[fuzzy world]

This will be a review of the books by Robert J. Sawyer that I have read. Those not interested in such things can spend their time better by perusing the FAIL Blog or catching up on film trailers.

Reviews after the jump.

I first encountered Robert J. Sawyer’s writing at a Barnes & Noble store (can’t remember which one, they all look the same) when I stumbled onto his award-winning novel “Mindscan”. That was soon followed up by “Flashforward”, “Calculating God” and eventually by the Neanderthal trilogy: “Hominids”, “Humans” and “Hybrids”.

“Mindscan” formally introduced me to the concept of mind uploads, a specific type of immortality and many subsequent questions concerning identity, existence and personal rights. Though, and this must be said, Sawyer only skims the surface of such an extraordinary field. For a more in-depth look, consider “Accelerando” and “The Glass House”. But then again, those two books should already be on everyone’s “To Read” list. But, I digress.

Yes, the book doesn’t go in all too deep into the underlying philosophical concepts. Nor does it have much action, suspense or mystery/surprise. Yet even in the face of its pitfalls, this work does manage to stand above much of the sci-fi that it competes with. The characters are believable, relatable and someone that I quite often found myself to be sympathizing with: the price of immortality that the characters pay is at times incredibly high.

The description I gave above can be applied equally well to the rest of the novels by Sawyer: they are all slow, meandering pieces with bits of excitement spread-out through a plain, but interesting, narrative. All have the same flawed characters, hurt or dying in their own way but always in such a way as to tug at our hearts: a congenital disorder in “Mindscan”, loss of a child in “Fashforward”, cancer in “Calculating God”, rape victim in the Neanderthal trilogy. All stories (I’m counting the Neanderthal trilogy as one long story) climax with a slow, tedious and terribly drawn-out action sequence in the third act that is followed up by a strange and usually a somewhat un-satisfactory conclusion.

That being said, the endings are still imaginative and often present a hopeful view of the future.

It may seem that I am bashing Sawyer’s work, but I do really like it, even if I do feel sort of let-down by the finale. Let’s put it this way: the endings aren’t quite Niven, but they’re leaps and bounds beyond the average Heinlein.

Now, for more details on the rest of the books.

“Flashforward” was one of the fastest reads of my life and one of the more enjoyable ones. Yes, the book does suffer from everything I have described above, but less than any of the rest: it is Sawyer’s finest work (from what little of it I have encountered) and I would recommend it alongside my recommendation of “Replay”. Two sides of the same coin.

The book starts strong, building upon a world-wide phenomenon that allows all of humanity a glimpse into the future, and explores the impact this preview has. The concluding action sequence is quite mild, but the overall concept as well as the final revelation make this book unforgettable.

“Calculating God” attempts to look at the concept of God from a scientific viewpoint, exploring, among other things, life in the universe. The book is a good introduction to the question of “Are we alone”, but once again only skims the surface of this concept. A possible solution is offered, but ultimately the reader is left to decide for themselves.

The book is largely an investigation of life on our planet, mixed in with some violent religious types (they always sneak into Sawyer’s works), a main character who is dying from cancer and paleontologist aliens. The action sequence is once again somewhat boring and the conclusion is nothing to write home about.

The Neanderthal trilogy (“Hominids”, “Humans” and “Hybrids”) is a long-winded narrative about the meeting of parallel worlds, affirmative action in academia, religion bashing (not really, but I couldn’t find a word to express “three books that continuously point out problems with organized religion”), trials, family tensions, polyamory, evil government agents and tons of America vs Canada comparisons. The entire story could have fit into a single novel, but Sawyer sometimes takes a Dickens-like approach to writing, saying ten words when two would have done the job well and never, ever, ever letting the reader miss out on the author’s own opinion. Sometimes entertaining, sometimes educational (you know, it does seem as if over-population is the cause of most suffering in the world), sometimes just plain daunting, the books seem to be a thinly-veiled attempt by Sawyer to create a universe where good (science, low population density, Canada, humanitarian scientist) triumphs over evil (religion, over-population, America, greedy government agent).

Final tally (and an excuse to use a bullet-list):

• Mindscan: A-
• Flashforward: A+
• Calculating God: A
• Neanderthal trilogy: B-