Rollback

by Robert J. Sawyer

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 figure out what a signal from the stars contains.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Canada, Science Fiction Fantasy, Audiobook, Aliens, Fantasy

313 pages, Hardcover

First published April 3, 2007

About the author

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...

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've enjoyed a number of Robert Sawyer's books, my favorites of his being the trilogy beginning with "Hominids." He is a concept guy which I appreciate as I like the ideas he presents. This book, "Rollback," was one I read for a science fiction book discussion group. It certainly gave us a lot to talk about.
The story is about Dr. Sarah Halifax, who decoded the first radio transmission from space. It takes 38 years for the second message to arrive. But, now, Sarah is 87, and may not be able to decode the message. In steps a wealthy industrialist who offers Sarah a "rollback," the highly expensive experimental process to rejuvenate her so that she can complete her work. Sawyer deals with the ramifications of the rollback, and also with how contact with aliens might develop. We also get an intriguing glimpse of the near future....

[Beatriz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muy buena historia, muy original. Algunas partes se hacen un poco pesadas cuando se describen en extremo detalle los tecnicismos con los que se logró descifrar el primer mensaje extraterrestre, pero no al grado de molestar. Claramente el fuerte de la novela es el análisis ético y moral del papel de la tecnología y el desarrollo científico en la evolución del ser humano.

Un libro que da para pensar y que logra que el lector realmente evalúe las implicancias de una "vuelta atrás". Muy bien logrados aquellos pasajes en que el personaje principal nos traspasa la carga emocional del proceso, porque ante todo, es una historia de amor y lealtad. Recomiendo no perder de vista el personaje de Gunter, que hacia el final del libro nos deja más lecciones de valores fundamentales.

[Sandi · Rating 2 out of 5]

About halfway through "Rollback" by Robert J. Sawyer, I had a scathing review all ready to go. I hated the first half. There were way too many brand names used. There were way too many Star Trek references. There was this horribly long exposition about the movie "Contact" starring Jodie Foster. The couple around whom the story centers were born a year before me and I had a hard time relating to their thought processes. If I were reminiscing about a pizza dinner from 40 years earlier, I certainly wouldn't be thinking about it being from Pizza Hut and remembering that the crust was really bad for you. I know that hard science fiction has a tendency towards exposition, but Sawyer takes that exposition to an extreme by explaining things we already know about. I mean, really, what was the point of recalling that Mr. Rogers started on Canadian television? Was it worth a whole paragraph?

Just past the halfway mark, the story picked up a bit. Sawyer dropped much of the name dropping and got into his characters a little bit more. The twist ending was very good and the epilogue made the book.

Frankly, I felt like I had to sift through a lot of junk to get the the good stuff in this book. The good stuff was very good, but it could have been adequately covered in a 100-150 page novella rather than a 320 page novel. I was really disappointed. I was really looking forward to enjoying this book. It was nominated for the Hugo award and I loved "Hominids" by this same author. At least it was a fast read.

[Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is up for the Best Novel Hugo this year and it deserves it, although I'll reserve final judgment on that until I've read the other four in the category. It is a STRONG contender, though.

The year is 2048. Sarah Halifax, a SETI researcher, who cracked the first alien transmission to earth in 2009 and who helped craft the reply, is 87 and living in quiet retirement. On her 60th wedding anniversary, the aliens have responded with an encrypted message. A wealthy industrialist, convinced she is involved with a single alien pen pal, offers to give her a rollback so that she will have the time to decrypted the message and keep the conversation going. She agrees only if her husband Don gets the rollback too. While it would seem that the big idea in this book is confirmation of intelligent life in the universe other than our own, that is really just a vehicle to deal with questions of being given the fountain of youth and the consequences of being young again.

How would you deal with being given your physical youth back at the age of 87? What do you do when your wife, whom you love and adore, is given the same treatment but it fails because of experimental cancer treatments she had 40 years previously. How do you deal with your adult children when you know you'll outlive them and most likely live to see your grandchildren grow old and give you great-grandchildren. Robert Sawyer answers these questions in realistic and bittersweet ways.

[Megan Baxter · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been over a week since I finished this book, which is definitely going to slightly change how this review will come out. If I'd written it as soon as I had finished, this would likely be a lot more ranty, and I am still annoyed, but the anger has lost its heat. It's too bad, because I was pretty worked up about this book, and, in particular, how it treats the female characters and what story it centers and how it's a retread of a theme that has come up in other Sawyer works but does nothing new with it. Oh wait, maybe the anger is coming back. I've reached the level of annoyance, anyway.

Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

[Tomislav · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 August 2009 - This novel was a 2008 Hugo nominee. In it, the CETI astronomer who correctly interpreted the first message received from another intelligent species, is tapped when the answer to humanity's reply is received 38 years later. Only trouble is that she is now in her 80s, and her life expectancy is insufficient. When she is offered an 8-billion-dollar rejuvenation, she refuses to take it unless her aged husband also receives a treatment. But while it works for him, it does not for her. This is a love story between two people whose lives suddenly become almost completely incompatible, as well as an alien contact story with some good conceptual twists. And Sawyer, being who he is, cannot resist throwing in a good helping of philosophical wondering.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a hard-science first-contact novel, with a very interesting look at communication and aging and finding the time to achieve life-long goals... with some dandy pop-culture references for Trekkers. Sawyer always provides challenging and thought-provoking plots, and this time he integrates enjoyable and engaging characters as well. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is an extremely character-driven book, to the degree that i wished for a little less dialogue. and certainly less posturing or lecturing, because boy is this book full of discussions where people preach the merits of this position or that. the fact that i shared some of his characters' beliefs? maybe that made it worse, i don't know. but it seemed heavy-handed.

there are some cool ideas, but the particular way he blended pop culture references in was somehow annoying rather than charming. even as a star trek fan, the references to trek felt pretentious. also, references to a slightly related movie (contact) just made this book feel like a partial ripoff.

that said, as someone who is approaching her 40s (??), i appreciated the exploration of age and the perspective that comes with the different periods of one's life. not that this is enough to actually recommend sawyer's book.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Intrascendente desde la Ciencia-Ficción, muy entretenido como novela.-

Género. Ciencia-Ficción.

Lo que nos cuenta. El día que Donald y Sarah celebran su sexagésimo aniversario de bodas, a punto de rematar la primera mitad del siglo XXI, llega la noticia de que el mensaje que Sarah mandó hacia Sigma Draconis bastantes años antes en respuesta al recibido desde allí en 2009 ha sido contestado por los alienígenas. Las peculiaridades de la comunicación hacen que un multimillonario ofrezca a Sarah, de casi noventa años, un tratamiento completo de rejuvenecimiento para que pueda afrontar más tiempo al frente de la comunicación con los extraterrestres. Sarah sólo aceptará si su marido Donald también recibe el tratamiento.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Jason Pettus · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

Regular readers know that July has been somewhat of a special month for me, in that I was accidentally able to get ahold of eight out of the twelve science-fiction novels nominated this year for either the Hugo or Philip K Dick award, and have been reviewing all of them here throughout the month; today's review is the seventh in that series, in fact, with only Adam Roberts' Gradisil still to go (which is phenomenal, by the way, and right now is tied in my head with Ian McDonald's Brasyl as my favorite of the eight; but more on that in a few days). Today I'm reviewing the latest by Robert J Sawyer, an industry veteran who is one of the few proud holders of the "SF award trifecta" (the Hugo, Nebula, and Campbell awards, that is, considered by most fans to be the three most important awards in the industry); it is my first book by him, frankly, the Hugo-nominated Rollback from 2007, and I have to admit right away that I found it kind of a mess, unfortunately turning by halfway through into an unreadable mess, now making me wonder if his entire career is maybe a bit overinflated, or if he just happened to turn in a subpar book here in particular.

See, it's about this old couple, right? And nearly half a century ago, the wife of this couple happened to be the first person on the planet to figure out the meaning behind the very first message ever received from extraterrestrial intelligent life, and the person who led the team who put together a response to send back to these aliens via radio wave. (And yes, right in the manuscript itself, Sawyer addresses the fanboys who are tempted to shout, "Dude, that's the same storyline as Carl Sagan's Contact!" Which of course is part of the problem; if your project is so similar in storyline to a more famous one that you actually have to address it in your own book, that's a sign that you should rethink your premise to begin with.) They've been waiting 25 years for the response to even get to this foreign planet, and then another 25 years for whatever response the aliens might have of their own; and sure enough a new response has just been received at the opening of the novel, but with the couple now too old and frail to be working on a response team again full-time.

In steps this eccentric trillionaire entrepreneur, then, who simply must have the brilliant woman on the team trying to figure out why the aliens have responded the way they have; so much so, in fact, that he is willing to pay the billions of dollars needed to have the woman's entire physical body "rolled back" to a state of youth, through an ingenious combination of surgery, therapy, genetic manipulation and other near-future medical subjects actually being worked on by doctors of today. Oh, and her husband gets rolled back too, because she insists on it. Which is where the big problem comes; because apparently the experimental nature of all this was never fully emphasized to the couple, with the husband's rollback procedure "taking" but hers failing, leaving her as the same 80-year-old as before but him now a strapping lad of 25 with bulging muscles and a perpetual erection. And thus do conflicts arise between the two; and thus does the husband suddenly encounter unexpected instances of ageism in society, ala Black Like Me; and thus does the woman keep working on figuring out why these space aliens have sent back as their response what seems to be a round of the party game "Scruples," a bunch of ambiguous questions about human ethics for which the team doesn't quite know how to respond.

It's not too bad a premise, I suppose, although treads heavily on the same "We Can Make A New You" ground already made famous by such so-called "Web 2.0 writers" as Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross; the biggest problem, though, is that Sawyer just never manages to pull the entire thing together into a cohesive, entertaining story, but instead presents us a bunch of parts pulled from all over the place, that reflect the fact that they were pulled from all over the place. Like, Sawyer has a bad habit here of falling into that trap so many "near-future" authors fall into, of overexplaining the real technology behind their near-future speculations, of citing actual authors and articles within the text and turning the whole thing more into a Wikipedia entry than a gripping novel. At the same time, though, Sawyer makes beginning writing mistakes when addressing the subject of this husband actually "rolling back" to an earlier physical state; throughout the manuscript, Sawyer seems to argue that even the man's mindset would revert back to that of a horny, immature 16-year-old, simply by reverting his body to such a state.

That really bothered me about this book, to tell you the truth, that instead of Sawyer exploring the fascinating issue of putting all the wisdom and experience of a 80-year-old into a 25-year-old's body, he instead relies too much on this reverted teenage mental state to provide all the drama inherent in the plotline. In fact, the moment I stopped reading was the moment this rejuvenated male decided to have an affair with a college student, knowing full well how devastated his 80-year-old wife was over this entire situation in the first place, but not caring because of currently having the righteous boner of a sex-starved undergraduate. It really bothered me that such a character would so carelessly throw away half a century of marriage with a woman currently on the brink of mental collapse as it is, merely because he wants some quick sex with some anonymous 20-year-old. That's not only inconsistent with what had already been established about these characters and their relationship, it's insulting to the natural intelligence of the reader; and Rollback is unfortunately full of such moments, dozens of them that will make the smart reader pause and say, "Now wait just a freaking minute here, Robert J Freaking Sawyer."

You know that part in the early-'80s Disney movie Tron, where Jeff Bridges discovers that he can hold one of the otherworldly ships together just through his mind alone? But he gets in a busted ship that keeps threatening to fall apart on him? And he keeps throwing his hands out in the air and wiggling them, as if to say, "Hold together, damn you, HOLD TOGETHER"? Yeah, that's how I felt when reading Rollback, a collection of interesting ideas that unfortunately never does coalesce into an enjoyable reading experience. I'm certainly willing to give Sawyer the benefit of a doubt here, since this was my first book of his, and to assume for now that this is merely one clunker out of an otherwise outstanding career; unfortunately, though, it's a clunker nonetheless, one I'm surprised got nominated for the Hugo in the first place.

Out of 10:
Story: 4.5
Characters: 5.6
Style: 7.6
Overall: 6.1

[prcardi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Storyline: 1/5
Characters: 2/5
Writing Style: 2/5
World: 2/5

I think that Sawyer can best be appreciated by a very particular audience: Canadians that watch a lot of television and who do not have much science fiction reading experience. Take the Canadian thing first. It is obvious that Sawyer thinks Canada is great and wants everyone to know it. It is not a bad book strategy, that appeal to the vanity and familiarity of readers. I know I get a particular delight from reading about places that I’ve lived, buildings I’ve visited, or events that I might have attended. Sawyer’s love, however, simply isn’t infectious. His guided tour is long-winded and dry and lacks discernment as to which facts and information are worth sharing. Furthermore, I don’t have much experience with Canada, so all the nostalgia and name dropping is lost on me.

The television watcher: I’ve yet to read a Sawyer book that did not seem like it was written for television. And I mean 1980s and 90s type television shows where the budget was cheap, the dramas resembled the soap operas, and the scripts were just awful. I did grow up with that; I remember how the sensationalism and drama can be addictive and arresting. But I can also look back on it and realize it was mostly melodrama when it wasn’t simple. Sawyer’s success with drama here was not a good one. He gets the distinction of writing what is perhaps the most pathetic love story I’ve ever read. And even the better parts were bits of anticipation as you watched characters making unbelievably stupid decisions. Not at all out of place in 80s and 90s television but unwelcome in a book in the 2000s. Also, though this might have 313 pages, I’d really like to see a wordcount. It felt like it could have been printed on less than half that number of pages.

The science fiction novice: Sawyer is great with hooks. And they’re undeniably science fiction hooks: provocative questions, events, or technologies that immediately make one want to know more. And Sawyer finds ways to slip in theories and technologies into what are oftentimes very grounded, simple stories that vary very little from our everyday life. The treatment of those science fiction ideas, here as well as with his other books, is usually superficial, however. So he can introduce and can have solved the Fermi paradox in a paragraph. He can explain SETI, how it is misunderstood, and the right way to think about it, in even less space. There’s something very easy and gentle about this. Just right for a novice science fiction reader. Those more experienced with the philosophies, theories, technologies, and big questions are bound to find Sawyer’s treatment of the issues wanting.

I’ll give Sawyer credit. This is my eighth novel of his, and he is remarkably consistent. He obviously has a dedicated fanbase and following. Many people read this and liked it. I did not. So how to explain his fandom? Could they all be Canadians that watch a lot of television and who do not have much science fiction reading experience? Feel free to comment and explain how I'm wrong and what I’m missing.

[The other John · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting tale about an 87-year-old man who receives the "gift" of rejuvenation. The biggest problem was that it really wasn't intended for him. The year is 2048. Thirty-eight years earlier, Earth had received the first ever radio transmission from another world. Many folks puzzled over the message, trying to figure it out, but it was Dr. Sarah Halifax who made the breakthrough and allowed Earth to understand the message and respond. Now the second message has arrived and the main financier of the SETI project is certain that Dr. Halifax, who is also 87, is the person not only to decode the latest transmission, but also to maintain a dialogue with the aliens. He's so certain of this that he's willing to fund Dr. Halifax's rejuvenation--an obscenely expensive procedure called a rollback. She agrees to do it on the condition that her husband, Don, receive the procedure, too. Mr. Moneybags agrees and the rollbacks are begun. The problem is, while Don regresses to a physical age of 25, the procedure doesn't work on Sarah. What follows is the tale of a man facing a second chance at life in a world where he no longer fits in with his rapidly disappearing peer group. Intertwined with all this is the story of the alien messages. It's wonderfully written, as one expects from Mr. Sawyer. I think I especially clicked with the tale because I'm roughly the same age as the lead characters (that is, I was born in the same era) and I could relate to a lot of their reminiscing. But no matter what age you may be, this book's well worth checking out.

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was intrigued enough by the premise on the back of this book to buy it, but sadly it wasn't worth the money. It takes way too long for all the events described on the back of the book to actually happen and it's boring to wait for them to happen since you already know from the back of the book that they will happen. The book is set in 2048, was published in 2007, and yet the pop culture references within (Seinfeld, the movie Contact) already feel dated.

Once the "Rollback" occurs, I found the main character to be insufferable. Although he's supposed to be dealing with lots of big philosophical questions about the change he's undergone most of these are just mentioned and then glossed over. In the worst cases the main character whines about them for a chapter and then moves on to whining about the next "woe is me" problem.

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was favorably impressed by the Neanderthal series, but hadn't read any more of his stories until much later. This was a large failing of mine. Mr. Sawyer deserves all the credit he has garnered over the years and I'm looking forward to the rest of his novels soon! I really appreciated the study of ethics and responsibility with the tale. It was also nice to have a hollywood ending. I know it isn't for everyone, but sometimes it is absolutely called for.

[Glennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

First contact is made with an alien race on a star far away. Scientist who made the discovery is given an age rollback to make her younger so she won't die before second contact is made. The treatment doesn't work. Things get sticky after that. It was OK. Lots of cuddly human interest wrapped into what could have been a harder SciFi treatment.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a fun, easy read. Nominally sci-fi, it reads more like mainstream fiction. True, there are aliens, but they are 18.8 light years away. This book is about ethics. SETI finally recieved a radio message from the stars in 2009. Sarah was integral to decoding that message then, at age 49, and sending Earth's reply. Now in 2047, we've finally received a reply that nobody can figure out. Sarah, unfortunately, is in her late 80's now and knocking on death's door. But a super-rich SETI-lover wants to give her more time to work on decoding the message, so he pays billions of dollars for a procedure, a "rollback," that will make her physically 25 again. She insists that if she gets a rollback her octagenarian husband of sixty years, Don, receives one too. For Don the procedure works perfectly, he's 25 again, full of vim and vigor, but for Sarah the procedure fails, she's still 88, feeble and fading. Now what?

The story is told almost entirely from Don's point of view. It's about moral quandaries. There's lots of stuff in here to make you think. What would you do if you were in that situation? An easy read, but deep and thought-provoking at the same time, I definitely enjoyed this book.

Sarah comes off as a much stronger more tolerant woman than I am. I would've liked to have some of the story told from her point of view. We hear what she has to say to her husband about the ethical dilemmas that arise, but what is she really thinking?

There are two things that annoyed me about this book. The first was the familiarity with which the author dealt with pop topics. Maybe the author was just trying to emphasize when a section of the story was set in 2009 as opposed to being set in 2048 (lots of this story was told in flashbacks), but it seems to me that too many references to Seinfeld, Conan O'Brien, Blondie, Red Lobster and iPods is the kind of thing can date a novel and make it unreadable in the years to come when people no longer get the references. The other thing that annoyed me was the epilogue, set another twenty years in the future. It was totally unnecessary. It added nothing to and probably detracted from the story. I would much rather have had all of that left to the imagination, especially because I didn't like the way the author had it go. There is such a thing as too perfect.

[Kristin · Rating 1 out of 5]

For brevity's sake, I've cut and pasted a synopis from the Amazon.com site from Publisher's Weekly: Astronomer Sarah Halifax, who translated the first message from aliens and helped prepare humanity's response, is 87 when the second, encrypted message arrives 38 years later. To aid the decoding, a tycoon buys rejuvenation treatment for Sarah and Don, her husband of 60 years; however, only Don becomes young again. While coping with the physical indignities of old age, Sarah tries to figure out the puzzle of the second message. The bond between Don and Sarah continues, even while Don is joyfully and guiltily discovering the pleasures of living in a young body again. They want to do what's right for each other and the rest of humanity—for the aliens, too—if they can figure out what "right" could be. By its nature, a story about moral choices tends to get talky, but the talk is intelligent and performed by sympathetic and believable people.

I detested this book. I read about 1/3 then skimmed the rest to the end. Yes, there were moral choices, but the situation in which they were portrayed was completely unbelieveable. I could not find any plausibilty in the character of Don, whose sub-plot seemed to actually dominate the book. The author broke up the chapters by alternating between the modern time line and the past time line - a technique that I usually don't mind, but given how short each one was this time, was really annoying.

This is the third Sawyer book that I have read, and the last.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has a fascinating premise: An astronomer decodes a message from an alien race who live on a planet 18 light years away. She sends a reply and 36 years in the future another message is received. However, she is now in her 80s. A rich supporter of scientific efforts to contact alien species offers to fund a "rollback": give the astronomer her youth again so she can continue to communicate with the alien species (at one point, someone says she is their penpal). She will only have the rollback procedure if her husband gets it also. Unfortunately, it works for him but not for her. He is 25 again, while she is still in her 80s. Lots of existential mishmash is discussed, sexuality is explored, alien messages are decoded, and so on. But much of it is so banal and sloppy that I found I didn't care. I became tired of all the references to 1970s and 1980s pop culture that few people remembered in the 2040s and 2050s when the novel takes place. There was some interesting science, but not enough to save the book from the author's stodgy prose. I'm surprised that this book was nominated for a Hugo award; perhaps because it is because of the great premise. Unfortunately, it didn't deliver for me.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hm. Not as good as Flashforward or Mindscan imo. But then, maybe I'm saying them because I read them all so close together? I dunno, but in this one I wanted more science, and more of other characters' points of view. This was almost entirely about Don, and he's still not quite real to me - I'm informed he's likable, even lovable, but I didn't much care for him. I really like Gunter and Sarah, though.

Anyway, it's not a bad book, and if you read SF for the What If ideas, you'll probably like it. If you've not read Sawyer before, though, you probably don't want to start here. Otoh, I'll continue reading all I can find by him.

[Angel B.A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

No se cómo lo hace, pero Sawyer siempre consigue que sus novelas me resulten como mínimo interesantes.
Puedo encontrarle pegas a los distintos elementos por separado, pero el conjunto siempre le queda bien y te deja un buen sabor de boca.
En esta novela, por ejemplo, sus personajes son malditamente civilizados, las justificaciones científicas muy limitadas y los conflictos apenas lo parecen,... y sin embargo el conjunto funciona bien. Posiblemente porque llegas a entender a los personajes, hay varias ideas originales y el autor consigue tejerlo todo en un tapiz coherente.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written novel focussed on human interaction with a bit of sci-fi. 9 of 10 stars

[Magda Revetllat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una extraordinaria historia humana y un fantástico relato de ciencia ficción.

[James Aura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a bit lightweight for Sawyer, but I enjoyed it. The human interest he develops between the elderly couple and their scientific misfortune is very nicely done. The aliens are rather remote in this story (literally) but his portrayal of first contact was logical. I prefer Sawyer on the harder side of the SciFi scale, but it was entertaining.

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

First, what I liked:
The book had an interesting premise: it's about both first contact and aging (or the lack thereof - almost like time travel). Some of the concepts the explored about extra-terrestials were quite novel, blowing away some of the widely-held beliefs that were put in place by the likes of Carl Sagan.

However... there was a lot that I didn't care for in the book.

The first was the author's idea of what things might be like 30-40 years from now. I'm not talking about "futuristic" things, like flying cars or robots; I'm talking about ideas from our present that would continue through the decades: from debatable items (like global warming) to outright fads (like Atkins, which has already been replaced by the South Beach Diet, which in turn is likely to be replaced as the diet-du-jour), the things the author believes to be enduring trends, I found to be rather unbelieveable.

The second - and I might be due to the author being Canadian, and therefore more socially liberal than Americans coupled with my own religious conservatism - is that there were many liberal ideas that were presented, not just as one belief or philosophy among many, but as superior to them all. One of the major plot points seems to revolve around the controverserial topic of abortion. There are entire chapters devoted to the topic of abortion - this is surprising (and the conclusions, quite frankly, frustrating!) in a book that is supposed to be about aliens and aging.

But it is not just the way the abortion issue is presented while giving barely a nod to opposing viewpoints, nor is it the fact that other social issues are presented in the same way (e.g., religion as a superstition that we'll eventually grow out of as a species) - that is not my only or primary objection to the book. It is the way these ideas and their "debate" are presented that I find most heavy-handed and offensive: these views (and the token counterpoints) are done by the protagonists who essentially agree with each other and whose views are later supported (even validated) by others. There's a definite lack of a sincere attempt to present the issues with full disclosure, and therefore without a fully comprehensive "answer" or conclusion.

For example, "every child has a right to be wanted" is presented as the ideal viewpoint in the abortion issue, without acknowledging that a right to life might be superior (not to mention foundational) to merely being wanted.

As I said before, what I perceive as shortcomings of this book may be due to my personal conservatism vs. the author's liberalism, but this is *my* review after all, and this was *my* reaction to the ideas presented in this book.

[Oscar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert J. Sawyer es un buen escritor con grandes ideas, no cabe duda. Además, los más de cuarenta premios internacionales que lo avalan son otro punto a su favor. Como se suele decir, tanta gente no puede estar equivocada. Y aún así, siempre hay algo en su escritura que me impide colocarlo junto a mis autores favoritos dentro y fuera del género de la ciencia ficción.

'Vuelta atrás (Rollback)' es una historia humana de alcance moral, ético y cultural. Año 2048. Han pasado 38 años desde que Sarah Halifax, astrónoma del programa SETI, descrifrase el primer mensaje extraterrestre de la historia, proveniente de Sigma Draconis. La respuesta tarda unos 19 años en llegar allí, y tardará otros 19 en que nos llegue la esperada respuesta. Dicha respuesta está a punto de llegar y Cody McGavin, un multimillonario, les propone a Sarah y a su marido, ambos de 87 años, un tratamiento que tan sólo está al alcance de unos pocos, ya que cuesta miles de millones: la posibilidad de rejuvenecer, de "volver atrás", de volver a tener 25 años. ¿La razón?, que si Sarah fue la única que pudo descrifrar el primer mensaje, seguramente sea la única que pueda hacer lo mismo con el segundo y con los posteriores. Pero algo sucede con el tratamiento y no sale como debería...

Sawyer especula sobre los problemas de un posible rejuvenecimiento, la dificultad de la vida en pareja y la ética y la moral que conlleva. Además, Sawyer maneja todos los términos técnicos de una manera muy didáctica, al alcance de todo el mundo. Su prosa es engañosamente fácil.

La novela me ha gustado bastante, tiene momentos muy emocionantes, que no están nada edulcorados, algo en lo que podría caerse fácilmente. Hasta el robot Gunter tiene sus grandes momentos. Lo que menos me ha gustado ha sido el épilogo, que no acaba ser de mi agrado.

Pero el libro no termina de gustarme tanto como para darle más de tres estrellas. Le falta algo. Hay veces que me da la impresión de estar leyendo un estrenos TV, de esos de fin de semana a las 4 de la tarde. Sawyer escribe bien pero hay que tener claro que el Nobel no lo ganará. Y aun así, seguiré leyendo sus libros porque están llenos de buenas ideas y de reflexiones brillantísimas. Tiene una gran imaginación, y sólo por eso merece la pena leer a Robert J. Sawyer.

[Sully · Rating 2 out of 5]

After several months, I finally settled to finish the last pages of this book yesterday. After reading Illegal Alien by Sawyer (which I actually liked), I expected this book to be as equally thought provoking and enjoyable, but no.
I expected it to explore the scientific and philosophical concepts that were portrayed in the premise. The bio-engineering, the alien life, the ethics, the regaining of youth, the capability of human emotions by robots and all that other jazz. What I got instead was a lot of drama. As much as I understood (I think) that the book was supposed to tell the story in the perspective of someone who didn't want all of this and about the human emotions and mental stability of being stuck in a time "not your own", I thought it was unnecessary, especially the affair. If I were to have known beforehand that the plot actually revolved around a somewhat whiny/pathetic protagonist's (whom I'd have no sympathy for) life-crisis, just with a little bit of science and aliens, I never would've read it.
So, if you're looking for an atypical mid-life (senior-regenerated youth-life?) crisis novel with scientific and ethical notions, this is it.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome story. Robert Sawyer has long been my favorite sci-fi author. His stories involved good science and futuristic thinking, but they also always involve very interesting human stories. In this case, humans have finally had contact with aliens. Over a long period of years due to the distance the information has to travel, a SETI researcher communicates with the aliens. This is the story of Dr. Sarah Halifax, who decoded the first communication from the aliens. After another 3+ decades, a second message arrives, and Sarah also decodes this one. The problem is that she's now in her 80's. The aliens have become attached to her specifically, but she will not live long enough. She is offered the opportunity to have a rollback, a super expensive process that takes a person back to their youth, and she agrees to do it as long as her husband Don is rolled back also. Unfortunately, the process works on Don and not on Sarah. While dealing with this tragic twist, Sarah and Don still need to figure out the meaning of the latest alien communication and how to do what the aliens ask. Great tale.

[Aleeda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some people believe that good sci-fi might simply read like good fiction. If that's your take, Robert Sawyer's Rollback is for you.

Sarah Halifax is a scientist affilated with SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). When a message from Draconis Sigma is received, Sarah is the one who decodes it, and is one of 100 people whose response is included in the message sent in return. Because of the distance, the roundtrip for each message is 40 years. When a second message is received, Sarah is given a chance for a 'rollback', a youth restoring procedure costing billions of dollars. She accepts only if the procedure is offered to her husband, Don, as well. As fate would have it, the procedure is successful for Don, but not for Sarah.

Rollback combines morality and ethics in a thought-provoking, well-told story, even for people who might not think they like the genre.

[Katya Epstein · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm in chapter 15 and I've decided not to finish reading it. The main character/narrator, Don, is just dull, in both senses. The interesting actions in the book are taken by the people around him; things happen to him. When he finally does make a decision for himself, it's so despicable and utterly thoughtless that I have no interest in finding out if he redeems himself. The part of the book that actually interests me, the mysterious message from outer space, is largely ignored; it seems to be there just as an instigator for the things that happen to Don. I would like to get inside the head of the woman whose job it is to decode the message, but she is relegated to the background, nothing but an excuse to show off that the author is capable of challenging philosophical thought. Why isn't she the main character?

[Rosana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someone in my bookclub suggested this book, and as far as books for bookclubs, this one should generate very interesting discussions when we do meet. To be fair to Robert J. Sawyer, it already has created an array of discussions around the kitchen table with my husband and kids. But, in many ways I feel it was not executed with the mastery it deserved. The author utilizes dialogue as a form of explaining ideas to no end, making the reading a bit tiring. The ending is too nice and the characters too naïve.

Would I recommend it? I already have. I recommended to a friend that enjoys discussions on ethics, morality and the plausibility of God. The caveat: Don’t expect a great literary work.