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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

The Downloaded 2 wins the Aurora!

My The Downloaded 2: Ghosts in the Machine just won this year’s Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Award (“the Aurora”) for Best Novel of the Year!

I’m absolutely thrilled — and so is the lead narrator of the Audible Originals audio version, Academy Award-winner Brendan Fraser (pictured are Brendan and me during the recording sessions).

The best-novel ballot this year was absolutely spectacula

Combine Editions
Robert J. Sawyer’s books

Average rating: 3.88 · 146,097 ratings · 11,964 reviews · 224 distinct works • Similar authors

	Flashforward 3.66 avg rating — 17,295 ratings — published 1999 — 4 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) 3.81 avg rating — 14,239 ratings — published 2002 — 28 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 — 10,604 ratings — published 2000 — 4 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 — 8,659 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 — 6,258 ratings — published 2003	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 3.58 avg rating — 5,748 ratings — published 2023 — 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
	Watch (WWW, #2) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 5,087 ratings — published 2010	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 — 5,297 ratings — published 2003 — 27 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 — 4,330 ratings — published 2011	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 — 4,594 ratings — published 1995	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)
by

Robert J. Sawyer (Goodreads Author)

3.81 avg rating — 25,793 ratings

WWW (3 books)
by

Robert J. Sawyer (Goodreads Author)

3.92 avg rating — 18,100 ratings

The Downloaded (2 books)
by

Robert J. Sawyer (Goodreads Author),

Brendan Fraser (Narrator),

Vanessa Sears (Narrator),

Lior Maharjan (Narrator),

Cerise Handspiker (Narrator)

3.56 avg rating — 6,881 ratings

Quintaglio Ascension (3 books)
by

Robert J. Sawyer (Goodreads Author)

4.05 avg rating — 3,752 ratings

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The Oppenheimer Alternative

by Robert J. Sawyer (Goodreads Author)

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May 10, 2020 11:01PM

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Robert’s Recent Updates

Robert J. Sawyer wrote a new blog post The Downloaded 2 wins the Aurora! My The Downloaded 2: Ghosts in the Machine just won this year’s Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Award (“the Aurora”) for Best Novel of the Year! Read more of this blog post »
Aug 12, 2026 12:02AM · 4 likes · like
Robert J. Sawyer and 5 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 · 21 likes · like

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

2272 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

34 likes

See all Robert J. Sawyer's quotes »

Polls

3rd Quarter 2020 - SciFi #2

Afterland by Lauren Beukes, 416p (July 28 pub)

4 votes, 40.0%

Seven Devils by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May, 448p (Aug 4 pub)

2 votes, 20.0%

Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang, 640p (Aug or Sept)

2 votes, 20.0%

Edges by Linda Nagata, 476p

2 votes, 20.0%

The Oppenheimer Alternative by Robert J. Sawyer, 378p

0 votes, 0.0%

Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis, 384p (July 21 pub)

0 votes, 0.0%

A Case of Conscience by James Blish, 256p

0 votes, 0.0%

The Lightest Object in the Universe by Kimi Eisele, 325p

0 votes, 0.0%

10 total votes

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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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