Author Robert J. Sawyer writes to tell us that the CBC is podcasting his Hugo-nominated Rollback in 25 fifteen-minute installments read by Battlestar Galactica‘s Alessandro Juliani. The main page for the podcasts is here. At press time, the first five episodes are available.
CBC describes the story thus: “In 2009, scientist Sarah Halifax decoded the first-ever radio message received from aliens. Now, almost four decades later, a second message has come. But at 87, Sarah may not have enough strength left to read it, let alone respond.
“In Rollback, award-winning science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer explores the moral complexities of communicating with aliens and of extending human life. The story is told from the point of view of Sarah’s husband, Don Halifax. He is beginning life anew in the body of a 25-year-old, while his wife is staring death in the face and desperately trying to decipher a message from outer space in the time she has left.”
In other Sawyer news, he writes that “the CBC Book Club is featuring my novel FlashForward this month. See this page.” As part of that featuring, Sawyer was the subject at a live chat this afternoon, and the Book Club is giving away a slew of Sawyer books just for answering a question. See this page for details on the giveaway, the deadline for which is 18 September.
Much of the Sawyer press is tied-in with the imminent debut of the ABC television series FlashForward, which is based on his novel. The series arrives on 24 September, and stars Joseph Fiennes (pictured at left with Sawyer), John Cho, Jack Davenport, Zachary Knighton, Dominic Monaghan, Brian F. O’Byrne, Courtney B. Vance, Sonya Walger, and Christine Woods.
And, to round out the Sawyer juggernaut (at least for today), he is the guest for the 12 September episode of Hour of the Wolf. The science fiction talk radio program, hosted by Jim Freund, airs every Saturday from 5 to 7AM on New York City’s WBAI 99.5 FM. The program also streams at stream.wbai.org, and is archived afterward at hourwolf.com for six months. Sawyer’s program was recorded in July for this broadcast. In it, he and Freund discuss “the forthcoming TV series, SFWA, short stories vs. novels, and audiobooks. We will also hear Rob read chapter one of his novel, Wake.”