I appreciate that Sawyer is willing to take those risks, however. Not only do these points of commonality between his world and ours give everything a layer of reality, but they challenge the reader. By choosing to draw this world so specifically into his, he urges us to imagine what this world will become. Whether you come to the same conclusions as he does or not, he's got you thinking about what is, and how it could be. All of Sawyer's books seem to share this goal of engaging the reader in their own speculation.
I have pressed Sawyer's books into the hands of many readers, some long-term genre aficionados, some more prone to the mainstream. I have had similar success in both groups. Sawyer's SF straddles an unusual zone between hard and soft science-fiction. His books include citations, real and made-up. Some hard SF fans have complained that he is sloppy, wiggling facts to fit the story. If he does, I've never noticed. And even if I did, I suspect I wouldn't care. I read fiction for the Truth, not for facts. And Mindscan, like Sawyer's other books, is written to make you question just what the Truth of who we are might be.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!