| Robert J. Sawyer |
Article Index for Robert J |
Website Links For Robert |
Information AboutRobert J. Sawyer |
|
He has also described himself as "Canada's only living full-time native-born professional science fiction writer" BIOGRAPHY Robert James Sawyer was born in Ottawa , grew up in Toronto , and now lives in Mississauga , Ontario . He attended Ryerson University in Toronto , where he received a Bachelor of Applied Arts degree in Radio and Television Arts (RTA) in 1982. Entirely coincidentally, he was in the same graduating RTA class as Tanya Huff who would later become a noted author in the field of Contemporary Fantasy . Twenty years later, Sawyer was given Ryerson University's Alumni Award of Distinction in honor of his international success as a science fiction writer. Sawyer has won thirty-five national and international awards for his fiction, most prominently the '', ''Booklist'', ''Quill & Quire'', and ''Kliatt''. His books have appeared on the top-ten national mainstream bestsellers' lists in Canada, as published by '' The Globe And Mail '' and ''Maclean's'' magazine, and they've hit number one on the bestsellers' list published by '' Locus '', the trade-journal of the SF field. Translated editions have appeared in Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Serbian, and Spanish, and he has won SF awards in Canada, France, Japan, Spain, and the United States. Sawyer's short fiction has appeared in '''s '' Saturday Night At The Movies ''. Stylistically, Sawyer is known for simple, clear prose, in the mode of Isaac Asimov ; this perhaps comes from Sawyer's original career in the 1980s as a writer of nonfiction for magazines. He also has a tendency to include pop-culture references in his novels (his fondness for the original Star Trek and Planet Of The Apes is impossible to miss), and he is unusual even among Canadian SF writers for the blatantly Canadian settings and concerns addressed in his novels, all of which are issued by New York houses. Sawyer's politics are often described as liberal, even by Canadian standards (although he contributed a Hugo Award -nominated story called "The Hand You're Dealt" to the Libertarian SF anthology ''Free Space'', and another called "The Right's Tough" to the Prometheus Award -winnig Libertarian SF anthology ''Visions of Liberty''). He holds citizenship in both Canada and the United States, and has been known to criticize the politics of both countries. He often has American characters visiting Canada (such as Karen Bessarian in ''Mindscan'') or Canadian characters visiting the U.S. (such as Pierre Tardivel in ''Frameshift'' and Mary Vaughan in ''Humans'' and ''Hybrids''). Sawyer's work frequently explores the intersection between science and religion, with Rationalism always winning out over Mysticism (see especially "Far Seer", ''The Terminal Experiment'', ''Calculating God'', and the three volumes of the Neanderthal Parallax ''Humans'', and ''Hybrids'' , plus the short story "The Abdication of Pope Mary III," originally published in ''Nature'', July 6, 2000). He also has a great fondness for paleontology, as evidenced in his Quintaglio Ascension trilogy (''Far-Seer'', ''Fossil Hunter'', and ''Foreigner''), about an alien world to which dinosaurs from Earth were transplanted, and his time-travel novel ''End of an Era''. In addition, the main character of ''Calculating God'' is a paleontologist, and the Neanderthal Parallax novels deal with an alternate version of Earth where Neanderthals did not go extinct. He often explores the notion of copied or uploaded human consciousness, most fully in his novel ''Mindscan'', but also in ''Golden Fleece'' and ''The Terminal Experiment'', plus the novella "Identity Theft" and its sequel short story "Biding Time," and the Hugo-nominated short story "Shed Skin." His interest in Quantum Physics , and especially Quantum Computing , inform the short stories "You See But You Do Not Observe" (a Sherlock Holmes pastiche) and "Iterations," and the novels ''Factoring Humanity'' and ''Hominids''. SETI , the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, plays a role in the plots of ''Golden Fleece'', ''Factoring Humanity'', ''Mindscan'', the novelette "Ineluctable," and the short stories "You See But You Do Not Observe" and "Flashes." Sawyer gives cosmology a thorough workout in his far-future ''Starplex''. 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'', and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in ''Hominids'' and its sequels. Sawyer's work often crosses over from science fiction to mystery, and indeed he won both Canada's top SF award (the Aurora) and its top mystery-fiction award (the Arthur Ellis) for his 1993 short story "Just Like Old Times." ''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'', and ''Flashforward'' are all, in part, murder mysteries. It's perhaps no surprise, then, that Sawyer has served as a consultant to Canada's Federal Department of Justice on the shape future genetics laws should take. Another Sawyer hallmark is the mortally ill main character. Pierre Tardivel in ''Frameshift'' suffers from Huntington's Disease , Sal-Afsan in ''Far Seer'' is blinded, Thomas Jericho in ''Calculating God'' has lung cancer, and Jacob Sullivan in ''Mindscan'' has an Arteriovenous Malformation in his brain. Perhaps ironically, Sawyer nonetheless is known for tales that end on an upbeat, and even transcendent, note. In 2000, Sawyer 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). In 2006, he will serve as Writer-in-Residence at the Kitchener Public Library in the Region Of Waterloo, Ontario , following on the Region of Waterloo's choice of Sawyer's ''Hominids'' as the "One Book, One Community" title that all 490,000 residents were encouraged to read in 2005. Sawyer has long been an advocate of Canadian science fiction. He lobbied hard for the creation of the Canadian Region of the Science Fiction And Fantasy Writers Of America . 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 an Aurora Award for best Fanzine . In . 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. He was in a tour during 2005 together with the writer of science fiction and fantasy, Robert Charles Wilson . Sawyer is active in several other writers' organizations, including the Crime Writers Of Canada and The Writers' Union Of Canada (for which he has served on the membership committee), and he is a member of the Writers Guild of Canada. BIBLIOGRAPHY
SELECTED AWARDS
INTERVIEWS
EXTERNAL LINKS SEE ALSO |
|
|