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Robert J. Sawyer

Goodreads Author

Born

in Ottawa, Canada

Website

http://www.sfwriter.com/index.htm

Twitter

RobertJSawyer

Genre

Science Fiction & Fantasy, Mystery & Thrillers

Member Since

March 2013

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/robertjsawyer

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Robert J. Sawyer is one of Canada's best known and most successful science fiction writers. He is the only Canadian (and one of only 7 writers in the world) to have won all three of the top international awards for science fiction: the 1995 Nebula Award for The Terminal Experiment, the 2003 Hugo Award for Hominids, and the 2006 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Mindscan.
Robert Sawyer grew up in Toronto, the son of two university professors. He credits two of his favourite shows from the late 1960s and early 1970s, Search and Star Trek, with teaching him some of the fundamentals of the science-fiction craft. Sawyer was obsessed with outer space from a young age, and he vividly remembers watching the televised Apollo missions. He claims to Robert J. Sawyer is one of Canada's best known and most successful science fiction writers. He is the only Canadian (and one of only 7 writers in the world) to have won all three of the top international awards for science fiction: the 1995 Nebula Award for The Terminal Experiment, the 2003 Hugo Award for Hominids, and the 2006 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Mindscan.
Robert Sawyer grew up in Toronto, the son of two university professors. He credits two of his favourite shows from the late 1960s and early 1970s, Search and Star Trek, with teaching him some of the fundamentals of the science-fiction craft. Sawyer was obsessed with outer space from a young age, and he vividly remembers watching the televised Apollo missions. He claims to have watched the 1968 classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey 25 times. He began writing science fiction in a high school club, which he co-founded, NASFA (Northview Academy Association of Science Fiction Addicts). Sawyer graduated in 1982 from the Radio and Television Arts Program at Ryerson University, where he later worked as an instructor.

Sawyer's first published book, Golden Fleece (1989), is an adaptation of short stories that had previously appeared in the science-fiction magazine Amazing Stories. This book won the Aurora Award for the best Canadian science-fiction novel in English. In the early 1990s Sawyer went on to publish his inventive Quintaglio Ascension trilogy, about a world of intelligent dinosaurs. His 1995 award winning The Terminal Experiment confirmed his place as a major international science-fiction writer.

A prolific writer, Sawyer has published more than 10 novels, plus two trilogies. Reviewers praise Sawyer for his concise prose, which has been compared to that of the science-fiction master Isaac Asimov. Like many science fiction-writers, Sawyer welcomes the opportunities his chosen genre provides for exploring ideas. The first book of his Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, Hominids (2002), is set in a near-future society, in which a quantum computing experiment brings a Neanderthal scientist from a parallel Earth to ours. His 2006 Mindscan explores the possibility of transferring human consciousness into a mechanical body, and the ensuing ethical, legal, and societal ramifications.

A passionate advocate for science fiction, Sawyer teaches creative writing and appears frequently in the media to discuss his genre. He prefers the label "philosophical fiction," and in no way sees himself as a predictor of the future. His mission statement for his writing is "To combine the intimately human with the grandly cosmic."

http://us.macmillan.com/author/robert... ...more

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Robert J. Sawyer's Blog

New ebook edition of ROLLBACK

New ebook edition of my Hugo Award-nominated ROLLBACK in all markets worldwide! Wonderful new cover by Bibliofic Designs.

“Rollback gets my vote as SF novel of the year. A joy to read.” —Jack McDevitt

Canadian radio astronomer Dr. Sarah Halifax decoded the first-ever transmission received from aliens. Thirty-eight years later, a second message is received—and Sarah, now 87, may hold the ke

Combine Editions
Robert J. Sawyer’s books

Average rating: 3.88 · 141,641 ratings · 11,560 reviews · 227 distinct works • Similar authors

	Flashforward 3.66 avg rating — 16,863 ratings — published 1999 — 74 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hominids (Neanderthal Parallax, #1) 3.80 avg rating — 13,874 ratings — published 2002 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Calculating God 3.87 avg rating — 10,310 ratings — published 2000 — 42 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Wake (WWW, #1) 3.82 avg rating — 8,477 ratings — published 2009 — 49 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Humans (Neanderthal Parallax, #2) 3.83 avg rating — 6,177 ratings — published 2003 — 29 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Watch (WWW, #2) 4.01 avg rating — 5,050 ratings — published 2010 — 45 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hybrids (Neanderthal Parallax, #3) 3.80 avg rating — 5,228 ratings — published 2003 — 26 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Downloaded 3.59 avg rating — 4,829 ratings — published 2024 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Wonder (WWW, #3) 3.99 avg rating — 4,298 ratings — published 2011 — 47 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Terminal Experiment 3.74 avg rating — 4,513 ratings — published 1995 — 48 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Series by Robert J. Sawyer

Neanderthal Parallax (3 books)
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Robert J. Sawyer (Goodreads Author)

3.81 avg rating — 25,279 ratings

WWW (3 books)
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Robert J. Sawyer (Goodreads Author)

3.92 avg rating — 17,849 ratings

Quintaglio Ascension (3 books)
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Robert J. Sawyer (Goodreads Author)

4.05 avg rating — 3,655 ratings

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The Oppenheimer Alternative

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Robert’s Recent Updates

Robert J. Sawyer wrote a new blog post New ebook edition of ROLLBACK New ebook edition of my Hugo Award-nominated ROLLBACK in all markets worldwide! Wonderful new cover by Bibliofic Designs.“Rollback gets my vote as SF Read more of this blog post »
Nov 27, 2025 12:03AM · 2 likes · like
Robert J. Sawyer and 4 other people liked Rachel Ashera Rosen's review of The Downloaded: "This was a fun, clever read that I imagine works even better in audiobook format. Two groups of people have their bodies frozen and their consciousnesses uploaded: a group of astronauts preparing to colonize a distant planet, and a group of convicts " Read more of this review »
Feb 11, 2025 02:02PM · see review
Robert J. Sawyer rated a book it was amazing The Downloaded by Robert J. Sawyer (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Feb 11, 2025 02:02PM · 20 likes · like
Robert J. Sawyer is now following John E. Stith Author of Manhattan Transfer
Aug 05, 2024 06:23AM · like
Robert J. Sawyer and 4 other people liked Robert J. Sawyer's blog post: WordStar for DOS 7.0 Archive " As you all know, I continue to use WordStar for DOS 7.0 as my word-processing program. It was last updated in December 1992, and the company that made it has been defunct for decades; the program is abandonware.There was no proper archive of W..." Read more of this blog post »
Aug 05, 2024 06:23AM
Robert J. Sawyer made a comment on his review of The Downloaded " Moonshadow wrote: "You are one of my favorite syfy writer, i league with Robert Silverberg." Thank you so, so much! (I love Silverberg's work, too!) ...more "
Jan 12, 2024 06:34AM · see review

More of Robert's books…

Quotes by Robert J. Sawyer (?)

“Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace.”
― Robert J. Sawyer, Calculating God

2277 likes

“There is no indisputable proof for the big bang," said Hollus. "And there is none for evolution. And yet you accept those. Why hold the question of whether there is a creator to a higher standard?”
― Robert J. Sawyer, Calculating God

tags: atheism, big-bang, darwinism, double-standards, id, intelligent-design, macro-evolution, macroevolution, materialism, naturalism, religious-science-fiction, science, theism, theistic-science-fiction

47 likes

“Naturally, one does not normally discuss plans to commit murder with the intended victim.”
― Robert J. Sawyer, Flashforward

tags: future, killers, murder

31 likes

See all Robert J. Sawyer's quotes »

Polls

APRIL SCIENCE FICTION: This poll decides which two books will go on to the run off poll for April 2015's Science Fiction BOTM.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

26 votes, 27.4%

A Darkling Sea by James L. Cambias

15 votes, 15.8%

The Empress of Mars by Kage Baker

14 votes, 14.7%

Footfall by Larry Niven

12 votes, 12.6%

The Light Ages by Ian R. MacLeod

11 votes, 11.6%

Red Planet Blues by Robert J. Sawyer

10 votes, 10.5%

Time and Again by Jack Finney

7 votes, 7.4%

95 total votes

4 comments

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Challenge: 50 Books: Leighann's 50 books in 09	89	318	Dec 30, 2009 01:22PM
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Glens Falls (NY) ...: Have you seen any good movies lately? (Part TWO - begun 1/23/09)	1139	346	Jan 01, 2010 06:31PM

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Robert’s Friend Comments

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message 1: by Gerald

Mar 17, 2021 03:45PM

Hey Robert. If it's possible, and you are willing, why don't you add what you are currently reading. I'm sure your fans will take a keen interest in what you're reading..

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Robert J. Sawyer’s Followers (2,484)

Robert J. Sawyer

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