WWW: Watch (The WWW Trilogy) - Softcover

Sawyer, Robert J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 044102016X ISBN 13: 9780441020164

Publisher: Ace, 2011

Synopsis

It calls itself Webmind. An emerging consciousness within the World Wide Web, it has befriended Caitlin Decter and grown eager to learn about her world. But Webmind has also come to the attention of WATCH, the secret United States government agency that monitors the Internet for any potential threats-and wants it purged from cyberspace.

About this title

About the Author:

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 total, Rob has authored over 18 science-fiction novels and won forty-one national and international awards for his fiction, including a record-setting ten Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards (“Auroras”) and the Toronto Public Library Celebrates Reading Award, one of Canada’s most significant literary honors. In 2008, he received his tenth Hugo Award nomination for his novel Rollback.

His novels have been translated into 14 languages. They are top-ten national mainstream bestsellers in Canada and have hit number one on the Locus bestsellers’ list.

Born in Ottawa in 1960, Rob grew up in Toronto and now lives in Mississauga (just west of Toronto), with poet Carolyn Clink, his wife of twenty-four years.

He was the first science-fiction writer to have a website, and that site now contains more than one million words of material.

Review:

“[Sawyer is] a brilliant thinker pondering some of the most fundamental questions we face today ... a complex and fascinating book ... Sawyer maintains the same high-level interplay of ideas and action that characterizes all his work, and even readers who haven’t read the first volume will be satisfied. I can’t imagine how he’s going to complete the trilogy, but I do know it will involve a wildly creative combination of cutting-edge science from multiple disciplines.” - Michael Basilières, National Post

“Sawyer shows his genius in combining cutting-edge scientific theories and technological developments with real human characters.... Sawyer is a master at research, and uses his novels to inform and educate as well as to entertain. His works are both revelatory and thought-provoking.... Watch is as fine a novel as we have come to expect from Sawyer, with a blend of human values and technological foresight.” - The Globe and Mail

“Watch is the second of three volumes in brilliant Canadian science-fiction novelist Robert J. Sawyer’s trilogy.... [I]t’s engaging.... He can write about the most sophisticated science while giving readers the room to understand what’s happening and follow the plot.” - Winnipeg Free Press

“This page-turning thriller by the author of Flashforward and the Neanderthal Parallax trilogy is a top-notch choice for sf fans.” - Library Journal

“Watch is a damn fine story. Sawyer spins and weaves a world so comfortable and close, you forget that it’s fiction. The humorous dialogue, the gleeful pop culture references and the Canadian cultural touchpoints expose Sawyer as a writer who loves to have fun with ideas and to eagerly share them with his readers. Watch is set in today’s Canada where, yes damn it, cool things can happen.” - FFWD

“Over the course of the two novels thus far, Sawyer has presented an interesting perspective of artificial intelligence and, perhaps, a 21st Century revisionist view of a cyberpunk story. The novel has the fresh feel of something that could happen in the very near future.” - SFF World

“There’s something about Robert J. Sawyer’s novels that strike a pleasing science fictional chord. They encompass all the things I like about science fiction, like cool ‘What if?’ extrapolations, portrayal of technology that leads to thought-provoking ideas, strong characters and engrossing plots. Watch, the second novel in his WWW trilogy after Wake, is no exception.... Watch is a helluva fun read and an excellent science fiction book.” - SF Signal

“One of the best things about Robert J. Sawyer is the way he references pop sci-fi culture; every book contains at least one reference to Star Trek. But in this novel, second in a trilogy about the singularity—the artificial-intelligence consciousness that is predicted to arise from the Internet—he gets to reference his own sci-fi TV creation, the ABC program FlashForward. It’s fun, but even better is the intelligent and compassionate approach this series is taking to the nature of consciousness.” - Sacramento News & Reviews

“There’s no middle book syndrome here; Robert J. Sawyer packs as much thought and development into this volume as he did into the first, turning out a compelling, thought-provoking entry in one of his best series to date. He’s one of those few writers who can be equally at home dealing with characters’ personal lives and tackling the hard science in an accessible way.... It’s optimistic, intelligent, and I can’t wait for the third in the series.” - SF Site

“Some thriller writers get you worried about the future. Sawyer makes the present perilous.” - Linwood Barclay, bestselling author of Too Close to Home

About this edition

• Publisher: Ace
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 044102016X
• ISBN 13: 9780441020164
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352