The Downloaded by Robert J. Sawyer

Since I don’t blog much anymore in a general sense, I’ve decided I should fill some of that gap by posting my reviews of science fiction and fantasy books by other authors. And what better place to start than the latest offering from Canada’s most successful science fiction writer (and one of my favourites) Robert J. Sawyer? I give it Five Stars.

Robert J. Sawyer writes my favourite kind of science fiction: the concepts are thought-provoking, sometimes disturbing, and the themes are rich and important, but the stories are always about the people. Fully-fleshed people, too—equal parts warts, wit, and wisdom. But whether it’s an astronaut with all the “right stuff’ or a convicted murderer, you can relate to each one. And that’s how stories have emotional impact.

The title The Downloaded refers to human consciousnesses that have been ‘uploaded’ into digital storage, and then returned to their original bodies which have been cryogenically frozen. Some of these frozen and revived characters are convicts who’ve been offered a chance to serve their sentences in computer simulations at sped-up time, so they experience a years-long incarceration, but only lose several months of real time before being released back into society. The others are astronauts meant to take a long space journey to colonize the planets of another star. But when disaster strikes the Earth, both groups are downloaded into physical bodies again and have to face a drastically changed world.

Is it intellectually stimulating? Sure! In The Downloaded Sawyer skilfully combines the concepts of cryogenically preserving humans while they await future medical cures or travel to distant stars, uploading consciousness into digital storage, adapting human biology to conditions on other planets, and more. Yet, what keeps us reading isn’t just the ideas, it’s caring about what happens to Captain Letitia Garvey, murderer Roscoe Koudoulian, even robot Penolong.

The Downloaded is different in structure from other Sawyer books, written in a kind of interview format that reflects how it was first published as an audiobook. But all the qualities we’ve come to expect are there, the ones that keep us seeking out Robert J. Sawyer’s books time and time again.

A Deep Dive into Oceanus

OK, the title of this post is mainly a pun I just couldn’t resist (the novel is largely set in a prototype habitat at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, after all). Oceanus is my newest novel, scheduled to be published May 4, 2024. You can read a sample chapter here and it’s available to pre-order—use this Universal Book Link to find it at your favourite online bookstore. But if you want to know more about Oceanus than just the tongue-in-cheek back cover teaser, here we go.

I’m a writer who starts with a theme or concept, usually both, and builds my characters and plot to serve those. At the time I conceived Oceanus I’d written a few science fiction thrillers and was in the mood to try something more like an adventure (though the line between the two is blurry). I love scuba diving, and there are a few great SF stories that take place in the ocean depths, but not nearly enough. It was time for me to take the plunge. And as possibilities swirled in my mind, a couple of strong themes called out to be explored.

One theme was the way humans tend to dismiss intelligences other than our own. There are a lot of other smart creatures in this world, from whales and dolphins, apes to crows, and the list goes on, and we just don’t know how smart they really are because our intelligence tests don’t fit their mental processes. But I’m convinced we shouldn’t underestimate other forms of life just because they don’t think like us.

You can see this play out in Oceanus: a passenger jet is struck by a powerful blast of unknown energy over the Pacific. The energy has either come from the ocean or was aimed at the ocean, but the ‘where’ doesn’t seem as important as the ‘from whom?’ Could it have been produced by some previously unknown Earth life? Nobody thinks that’s likely, so the other strongest possibility is intelligent aliens from another world.

The first person brought into the picture is the main character, Alex Rhys, a gifted freelance troubleshooter (think MacGyver but not so gadgety), because a creative approach will be needed to save the jetliner passengers and time is running out. But as Alex stays on to investigate the phenomenon, he’s solidly on the side of believing advanced extraterrestrials have come to Earth. And Alex thinks that’s a good thing—he figures humans have screwed up our planet so badly that we need outside help to save ourselves. So, you could maybe articulate another main theme of the novel as: “Should we look to someone else to solve our problems?”

Will a visit from aliens make everything right? That’s one of several deep questions explored by the characters as they physically descend into the utter blackness and hellish pressure at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean searching for answers. Oceanus is definitely a thinking person’s action tale.

I’ve always loved SF stories that feature a team of exceptional specialists brought together to solve a crisis. In Oceanus the cast of characters includes a reluctant telepath named Elle (Alex and Elle are the ones on the Oceanus cover), an experienced Navy diver named Gary, a brilliant engineer named Lee-Anna, plus a couple of men with exotic adaptations to address physical challenges: Mattheus, a sociotheologist (I might have made that up), and Bheru, a xenobiologist.

Quite a team. In a very dramatic setting. Facing a world-threatening emergency.

SO many things I love in a science fiction story.

I hope you’ll love it too!

Get a taste of the opening of the novel here, or use this link to pre-order your copy of Oceanus.

COMING SOON: A NEW YEAR AND A NEW BOOK

The life of the average author isn’t much like the romanticized portraits you see on TV and in the movies (how do they all afford those loft apartments in New York City anyway??) But it does come with some unique “highs”.

One of those is being able to introduce a brand new book into the world. The obvious comparison is to the birth of a child—obvious because it’s so accurate. Months of anxiety and labour culminating in a creation never seen before.

My next creative “offspring” is still a couple of months from seeing the light of day, but I can show off the literary equivalent of an ultrasound picture. This is the (brilliant) new cover of my forthcoming science fiction novel The Dispossession of Dylan Knox. Here’s the elevator pitch:

Dylan Knox is not the man he was. He may be like no man who ever existed.

Brooke’s old flame doesn’t remember her. Worse, he behaves like a different person every time they meet. A victim of a brain injury? Or an imposter—an assassin targeting Brooke’s boss, the secretary-general of the United Nations?

Dylan’s own explanation is impossible to accept: an airliner accident, a bold space mission. Castaways in time.

Now Brook is faced with a choice: to trust him, or to betray him.

And falling in love is the last thing she needs.

The Dispossession of Dylan Knox is scheduled for publication February 2, 2022. It should be available for pre-order in early January. Suspense, danger, high stakes. Plus a stronger romance element than my usual. I really hope you love it.

In fact, you can read a sample of the opening chapter of the novel right now!

OTHER NEWS:

While I’m at it, I’d like to tell you what else I’ve been up to.

I’ve been busy exploring more ways to tell readers about my books. One way is book trailers. I’ve had one for my debut novel Dead Air and a slow, suspenseful trailer for my latest, Naïda. But I wanted to bring more excitement to that one, and I’d never released a trailer for my first SF thriller The Primus Labyrinth at all. So check out these new offerings:

The Primus Labyrinth

Naïda 

On the other hand, some people love to hear a sample of a book in the author’s own words and voice. So I’ve recorded some readings from my novels that weren’t available before. Have a listen to them on Soundcloud.

Naïda

The Primus Labyrinth

Dead Air

And lastly, when I was helping out a fan recently, I noticed that two of my paperbacks—my novel Dead Air and my story collection Beyond—are still listed on Amazon for about 25% less than my usual paperback price (just $15.99 each in North America). With the cost of printing these days, I really have to raise that price, but I’ve decided to put it off until 2022. SO until the end of this year you can still pick up those two books at that price. If you buy both (plus something else worth a few bucks) you can even get Amazon’s free shipping.

About my Beyond collection, Goodreads and freelance book reviewer Christine Ernst-Lomond says, “Solid gold. That's how I'd summarize Overton's collection of sci-fi short stories…I'm honestly not sure I can praise it enough. It's completely brilliant.”

And I didn’t pay her a cent to say that!

Oh, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that hours of great reading enjoyment makes a thoughtful gift!

Have a great holiday season.

LAUNCH COUNTDOWN

Time is really flying toward the launch of my new novel Naïda and my blood pressure’s probably flying high too, as I scramble to get everything done.

Because of the pandemic, it’s going to be a virtual launch—online only—hosted by my friend and fellow author Mark Leslie (I narrate the audiobook editions of his A Canadian Werewolf in New York fiction series). But all are welcome. It’ll be short and sweet: 30 - 45 minutes during which I’ll give a reading from Naïda and Mark will field questions from the audience. We’ll also be giving away some copies of the book to those in attendance. Afterward, the link will remain available, so if you can’t attend “live” you can still catch it later. Here are the links to join in:

LIVE BROADCAST INFORMATION                                                            

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Mhdym4HzI

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/234583036576020/posts/4550131828354431/

(via Scott Overton’s Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/ScottOverton.author/ )

Meanwhile the ebook editions are available to pre-order from many online retailers, and the print edition is becoming available to order, store by store though Amazon’s print edition is still in limbo because of a (so-far 3-week-old) technical problem. Seriously, Amazon?

I sure hope you’ll seek out the book. Of course you can read a free sample chapter, and it will become available in my bookstore on launch day June 1st. I also hope you’ll love it, and it would be a huge help if you would post a review wherever you buy the book or in your online book clubs like Goodreads.

Wish me luck!

BEYOND: TIME NOW AVAILABLE

The charge to publish continues!

The second of my short story collection series BEYOND: Time is now available as an ebook in my Bookstore for direct download. It's been distributed to all of the major ebook online retailers and you might even find it cheaper there, depending on your country's currency (currency conversions being what they are!)

BEYOND: Time offers three thrilling tales that transcend time:

The Long Commute

Shon Howard and others like him go to work every day to reverse the ravages of climate change, pollution, and other evils. His daughter’s life depends on it. Because in Shon’s world, mistakes of past centuries can be corrected by visiting key moments in time. As long as he doesn’t get caught.

A Taste Of Time

Gabby Dufour hates the blueberries that grow over the site of her home town, destroyed in a fire decades ago. Then young berry-loving Amanda comes to visit, with inexplicable knowledge about the town, and Gabby is forced to wonder if there’s more to blueberries than meets the tongue. (First published in On Spec #88 vol 24 no 1, August 2014.) ** This story's kind of different, but good enough to be chosen for On Spec's 25th anniversary anthology Casserole Diplomacy.

Hurricane

The crew of a Hurricane Hunter aircraft is assigned to monitor an experiment designed to collect the awesome energy of a powerful storm. When the project succeeds too well, nowhere is beyond its destructive reach.

However you choose to buy it, I hope you'll love these stories. Volume Three BEYOND: Technology  will be published soon, and then a print-on-demand anthology including all of these stories and more.