Customer Reviews

Iterations

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Reading Robert Sawyer is always a heady experience. Those who know his work will be prepared for innovative thinking, excellent prose style and realistic characters. Underlying those skills will be his insistence that the scientific and technical base of his stories will be solid. This collection, covering several years of short story publication, is vivid testimony to his abilities. Nearly two dozen sterling pieces demonstrate why Sawyer is at the top rank among speculative fiction writers. Each is introduced by a commentary on about the story's inspiration or publication history. He has his own favourites, but ranking them is strictly a reader's pleasant task.

The title piece, "Iterations" is illustrative of Sawyer's conceptual reach. The issue of "alternative" universes is a topic of active debate among physicists. It's one Sawyer has dealt with elsewhere. Beyond the question of how they can come about, there are social issues that arise. If we learn to detect alternative spheres of existence, what human judgments are likely to follow. This story enters that murky realm with vivid imagination and solid logic. What decisions might you have to make if you discovered there were other versions of you?

Even deeper social issues are considered in "Just Like Old Times". As lifespans extend through better health services and a larger work force retires early, what decisions will have to be made to protect depleting resources. While this question seems a departure from the normal run of "speculative fiction" [and Sawyer rarely strays into the arena of "space opera"] he uses this to raise some disturbing questions. In this story of justice, time travel [except not really] and a disturbed human psyche, Sawyer demonstrates how the unanticipated can result in the best intentions running wild. In some respects, this tale could fit just as easily in the "horror" genre due to its conclusion.

Rather than draw you through a turgid exposition of Sawyer's imagination, pick up this book and find out for yourself. Those who still feel "SF" is a minority genre could learn much from this collection. Speculative fiction offers opportunities to stimulate thinking about many questions in many ways. Even better, if offers some fresh questions to consider. Sawyer is a master at getting at the heart of issues considered but fleetingly by most. Read him and find out why so many readers pick up his works on release dates. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Like the other reviewers, I confess to being a Robert J. Sawyer fan. Fortunately, this collection gives plenty of insight into the breadth and quality of Rob's fiction for both the uninitiated and those who have only read Rob's novel-length works, such as Calculating God and The Neanderthal Parallax Trilogy. Since many of Rob's stories were not written on spec, but for themed anthologies, you also get a good sense of what an imaginative mind can do in a variety of genres--from hard scifi, to near-future earth, to horror, to mystery. An enjoyable read all around. Those wanting yet more should also consider picking up Relativity, a collection of stories, essays, speeches, and writing tips by Robert J. Sawyer, published by ISFIC Press. Although a few stories from Iterations are duplicated and the writing tips can be picked up from Rob's excellent website, www.sfwriter.com, Relativity is highly recommended, just like Iterations. Enjoy. Donald J. Bingle, Author of Forced Conversion.

Sawyer in short-story form is as engaging as he is in novel form. There isn't one story in the book that didn't hook me, and I'm a pretty tough audience. First of all, Sawyer simply knows how to lay down words. I'm sure he gets as much editing as the next guy, but edits can't save a bad story. Sawyer doesn't write bad stories.

Secondly, Sawyer has a unique talent for going where others have gone, and finding the new twist that no one has thought of. In the eponymous story, the author tackles the old "parallel universe" theme and turns it 90 degrees from the path everyone else has taken. Every story has something just as fresh to offer, which I imagine is getting harder and harder to do as memes are explored and exhausted by other writers.

The book is a worthy addition to Sawyer's body of work, and a worthy addition to any science-fiction fan's bookcase.

I will forever be jealous of anyone finding Mr. Sawyer for the first time and experiencing the amazement that is an inevitable aspect of each new encounter with his work. It's an expensive taste though, because once you've read him, you don't borrow his books- you buy them, and you become selfish about lending them out. Therefore he has made me jealous and selfish and very, very impressed and intertained. I can live with that. "Iterations" is a collecion of his stories with the value added free bonus of a short historical commentary at the beginning of each. I have read the entire who's who of sf short fiction, and even compared to the 20th century greats, these stories are awe inspiring. There's not a clunker in the bunch. If there were a six star rating, this book and nearly everything he's ever published would easily deserve it. I buy him immediately at publication and I don't bother reading the jacket because it doesn't matter what the book's about. It will be wonderful.

I am not usually a big fan of the short story. There are some really good ones in this collection by Sawyer who in my opinion is the current best at the scifi novel. Each tale is presented with an introduction as to how Sawyer came up with the idea for the tale.

There is an excellent tale involving Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson being drawn into the future to solve a puzzling riddle. There is also a tale about high school student who is kind of nerdy but smart. He is always the last one picked (or not even picked) for sports teams in school. He gets the ultimate revenge against the jocks that wronged him.

There is are several tales that deal with parallel universes and dinosaurs. All in all I really enjoyed about half the tales and the other half were just so-so. Since you can skip over the tales that you don't care for, I give the book 4 stars based on the really good ones.

I have loved the work of Mr. Sawyer for several years now, but unfortunately my local bookstore stocks very few of his novels (their Sci-Fi section is nothing but Star Wars and space erotica. Oy vey!). Thankfully, Amazon has a fantastic selection of his works, and I am able to find novels of his that were not readily available in the States. I began reading Mr. Sawyer's work with the "Neanderthal" trilogy when I had run out of Star Trek books which interested me. Wow! I was blown away. This is true Science Fiction in the sense that Mr. Sawyer knows the science behind the topics which he writes and goes indepth to the point where it does not seem like fiction but a true possiblity. The man is a genius and should be on everyone's "Top 10" fiction writers of all time. His short stories are just as good. I may be biased by having Chinese ancestory, but I particularly liked the "Peking Man" tale. This book begs you to read just one more, until before you know it, you've finished the whole thing! If you want a great selection of short stories that will keep you on the edge of your seat then buy this tout de suite! Also, for Sawyer fans, if you haven't already, check out "Calculating God". I believe it to be Sawyer's greatest (and perhaps most controversial) work to date. That book will have you pondering the questions of life and the universe like never before.

Iterations

The dictionary defines iteration - as doing or saying again; a repeated performance repeating, repetition, the act of doing or performing again.

I say Iterations (2002) by Robert J. Sawyer is a mighty fine collection of his short stories. It contains:

An Introduction by James Alan Gardner

The Hand You're Dealt
Peking Man
Iterations
Gator (possibly the birthplace of the Quintaglio Ascension
The Blue Planet
Wiping Out
Uphill Climb (per the author the first Quintaglio story)
Last but Not Least
If I'm Here, Imagine Where They Sent My Luggage
Where the Heart Is
Lost in the Mail
Just Like old Times
The Contest
Stream of Consciousness
Forever
The Abdicatation of Pope Mary III
Above It All
Ours to Discover
You See But You Do Not Observe
Fallen Angel
The Shoulders of Giants

Publication History
About the Author

Treat yourself and read this book. I highly recomend this book.

Gunner May,2007

This review pertains to the Kindle Edition of the book, not to the book itself. Amazon is deluding Kindle customers - this so-called short-story collection contains just the one story, not the whole book!! At $2.55 for one short story, this is daylight robbery by Amazon. They should specify on the Kindle edition page that this is the case!

'"You can't kill me," he --I --said. "I'm you."'


3.5 out of 5

Sawyer is best known for his novels, especially the "Neanderthal" trilogy. While I have mostly enjoyed most of his longer work, he does have a tendency to over-explain and to bring in too much detail about our present world, which means part of each novel dates rather quickly. He also displays a somewhat naive enthusiasm and occasional didacticism (with a decidedly Canadian flavor) that reminds me of Heinlein. In any case, his short stories often are better written than his novels. There are a number of award-winners and nominees among the twenty-two stories in this collection, which were published over a period of two decades, but to my mind the best of them are "The Shoulders of Giants," a paean to the spirit of adventure and discovery, "Lost in the Mail," about correcting people's life-choices, and "Stream of Consciousness," which is a hard science first-contact yarn reminiscent of the heyday of ANALOG. And "Star Light, Star Bright" is an interesting take on the consequences of living inside a Dyson Sphere. But the very best is "You See But You Do Not Observe," a very original and well realized story involving Sherlock Holmes and Schroedinger's Cat. "The Hand You're Dealt," on the other hand, is a murder mystery written for a libertarian-theme anthology, but the philosophical underpinnings get very little time and the solution to the mystery comes out of nowhere. "Just Like Old Times," which won a number of awards, takes a good idea and waters it down. "Peking Man" is kind of a cute riff on vampirism, but goes nowhere. "Wiping Out," about the psychological and moral effects of total interplanetary war, is pretty thin. "Last But Not Least" has no science fiction element at all that I can see. And the title story, about killing off alternate versions of yourself whom you don't approve of, simply wasn't very successful. The others in the collection, some of them very short indeed, are minor works.