Author's comment for the SFBC

My Rollback is a current featured selection of the Science Fiction Book Club. The SFBC asked me for a comment on the book as its author; here's what I had to say:

One of the most interesting panels I ever saw at a science-fiction convention had Larry Niven and Mike Resnick on it. The moderator asked them each to describe the kind of SF they wrote. Larry said he writes things that remind him of the stories that hooked him on the genre when he was a teenager. Mike said he writes stories that appeal to him as a middle-aged man.

Of course, I immediately thought of counterexamples: Nivenesque stories by Mike, and Resnickish tales by Larry -- but I've often wondered how one might do both, combining that grandly cosmic sense-of-wonder with the down-to-Earth and intimately human. I don't know if it's possible to succeed on both levels, but I do know that there's no other genre that even tries to be fractal -- to be fascinating and beautiful at scales large and small. That's one of the many reasons I love being a science-fiction writer.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site