ROBERT J. SAWYER (1960 – ) A Canadian/American Science Fiction writer living in Ontario. Sawyer is author of more than 20 books, nearly all novels, and all published since 1990. His short fiction has appeared in Analog, Amazing Stories, On Spec, Nature, and numerous anthologies. Sawyer has won dozens of awards including a Nebula for his novel The Terminal Experiment, and a Hugo for his novel Hominids. A Sawyer’s writing is chock full of recurring themes: Uploaded human consciousness, disease, genetics, physics, religion, paleontology (especially regarding dinosaurs and Neanderthals), artificial intelligence, first contact, and most of all science itself. Sawyer’s earth-bound fiction is often set in the near future with fictional scientists working at real scientific institutions (TRIUMF, CERN, ROM, SNO, etc.). His lead characters also follow similar patterns, often being a Canadian scientist with a fatal disease (and/or a recent loss of a family member). Sawyer often also employs a fish out of water technique having Canadian characters in the United States or Americans in Canada (showing the contrast between the two). Another commonality in his fiction is that of mystery – often murder mystery. Sawyer is a frequent guest on Canadian television and radio (even hosting shows on both). Television work includes input on Charlie Jade and an upcoming adaptation of his novel Flashforward. Until recently very few Robert J. Sawyer audiobooks were available. An upcoming radio broadcast reading of Rollback is set to air on CBC Radio One in the Fall of 2009.
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Podcast fiction:
EP078: The Shoulders Of Giants
By Robert J. Sawyer; Read by Stephen Eley
1 MP3 File – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Escape Pod
Podcast: November 2, 2006
The Pioneer Spirit was a colonization ship; it wasn’t intended as a diplomatic vessel. When it had left Earth, it had seemed important to get at least some humans off the mother world. Two small-scale nuclear wars—Nuke I and Nuke II, as the media had dubbed them—had already been fought, one in southern Asia, the other in South America. It appeared to be only a matter of time before Nuke III, and that one might be the big one.
SETI had detected nothing from Tau Ceti, at least not by 2051. But Earth itself had only been broadcasting for a century and a half at that point; Tau Ceti might have had a thriving civilization then that hadn’t yet started using radio. But now it was twelve hundred years later. Who knew how advanced the Tau Cetians might be?
Commercial Audiobooks:
WWW: Wake
By Robert J. Sawyer; Read by Jessica Almasy, Jennifer Van Dyck, A. C. Fellner, Marc Vietor, and Robert J. Sawyer
Audible Download – 12 hours 13 minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: 2009
|READ OUR REVIEW|
Rollback
By Robert J. Sawyer; Read by George Wilson
Audible Download – 11 Hours 16 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible.com / Recorded Books
Published: March 2009 / June 2009
Thirty-eight years ago, Dr. Sarah Halifax earned worldwide fame by deciphering a radio transmission from an unknown intelligence reaching out from deep space. Now 87, Sarah receives news that, at long last, a new signal has been received, and her services are desperately needed once again.
Hominids: The Neanderthal Parallax, Book 1
By Robert J. Sawyer; Read by Jonathan Davis
Audible Download – 11 Hours and 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: April 2008
Neanderthals have developed a radically different civilization on a parallel Earth. A Neanderthal physicist, Ponter Boddit, accidentally passes from his universe into a Canadian underground research facility. Fortunately, a team of human scientists, including expert paleo-anthropologist Mary Vaughan, promptly identifies and warmly receives Ponter. Solving the language problem and much else is a mini-computer, called a Companion, implanted in the brain of every Neanderthal. A computerized guardian spirit, however, doesn’t eliminate cross-cultural confusion; permanent male-female sexuality, rape, and overpopulation are all alien to Ponter. Nor can it help his housemate and fellow scientist back in his world, Adikor Huld, when the authorities charge Adikor with his murder. BONUS AUDIO: Author Robert J. Sawyer explains why Ponter Boddit is his favorite among all the characters he’s created.
Humans: The Neanderthal Parallax, Book 2
By Robert J. Sawyer; Read by Jonathan Davis
Audible Download – 11 Hours 38 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: April 2008
Neanderthal physicist Ponder Boddit brings Canadian geneticist Mary Vaughan back to his world to explore the near-utopian civilization of the Neanderthals. Boddit serves as a Candide figure, the naive visitor whose ignorance about our society makes him a perfect tool to analyze human tendencies toward violence, over-population, and environmental degradation. The Neanderthals have developed a highly artistic, ethical, and scientific culture without ever inventing farming – they’re still hunters and gatherers – and this allows the author to make some interesting and generally unrecognized points about the downside of the discovery of agriculture. BONUS AUDIO: Author Robert J. Sawyer explains why one particular chapter of Humans is his very favorite.
Hybrids: The Neanderthal Parallax, Book 3
By Robert J. Sawyer; Read by Jonathan Davis
Audible Download – 11 Hours and 53 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: April 2008
Scientists (and lovers) Mary Vaughan, who is human, and Ponter Boddit, who is Neanderthal, embark on the harrowing adventure of conceiving a child together. To overcome the genetic barbed wire of mismatched chromosomes, they must use banned technology obtainable only from a Neanderthal scientist living in the northern wilderness.
BONUS AUDIO: Author Robert J. Sawyer reveals the “secret history” of The Neanderthal Parallax trilogy.
Calculating God
By Robert J. Sawyer; Read by Jonathan Davis
Audible Download – 12 hours 4 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: 2008
|READ OUR REVIEW|
Flashforward
By Robert J. Sawyer; Read by Mark Deakins
Audible Download – 10 hours 26 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible.com / Blackstone Audiobooks
Published: 2008
A scientific experiment begins, and as the button is pressed, the unexpected occurs: everyone in the world goes to sleep for a few moments while everyone’s consciousness is catapulted more than twenty years into the future. At the end of those moments, when the world reawakens, all human life is transformed by foreknowledge.
Shed Skin
By Robert J. Sawyer; Read by Stephen Hoye
Audible Download – 46 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible.com / Deuce Audio
Published: 2005
To live forever, you can copy your mind and transfer it to an immortal robotic body. But what happens to your shed skin?
The Terminal Experiment
By Robert J. Sawyer; Read by Paul Hecht
7 Cassettes – 9.25 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Recorded Books
Published: 2003
ISBN: 9781402540165
|READ OUR REVIEW|
Interviews:
Interview with Robert J. Sawyer
Interviewed by Shaun Farrell
2 Parts – [INTERVIEW]
Podcaster: Adventures In Sci Fi Publishing
Podcast: April 2007
A two-part interview with Robert J. Sawyer. About Rollback, S.E.T.I., aliens, and the lengthening human lifespan. Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Interview with Robert J. Sawyer
Interviewed by Peter Anthony Holder
1 |MP3| – [INTERVIEW]
Broadcaster: CJAD / Holder Tonight
Broadcast: April 14, 2007
Talking about Rollback.
Interview with Robert J. Sawyer
Interviewed by Shelagh Rogers
1 |MP3| – [INTERVIEW]
Broadcaster: CBC Radio One / Sounds Like Canada
Broadcast: April 25th, 2007
Talking about Rollback.
Robert J. Sawyer talks about the 2008 Aurora Awards
1 |MP3| – [INTERVIEW]
Podcaster: The HypaSpace podcast (SPACECAST)
Podcast: May 2008
Space: TIS, talks about the Aurora Awards, and talks to Nalo Hopkinson, Robert J. Sawyer, William Shatner, George Takei, Alessandro Julianni, and Robert Charles Wilson in the latest podcast.
Other:
Wake (Chapter 1)
By Robert J. Sawyer; Read by Robert J. Sawyer
1 |MP3| – [EXCERPT]
Provider: SFWriter.com
Provided: February 2009
Big Ideas
A lecture by Robert J. Sawyer
1 |MP3| – Approx. 40 Minutes [LECTURE]
Podcaster: TVO Big Ideas
Podcast: February 2008
Robert J. Sawyer expounds upon Science Fiction, the original Star Trek,Star Wars, Planet Of The Apes and Michael Crichton. “Author Robert J. Sawyer explains how Hollywood’s approach to science fiction, starting with George Lucas’ Star Wars, has dulled the edge that made science fiction such a pertinent film genre. Sawyer dissects the problematic aspects of the original Star Wars film and shows how science fiction books continue to tackle difficult issues while their big screen counterparts take the easy road of big explosions and small ideas.”
Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas
1 |MP3| – [DISCUSSION]
Podcaster: Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas
Podcast: February 2007
The first nove in Robert J. Sawyer’s Quintaglio ascension series, Far Seer, is under scrutiny byThe Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas. The novel is set on an alien planet populated by intelligent dinosaur-like creatures. The “far seer” of the title refers to a telescope and the story parallels the events surrounding Galileo’s discovery of the moons of Jupiter.