Robert J. Sawyer

From Vero - Wikipedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description Template:Use Canadian English Template:Infobox writer

Robert James Sawyer Template:Postnominals (born April 29, 1960) is a Canadian and American writer of science fiction.<ref name="bio">Template:Cite web</ref> He is the author of 25 published novels,<ref name="cv1">Template:Cite web</ref> and his short fiction has appeared in magazines and journals such as Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, On Spec, and Nature, in addition to several anthologies.<ref name="shortfic">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="contento">Template:Cite web</ref> He has won many writing awards, including the Nebula Award for Best Novel (1995), the Hugo Award for Best Novel (2003), the John W. Campbell Memorial Award (2006), the Robert A. Heinlein Award (2017), and multiple Aurora Awards (more than any other writer).<ref name="manyawards">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="moreauroras">Template:Cite web</ref>

Sawyer was born in Ottawa. He has lived in the Greater Toronto Area for most of his life and has been a resident of Mississauga since 2000.

Fiction

Style and themes

Sawyer's work frequently explores the intersection between science and religion, with rationalism winning out over mysticism.<ref name="guxens">Template:Cite web</ref> The most relevant novels in this regard are Far-Seer, The Terminal Experiment, Calculating God, and the three volumes of the Neanderthal Parallax (Hominids, Humans, and Hybrids), in addition to the short story "The Abdication of Pope Mary III" (originally published in Nature, July 6, 2000).

Sawyer often explores the notion of copied or uploaded human consciousness (or mind uploading)—most fully in his novel Mindscan, but also in Flashforward, Golden Fleece, The Terminal Experiment, "Identity Theft", "Biding Time", "Shed Skin", and The Downloaded.

His interest in consciousness studies<ref name="tsc">Template:Cite web</ref> is also apparent in Wake, which deals with the spontaneous emergence of consciousness in the infrastructure of the World Wide Web. His interest in quantum physics, and especially quantum computing, informs the short stories "You See But You Do Not Observe"<ref name="styousee">Template:Cite web</ref> (a pastiche of Sherlock Holmes ) and "Iterations,"<ref name="stiterat">Template:Cite web</ref> in addition to 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 discussion in his far-future Starplex.<ref name="fraknoi">Template:Cite web</ref> 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, the Arecibo Observatory in Rollback, the Canadian Light Source in Quantum Night, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Institute for Advanced Study in The Oppenheimer Alternative.

Sawyer's prose has been described by Orson Scott Card as similar to that of Isaac Asimov in its clarity.<ref name="card">Template:Cite web</ref>

SF/mystery crossovers

Sawyer has won both Canada's top SF award (the Prix Aurora Award) and its top mystery-fiction award (the Arthur Ellis Award) for his 1993 short story "Just Like Old Times".<ref name="stoldtime">Template:Cite web</ref> 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, Flashforward, and Red Planet Blues 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", "The Hand You're Dealt", and the aforementioned "Just Like Old Times" are all also crime or mystery fiction.

Editing and scholarly work

In addition to his own writing, Sawyer used to edit the Robert J. Sawyer Books<ref name="rjsbooks">Template:Cite web</ref> science-fiction imprint for Red Deer Press, part of Canadian publisher Fitzhenry & Whiteside; contributes to The New York Review of Science Fiction;<ref name="brbnyrsf">Template:Cite web</ref> is The Canadian EncyclopediaTemplate:'s authority on science fiction;<ref name="cdnencyc">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> and is a judge for L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future<ref name="wotf">Template:Cite web</ref> contest.

Sawyer continues to use WordStar 7.0 for DOS (the final release, last updated in 1992) to write his novels. All twenty-five of his novels were written with WordStar. He runs WordStar on modern systems using the DOSBox-X emulator. Sawyer shared the "Complete WordStar 7.0 Archive" on his website.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Film and television

In May 2009, ABC ordered 13 episodes of FlashForward (an hour-long dramatic TV series) for the 2009–2010 season. It is based on Sawyer's similarly titled novel, after successful production in February and March 2009 of a pilot episode scripted by David S. Goyer and Brannon Braga, directed by Goyer, and starring Joseph Fiennes and Sonya Walger.<ref name="ffgo">Template:Cite web</ref> After some adjustments, the first season was set to consist of 22 episodes.<ref name="22epis">Template:Cite web</ref> Sawyer was a consultant on each episode of the series<ref name="ffsold">Template:Cite web</ref> and wrote the 19th episode, entitled "Course Correction".<ref name="RJSepis">Template:Cite web</ref>

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, and he hosted the 17-part weekly half-hour documentary series Supernatural Investigator for Canada's Vision TV, which premiered January 27, 2009.<ref name="supernat">Template:Cite web</ref> He provided analysis of the British science fiction series Doctor Who for the CBC's online documentary The Planet of the Doctor,<ref name="planetdoc">Template:Cite news</ref> 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, titled Boarding the Enterprise.

Teaching and public speaking

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).<ref name="prmerril">Template:Cite web</ref> 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,<ref name="edna">Template:Cite web</ref> following the Region of Waterloo's choice of Sawyer's Hominids as the "One Book, One Community"<ref name="oboc">Template:Cite web</ref> title that all 490,000 residents were encouraged to read in 2005. In 2007 he was the Berton House Writer-in-Residence at Berton House in Dawson City. In 2009, he was the first-ever Writer-in-Residence at the Canadian Light Source, Canada's national synchrotron facility in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.<ref name="cls">Template:Cite web</ref>

Sawyer is a frequent keynote speaker about technology topics,<ref name="keynotes">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="speakers">Template:Cite web</ref> and has served as a consultant to Canada's Federal Department of Justice on the shape that future genetics laws should take.<ref name="genetic">Template:Cite web</ref>

Influence and recognition

File:Bookbits - 2011-11-20 Robert J. Sawyer-Wonder.vorb.oga

Canadian

Sawyer has long been an advocate of Canadian science fiction.<ref name="nl">Template:Cite web</ref> He lobbied hard for the creation of the Canadian Region of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America<ref name="cdnregion">Template:Cite web</ref> . 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 a Prix Aurora Award for best fanzine.

Sawyer was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Laurentian University in 2007<ref name="laurentian">Template:Cite web</ref> and an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Winnipeg in 2014.<ref>"Five exceptional people to be honoured at Spring Convocation" (8 May 2014). NewsCentre, University of Winnipeg. Retrieved 20 May 2014.</ref>

International translations

In addition to his popularity at home, Sawyer's work is well received internationally. All of his novels have been issued by New York publishing houses and translated editions have appeared in Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, Hungarian, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, and Spanish.<ref name="cv3">Template:Cite web</ref>

Professional associations

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, the Horror Writers Association, and the Writers' Union of Canada<ref name="twuc">Template:Cite web</ref> (for which he has served on the membership committee), and he is a member of scriptwriting unions Writers Guild of America<ref name="wga">Template:Cite web</ref> and Writers Guild of Canada.

Ribbon bars

Ribbon Description Date Notes
Order of Canada 2016 Member (CM)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Order of Ontario 2018 Member (OOnt)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal 2012 Canadian version<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Major awards

  • 1991 Prix 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<ref name="WWE-1995">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • 1995 Prix 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 Prix 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 Prix Aurora Award for Best Long Work in English, for Flashforward
  • 2000 Seiun Award for Best Foreign Novel, for Frameshift
  • 2001 Hugo Award nominee in the Best Novel category for Calculating God
  • 2002 Seiun Award for Best Foreign Novel, for Illegal Alien
  • 2003 Hugo Award for Best Novel, for Hominids<ref name="WWE-2003">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • 2005 Analog Analytical Laboratory Award for Best Short Story, for "Shed Skin"
  • 2005 Prix Aurora Award for Best Work in English (Other) for Relativity
  • 2006 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, for Mindscan<ref name="WWE-2006">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • 2007 Toronto Public Library Celebrates Reading Award
  • 2007 Galaxy Award (China) for "Most Popular Foreign Author"
  • 2007 Prix Aurora Award for Best Short Work in English, for "Biding Time"
  • 2010 Prix Aurora Award for Best Long Form in English, for Wake
  • 2010 Hugo Award nominee in the Best Novel category for Wake<ref name="2010nom1">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • 2011 Prix Aurora Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in Canada, for Watch<ref name="aurorawinners">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • 2012 Prix Aurora Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in Canada, for Wonder<ref name="aurorawinners"/>
  • 2013 Lifetime Achievement Prix Aurora Award<ref name="lifetime">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • 2014 Edward E. Smith Memorial Award ("the Skylark)<ref name="skylark">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • 2016 Member of the Order of Canada "for his accomplishments as a science fiction writer and mentor, and for his contributions as a futurist"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • 2017 Robert A. Heinlein Award<ref name="rjswinsrah">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • 2017 Member of the Order of Ontario for being "one of the world's top science-fiction authors and a champion of the Canadian fiction industry".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Bibliography

Novels

The Quintaglio Ascension trilogy

The Neanderthal Parallax trilogy

  • Hominids (serialized in Analog; Tor, 2003)
  • Humans (Tor, 2003)
  • Hybrids (Tor, 2003)

The WWW trilogy

  • Wake (serialized in Analog, 2008–2009; Ace USA, Viking Canada, and Orion/Gollancz UK, 2009)
  • Watch (Ace USA, Viking Canada, and Orion/Gollancz UK, 2010)
  • Wonder (Ace USA, Penguin Canada and Orion/Gollancz UK, 2011)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Short story collections

Anthologies

  • Tesseracts 6 with Carolyn Clink (1997)
  • Crossing the Line: Canadian Mysteries With a Fantastic Twist with David Skene-Melvin (1999)
  • Distant Early Warnings: Canada's Best Science Fiction (2009)

Nonfiction

  • Boarding the Enterprise: Transporters, Tribbles, And the Vulcan Death Grip in Gene Rodenberry's Star Trek edited with David Gerrold (2006)

References

Template:Reflist

Template:Wikiquote Template:Commons category

Template:Portal barTemplate:Hugo Award Best Novel 1961–1970 Template:Nebula Award Best NovelTemplate:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=Robert_J._Sawyer&oldid=190521"