Thursday, April 1, 2010

Chapters Trip and Canadian Author Robert J. Sawyer

I made a quick trip to Chapters today where I did a whirlwind tour of the YA, Horror, Fiction, Mystery and Romance sections.  On my journey I gathered six books but unfortunately my husband had also found two books he had been waiting for so I narrowed my six down to two.

The books I purchased are, The Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan and Hourglass by Claudia Gray.  Both books are from the YA genre of which so many excellent and entertaining reads can be found.  Hourglass is the third novel in a series which began with Evernight and followed by Stargazer, which have both become hugely popular with YA enthusiasts.  You can find Evernight featured in my themed post on Boarding School Books: Vampire Edition.  You can also find out more about The Dead Tossed Waves from a previous post and read my review on The Forest of Hands and Teeth here.  I have included the book trailer for The Dead Tossed Waves just in the off chance that you haven't read this series or know anything about it!



I am excited to make a return trip to Chapters sometime next week at which time I will be purchasing the novel Wake by Canadian author, Robert J. Sawyer.  Two days ago a brown paper package arrived by Purolator; since I believe all the best things in live come in brown paper packages (string or no string) I was very excited.  Inside was the second book in the WWW Trilogy, Watch which I had won in a Penguin Group (Canada) Facebook contest.

I have never read anything by Robert J. Sawyer before, however, he is the author of the award-winning novel Flashforward, which was recently adapted into a television series by ABC in September of 2009.  Below is some information on both the WWW Trilogy, Flashforward the novel and the television adaptation.

Title: Wake
Author: Robert J. Sawyer
Series: WWW Trilogy
Publisher: Penguin Group Canada
Published: April 14, 2009
0670067415
9780670067411
Web Site: www.wakewatchwonder.com



From the Publisher:

Caitlin Decter is a typical teen-smart, pretty, and wired ... but she's also blind. She undergoes an experimental procedure to regain her sight and the results are unexpected. She "sees" but not just the way we do-for her the world wide web is a riot of colours and shapes, its own dimension.


While exploring it, she finds an "other" lurking there-and it finds her, seeing what she's seeing and learning as she learns. But that's not where it ends ...

A more in depth synopsis can be found here, and the first chapter of the novel can be read here.  After reading the first chapter of Wake I immediately had a dozen or so questions floating around in my head regarding the plot, the technology, and the protagonist Caitlin.  I can't wait to get my hands on the first book and report back to all of you how (hopefully) fantastic this series is.

Another reason why I am so excited about this novel is that I so rarely find novels by male authors engaging.  It is not to say in ANY way that I don't think male authors are wonderful I just find it hard to connect with characters that are not female or female characters that are written by men.  The exceptions to this are authors, J.R.R. Tolkien, Garth Nix, and Scott Westerfeld.  My husband answered a few questions from blogger B. Kienapple @ A Certain Bent Appeal (click here for the full interview) which he suggests that,
Generally men tend to read about stories containing elements of conflict, strife, and vengeance as overall themes. We like stories that often focus on big ideas and the conflicts that arise from them. We like stories on a grander scale and not so much focused on one person or a personal story. While women often like stories around romance, love, forgiveness and acceptance. Men use these elements as simply a part of the overall story and not as the central element of the story itself. It still doesn't explain why she is on Team Jacob though.
If his explanation holds any truth and most male novelists write stories filled with conflict, strife, and vengeance with a focus more on the overall story rather then one individual character then I can understand why I don't usually make strong connections with protagonists in male authors stories.  I prefer stories that focus on character development while still creating a detailed, genuine, and believable plot.  Hopefully I can add Robert J. Sawyer to my list of "favorite male authors."

Title: Flash Forward
Author: Robert J. Sawyer
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: April 15 2000
0812580346
9780812580341

From the Publisher:

A scientific experiment crumbles when the world`s population is accidentally put to sleep for several minutes, thrusting everyone`s consciousness 21 years into the future. However, while everyone is looking into the future, their bodies fall unconscious, leaving them to awaken to car wrecks, botched surgeries and destruction. Author Robert J. SawyerFlashforward and turns it into a compelling work that will make you question whether the future is really changeable. takes an incredible idea in his novel.

See below for the ABC promo clip for Flash Forward which as stated is loosely based on Robert J. Sawyers novel.



More about the author:

Science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer has sold fifteen science fiction novels to major New York publishers, and won twenty-one national and international writing awards. Rob is the only author in history to win the top science fiction awards in the United States (the Nebula), Japan (the Seium), France (Le Grand Prix de L'Imaginaire) and Spain (Premio UPC de Ciencia Ficcion).  In addition, he's won five Aurora Awards (Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Award).

His The Terminal Experiment won the Nebula Award (the "Academy Award" of the science fiction field) for Best Novel of the Year, and he's had four consecutive best-novel nominations for the Hugo Award, science fiction's international people's choice award.

Robert J. Sawyer lives in Thornhill, Ontario, Canada, with his wife, Carolyn Clink.


I hope you enjoyed this very "link filled" post.  Check back soon for reviews on both The Dead Tossed Waves and Hourglass.

Happy reading and happy holidays everyone!

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