Sawyer's work frequently explores the intersection between science and religion, with
rationalism winning out over
mysticism[8] (see especially Far-Seer, The Terminal Experiment, Calculating God, and the three volumes of the Neanderthal Parallax (Hominids, Humans, and Hybrids), plus the short story "The Abdication of Pope Mary III," originally published in Nature, July 6, 2000).
Sawyer often explores the notion of copied or uploaded human
consciousness,
mind uploading, most fully in his novel Mindscan, but also in Flashforward, Golden Fleece, The Terminal Experiment, "Identity Theft", "Biding Time", and "Shed Skin".
His interest in consciousness studies[9] is also apparent in Wake, which deals with the spontaneous emergence of consciousness in the infrastructure of the
World Wide Web. His interest in
quantum physics, and especially
quantum computing, inform the short stories "You See But You Do Not Observe"[10] (a
Sherlock Holmespastiche) and "Iterations,"[11] and the novels Factoring Humanity and Hominids.
SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, plays a role in the plots of Golden Fleece, Factoring Humanity, Mindscan, Rollback, the novelette "Ineluctable," and the short stories "You See But You Do Not Observe" and "Flashes." Sawyer gives cosmology a thorough discussion in his far-future Starplex.[12] Real-life science institutions are often used as settings by Sawyer, including
TRIUMF in End of an Era,
CERN in Flashforward, the
Royal Ontario Museum in Calculating God, the
Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Hominids and its sequels, the
Arecibo Observatory in Rollback, the
Canadian Light Source in Quantum Night, and the
Los Alamos National Laboratory and the
Institute for Advanced Study in The Oppenheimer Alternative.
Sawyer has won both Canada's top SF award (the
Prix Aurora Award) and its top mystery-fiction award (the
Arthur Ellis Award) for his 1993 short story "Just Like Old Times".[15]Illegal Alien is a courtroom drama with an extraterrestrial defendant; Hominids puts one Neanderthal on trial by his peers for the apparent murder of another Neanderthal; Mindscan has the rights of uploaded consciousnesses explored in a Michigan probate court; and Golden Fleece, Fossil Hunter, The Terminal Experiment, Frameshift, Flashforward, and Red Planet Blues are all, in part, murder mysteries. Of Sawyer's shorter SF works, the novella Identity Theft and the short stories "Biding Time," "Flashes," "Iterations," "Shed Skin," "The Stanley Cup Caper," "You See But You Do Not Observe," "The Hand You're Dealt," and the aforementioned "Just Like Old Times" are all also crime or mystery fiction.
Sawyer continues to use
WordStar for DOS to write his novels.[20]
Film and television
In May 2009,
ABC ordered 13 episodes of FlashForward (an hour-long dramatic TV series) for the 2009–2010 season. It is based on Sawyer's similarly titled novel, after successful production in February and March 2009 of a pilot episode scripted by
David S. Goyer and
Brannon Braga, directed by Goyer, and starring
Joseph Fiennes and
Sonya Walger.[21] After some adjustments, the first season was set to consist of 22 episodes.[22] Sawyer was a consultant on each episode of the series[23] and wrote the 19th episode, entitled "Course Correction".[24]
Sawyer wrote the original series bible for Charlie Jade, an hour-long science-fiction TV series that first aired in 2005–2006, and he did conceptual work in 2003 for reviving Robotech. He has also written and narrated documentaries about science fiction for
CBC Radio's Ideas series, and he hosted the 17-part weekly half-hour documentary series Supernatural Investigator for Canada's
Vision TV, which premiered January 27, 2009.[25] He provided analysis of the British science fiction series Doctor Who for the
CBC's online documentary The Planet of the Doctor,[26] frequently comments on science fiction movies for
TVOntario's Saturday Night at the Movies, and co-edited an essay collection in honor of the fortieth anniversary of Star Trek with
David Gerrold, titled Boarding the Enterprise.
Teaching and public speaking
Sawyer has taught science-fiction writing at the
University of Toronto,
Ryerson University,
Humber College, and the
Banff Centre. In 2000, he served as Writer-in-Residence at the
Richmond Hill, Ontario public library. In 2003, he was Writer-in-Residence at the Toronto Public Library's Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy (the first person to hold this post since
Judith Merril herself in 1987).[27] In 2006, he was Writer-in-Residence at the
Odyssey Writing Workshop. Also in 2006, he was the Edna Staebler Writer-in-Residence at the Kitchener public library in the
Region of Waterloo, Ontario,[28] following the Region of Waterloo's choice of Sawyer's Hominids as the "One Book, One Community"[29] title that all 490,000 residents were encouraged to read in 2005. In 2007 he was the Berton House Writer-in-Residence at Berton House in Dawson City. In 2009, he was the first-ever Writer-in-Residence at the
Canadian Light Source, Canada's national synchrotron facility in
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.[30]
Sawyer is a frequent keynote speaker about technology topics,[31][32] and has served as a consultant to Canada's Federal Department of Justice on the shape that future genetics laws should take.[33]
Influence and recognition
Canadian
Sawyer has long been an advocate of Canadian science fiction.[34] He lobbied hard for the creation of the Canadian Region of the
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America[35]
. The Canadian Region was established in 1992, and Sawyer served for three years on SFWA's Board of Directors as the first Canadian Regional Director (1992–1995). He also edited the newsletter of the Canadian Region, called Alouette in honor of
Canada's first satellite; the newsletter was nominated for a
Prix Aurora Award for best
fanzine.
In addition to his popularity at home, Sawyer's work is well received internationally. All of his novels have been issued by New York publishing houses and translated editions have appeared in Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, Hungarian, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, and Spanish.[38]
Professional associations
In 1998, Sawyer was elected president of SFWA on a platform that promised a referendum on various contentious issues, including periodic membership requalification and the creation of a
Nebula Award for best script; he won, defeating the next-closest candidate, past-SFWA-president
Norman Spinrad, by a 3:2 margin. However, Sawyer's actual time in office was marked by considerable opposition to membership requalification and negative reaction to his dismissing, with the majority support of the Board of Directors, one paid SFWA worker and one volunteer. He resigned after completing half of his one-year term, and was automatically succeeded by then-incumbent vice-president
Paul Levinson. Prior to resigning, Sawyer's promised referendum was held, resulting in significant changes to SFWA's bylaws and procedures, most notably allowing appropriate non-North American sales to count as membership credentials, allowing appropriate electronic sales to count as membership credentials, and creating a
Nebula Award for best script.