Sawyer, Robert J. Books

Flashforward

Robert J. Sawyer

Amazon Price: $6.99 List Price: $6.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Tor Science Fiction Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $3.16

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Sawyer, Robert J.
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> General
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 72 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

What would you do if you got a glimpse of your own personal future and it looked bleak? Try to change things, or accept that the future is unchangeable and make the best of it? In Flashforward, Nobel-hungry physicists conducting an unimaginably high-energy experiment accidentally induce a global consciousness shift. In an instant, everyone on Earth is "flashed forward" 21 years, experiencing several minutes of the future. But while everyone is, literally, out of their minds, their bodies drop unconscious; when the world reawakens, car wrecks, botched surgeries, falls, and other mishaps add up to massive death and destruction.

Slowly, as recovery efforts continue, people realize that during the Flashforward (as it comes to be called) they experienced a vision of the future. The range of visions is astounding--those who would be asleep in the future saw psychedelic dream landscapes, while others saw nothing at all (presumably they'd be dead). But those who saw everyday life 20 years hence have to come to grips with evidence of dreams forsaken (or realized). Soon, the physicists who caused the Flashforward are struggling to help the world decide whether the future is changeable--and whether the experiment is worth repeating. Robert J. Sawyer has captured a truly compelling idea with Flashforward, and he fully explores what such an event might mean to humanity. Fans will find this to be his best work to date, although the ending seems rushed after a detailed buildup. --Therese Littleton

Rollback

Robert J. Sawyer

Amazon Price: $6.99 List Price: $6.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Tor Science Fiction Amazon Marketplace: 44 new & used starting at $2.08

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General AAS
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Sawyer, Robert J.

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Why so anti-American? 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 7 people found this review helpful.

While the story starts with an interesting twist on what aliens would actually send in a transmission, the author has a very annoying habit of American bashing that distracts from whatever point he is trying to make. When Sawyer talks about walking on the moon it is an achievement all mankind should be proud of, but mention health care and it is the failings of American medicine that are discussed. While this bias was not central to the story, it was annoying enough that I didn't bother to finish the book.

Of course there is undoubtedly a market for American bashing so if you are looking for something that sticks its nose up at the "Land of the free and the home of the brave" this book might be for you.

Editorial Review:

Dr. Sarah Halifax decoded the first-ever radio transmission received from aliens. Thirty-eight years later, a second message is received and Sarah, now 87, may hold the key to deciphering this one, too . . . if she lives long enough.

A wealthy industrialist offers to pay for Sarah to have a rollback—a hugely expensive experimental rejuvenation procedure. She accepts on condition that Don, her husband of sixty years, gets a rollback, too. The process works for Don, making him physically twenty-five again. But in a tragic twist, the rollback fails for Sarah, leaving her in her eighties.

While Don tries to deal with his newfound youth and the suddenly vast age gap between him and his wife, Sarah struggles to do again what she’d done once before: figure out what a signal from the stars contains.

Calculating God

Robert J. Sawyer

Amazon Price: $6.99 List Price: $6.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Tor Science Fiction Amazon Marketplace: 71 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Sawyer, Robert J.
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> Space Opera
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 153 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Creationists rarely find sympathy in the ranks of science fiction authors--or fans, for that matter. And while Robert J. Sawyer doesn't exactly make peace with evangelicals on the issue, Calculating God has to be one of the more thoughtful and sympathetic SF portrayals you'll find of religion and intelligent design. But that should come as no surprise from this crafty Canadian: in the Nebula Award-winning Terminal Experiment, Sawyer speculated on what would happen if hard evidence were ever found for the human soul; in Calculating God, he turns science on its head again when earth is invaded by theists from outer space.

The book starts out like the setup for some punny science fiction joke: An alien walks into a museum and asks if he can see a paleontologist. But the arachnid ET hasn't come aboard a rowboat with the Pope and Stephen Hawking (although His Holiness does request an audience later). Landing at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the spacefarer (named Hollus) asks to compare notes on mass extinctions with resident dino-scientist Thomas Jericho. A shocked Jericho finds that not only does life exist on other planets, but that every civilization in the galaxy has experienced extinction events at precisely the same time. Armed with that disconcerting information (and a little help from a grand unifying theory), the alien informs Jericho, almost dismissively, that "the primary goal of modern science is to discover why God has behaved as he has and to determine his methods."

Inventive, fast-paced, and alternately funny and touching, Calculating God sneaks in a well-researched survey of evolution science, exobiology, and philosophy amidst the banter between Hollus and Jericho. But the book also proves to be very moving and character-driven SF, as Jericho--in the face of Hollus's convincing arguments--grapples with his own bitter reasons for not believing in God. --Paul Hughes

Hominids (Neanderthal Parallax)

Robert J. Sawyer

Amazon Price: $7.99 List Price: $7.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Tor Science Fiction Amazon Marketplace: 88 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Sawyer, Robert J.
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> Alternate History
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 91 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Hominids examines two unique species of people. We are one of those species; the other is the Neanderthals of a parallel world where they became the dominant intelligence. The Neanderthal civilization has reached heights of culture and science comparable to our own, but with radically different history, society and philosophy.

Ponter Boddit, a Neanderthal physicist, accidentally pierces the barrier between worlds and is transferred to our universe. Almost immediately recognized as a Neanderthal, but only much later as a scientist, he is quarantined and studied, alone and bewildered, a stranger in a strange land. But Ponter is also befriended—by a doctor and a physicist who share his questing intelligence, and especially by Canadian geneticist Mary Vaughan, a woman with whom he develops a special rapport.

Ponter’s partner, Adikor Huld, finds himself with a messy lab, a missing body, suspicious people all around and an explosive murder trial. How can he possibly prove his innocence when he has no idea what actually happened to Ponter?

The Man Who Folded Himself

David Gerrold

Amazon Price: $11.16 List Price: $13.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Benbella Books Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $7.94

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( G ) -> Gerrold, David
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Sawyer, Robert J.
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> Adventure

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 53 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A Book For All Time 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

The Man Who Folded Himself is a good book. It's not your standard time-traveling tale. Don't expect Marty-and-Doc-like adventures in the Old West or zooming back to the time when your parents were dating. Don't expect the hero to be chased by allosaurs or Huns or anything like that. This is a tale that focuses on the psychological effects and philosophical questions caused by time-travel (don't let that intimidate you). It's thus a good read: original and thoughtful, and avoids all of the clichés and pitfalls of the genre. Have an open mind and you'll have fun.

Editorial Review:

This classic work of science fiction is widely considered to be the ultimate time-travel novel. When Daniel Eakins inherits a time machine, he soon realizes that he has enormous power to shape the course of history. He can foil terrorists, prevent assassinations, or just make some fast money at the racetrack. And if he doesn't like the results of the change, he can simply go back in time and talk himself out of making it! But Dan soon finds that there are limits to his powers and forces beyond his control.

Hybrids (Neanderthal Parallax)

Robert J. Sawyer

Amazon Price: $7.99 List Price: $7.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Tor Science Fiction Amazon Marketplace: 56 new & used starting at $0.89

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Sawyer, Robert J.
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> General
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 42 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the Hugo-Award winning Hominids, Robert J. Sawyer introduced a character readers will never forget: Ponter Boddit, a Neanderthal physicist from a parallel Earth who was whisked from his reality into ours by a quantum-computing experiment gone awry - making him the ultimate stranger in a strange land.

In that book and in its sequel, Humans, Sawyer showed us the Neanderthal version of Earth in loving detail - a tour de force of world-building; a masterpiece of alternate history.

Now, in Hybrids, Ponter Boddit and his Homo sapiens lover, geneticist Mary Vaughan, are torn between two worlds, struggling to find a way to make their star-crossed relationship work. Aided by banned Neanderthal technology, they plan to conceive the first hybrid child, a symbol of hope for the joining of their two versions of reality.

But after an experiment shows that Mary's religious faith - something completely absent in Neanderthals - is a quirk of the neurological wiring of Homo sapiens brains, Ponter and Mary must decide whether their child should be predisposed to atheism or belief. Meanwhile, as Mary's Earth is dealing with a collapse of its planetary magnetic field, her boss, the enigmatic Jock Krieger, has turned envious eyes on the unspoiled Eden that is the Neanderthal world . . .
Hybrids is filled to bursting with Sawyer's signature speculations about alternative ways of being human, exploding our preconceptions of morality and gender, of faith and love. His Neanderthal Parallax trilogy is a classic in the making, and here he brings it to a stunning, thought-provoking conclusion that's sure to make Hybrids one of the most controversial books of the year.

Humans (Volume Two of The Neanderthal Parallax)

Robert J. Sawyer

List Price: $6.99 By: Tor Books Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $2.06

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Sawyer, Robert J.
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> Alternate History
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> Series -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 51 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Robert J. Sawyer, the award-winning and bestselling writer, hits the peak of his powers in Humans, the second book of The Neanderthal Parallax, his trilogy about our world and parallel one in which it was the Homo sapiens who died out and the Neanderthals who became the dominant intelligent species. This powerful idea allows Sawyer to examine some of the deeply rooted assumptions of contemporary human civilization dramatically, by confronting us with another civilization, just as morally valid, that has made other choices. In Humans, Neanderthal physicist Ponter Boddit, a character you will never forget, returns to our world and to his relationship with geneticist Mary Vaughan, as cultural exchanges between the two Earths begin.As we see daily life in another present-day world, radically different from ours, in the course of Sawyer's fast-moving story, we experience the bursts of wonder and enlightenment that are the finest pleasures of science fiction. Humans is one of the best SF novels of the year, and The Neanderthal Parallax is an SF classic in the making.

Identity Theft: And Other Stories

Robert J. Sawyer

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Robert J. Sawyer Books Amazon Marketplace: 23 new & used starting at $9.57

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Short Stories -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Short Stories -> General AAS
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Sawyer, Robert J.

Editorial Review:

"A sense of wonder that hasn't prevailed in American SF since the days of Heinlein."-Books in Canada

This new collection by the man Anne McCaffrey calls "an absolutely marvelous writer" includes Hugo Award nominee "Shed Skin," Nebula Award nominee "Identity Theft," and Aurora Award winner "Ineluctable." In these pages, you'll discover the dark secret of the only priest on Mars, revisit H.G. Wells's Morlocks, and learn what really happens when aliens beam us the Encyclopedia Galactica.

"Sawyer has a way of taking familiar ideas, looking at them from new angles and in greater depth than almost anybody before him, and tying them together to create extraordinarily fresh and thought-provoking stories."-Analog

"Sawyer writes my favorite kind of science fiction: interesting characters, fast-paced plotting, science threaded elegantly into the prose - he does it all with grace and style. I am constantly amazed by the depth of Sawyer's characters - their humanity, their failings and their instincts."
-Rodger Turner on SF Site

Mindscan

Robert J. Sawyer

Amazon Price: $6.99 List Price: $6.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Tor Science Fiction Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $2.46

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General AAS
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Sawyer, Robert J.

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Robert J. Sawyer's Hominids, the first volume of his bestselling Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, won the 2003 Hugo Award, and its sequel, Humans, was a 2004 Hugo nominee. Now he's back with a pulse-pounding, mind-expanding standalone novel, rich with his signature philosophical and ethical speculations, all grounded in cutting-edge science.
Jake Sullivan has cheated death: he's discarded his doomed biological body and copied his consciousness into an android form. The new Jake soon finds love, something that eluded him when he was encased in flesh: he falls for the android version of Karen, a woman rediscovering all the joys of life now that she's no longer constrained by a worn-out body either.
But suddenly Karen's son sues her, claiming that by uploading into an immortal body, she has done him out of his inheritance. Even worse, the original version of Jake, consigned to die on the far side of the moon, has taken hostages there, demanding the return of his rights of personhood. In the courtroom and on the lunar surface, the future of uploaded humanity hangs in the balance.
Mindscan is vintage Sawyer -- a feast for the mind and the heart.

Far-Seer: Book One of the Quintaglio Ascension (The Quintaglio Trilogy)

Robert J. Sawyer

Amazon Price: $11.96 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Tor Books Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $2.59

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Sawyer, Robert J.
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> General
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Great Discoveries 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Far-seer (1992) is the first SF novel in the Quintaglio Ascension series. Although not mentioned in the novel itself, the back cover states that aliens transplanted dinosaurs (and other species) from Earth to another world over sixty-five million years ago. Now one type of dinosaur has achieved intelligence and the beginnings of the scientific method.

The new world has only one known continent in the middle of a global ocean. Most Quintaglios believe that this continent is floating in a huge River among the stars. The prophet Larsk has discovered that sailing upstream -- east -- in the River will bring one to a position where the Face of God can be seen.

In this volume, Asfan is an apprentice astrologer. His master is Tak-Saleed, the Royal Astrologer, a very contrary and overbearing Quintaglio. But he has done some brilliant work.

Asfan has wanted to be an astrologer since he discovered the night sky. He has been an apprentice to Saleed longer than any of the previous six. Yet sometimes he just has to get away from his master and be alone. On those occasions, he goes to a hillside outside the Capitol on an even night (when almost everyone is sleeping) to watch the stars and other celestial objects pass overhead.

Returning from one such escape, Asfan finds his master arguing with a former crechemate. After commenting on his (usual) tardiness, Saleed introduces Asfan to Captain Var-Keenir, a legendary shipmaster. Asfan is very impressed, for everybody has heard about Keenir and his ship, the Dasheter.

After Keenir leaves, Saleed mentions the device that they had been arguing about: a tube with lens at both ends that makes distant objects appear closer. Saleed dismisses this so-called "far-seer" as unnecessary to a practicing astrologer; everything he would need to know is recorded in the works of the ancients.

When Asfan grows enthusiastic at the thought of using the far-seer for a closer look at the moons and the Face of God, Saleed accuses him of blasphemy and sends him to the Hall of Worship to make penance. There Det-Yebalb, the High Priest, talks to him about taking his pilgrimage to observe the Face of God and suggests that he attend his first Hunt before he takes the pilgrimage.

On the Hunt, Asfan performs an extraordinary feat to bring down a thunderbeast, a vegetarian dinosaur with a huge body, long neck and small head. The story is circulating in the Capitol before he regains consciousness. After he recovers, it soon is time to leave on the Dasheter for his pilgrimage.

He is accompanied by Prince Dybo, a close friend. Yet Asfan has an audience with the Empress in which she explains that Dybo can go, but Asfan had better make sure that Dybo returns alive and well. Asfan is very impressed by the intensity of the Empress.

In this story, Asfan and Dybo sail east -- upstream -- across the River toward the Face of God. The journey outbound is long -- 130 days -- before they reach a position under the enormous Face. Asfan is kept busy doing ship chores, but Keenir also allows him to use the far-seer. Asfan spends most of his free time looking at the objects in the night sky or examining the Face of God.

Asfan's observations lead him to certain conclusions that he believes will destroy the current religion. Later, he meets Wab-Novoto, maker of the far-seer, and learns even more. When Asfan returns to the Capitol, the Empress has died in an accident and Dybo is now Emperor.

Asfan discovers that Saleed is not within his office, but is home sick. Although Asfan doesn't want to admit it, Saleed is old and dying. They have one more conversation and Asfan becomes determined to tell his new truths at all costs. Even when he is accused of being a demon and imprisoned in a makeshift cell, Asfan refuses to waver.

Since this is a trilogy, this story reveals the backstory and sets the hook for the sequels. The historical impacts of both Copernicus and Magellan are compressed into a single voyage. Great things should continue to occur in the coming volumes.

The concept of intelligent dinosaurs is not unique to this author. Harry Harrison used the same idea in his Eden series, an alternate history where dinosaurs became a sapient species and mankind never developed. However, the Quintaglio Ascension series sets up an unusual motivation for technological development.

Highly recommended for Sawyer fans and for anyone else who has missed this tale of astronomical discovery and church politics.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Editorial Review:

The Face of God is what every young saurian learns to call the immense, glowing object which fills the night sky on the far side of the world. Young Afsan is privileged, called to the distant Capital City to apprentice with Saleed the court astrologer. Buth when the time comes for Afsan to make his coming-of-age pilgrimage, to gaze upon the Face of God, his world is changed forever- for what he sees will test his faith... and may save his world from disaster!