[Robert J. Sawyer]  SCIENCE FICTION WRITER
 
ROBERT J. SAWYER
 Best Novel Hugo and Nebula Award Winner

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[GOLDEN FLEECE spine]

Review Excerpts

  Robert J. Sawyer's Golden Fleece  

Amazing Stories (Wisconsin): "A compelling thriller. There's more than enough suspense to pull readers briskly through the pages."

Tom Easton in Analog (New York): "The writing is smooth and the reading effortless. The characters — even JASON — evoke your sympathy. I'm looking forward to what Sawyer does next."

Bakka Books in-store review (Toronto): "Sawyer returns us to the Science Fiction of ideas and does so with a clarity of prose seldom seen these days. Well done and highly recommended."

Books in Canada (Toronto): "Surprisingly poignant. Sawyer carries it off with wit and imagination."

Books in Canada (again): "A very accomplished first novel, skillfully blending hard scientific speculation about interstellar travel and artificial intelligence with interesting and effective characterization."

The Bookwatch (The Midwest Book Review): "A thrilling science fiction adventure told from the viewpoint of a murderous computer."

Physicist Robert W. Bussard, inventor of the Bussard ramjet: "It reads grandly. Good, interesting, and entertaining, too."

Orson Scott Card, Hugo and Nebula winning author of Ender's Game, in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (Connecticut): "Sawyer gives us something rare in this age of the quotidian hero: a genuine tragedy. It is no accident that he invokes Greek myth in the title of the book. Sawyer is willing to play on the same field as Aeschylus and Euripides, and he proves himself equal to the task. JASON is, in my opinion, the deepest computer character in all of science fiction. And Aaron is, in my opinion, one of the most well-drawn, fallible, human detectives I've encountered in mystery fiction — in a league with, say, [Ruth] Rendell's Inspector Wexford. You might as well buy two copies in the first place — one to read and keep, and one to shove at your friends, saying, `Read this! Now!' How good is Golden Fleece? A friend of mine — an English professor — used to ask, whenever he saw me, `Why are you still writing that spaceship stuff?' Now I can answer. Because this is possible."

Circular of Janus, Circle of Janus SF Club of Central Indiana: "One of the best new SF novels of 1990. The humor is refreshingly offbeat, the sequence of events anything but trite. Recommended."

John Robert Colombo in The Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper: "A wonderful science fiction novel, better than the movie 2001."

Comics Buyer's Guide (Wisconsin): "JASON is excellent, and his fast-paced and sometimes witty, sometimes naive narration keeps you turning the pages all the way to the end."

Charles de Lint in Science Fiction Review (Oregon): "The prose, characterization, pacing, speculation and storyline are so assured, it's hard to believe that this is a first effort."

Encyclopaedia Galactica (Prentice Hall, New York): "Echoes both Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl, but in a voice that is distinctly Sawyer's own. Sawyer's murderous AI, JASON, is one of the most memorable creations in contemporary SF."

Prof. David Ketterer in Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy (Indiana University Press): "Sawyer, via his well-drawn detective, Aaron Rossman (ex-husband of the victim), resolves this SF mystery (coupled with Greek myth) in a thoroughly satisfying manner that is all his own."

Lan's Lantern (Michigan): "A very interesting first novel, worthy of close attention by SF readers."

Library Journal (New York): "Expertly combines mystery and sf in a fast-moving thriller. Recommended."

Locus: The Newspaper of the Science Fiction Field (California): "Surprising and ingenious."

Mystery Scene (Indiana): "With JASON, Sawyer's created one of the most interesting characters in years. Suspenseful, entertaining, inventive, thought-provoking, and funny. I enjoyed this one a lot. Highly recommended."

John-Allen Price in The Niagara Gazette (Niagara Falls, New York): "Like reading Jaws from the shark's point of view. Golden Fleece is a refreshingly different science-fiction mystery" with "a double-wham conclusion in the style of Twilight Zone."

Quill & Quire: Canada's Magazine of Book News and Reviews (Toronto): "A well-paced page-turner replete with hard science."

Reading for Pleasure (Maryland): "This is one of the best written books I've read this last year, both in style and inventiveness. Go now and search for the Golden Fleece; it may be your most fulfilling quest of 1991."

Science Fiction Chronicle (New York): "Fascinating" with a "double surprise ending."

SideTrekked, Science Fiction London (London, Ontario): "Reminiscent of Heinlein at his best."

John North in The Toronto Star: "An elegant spacecraft mystery. A compelling tale of deception that relies more on sociology than technology."

Torus (Toronto): "SF mysteries are particularly difficult to write but Sawyer pulls this one off with elan. It's a solid, intelligent and entertaining novel — one that many more-experienced authors would be proud to have written."


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