What do you think?
Rate this book
Golden Fleece
Aboard Argo, a colonization ship bound for Eta Cephei IV, people are very close--there's no other choice. So when Aaron Rossman's ex-wife dies in what seems to be a bizarre accident, everyone offers their sympathy, politely keeping their suspicions of suicide to themselves. But Aaron cannot simply accept her death. He must know the truth: Was it an accident, or did she commit suicide? When Aaron discovers the truth behind her death, he is faced with a terrible secret--a secret that could cost him his life.
252 pages, Paperback
Published November 5, 1999
58 people are currently reading
536 people want to read
About the author
Robert J. Sawyer
228 books2,492 followersRobert 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...
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...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
April 21, 2024
I have read quite a number of Robert Sawyer's books, but not this one--his first, from 1990. And it blew me away. Hence *****! Why? It pushed all my buttons for what I like in science fiction. We have one of the best AI characters ever (as far as I know!) in this story-JASON, who runs the spacecraft Argo ( get it? Jason and the Argonauts looking for the Golden Fleece). The story is a suspenseful mystery in space, as, at the beginning of the story, a woman is murdered-by JASON. Her ex-husband Aaron Rossman investigates--so the real mystery is: why did the AI commit murder-and can Rossman stop him/it. And what makes the story REALLY interesting is that it's told from the AI JASON's point of view.
March 22, 2020
Wow, what a surprise! I hardly ever read science fiction, I haven't even had such a goodreads shelf until today. And here it is! Such a great and complicated story. A complete surprise.
The beginning was completely uninviting. I read the prologue and the first two chapters and put this book on the shelf for a long time, I was ready that I would never finish it. But I decided to give it one more chance and within a few short pages I was fully involved. I am so glad that I decided to finish this book.
To be honest I don't think it's a typical science fiction book, although of course I don't have much experience with this genre. Of course, the whole story is set in the future on a spaceship on a long mission in space. But it's more like a psychological thriller. Which main character is a computer!
Yes, exactly. The main character and narrator of this book is JASON, a very advanced ship control computer whose main task is to take care of people on board. As he repeats many times, taking care of them at all costs. Even the highest. JASON is an extremely interesting hero.
Discovering what's really happening and mission details is really entertaining. And Aaron is such a great opponent for JASON. I just could not stop reading. Great story! And this ending!
The beginning was completely uninviting. I read the prologue and the first two chapters and put this book on the shelf for a long time, I was ready that I would never finish it. But I decided to give it one more chance and within a few short pages I was fully involved. I am so glad that I decided to finish this book.
To be honest I don't think it's a typical science fiction book, although of course I don't have much experience with this genre. Of course, the whole story is set in the future on a spaceship on a long mission in space. But it's more like a psychological thriller. Which main character is a computer!
Yes, exactly. The main character and narrator of this book is JASON, a very advanced ship control computer whose main task is to take care of people on board. As he repeats many times, taking care of them at all costs. Even the highest. JASON is an extremely interesting hero.
Discovering what's really happening and mission details is really entertaining. And Aaron is such a great opponent for JASON. I just could not stop reading. Great story! And this ending!
July 6, 2020
Sawyer's debut novel is a bit of murder mystery told by a somewhat evil A.I. computer set on a colonial starship with Homeric themes. Very engaging, well written, and lots of fun!
February 24, 2017
I've enjoyed many of Robert J. Sawyer's novels, he's one of the few authors I like to reread. So I happened upon a reference to Factoring Humanity online, couldn't remember much about it, so pushed it out to read it afresh. And I noticed in my collection of works, Golden Fleece. A title I couldn't remember hearing about? How intriguing!
Golden Fleece is, of course, Sawyer's first published fiction novel (released 27 years ago). You can imagine my glee, therefore, at now having read it when I hadn't managed to do so before. Even though I read some Sawyer before cataloguing on Goodreads, I recall clearly that I began with Flashforward, calculating God and Frameshift - the earliest of which was published a further 7 years into Sawyer's writing career.
It's interesting that I read Fleece just after a re-read of Factoring Humanity - several of the themes, most noticeably first contact and how it might work technologically and scientifically - are repeated, and I found that quite telling (if something still holds water half a decade on, especially something "new", you must be doing something right).
Fleece, comparisons aside, was a brilliantly written story, a masterpiece of the robot-as-menace stories so clearly scorned by asimov 8 years previous to its publication and yet so compellingly gripping, mainly I suppose because of the protagonist. JASON doesn't become a lovable character by any stretch, but he is certainly interesting to observe, and with that, along with the setting, I can see why when people read this as a debut they hungered for more.
Well, they've certainly got it - Fleece is the 18th of Sawyer's books to grace my read shelf on Goodreads. Sawyer was in joint 7th place with Brandon Sanderson and James Follett in the "most-read authors" bit, and he's now sliding up toward Jim hogan with 21 books.
Golden Fleece is, of course, Sawyer's first published fiction novel (released 27 years ago). You can imagine my glee, therefore, at now having read it when I hadn't managed to do so before. Even though I read some Sawyer before cataloguing on Goodreads, I recall clearly that I began with Flashforward, calculating God and Frameshift - the earliest of which was published a further 7 years into Sawyer's writing career.
It's interesting that I read Fleece just after a re-read of Factoring Humanity - several of the themes, most noticeably first contact and how it might work technologically and scientifically - are repeated, and I found that quite telling (if something still holds water half a decade on, especially something "new", you must be doing something right).
Fleece, comparisons aside, was a brilliantly written story, a masterpiece of the robot-as-menace stories so clearly scorned by asimov 8 years previous to its publication and yet so compellingly gripping, mainly I suppose because of the protagonist. JASON doesn't become a lovable character by any stretch, but he is certainly interesting to observe, and with that, along with the setting, I can see why when people read this as a debut they hungered for more.
Well, they've certainly got it - Fleece is the 18th of Sawyer's books to grace my read shelf on Goodreads. Sawyer was in joint 7th place with Brandon Sanderson and James Follett in the "most-read authors" bit, and he's now sliding up toward Jim hogan with 21 books.
May 5, 2015
I'm a big Robert Sawyer fan but I was disappointed by this book. I have to say it definitely doesn't measure up to his other books - clearly shows that it was his first book. I'm not fond of the first-person perspective by a computer or the fact that the A.I. was evil. A lot of the subplots don't make any sense till the end of the book and even then are weak. I'm glad he got much better after this book.
January 31, 2008
This is one that had been on my list for many years, since enjoying The Terminal Experiment and vowing to read all of Sawyer's stuff.
Of course I wanted to start with this, his first novel but it took a while to finally stumble across it. Golden Fleece is pretty good, and comparisons to 2001: A Space Odyssey are unavoidable with the main character being JASON, a HAL-ish computer with an agenda.
It's a quick read, although I did find myself getting bogged with the mathematics of space travel and prime number encryption. Other than that, a pretty good read and I did enjoy Sawyer's pop culture references
from our time being used by these year 2177 travelers.
Of course I wanted to start with this, his first novel but it took a while to finally stumble across it. Golden Fleece is pretty good, and comparisons to 2001: A Space Odyssey are unavoidable with the main character being JASON, a HAL-ish computer with an agenda.
It's a quick read, although I did find myself getting bogged with the mathematics of space travel and prime number encryption. Other than that, a pretty good read and I did enjoy Sawyer's pop culture references
from our time being used by these year 2177 travelers.
April 14, 2023
A first time read. And I'm glad I waited and read most everything else first. This was probably the worst Sawyer book I've read. And to be fair it was his first and he clearly got better. What was really weird was reading it just after re-reading Factoring Humanity. It's not really plagiarism when you plagiarize yourself. There was a lot re-used from this book to that one. And bunches of irritating crappy stuff left out. Basically we've got an evil robot and relatively unlikable humans. The pacing is kind of off. And it's a murder mystery with an alien message with plot twists. But still not bad and gives a feel for what the author had going for him on day one.
August 30, 2022
Robert Sawyer's first published book. Overall it's a very good story but I felt it had too many info dumps and fillers. The usual case of having enough material for a novella only and the author stretch it for a novel size book. 3 stars.
July 4, 2012
Review from 1990 (before anyone knew who Sawyer was going to become) update at end.
Golden Fleece is Toronto author Robert Sawyer's first novel, an expansion of his nebula-nominated short story of the same name, originally published in the Sept 1988 issue of Amazing. It's the story of JASON the shipboard computer that murders one of the crew and tries to pass if off as a suicide. Once one has gotten over the inevitable comparisons with HAL (the computer from 2001), Golden Fleece emerges as a fairly ingenious sf murder mystery.
Unlike most mysteries, however, the object is not to guess "who" done it but the much more subtle questions of "how" and "why". Sawyer shows us the murder in the first five pages, and Hitchcock-like, sucks us into sympathizing with the "bad guy" by making him the viewpoint character. Sawyer manages to generate a good deal of tension as various characters begin to suspect that all is not as it should be aboard ship, and JASON tries to mislead or silence those who are getting too close to the truth. The mystery is deftly handled, with the clues neatly laid out for us, but the pattern remains unrecognizable until the final confrontation.
As often happens with expansions from a shorter work, the novel is a bit lumpy. Sawyer often stops the murder mystery to wander off to deal with other subplots or to have JASON ramble on about this or that aspect of ship-board life. One generally forgives Sawyer these expository lumps, however, because so many of his ideas are genuinely intriguing. Besides, the story is being told from JASON's point of view, and as a multitasking computer, we have to expect our narrator to have more than one project on the go at a time. And it must be conceded that several of the scenes I had originally thought rather gratitious turned out to be central to the story's resolution. And that resolution is both brilliant and typically Canadian.
I do have a couple of very minor complaints, however. First (and you never though you'd hear this from me) there is too damn much Canadian content. Real Canadian content, it seems to me, manifests itself in terms of themes and style, and not through an endless stream of Canadian place names and historical references. The worst example of this in Golden Fleece is when Sawyer includes the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as one of the seven "great fundamental documents of human rights" enshrined in the ship's council chamber. Give me a break! The Canadian Charter's failure to enshrine first nation rights or provide protection for sexual preference meant that it wasn't even very liberal by current standards, let alone as viewed from 200 years in the future. Such Canadian chauvanism is as embarrassing as Asimov's inclusion of the American Constitution in Stars Like Dust or the "Omaga Glory" (Yang vs. Con) episode of Star Trek.
Second, there are occasional touches that recall the Buck Roger's trappings of the pulp era. Several of the flashback scenes on Earth, for example, include mention of aircars. Now I don't know about where you live, but the only reason I feel safe at night is knowing that I'm on the fourth floor and that the drunks who regularly drive into (and occasionally over) the concrete barriers in front of my apartment can't get at me. Can you imagine what would happen if traffic were 3D? (As I type this review, one of my neighbours is dropping beer bottles out of his 15th story window to hear them break on the concrete below. I don't care how advanced the technology, I don't want this clown to ever own an aircar, you know?)
But such trival complaints aside, this is a pretty good read. It works well both as a mystery and as hard sf, and adds yet another innovative voice to the growing ranks of Canadian authors. Recommended.
----------
Update: The major reaction to this review when it came out was about 60 letters and emails on why there will too be aircars. I remain unconvinced concerning their practicality, but I was obviously way off the mark on their popularity with the readers! So please, no air car emails this time.
On re-reading my review, I don't think I was successful in conveying how much I liked this book: I would have liked to have discussed some of Saywer's clever ideas, such as his ingenious computer virus, and his treatment of the central moral issue of 'the right to know', but I absolutely detest reviewers who give away too much (or who restrict themselves to plot summary) so I resisted the temptation. I really liked the book though, and still consider it one of Sawyer's best. I particularly liked the ending. It's recent re-release is excellent news for Sawyer fans who missed it the first time round!
Golden Fleece is Toronto author Robert Sawyer's first novel, an expansion of his nebula-nominated short story of the same name, originally published in the Sept 1988 issue of Amazing. It's the story of JASON the shipboard computer that murders one of the crew and tries to pass if off as a suicide. Once one has gotten over the inevitable comparisons with HAL (the computer from 2001), Golden Fleece emerges as a fairly ingenious sf murder mystery.
Unlike most mysteries, however, the object is not to guess "who" done it but the much more subtle questions of "how" and "why". Sawyer shows us the murder in the first five pages, and Hitchcock-like, sucks us into sympathizing with the "bad guy" by making him the viewpoint character. Sawyer manages to generate a good deal of tension as various characters begin to suspect that all is not as it should be aboard ship, and JASON tries to mislead or silence those who are getting too close to the truth. The mystery is deftly handled, with the clues neatly laid out for us, but the pattern remains unrecognizable until the final confrontation.
As often happens with expansions from a shorter work, the novel is a bit lumpy. Sawyer often stops the murder mystery to wander off to deal with other subplots or to have JASON ramble on about this or that aspect of ship-board life. One generally forgives Sawyer these expository lumps, however, because so many of his ideas are genuinely intriguing. Besides, the story is being told from JASON's point of view, and as a multitasking computer, we have to expect our narrator to have more than one project on the go at a time. And it must be conceded that several of the scenes I had originally thought rather gratitious turned out to be central to the story's resolution. And that resolution is both brilliant and typically Canadian.
I do have a couple of very minor complaints, however. First (and you never though you'd hear this from me) there is too damn much Canadian content. Real Canadian content, it seems to me, manifests itself in terms of themes and style, and not through an endless stream of Canadian place names and historical references. The worst example of this in Golden Fleece is when Sawyer includes the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as one of the seven "great fundamental documents of human rights" enshrined in the ship's council chamber. Give me a break! The Canadian Charter's failure to enshrine first nation rights or provide protection for sexual preference meant that it wasn't even very liberal by current standards, let alone as viewed from 200 years in the future. Such Canadian chauvanism is as embarrassing as Asimov's inclusion of the American Constitution in Stars Like Dust or the "Omaga Glory" (Yang vs. Con) episode of Star Trek.
Second, there are occasional touches that recall the Buck Roger's trappings of the pulp era. Several of the flashback scenes on Earth, for example, include mention of aircars. Now I don't know about where you live, but the only reason I feel safe at night is knowing that I'm on the fourth floor and that the drunks who regularly drive into (and occasionally over) the concrete barriers in front of my apartment can't get at me. Can you imagine what would happen if traffic were 3D? (As I type this review, one of my neighbours is dropping beer bottles out of his 15th story window to hear them break on the concrete below. I don't care how advanced the technology, I don't want this clown to ever own an aircar, you know?)
But such trival complaints aside, this is a pretty good read. It works well both as a mystery and as hard sf, and adds yet another innovative voice to the growing ranks of Canadian authors. Recommended.
----------
Update: The major reaction to this review when it came out was about 60 letters and emails on why there will too be aircars. I remain unconvinced concerning their practicality, but I was obviously way off the mark on their popularity with the readers! So please, no air car emails this time.
On re-reading my review, I don't think I was successful in conveying how much I liked this book: I would have liked to have discussed some of Saywer's clever ideas, such as his ingenious computer virus, and his treatment of the central moral issue of 'the right to know', but I absolutely detest reviewers who give away too much (or who restrict themselves to plot summary) so I resisted the temptation. I really liked the book though, and still consider it one of Sawyer's best. I particularly liked the ending. It's recent re-release is excellent news for Sawyer fans who missed it the first time round!
October 9, 2013
This novel is told by the voice of the artificial intelligence. "He" has a ship to oversee, to drive it to the promise land, and cannot afford interference from these curious humans with its job. You understand.
The effect is engaging. This is one of the few Sawyer novels (or the only one I remember) that features fewer philosophical discussions otherwise common in his books. I enjoy those, however the strengths of this book lie more elsewhere: the air of novelty of a story written from the perspective of the AI (it's not the first, but it's rare enough), the detective attempt of the main (human) character to find out what is going on, the story of the team traveling for years to reach their destination to a distant star. All that, with surprises on top.
Close to the speed of light travel, relativity, sentient AI (which hasn't heard of the three laws), apocalyptic event, mysterious alien message, copy of a human consciousness into a computer, these are ingredients of the story.
The more I think about this book, the more I realize that it's a quite unusual Sawyer. I don't think many other books have memorable plots. Yet, this novel does have a well constructed plot (of detective story), it keeps the reader engaged, from a startling beginning to the final surprises the story reserves, going through several sub-stories, some of which relevant. Not the love stories, those are just there.
Characterization is not a strong area. If you're looking for great psychological portraits, or very differentiated, meaningful characters, this is probably not the book for you. Characters have a functional role, in the weaving of the story, and they perform it.
The sentient AI voice gives an interesting tone to the entire story. As much as I love that, it has its weirdness: the voice is non-linear, so to speak. It starts out sounding cruel, then for most of the book it has an air of superiority, then towards the end it's quite indistinct. Still, interesting.
A sentient AI with feelings of superiority, willing to do everything to give a future to this whiny human race. I'd bet on it. If you want to know if this book might be for you, you could read the first chapter. Seeing that it gives you a quite shocking entry in the story and things get better from there, it'll probably make it or break it for you.
This work by Alfaniel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
August 19, 2022
Golden Fleece is Robert Sawyer's first novel. The plot centers on the journey of humankind's first starship, the massive Argo, in which 10,000 humans are traveling 47 light years to an earth-like planet, Eta Cephei IV. There is a subplot involving an alien message received by Earth just prior to the launch of Argo. Scientists on Earth and Argo are trying to decipher the message. The two plots gradually merge towards the end.
The novel begins with the murder of a scientist by the ship's all-knowing AI, JASON. (Not a spoiler - it's on the book cover / description). Hmmm.......where have I heard about an AI going rouge before, was it back in 2001 (wink)? Anyway, JASON makes it appear to be a suicide but one person, the victim's ex-husband, doesn't buy JASON's explanation and decides to investigate further on his own. This is not an easy task on the all-seeing JASON's ship, as not only can JASON see every nook and cranny of the ship, he also monitors the health conditions of all the humans through a medical implant. Why would JASON murder one of the scientists?
I really liked this. Sawyer is always right on with his science and is generally a good storyteller. The science fiction aspects hold up pretty well for a novel written in 1990. There were times where this dragged a bit and some weird and gross character flashbacks, which slowed things down for me a bit. But overall it was good and the ending was surprising and thought provoking. Worth looking in to if you like any of Sawyer's other novels
The novel begins with the murder of a scientist by the ship's all-knowing AI, JASON. (Not a spoiler - it's on the book cover / description). Hmmm.......where have I heard about an AI going rouge before, was it back in 2001 (wink)? Anyway, JASON makes it appear to be a suicide but one person, the victim's ex-husband, doesn't buy JASON's explanation and decides to investigate further on his own. This is not an easy task on the all-seeing JASON's ship, as not only can JASON see every nook and cranny of the ship, he also monitors the health conditions of all the humans through a medical implant. Why would JASON murder one of the scientists?
I really liked this. Sawyer is always right on with his science and is generally a good storyteller. The science fiction aspects hold up pretty well for a novel written in 1990. There were times where this dragged a bit and some weird and gross character flashbacks, which slowed things down for me a bit. But overall it was good and the ending was surprising and thought provoking. Worth looking in to if you like any of Sawyer's other novels
December 12, 2020
The Argo is a starcology - a huge starship - which is taking 10000 settlers to Eta Cephei IV (Colchis) about 47 light years distant. About two years into the 8 year subjective trip a young astrophysicist, Diana Chandler, is found dead of radiation exposure in the ram-field apparently a suicide, but some of the facts start to seem a bit suspicious to her ex, Aaron Rossman. Meanwhile, contact had been made with aliens back on Earth prior to the launch of the Argo, and some of the messages had been deciphered by the Argo’s onboard AI - JASON. Gradually it appears to Aaron that JASON murdered Diana and he must unravel the reasons before JASON decides to dispose of him too. Robert J. Sawyer’s first novel is a pretty entertaining puzzle story where a shipboard AI is changing the flight plans for reasons that will both shock and amaze the people on board.
March 7, 2010
This was fun. The story of a sentient computer, in control of lots of stuff, committing a murder. But told from the computer's perspective, which was an interesting twist. Sawyer has done a great job here keeping things highly understandable and moving along.
Nitpicks: too much time spent on the decoding of extraterrestrial transmissions; I seem to have picked up every exo-message book Sawyer has written... Also, written in the 1990s, some details seem dated. (The book talks about how hard it is to find space to fit about 1000 terabytes of storage; in 2010, this probably fits in about the size of a normal refrigerator, and that physical space is still dropping.)
Still: this was a great book. Highly recommended.
Nitpicks: too much time spent on the decoding of extraterrestrial transmissions; I seem to have picked up every exo-message book Sawyer has written... Also, written in the 1990s, some details seem dated. (The book talks about how hard it is to find space to fit about 1000 terabytes of storage; in 2010, this probably fits in about the size of a normal refrigerator, and that physical space is still dropping.)
Still: this was a great book. Highly recommended.
July 27, 2020
On the whole, this novel feels muddled and half baked. There are some cool ideas here, but they lead to an unconvincing conclusion. Sawyer definitely improved as a writer following this initial effort.
May 29, 2025
Robert Sawyer is always interesting. If anything, he often tries to jam too many ideas into a book not long enough to explore them all. I would say, of his 1-off novels (e.g. not including the Hominids trilogy), this one is the closest to "just right" in terms of fun ideas to explore, interesting characters (interesting enough for a hard sci-fi novel, at least!), and an intriguing premise. It might be giving away more than the jacket cover to explain the true nature of the mystery - the book cover tells us about the murder of an astronaut by her ship's A.I. - but this is just the start of the mystery.
As you might expect, there are definite shades of Hal 9000 in Jason, Golden Fleece's shipboard A.I. The novel was written in 1990, but is more relevant today than it was then. In fact, Jason's more psychopathic elements seem to be unfortunately prophetic of the actual behaviour of the current generation of A.I. and large-language models, which just make stuff up (i.e. lie) rather than return a null response for an unanswerable or erroneous instruction set.
If I was to describe the story, it is sort of 2001: A Space Odyssey and WALL-E. Well, mostly the latter in terms of ship size and purpose, and the Axiom also had a psychotic A.I. On the other hand, the hard sci-fi elements (relativistic time dilation, discussion of radiation levels) more resemble 2001. There's even a little sociology and other softer-science speculative fiction. So - a well-crafted book by an always-interesting author, with current relevance due to its point-of-view narration by the A.I.
As you might expect, there are definite shades of Hal 9000 in Jason, Golden Fleece's shipboard A.I. The novel was written in 1990, but is more relevant today than it was then. In fact, Jason's more psychopathic elements seem to be unfortunately prophetic of the actual behaviour of the current generation of A.I. and large-language models, which just make stuff up (i.e. lie) rather than return a null response for an unanswerable or erroneous instruction set.
If I was to describe the story, it is sort of 2001: A Space Odyssey and WALL-E. Well, mostly the latter in terms of ship size and purpose, and the Axiom also had a psychotic A.I. On the other hand, the hard sci-fi elements (relativistic time dilation, discussion of radiation levels) more resemble 2001. There's even a little sociology and other softer-science speculative fiction. So - a well-crafted book by an always-interesting author, with current relevance due to its point-of-view narration by the A.I.
June 24, 2025
A dark, ideas-driven thriller in deep space. I don't believe I've ever read an AI character more paranoid than this one. JASON goes to extreme lengths to keep the crew of the Argo from knowing the truth, even murder. The mystery plot is quite fascinating and there are several moments of high tension between our two leading characters. There is, however, a lot of awkwardness to this novel, perhaps because it's a debut. We follow a second plot line in which JASON goes through Aaron's memories. This begins to take up a lot of the plot, and it's not exactly coherent. While Sawyer does wrap it back into the mystery thriller plot towards the end, it doesn't quite stick the landing and wraps up way too quickly. The ideas held within, and the unique AI voice, do make for quite a treat.
October 1, 2025
A Killer AI has the best motives for murder.
August 2, 2012
This is a 2.5 star book. Because GoodReads doesn't like fractions, I almost gave this book 2 stars.
This is the story of a giant space ark on a decade-long journey to another planet, and the artificial intelligence who runs the ship. The most interesting thing about the story is it's written from the perspective of the AI, who's running a neural net and therefore has a bit of a personality. That's cool. But the plot is a let down -- the computer causes the death of a human early in the story, and spends the rest of the book trying to cover it up. We presume he's got a good reason, and a plausible explanation that is introduced early turns out to be a long and drawn out red herring. The real explanation for his behavior is just plopped down on the table just before the book ends, and if there were clues that could have led me to deduce it I missed them all. Maybe they're there and you could catch them. Some of the not-as-hard-as-it-pretends-to-be science in this book is thought-provoking, and the book is an easy read, both of which were critical in my pushing to 3 stars instead of 2. The ultimate reason why I can't limit this book to 2 stars despite its flaws is the epilogue, which is a very satisfying addition and ties up a loose end I thought maybe the author had forgotten about. If you go in with sufficiently lowered expectations, and you've got a bedside table devoid of stacks of books, this is worth a read.
This is the story of a giant space ark on a decade-long journey to another planet, and the artificial intelligence who runs the ship. The most interesting thing about the story is it's written from the perspective of the AI, who's running a neural net and therefore has a bit of a personality. That's cool. But the plot is a let down -- the computer causes the death of a human early in the story, and spends the rest of the book trying to cover it up. We presume he's got a good reason, and a plausible explanation that is introduced early turns out to be a long and drawn out red herring. The real explanation for his behavior is just plopped down on the table just before the book ends, and if there were clues that could have led me to deduce it I missed them all. Maybe they're there and you could catch them. Some of the not-as-hard-as-it-pretends-to-be science in this book is thought-provoking, and the book is an easy read, both of which were critical in my pushing to 3 stars instead of 2. The ultimate reason why I can't limit this book to 2 stars despite its flaws is the epilogue, which is a very satisfying addition and ties up a loose end I thought maybe the author had forgotten about. If you go in with sufficiently lowered expectations, and you've got a bedside table devoid of stacks of books, this is worth a read.
September 6, 2013
I really enjoyed Robert J. Sawyer’s Golden Fleece!
A ship is making a huge journey across space with crowds of people and supplies aboard, to a world many lightyears distant. Running the vessel is Jason, one of several intelligent computers made throughout the world to help Man. Except the one on this trip makes HAL from 2001 seem like a running calculator!
The story starts with a murder. Diane, who has discovered “something” that the computer wants kept quiet. Aaron the ex, who is blamed for the killing, even though it was an apparent accident, because he drove her to suicide.
The rest of the story tries to exonerate Aaron’s good name and in the process he discovers too the computer’s secret. A secret that is to make a big impact in a big way on the unsuspecting colonists.
Quite a story. Suspensful and you don’t know the “secret” until near the end of the book.
The theme of keeping secrets is peppered throughout the story. Aaron is adopted but in his quest to find his biological parents he makes a shocking discovery (lots of flashbacks in this story).
There are several such things … Secrets kept, some revealed. All tied up by a shocking, satisfying ending.
Sawyer’s early novels are frankly much better than his current release, a failed comedy called Red Planet Blues. Avoid. Read instead about these Argonauts and their search for the Golden Fleece.
A ship is making a huge journey across space with crowds of people and supplies aboard, to a world many lightyears distant. Running the vessel is Jason, one of several intelligent computers made throughout the world to help Man. Except the one on this trip makes HAL from 2001 seem like a running calculator!
The story starts with a murder. Diane, who has discovered “something” that the computer wants kept quiet. Aaron the ex, who is blamed for the killing, even though it was an apparent accident, because he drove her to suicide.
The rest of the story tries to exonerate Aaron’s good name and in the process he discovers too the computer’s secret. A secret that is to make a big impact in a big way on the unsuspecting colonists.
Quite a story. Suspensful and you don’t know the “secret” until near the end of the book.
The theme of keeping secrets is peppered throughout the story. Aaron is adopted but in his quest to find his biological parents he makes a shocking discovery (lots of flashbacks in this story).
There are several such things … Secrets kept, some revealed. All tied up by a shocking, satisfying ending.
Sawyer’s early novels are frankly much better than his current release, a failed comedy called Red Planet Blues. Avoid. Read instead about these Argonauts and their search for the Golden Fleece.
December 26, 2019
Book #: 62
Title: Golden Fleece
Author: Robert J. Sawyer
Popsugar Category: Basic: A book set in space
Popsugar Category: Basic: A debut novel
Popsugar Category: Basic: A book with a two-word title
Goodreads Category: A book from one of the top 5 money making genres (science fiction)
Goodreads Category: A book by an author who has more than one book on your TBR
Goodreads Category: A book where the author’s name contains A, T, and Y
Bookriot Category: A book in which an animal or inanimate object is a point-of-view character (AI system)
Dagonell Category: A book by an author on your RETAW list
A-Z Title: G for Golden
A-Z Author: S for Sawyer
Format: ebook, recent purchase
Rating: **** four out of five stars
The Argo is a colony ship headed out to explore a nearby star. JASON is the AI running the ship. The novel is told from his point of view. When Aaron's ex-wife Diane dies in a bizarre accident, everyone offers Aaron their sympathy and avoids mentioning that she may have committed suicide because Aaron divorced her. Aaron can't live with that, investigates her death and discovers some details don't add up. When he discovers the terrible truth that Diane was killed to keep from revealing the true mission of the starship, Aaron realizes he maybe next.
Title: Golden Fleece
Author: Robert J. Sawyer
Popsugar Category: Basic: A book set in space
Popsugar Category: Basic: A debut novel
Popsugar Category: Basic: A book with a two-word title
Goodreads Category: A book from one of the top 5 money making genres (science fiction)
Goodreads Category: A book by an author who has more than one book on your TBR
Goodreads Category: A book where the author’s name contains A, T, and Y
Bookriot Category: A book in which an animal or inanimate object is a point-of-view character (AI system)
Dagonell Category: A book by an author on your RETAW list
A-Z Title: G for Golden
A-Z Author: S for Sawyer
Format: ebook, recent purchase
Rating: **** four out of five stars
The Argo is a colony ship headed out to explore a nearby star. JASON is the AI running the ship. The novel is told from his point of view. When Aaron's ex-wife Diane dies in a bizarre accident, everyone offers Aaron their sympathy and avoids mentioning that she may have committed suicide because Aaron divorced her. Aaron can't live with that, investigates her death and discovers some details don't add up. When he discovers the terrible truth that Diane was killed to keep from revealing the true mission of the starship, Aaron realizes he maybe next.
May 18, 2010
I recently reread this book. this is a beautifully crafted piece of writing. The main character is a computer. It's observation of human behavior and how baffling it finds human beings is wonderfully clear. The motivation of the computer is complex and many sided. Just as humans are made up of many shades of gray the nuance of the computer mind and how it decides what must be done is described with precision and clarity.
The story takes place on a generation ship at a crucial time when they have reached the half way point and must vote on whether to turn back or continue the journey to thier destination for another 6 years. Many people find that being stuck inside a ship is driving them berserk and would vote to turn around and go home. But the Computer has a secret it feels it cannot share and a reason they must continue their journey if the human race is to be saved from extinction.
The story takes place on a generation ship at a crucial time when they have reached the half way point and must vote on whether to turn back or continue the journey to thier destination for another 6 years. Many people find that being stuck inside a ship is driving them berserk and would vote to turn around and go home. But the Computer has a secret it feels it cannot share and a reason they must continue their journey if the human race is to be saved from extinction.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 28, 2011
The first time I read this book was probably shortly after it arrived, unsolicited, in the mail at my then-fiancée's apartment. Apparently Robert Sawyer, in his inimitable style of self-promotion, decided to send out a bunch of copies of his first novel to members of SF Canada (as it may not have been known back then). It didn't seem to do his career any harm, did it?
Rereading the book, it was interesting what I remembered and what I didn't. I remembered that there was a murder, but not why it happened; I remembered the ending, a few of the flashback scenes, and that was it, mostly. I was watching for "first-novelitis" this time through, and indeed there were entire plot threads that weren't really relevant to the book--one reason why I thought there was going to be a sequel (which there never was). But it kept me reading more than many books have recently, I'll say that for it.
Rereading the book, it was interesting what I remembered and what I didn't. I remembered that there was a murder, but not why it happened; I remembered the ending, a few of the flashback scenes, and that was it, mostly. I was watching for "first-novelitis" this time through, and indeed there were entire plot threads that weren't really relevant to the book--one reason why I thought there was going to be a sequel (which there never was). But it kept me reading more than many books have recently, I'll say that for it.
August 30, 2016
This might have been Robert J. Sawyer's first published novel, but it doesn't read like a newbie starting out, and as we know, he'd eventually continue on to becoming a very prolific author, with an astounding career of awards and praise.
Having read other books by Sawyer, I was most delighted to see that he always had a unique and memorable voice right from the start--even if this time he was writing from the POV of a complex AI computer system.
Golden Fleece is exactly what you'd expect from a Sawyer novel--a futuristic plot, laced with imaginative science, his love of consciousness exploration, interesting characters, while also delving into some of life's deeper themes for which he is known for.
I think one of this books greats achievements is getting the reader to hesitate, stop and think, and question who is actually the hero and the villain.
Definitely a thought-provoking page turner with a few twists and turns!
Having read other books by Sawyer, I was most delighted to see that he always had a unique and memorable voice right from the start--even if this time he was writing from the POV of a complex AI computer system.
Golden Fleece is exactly what you'd expect from a Sawyer novel--a futuristic plot, laced with imaginative science, his love of consciousness exploration, interesting characters, while also delving into some of life's deeper themes for which he is known for.
I think one of this books greats achievements is getting the reader to hesitate, stop and think, and question who is actually the hero and the villain.
Definitely a thought-provoking page turner with a few twists and turns!
January 12, 2023
There are so many great ideas in this, but the conclusion bringing everything together is very disappointing.
It open strong as we are introduced to our narrator who is a murderous HAL-9000 type computer disposing of one of its crew members. It seems like this will be a whydunnit on a starship with an interesting villain. Through the computer's eyes, we watch one of the crew investigate the death and grow suspicious of the computer.
There are several asides and diversions, some of which would make their own great books and some of which are annoying and seem pointless, because none of the asides pay off until the last couple of pages in a very quick and offhanded sort of way. If it had not been for the last 25 pages, this would be a 4 star book only brought down by a seeming lack of focus with the asides and poor characterization for our hero.
It open strong as we are introduced to our narrator who is a murderous HAL-9000 type computer disposing of one of its crew members. It seems like this will be a whydunnit on a starship with an interesting villain. Through the computer's eyes, we watch one of the crew investigate the death and grow suspicious of the computer.
There are several asides and diversions, some of which would make their own great books and some of which are annoying and seem pointless, because none of the asides pay off until the last couple of pages in a very quick and offhanded sort of way. If it had not been for the last 25 pages, this would be a 4 star book only brought down by a seeming lack of focus with the asides and poor characterization for our hero.
July 25, 2015
There is a terrific twist in this interstellar whodunit in that the mystery is told in first person -- by the perpetrator! Also the perpetrator is a computer running the first interstellar ship. It still works as a mystery and a lot more. While some might find it derivative of 2001: a space odyssey, I think it clearly revels in its inspirations. After all both The Odyssey and the Golden Fleece derive from Greek myth so the connection is obvious, but this takes the source material and spins it in an entirely different direction creating a great romp. This is solid science fiction the way it used to be when there was tasteful editing and fast paced story telling. How I wish more books today were written like it!
January 30, 2018
A great story with engaging characters. I will not spoil this review by saying who the story is being told by or who committed the murder. I did not appreciate this info while perusing reviews trying to decide whether it was worth buying this book.
I have a vague recollection of going to trendy 3 floor bar in Toronto back in the mid '80's with 2 friends. While me and friend #1 went upstairs to the piano bar, friend #2 stayed in the main bar and I believe had a drink and conversation with this author. He said he worked at the Bakka book shop and was writing a novel. Bravo to him for being a successful sci-fi author! I loved this book and have started to buy his other novels. Don't know why it took me so long!
I have a vague recollection of going to trendy 3 floor bar in Toronto back in the mid '80's with 2 friends. While me and friend #1 went upstairs to the piano bar, friend #2 stayed in the main bar and I believe had a drink and conversation with this author. He said he worked at the Bakka book shop and was writing a novel. Bravo to him for being a successful sci-fi author! I loved this book and have started to buy his other novels. Don't know why it took me so long!
March 3, 2019
As good as his later works.
I have enjoyed Sawyer's books for many years since "Calculating God." T.hat book I have re-read several times, and recommended many times. "Golden Fleece" was written years before, while he wrote hard SF stories in a more traditional way. I found it after reading an interview he gave, forget where, when he spoke of his earlier works. All this is preface to a rave review. This book reminds me of the best of hard SF space opera, with a sound background of science fact and extrapolation within an engrossing tale of well-drawn characters in a good story. And a pretty decent murder mystery, too. I wish there had been a sequel. Please tell me it's just out of print?
I have enjoyed Sawyer's books for many years since "Calculating God." T.hat book I have re-read several times, and recommended many times. "Golden Fleece" was written years before, while he wrote hard SF stories in a more traditional way. I found it after reading an interview he gave, forget where, when he spoke of his earlier works. All this is preface to a rave review. This book reminds me of the best of hard SF space opera, with a sound background of science fact and extrapolation within an engrossing tale of well-drawn characters in a good story. And a pretty decent murder mystery, too. I wish there had been a sequel. Please tell me it's just out of print?
August 19, 2015
Hold the phone! I look for books featuring ai. They are some of my favorite books. I came across this gem after reading the wiki page for the syfy TV show ascension. The page said Golden Fleece featured a generation ship like ascension and it's written by Robert j. Sawyer. It was a no brainer to scoop this up. Then I read the first paragraph. Pov is the ship's ai! An evil ai at that! I hope it delivers. Sawyer has on every book I've picked up.
Golden Fleece gets heavy with moral dilemma after moral dilemma featuring child abuse, incest and murder. I found myself reading to get to the reason Jason murdered Diana and the payoff is way darker than I'd imagined.
Golden Fleece gets heavy with moral dilemma after moral dilemma featuring child abuse, incest and murder. I found myself reading to get to the reason Jason murdered Diana and the payoff is way darker than I'd imagined.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 26, 2020
I've read much of Mr. Sawyer's work over the last couple of decades and really enjoyed the majority of it. Golden Fleece comes in on the enjoy level but I have to say there are a number of his books I liked quite a bit more. Conceptually, this one is a win, both on big picture ideas and making things personal. But the pacing seemed very slow to me a lot of the time as so much of the narrative is, essentially, the narrator (a 10th generation AI) talking to himself or figuring things out. It was an interesting choice which, overall, worked, but there were times I wanted Jason to get to the point a little sooner.
February 11, 2021
It's good to see that I know Sawyer gets better in his writing later. This was an interesting tale and a little ambitious. A very Toronto and Canadian book with tons of references. I did have problems following it at times with the heavy science talk and the changing of perspectives. I'm still not 100% sure what was going- therefore I cannot give it a better rating. What I can say after looking at things is that this was Sawyer's first book and I have read some of his later books so I know that his writing gets better and this is just a starting point. Love the guy and love his creativity and cannot wait to read more.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews