Rollback - Robert J. Sawyer

Why so anti-American?

While the story starts with an interesting twist on what aliens would actually send in a transmission, the author has a very annoying habit of American bashing that distracts from whatever point he is trying to make. When Sawyer talks about walking on the moon it is an achievement all mankind should be proud of, but mention health care and it is the failings of American medicine that are discussed. While this bias was not central to the story, it was annoying enough that I didn't bother to finish the book.

Of course there is undoubtedly a market for American bashing so if you are looking for something that sticks its nose up at the "Land of the free and the home of the brave" this book might be for you.

Rollback to the Early Years

If you've read Mindscan, then Rollback will open so many fresh doors in the realm of living forever. A definite page turner. Sawyer has done his research and presented it in an interesting way.

A science fiction story on a human scale

This is one of the best science fiction books I have read in a long time. It is the story of an elderly couple, both members of which undergo a rejuvenation process. Unfortunately it only works for one of them and a large part of the story is how the couple copes with what is now a large difference in biological ages between them. The author, Robert Sawyer, deals with this issue in a very personal, very emotional way. Against this backdrop, is the story how one member of the couple is involved in communication with an extraterrestrial civilization. This person was able to decipher a transmission from another planet and is called upon to decipher another. This however, was a minor part of the story. To his credit, Sawyer goes into a lot of details on how each member of the couple thinks and of how the alien transmissions are deciphered. This was important as I never had to ask myself how the author got to a certain point. On the negative side, the author made incessant references to current pop culture as if giving a nudge-nudge-wink-wink to those of us residing in the 21st century. Similarly, Sawyer described the various neighborhoods of Toronto, as a type of inside story. Also, at times the story was overly sentimental but these negatives were vastly outweighed by the rest of the story. This book definitely passed my test for an interesting story: did I miss or almost miss my subway stop while reading the book and the answer is yes. This book was well worth the time spent reading it and I strongly recommend it for all science fiction fans, particularly those who live in 21st century Toronto.

An easy, enjoyable read

I only rated it as 3 stars because I have to save higher ratings for truly memorable SciFi. This was a good story, it held my interest and had a satisfying ending. I'd recommend it, but it's not one of those books that you have to read if you're a Science Fiction enthusiast.

The last Sawyer I'll read

The first book of his I read was Hominid. It was very good and enjoyable, how unfortunate for me. 2-3 times a year, have books shipped to me overseas, and my last one had three of his. The Humans was a cheap, "Quick, write a sequel to cash in" book. The Golden Fleece left me feeling I'm the one who was fleeced.

Now I've read Rollback. All Sawyer did was take a very superficial view at a bunch of social issues while dropping as many product names and cultural tags as possible. It looks like the book was written with only one thing in mind: movie option.

The only reason I didn't give this only one star is Sawyer has a good sense of humor.

I usually think books are much better than movies. However, this is one you should wait for on DVD...