Sawyer's work frequently explores the intersection between science and religion, withrationalism winning out overmysticism.[8] The most relevant novels in this regard areFar-Seer,The Terminal Experiment,Calculating God, and the three volumes of theNeanderthal Parallax (Hominids,Humans, andHybrids), in addition to the short story "The Abdication of Pope Mary III" (originally published inNature, July 6, 2000).
Sawyer often explores the notion of copied or uploaded humanconsciousness (ormind uploading)—most fully in his novelMindscan, but also inFlashforward,Golden Fleece,The Terminal Experiment, "Identity Theft", "Biding Time", "Shed Skin", andThe Downloaded.
His interest in consciousness studies[9] is also apparent inWake, which deals with the spontaneous emergence of consciousness in the infrastructure of theWorld Wide Web. His interest inquantum physics, and especiallyquantum computing, informs the short stories "You See But You Do Not Observe"[10] (apastiche ofSherlock Holmes ) and "Iterations,"[11] in addition to the novelsFactoring Humanity andHominids.
Sawyer has won both Canada's top SF award (thePrix Aurora Award) and its top mystery-fiction award (theArthur Ellis Award) for his 1993 short story "Just Like Old Times".[14]Illegal Alien is a courtroom drama with an extraterrestrial defendant;Hominids puts one Neanderthal on trial by his peers for the apparent murder of another Neanderthal;Mindscan has the rights of uploaded consciousnesses explored in a Michigan probate court; andGolden Fleece,Fossil Hunter,The Terminal Experiment,Frameshift,Flashforward, andRed Planet Blues are all, in part, murder mysteries. Of Sawyer's shorter SF works, the novellaIdentity Theft and the short stories "Biding Time", "Flashes", "Iterations", "Shed Skin", "The Stanley Cup Caper", "You See But You Do Not Observe", "The Hand You're Dealt", and the aforementioned "Just Like Old Times" are all also crime or mystery fiction.
Sawyer continues to useWordStar 7.0 for DOS (the final release, last updated in 1992) to write his novels. All twenty-five of his novels were written with WordStar. He runs WordStar on modern systems using theDOSBox-Xemulator. Sawyer shared the "Complete WordStar 7.0 Archive" on his website.[19][20][21][22][23][24][25]
In May 2009,ABC ordered 13 episodes ofFlashForward (an hour-long dramatic TV series) for the 2009–2010 season. It is based on Sawyer's similarly titled novel, after successful production in February and March 2009 of a pilot episode scripted byDavid S. Goyer andBrannon Braga, directed by Goyer, and starringJoseph Fiennes andSonya Walger.[26] After some adjustments, the first season was set to consist of 22 episodes.[27] Sawyer was a consultant on each episode of the series[28] and wrote the 19th episode, entitled "Course Correction".[29]
Sawyer wrote the original series bible forCharlie Jade, an hour-long science-fiction TV series that first aired in 2005–2006, and he did conceptual work in 2003 for revivingRobotech. He has also written and narrated documentaries about science fiction forCBC Radio'sIdeas series, and he hosted the 17-part weekly half-hour documentary seriesSupernatural Investigator for Canada'sVision TV, which premiered January 27, 2009.[30] He provided analysis of the British science fiction seriesDoctor Who for theCBC's online documentaryThe Planet of the Doctor,[31] frequently comments on science fiction movies forTVOntario'sSaturday Night at the Movies, and co-edited an essay collection in honor of the fortieth anniversary ofStar Trek withDavid Gerrold, titledBoarding the Enterprise.
Sawyer has taught science-fiction writing at theUniversity of Toronto,Ryerson University,Humber College, and theBanff Centre. In 2000, he served as Writer-in-Residence at theRichmond Hill, Ontario public library. In 2003, he was Writer-in-Residence at the Toronto Public Library's Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy (the first person to hold this post sinceJudith Merril herself in 1987).[32] In 2006, he was Writer-in-Residence at theOdyssey Writing Workshop. Also in 2006, he was the Edna Staebler Writer-in-Residence at the Kitchener public library in theRegion of Waterloo, Ontario,[33] following the Region of Waterloo's choice of Sawyer'sHominids as the "One Book, One Community"[34] title that all 490,000 residents were encouraged to read in 2005. In 2007 he was the Berton House Writer-in-Residence at Berton House in Dawson City. In 2009, he was the first-ever Writer-in-Residence at theCanadian Light Source, Canada's national synchrotron facility inSaskatoon, Saskatchewan.[35]
Sawyer is a frequent keynote speaker about technology topics,[36][37] and has served as a consultant to Canada's Federal Department of Justice on the shape that future genetics laws should take.[38]
Sawyer has long been an advocate of Canadian science fiction.[39] He lobbied hard for the creation of the Canadian Region of theScience Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America[40]. The Canadian Region was established in 1992, and Sawyer served for three years on SFWA's Board of Directors as the first Canadian Regional Director (1992–1995). He also edited the newsletter of the Canadian Region, calledAlouette in honor ofCanada's first satellite; the newsletter was nominated for aPrix Aurora Award for bestfanzine.
In addition to his popularity at home, Sawyer's work is well received internationally. All of his novels have been issued by New York publishing houses and translated editions have appeared in Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, Hungarian, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, and Spanish.[43]
In 1998, Sawyer was elected president of SFWA on a platform that promised a referendum on various contentious issues, including periodic membership requalification and the creation of aNebula Award for best script; he won, defeating the next-closest candidate, past-SFWA-presidentNorman Spinrad, by a 3:2 margin. However, Sawyer's actual time in office was marked by considerable opposition to membership requalification and negative reaction to his dismissing, with the majority support of the Board of Directors, one paid SFWA worker and one volunteer. He resigned after completing half of his one-year term, and was automatically succeeded by then-incumbent vice-presidentPaul Levinson. Prior to resigning, Sawyer's promised referendum was held, resulting in significant changes to SFWA's bylaws and procedures, most notably allowing appropriate non-North American sales to count as membership credentials, allowing appropriate electronic sales to count as membership credentials, and creating aNebula Award for best script.
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