Robert J. Sawyer's Blog

Financial Times — The Financial Times of London, one of the most-read newspapers in the world — just reviewed my novel Triggers. It’s a short but sweet review, but wonderfully quotable:

“It’s a national security nightmare — someone has access to the secrets lodged in the brain of the most powerful man in the world. There’s lots of fascinating stuff here about how human memory works, and Sawyer expertly explores the personal as well as political consequences of his high-concept premise.”

–Financ...

In 1979, before I’d yet seen Star Trek: The Motion Picture, a friend of mine came up to me and said, “So, what did you think when V’Ger turned out to be Voyager 6?” I’ve never had any idea what my reaction to that revelation would have been; I was robbed of that moment. But this week, I finally got to experience ST:TMP as it was meant to be seen…

I think most of the world was robbed of the power of the V’Ger revelation, anyway, because almost all of us who saw ST:TMP had already seen the class...

A fabulous 18-minute Texas Public Radio interivew with me about Triggers, conducted by the masterful Dan Skinner, is online here. Give it a listen!

Texas Public Radio describes the interview thusly:

When you talk about finding your soul mate, quantum entanglement is probably something you didn’t think about when searching for that individual who would “complete” you. But in the science fiction novel Triggers, by Robert J. Sawyer, the notion of quantum entanglement plays a role in the story. Pre...

Pictured: Dune author Frank Herbert and Bakka owner John Rose, outside of Bakka’s old 282 Queen Street West location in Toronto, where Robert J. Sawyer worked in 1982; Bakka was named for “the weeper who mourns for all mankind” from Dune. Photo by Tom Robe from 1981.

Just about exactly thirty years ago, I started the best summer job I ever had. I worked at Bakka, the science-fiction bookstore in Toronto, for four months in the summer of 1982. What an education in bookselling!

Here are some of...

Reviews for Triggers by Robert J. Sawyer:

“Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer returns with a new hard science fiction novel which pulls together elements of a gripping political thriller with cutting edge psychological insights to create a story that works on many levels. Triggers has the pacing of an episode of 24 and the philosophical sensibilities of an Isaac Asimov novel, so any readers who were introduced to Sawyer through his television series FlashFor...

Triggers debuted at #8 on the Fiction bestsellers list in Maclean’s: Canada’s National Newsmagazine in its first week out (list published April 12), and has moved up to #7 in its second week (list published April 19).

And it debuted at #7 on the Canadian Fiction bestsellers list in The Globe and Mail: Canada’s National Newspaper (list published April 14).

These are the two principal bestsellers lists in Canada; Triggers is a bona fide national top-ten mainstream bestseller in Canada.

Robert J. S...

… not 7:30 p.m., as incorrectly reported in a few places. The event for TRIGGERS takes place this Wednesday, April 11, at Audreys, 10702 Jasper Ave. NW, Edmonton at 7:00 p.m. Free; everybody welcome.

Today is the official publication date of my 21s novel Triggers. The hardcover, ebook, and Audible.com versions are all out now. I begin my book tour tonight!

"Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer returns with a new hard science fiction novel which pulls together elements of a gripping political thriller with cutting edge psychological insights to create a story that works on many levels. Triggers has the pacing of an episode of 24 and the philosophical...

On Sundays, The Toronto Star — the largest-circulation newspaper in Canada — contains a version of the New York Times Book Review. Today, Sunday, April 1, 2012, the entire back cover of that section was devoted to this terrific ad produced by Penguin Group (Canada) for Triggers. Penguin Canada has been enormously supportive of my work, and I'm very proud to be published by them.

You can see a bigger version of the ad by clicking on the graphic above or this link.

Oh, and here's the ad Penguin ...

Tom Shippey — the world's top Tolkien scholar — reviews my novel Triggers in the March 31, 2012, edition of The Wall Street Journal. The review concludes:

Mr. Sawyer works through the permutations with one surprise after another, including the president's deep, dark secret–now in somebody else's possession–that would make him a one-termer for sure. The positive side is that the president can appreciate firsthand the cost of the orders he's given. He now shares the memories of a returned Iraq...