Robert J. Sawyer
Robert J. Sawyer has been called “the dean of Canadian science fiction” by The Ottawa Citizen.
He is one of only seven writers in history—and the only Canadian—to win all three of the world’s top awards for best science-fiction novel of the year: the Hugo (which he won in 2003 for Hominids), the Nebula (which he won in 1995 for The Terminal Experiment), and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award (which he won in 2005 for Mindscan). In 2008, Sawyer received his tenth Hugo Award nomination for his novel Rollback.
From Sawyer's Q & A with Steven R. McEvoy:
What are the key books that everyone interested in science fiction must be familiar with?Visit Robert J. Sawyer's website and blog.
Dune by Frank Herbert, Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein, The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov, and Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke.
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One of the greatest strengths in your books are the characters, they are so solid and believable. The characters you create, are they reflections of people you know, composites of different people you know or entirely your creations?
They're all those things: bits and pieces of real people - certain mannerisms or ways of speaking that have struck me as interesting or revelatory - plus careful, deliberate acts of creation. But no character in any of my books is based on a single person.
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What are some of your favorite books and authors now?
Within science fiction, Robert Charles Wilson, Jack McDevitt, and Paolo Bacigalupi are all terrific - as is Audrey Niffenegger, although she's not published as science fiction. In the mystery/thriller genre, you can't go wrong with...[read on]
The Page 69 Test: WWW: Wake.
The Page 69 Test: WWW: Watch.
The Page 69 Test:: WWW: Wonder.
--Marshal Zeringue
