science Fiction; in the
SFRA Review; in a scholarly afterword by Valerie Broege in Sawyer's own essay collection
Relativity; and even in such publications as
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
His fiction has received starred reviews (denoting "books of exceptional merit") in
Publishers Weekly,
Library Journal,
Booklist,
Quill & Quire,
Kliatt, and
Anatomy of Wonder: A Critical Guide to Science Fiction, Fifth Edition, by Neil Barron.
Conference papers about Sawyer's work include "The Intimately Human and the Grandly Cosmic: Humor and the Sublime in the Works of Robert J. Sawyer," by
Fiona Kelleghan, presented at the 29th annual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando, Florida, March 2008, and "The Science and Religion Dialogue in the Science Fiction of Robert J. Sawyer," by Valerie Broege, presented at The Uses of the Science Fiction Genre: An Interdisciplinary Symposium,
Brock University, October 2005.
Sawyer is profiled in
The Canadian Encyclopedia,
Canadian Who's Who,
Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada,
The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature,
Contemporary Authors volume 212,
Something About the Author volume 81,
St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers, and
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. The hour-long documentary
In the Mind of Robert J. Sawyer premiered on Canadian television on January 8, 2003, and has been shown numerous times since on various channels, including Space: The Imagination Station, for which Sawyer is a frequent commentator.
Style and Themes
Sawyer's style is simple, with clear prose, near the mode of
Isaac Asimov. He also has a tendency to include pop-culture references in his novels (his fondness for the original and
Planet of the Apes is impossible to miss), and he's unusual even among Canadian SF writers for the blatantly Canadian settings and concerns addressed in his novels, all of which are issued by New York houses.
Sawyer's politics are often described as liberal, even by Canadian standards (although he contributed a
Hugo Award-nominated story called "The Hand You're Dealt" to the Libertarian SF anthology
Free Space, and another called "The Right's Tough" to the
Prometheus Award-winning Libertarian SF anthology
Visions of Liberty). He holds citizenship in both Canada and the United States, and has been known to criticize the politics of both countries. He often has American characters visiting Canada (such as Karen Bessarian in
Mindscan) or Canadian characters visiting the U.S. (such as Pierre Tardivel in
Frameshift and Mary Vaughan in
Humans and
Hybrids) as a way of comparing and contrasting the perceived values of the two countries.
Sawyer's work frequently explores the intersection between science and religion, with
rationalism always winning out over
mysticism (see especially
Far-Seer,
The Terminal Experiment,
Calculating God, and the three volumes of the
Neanderthal Parallax [
Hominids,
Humans, and
Hybrids], plus the short story "The Abdication of Pope Mary III," originally published in
Nature, July 6, 2000). He also has a great fondness for paleontology, as evidenced in his
Quintaglio Ascension trilogy (
Far-Seer,
Fossil Hunter, and
Foreigner), about an alien world to which dinosaurs from Earth were transplanted, and his time-travel novel
End of an Era. In addition, the main character of
Calculating God is a paleontologist, and the Neanderthal Parallax novels deal with an alternate version of Earth where Neanderthals didn't become extinct.
He often explores the notion of copied or uploaded human consciousness, most fully in his novel
Mindscan, but also in
Golden Fleece and
The Terminal Experiment, plus the Hugo-, Nebula-, and Aurora-award-nominated novella "Identity Theft," its sequel the Aurora-winning short story "Biding Time," and the Hugo- and Aurora-award-nominated short story "Shed Skin." His interest in
quantum physics, and especially
quantum computing, inform the short stories "You See But You Do Not Observe" (a
Sherlock Holmes pastiche) and "Iterations," and the novels
Factoring Humanity and
Hominids.
SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, plays a role in the plots of
Golden Fleece,
Factoring Humanity,
Mindscan,
Rollback, the novelette "Ineluctable," and the short stories "You See But You Do Not Observe" and "Flashes."
Sawyer gives cosmology a thorough workout in his far-future
Starplex. Real-life science institutions are often used as settings by Sawyer, including
TRIUMF in
End of an Era,
CERN in
Flashforward, the
Royal Ontario Museum in
Calculating God, the
Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in
Hominids and its sequels, and the
Arecibo Observatory in
Rollback.
Another Sawyer hallmark is the mortally ill main character. Pierre Tardivel in
Frameshift suffers from
Huntington's disease, Thomas Jericho in
Calculating God has lung cancer, and Jacob Sullivan in
Mindscan has an
arteriovenous malformation in his brain; one of the main characters in
Rollback vividly suffers from that most fatal illness of all, old age. Sawyer nonetheless is known for tales that end on an upbeat, and even transcendent, note.
SF/Mystery Crossovers
Sawyer's work often crosses over from science fiction to mystery; he won both Canada's top SF award (the
Aurora Award) and its top mystery-fiction award (the
Arthur Ellis Award) for his 1993 short story "Just Like Old Times."
Illegal Alien is a courtroom drama with an extraterrestrial defendant;
Hominids puts one Neanderthal on trial by his peers for the apparent murder of another Neanderthal;
Mindscan has the rights of uploaded consciousnesses explored in a Michigan probate court; and
Golden Fleece,
Fossil Hunter,
The Terminal Experiment,
Frameshift, and
Flashforward are all, in part, murder mysteries. Of Sawyer's shorter SF works, the novella "Identity Theft" and the short stories "Biding Time," "Flashes," "Iterations," "Shed Skin," "The Stanley Cup Caper," "You See But You Do Not Observe," and the aforementioned "Just Like Old Times" are all also crime or mystery fiction.
Other Activities
In addition to his own writing, Sawyer edits the
Robert J. Sawyer Books
science-fiction imprint for Red Deer Press, part of Canadian publisher Fitzhenry & Whiteside; contributes to
The New York Review of Science Fiction; is The Canadian Encyclopedia's authority on science fiction; and is a judge for L. Ron Hubbard's
Writers of the Future contest.
Sawyer wrote the original series bible for
Charlie Jade, an hour-long science-fiction TV series that first aired in 2005-2006, and he did conceptual work in 2003 for reviving
Robotech. He has also written and narrated documentaries about science fiction for
CBC Radio's
Ideas series. He provided analysis of the British science fiction series
Doctor Who for the
CBC's online documentary
The Planet of the Doctor, frequently comments on science fiction movies for
TVOntario's
Saturday Night at the Movies, and co-edited an essay collection in honor of the fortieth anniversary of
Star Trek with
David Gerrold, entitled
Boarding the Enterprise.
Sawyer has taught science-fiction writing at the
University of Toronto,
Ryerson University,
Humber College, and the
Banff Centre. In 2000, he served as Writer-in-Residence at the
Richmond Hill, Ontario, Public Library. In 2003, he was Writer-in-Residence at the Toronto Public Library's Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy (the first person to hold this post since
Judith Merril herself in 1987). In 2006, he was Writer-in-Residence at the
Odyssey Writing Workshop. Also in 2006, he was the Edna Staebler Writer-in-Residence at the Kitchener Public Library in the
Region of Waterloo, Ontario, following on the Region of Waterloo's choice of Sawyer's
Hominids as the "One Book, One Community" title that all 490,000 residents were encouraged to read in 2005.
Sawyer is a frequent keynote speaker about technology topics, and has served as a consultant to Canada's Federal Department of Justice on the shape future genetics laws should take.
He has long been an advocate of Canadian science fiction. He lobbied hard for the creation of the Canadian Region of the
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The Canadian Region was established in 1992, and Sawyer served for three years on SFWA's Board of Directors as the first Canadian Regional Director (1992-1995). He also edited the newsletter of the Canadian Region, called
Alouette in honor of Canada's first satellite; the newsletter was nominated for an
Aurora Award for best
fanzine.
In
1998, Sawyer was elected president of SFWA on a platform that promised a referendum on various contentious issues, including periodic membership requalification and the creation of a
Nebula Award for best script; he won, defeating the next-closest candidate, past-SFWA-president
Norman Spinrad, by a 3:2 margin. However, Sawyer's actual time in office was marked by considerable opposition to membership requalification and negative reaction to his dismissing, with the majority support of the Board of Directors, one paid SFWA worker and one volunteer. He resigned after completing half of his one-year term, and was automatically succeeded by then-incumbent vice-president
Paul Levinson. Prior to resigning, Sawyer's promised referendum was held, resulting in significant changes to SFWA's bylaws and procedures, most notably allowing appropriate non-North American sales to count as membership credentials, allowing appropriate electronic sales to count as membership credentials, and creating a
Nebula Award for best script.
Sawyer has been active in other writers' organizations, including the
Crime Writers of Canada and
The Writers' Union of Canada (for which he's served on the membership committee), and he's a member of the Writers Guild of Canada and the Horror Writers Association.
Current Project
Sawyer's current project, under contract to Penguin USA's Ace Science Fiction imprint and Penguin Canada, is a trio of novels dealing with the notion of a self-aware World Wide Web; the individual volumes have the working titles of
Wake,
Watch, and
Wonder, making this the
WWW trilogy.
Bibliography
- Golden Fleece (Warner Books/Questar, 1990)
- The Quintaglio Ascension trilogy:
- End of an Era (Ace, 1994)
- The Terminal Experiment - Serialized as Hobson's Choice in Analog Science Fiction (HarperPrism, 1995)
- Starplex - Serialized in Analog Science Fiction (Ace, 1996)
- Frameshift (Tor, 1997)
- Illegal Alien (Ace, 1997)
- Factoring Humanity (Tor, 1998)
- Flashforward (Tor, 1999)
- Calculating God (Tor, 2000)
- Iterations - Short stories (Quarry Press, 2002)
- The Neanderthal Parallax trilogy:
- Relativity (ISFiC Press, 2004)
- Mindscan (Tor, 2005)
- Rollback - Serialized in Analog Science Fiction (Tor, 2007)
- Identity Theft and Other Stories (Red Deer Press, 2008)
- The WWW trilogy:
- Wake (Ace USA and Penguin Canada, forthcoming)
- Watch (Ace USA and Penguin Canada, forthcoming)
- Wonder (Ace USA and Penguin Canada, forthcoming)
Awards Details
Awards for Sawyer's work include:
1991 Aurora Award for Best Long Work in English, for Golden Fleece
1992 Homer Award for Best Novel, for Far-Seer
1993 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Story, for Just Like Old Times
1993 Homer Award for Best Novel, for Fossil Hunter
1995 Le Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire for Best Foreign Short Story, "You See But You Do Not Observe"
1995 Nebula Award for Best Novel, for The Terminal Experiment
1995 Aurora Award for Best Long Work in English, for The Terminal Experiment
1996 Seiun Award for Best Foreign Novel, for End of an Era
1996 Aurora Award for Best Long Work in English, for Starplex
1997 Science Fiction Chronicle Reader Award for Best Short Story, for "The Hand You're Dealt"
1999 Aurora Award for Best Long Work in English, for Flashforward
2000 Seiun Award for Best Foreign Novel, for Frameshift
2002 Seiun Award for Best Foreign Novel, for Illegal Alien
2003 Hugo Award for Best Novel, for Hominids
2005 Analog Analytical Laboratory Award for Best Short Story, for "Shed Skin"
2005 Aurora Award for Best Work in English (Other) for Relativity
2006 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, for Mindscan
2007 Toronto Public Library Celebrates Reading Award
2007 Galaxy Award (China) for "Most Popular Foreign Author"
2007 Aurora Award for Best Short Work in English, for "Biding Time"Further Information
Get more info on 'Robert J Sawyer'.
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