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Review Excerpts
About Robert J. Sawyer
About Books: "Sawyer is Canada's best speculative fiction writer, by far."
Amazing Stories (Wisconsin): "A skillful, even daring
storyteller."
Barnes and Noble: "Sawyer's stunning
thrillers have produced multiple Hugo and Nebula nominations, enough for
most to recognize him as the leader of SF's next-generation pack."
Blog T.O.:
"One of the finest science fiction writers in the world, on par
with Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov and Bradbury, not just for his
imagination but also for his interest in the human condition."
Booklist (American Library Association):
"Sawyer is Canada's leading SF author."
Booklist (again): "Canada's dean of SF."
Books in Canada (Toronto): "A sense of wonder that hasn't
prevailed in American SF since the days of Heinlein."
The Canadian Encyclopedia: "A passionate advocate
for science fiction; reviewers praise Sawyer for his concise prose, which
has been compared to that of the science-fiction master Isaac Asimov."
Hugo- and Nebula-winner Orson Scott Card: "Can Sawyer
write? Yes with near-Asimovian clarity, with energy and
drive, with such grace that his writing becomes invisible as the
story comes to life in your mind."
Cinescape: "Sawyer is someone who, more than most others, has
the capacity to speak on behalf of SF writers everywhere. In short: When
he talks about science fiction, he knows where he's coming from."
John Robert Colombo:
"Robert J. Sawyer is a very
talented and able writer of fiction. I could back up my
enthusiasm with specific references to surprising insights and
stylistic devices in his novels, but suffice it to say that here
we are dealing with a creator who knows precisely what he is
doing."
Charles de Lint in Science Fiction Review (Oregon):
"A writer willing to take chances."
Encyclopaedia Galactica (unpublished project begun for
Prentice Hall, New York): "Robert J. Sawyer is Canada's leading
practitioner of hard SF. [His novels] bear comparison to the work of
Isaac Asimov."
The Edmonton Journal: "Robert
Sawyer can hold [his] own in SF anywhere in the world."
Contemporary Canadian Biographies:
"Robert J. Sawyer is among the hottest science-fiction writers
in the world today."
The Gainesville Sun (Florida): "Sawyer is a brilliant
stylist who depicts daily-life events with a shattered world view."
Terence M. Green, author of Shadow of Ashland:
"Perceptive, intelligent, talented and disciplined, Sawyer has
spent the last decade firmly establishing himself as a distinct,
important presence in the Canadian literary community. He is
internationally recognized as both a talented writer of fiction
and as one of Canada's foremost authorities in his field."
The Halifax Chronicle-Herald: "Robert J. Sawyer's
novels intelligent, literate, and immensely readable explorations
of the biggest ideas there are prove that science fiction is now literature."
David G. Hartwell, Rob's Hugo Award-winning editor, in
Publishers Weekly: "Sawyer aspires to a transparent prose style
for a large mass audience. He's the kind of writer Asimov was, and
very generous to young writers."
Sunday Herald (Nevada, Missouri):
"Sawyer is a crisp, incisive writer with a playful and keen imagination."
Tanya Huff, bestselling author of Blood Price: "An
enviable story-telling ability."
Interzone: "Robert J. Sawyer has
good things to say about the world, about people; he deals in a
currency of goodwill, where the trust that we hand him at the
start of the book is repaid, with interest, in the thoughtful and
frequently emotional denouements."
Jacqueline Lichtenberg: "Robert J. Sawyer
is a superb writer, a brilliant craftsman who turns a story on a
pivotal idea and leaves you breathless. But what I like most about
his writing is the characters and their dynamic, plot-driving
relationships. If you need a good read, pick up one of his titles."
Lantana Forum (Lantana, Florida): "Sawyer is Canada's answer to author Michael Crichton."
Maclean's: Canada's Weekly Newsmagazine: "Sawyer, an
articulate fountain of ideas, is the genre's northern star in fact,
one of the hottest SF writers anywhere. By any reckoning Sawyer is among
the most successful Canadian authors ever."
Daryl F. Mallett: "Robert J. Sawyer is the dean of
Canadian science fiction writers."
Glenn Grant in The Montreal Gazette: "A prolific
and swiftly rising star on the SF scene. Is Sawyer Canada's
answer to Michael Crichton? Very possibly yes, if he continues to
churn out good, populist SF books."
Tee Morris, author of Morevi:
"I'm not ashamed to tell you that every once in a while, as I'm
dancing skyclad under the light of the full moon, I look up to
that great ball of green cheese and thank Sirius the Dog God
that I came across Robert J. Sawyer's books. I haven't been let down yet."
Mystery News: "Sawyer is a science-fiction writer one
of the most talented, by the way, on a par with giants like Asimov and
Heinlein and, perhaps more than any other science-fiction writer
working today, he understands that it's a genre about ideas, not flashing
lights and rayguns and take-me-to-your-leader."
The Mystery Review: "Sawyer, Canada's best known
science fiction writer, planned his career as a writer
very carefully, which is perhaps fitting for the son of a professor
of economics. He knew early on that the odds are against any writer
making money, unless the writer is both very good and has an
excellent business sense. Sawyer majors in both. His success was
no doubt a pleasurable surprise, but it was not by any means a mere
chance."
New York Times bestselling author Anne McCaffrey in
an interview in Locus: "There are some absolutely
marvelous new writers coming up Mercedes Lackey, Lois McMaster
Bujold, Robert Sawyer. They're so imaginative, and they really
are coming to terms with a lot of philosophical statements."
The New York Review of Science Fiction: "Sawyer's books have
become both popular successes and fixtures on the yearly awards lists."
The New York Review of Science Fiction (again):
"One of the big names in hard sf in the 1990s."
The New York Review of Science Fiction (yet again):
"A gentle giant of a writer."
The New York Review of Science Fiction (one more time):
"Robert J. Sawyer is a highly successful and accomplished novelist."
NorthWords: The Journal of Canadian Content in Speculative
Literature (Ottawa): "If there was a picture in an
encyclopedia beside the entry for `Professional Canadian SF
Writer,' Sawyer's picture would be the one chosen. His success
was hard-won and well deserved."
Now: Toronto's Weekly News and Entertainment Voice
(1999): "Sawyer is this decade's most honoured, if not
yet most famous, science-fiction writer. The Ontario
author is a Nebula winner (sci-fi's Oscar), a five-time Hugo
finalist and has won Japan's Seiun prize, le Grand
Prix de l'Imaginaire in France and the Spanish UPC de
Ciencia Ficción. He is, in other words, one of the
most festooned writers in his field."
The Ottawa Citizen: "Sawyer is the dean of
Canadian science fiction."
Steve Paikin on TVOntario's The Agenda:
"The foremost science-fiction writer in this country,
Robert J. Sawyer ..."
Prairie Dog: Regina's News and Entertainment Voice:
"Sawyer is a devout unbeliever, a professional skeptic, a Socrates for
the high-tech age."
Publishers Weekly: "Sawyer is one of
contemporary SF's most consistent performers."
Quill & Quire (on naming Sawyer to "The CanLit 30:
The most influential, innovative, and just plain powerful people
in Canadian publishing"): "When Penguin Canada snatched up
domestic rights to science fiction giant Robert J. Sawyer
last year, it felt like the Canuck industry was finally waking up
to an entire genre. Not that Sawyer really needed the nod: he
already sells more than respectably and has a shelf full of major
sci-fi prizes. As a generous mentor to other writers, the
proprietor of his own eponymous imprint at Red Deer Press, and a
frequent media pundit, Sawyer is the public face of Canadian
sci-fi."
Quill & Quire: "A polished, exciting writer. Sawyer
writes with the scientific panache and grandeur of Arthur C.
Clarke [and] the human touch of Isaac Asimov."
Quill & Quire (again): "Canada's premier
science fiction writer."
Darrell Schweitzer writing on
Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show:
"All you have to do to introduce Rob Sawyer and show why he's an
important science fiction writer is to cite his awards. His credits
give new meaning to the phrase `a list as long as your arm.' ...
It is clear that the Canadians regard Robert J. Sawyer as
a national treasure, as well they should."
Spider Robinson: "If Robert J. Sawyer were a corporation,
I would buy stock in him. He's on my (extremely short)
Buy-On-Sight list, and belongs on yours."
The Rocky Mountain News: "Robert J. Sawyer is fast
becoming one of the most important names in science fiction."
The Rocky Mountain News (again): "Robert J. Sawyer is just
about the best science fiction writer out there these days:
compelling stories, believable scenarios, science and fiction
that really interact."
Science Fiction Quarterly: "Robert J. Sawyer is
quite literally the dean of Canadian science fiction and a
publishing machine."
SFRA Review: "Sawyer writes sharp, clear, seemingly
effortless prose."
SF Site: "Sawyer has undoubtedly cemented his reputation
as one of the foremost science fiction writers of our generation."
The Sudbury Star: "Robert J. Sawyer is the
standard bearer for the SF genre in Canada."
Toronto Life: "Sawyer is a master of his craft.
He's deft with the science, has a light touch with the big questions
and is even occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. His books do what good
science fiction should: force you to think laterally, abstractly big."
The Toronto Star (1990): "Science-fiction fans, take note of
this name: Robert J. Sawyer. He's one of the brightest
newcomers to the field, with a fresh and engaging storytelling
style."
The Toronto Star (1996): "It's hard to think of a modern
science-fiction author with dreams as vast as those of the
internationally acclaimed Robert J. Sawyer."
Andrew Weiner: "Sawyer's strong
grounding in science allows him to write convincing `hard' science
fiction in the classic tradition of Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein.
At the same time, he writes fluent, literate prose about believable and
interesting characters. There are many SF writers who draw on
science, many more who write and characterize well. But the
combination of the two qualities is extremely unusual in
modern SF; in the Canadian SF field, it is unique."
The Washington Post (2002): "No reader seeking
well-written stories that respect, emphasize and depend on modern science
should be disappointed by the works of Rob Sawyer."
More Good Reading
Robert J. Sawyer's awards and honors
Rob's chatty About the Author
Rob's author photo
Photos of Rob accepting Aurora Awards
What's a Rob Sawyer novel like?
Review index
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