Customer Reviews

Rollback

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

You have to be a certain age before you will consider whether you want to be young again and live your life again. Sarah and Don are octogenarians and, after a full and contented life with children and grandchildren, have options to change their lives that we rarely dream of. However, Sarah, Dr. Halifax, is not just anybody. She is a well-known scientist who, back in 2009, had deciphered the first message from Sigma Draconis, a star system some nineteen light years away from Earth. Now, thirty-eight years later, the response to Earth's message is received and nobody can break the encryption code. Can Sarah do it again and will she live long enough to make it happen?

Cody McGavin, chief of a robotics company and always on the lookout for new technological discoveries is one the richest people around. He is convinced that Sarah is vital to decoding the message now and also for future message exchanges with "her Dracon pen pal". It is 2048 and, thanks to a process of DNA resequencing and some other "tuck" jobs, it has become possible to literally roll back a person's biological body to the prime of their life, around age 25. The procedure is experimental and only for the super-rich, like McGavin himself. He is willing to pay for Sarah to have this chance at another lifespan. It's not something she accepts lightly, insisting that her husband of 60 years, Don, is included in the offer. They both undergo the procedure which is successful for Don but not for her.

While in Sawyer's previous bestseller, Mindscan, life could be extended thanks to copying a complete brain map onto the bionic body, in Rollback advances in medicine are the solution. Here the ethical question is not so much who is the real person, but how do you harmonize an octogenarian brain with a 25-year old physique? Can you relive your life without stumbling over history? How do grandchildren deal with a grandfather who is much younger than their own parents? How do friends and former colleagues react? And, above all, how does this gap influence the relationship between husband and wife? Can it survive at all?

Leave it to Robert Sawyer to pack his speculative fiction with deep philosophical questions and topics for debate. Rejuvenation is but one of these. If humans can recreate themselves to live, maybe forever, are humans in fact playing God? How do people and societies cope with that? Cosmic communication is another major theme. The first message that Sarah had decoded was in effect a detailed questionnaire about Earth's peoples' perspectives on life and society. Why do they want to know? What do you tell aliens about human society? Do you tell the truth or do you present Earth in the best light possible? How to answer moral and philosophical conundrums? The range of the Dracons' questions probe deeply into the human psyche, testing its integrity.

The narrative moves between timelines of 2048, to previous milestones in the couple's life, mostly through Don's pondering his memories. There was Sarah's work with the SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) project that led to the first transmission from Earth into the universe. Her discovery of the code that deciphered the Sigma Draconis message and the complex organization of the reply. Don, a TV and radio producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), was a good and patient dialogue partner for his wife. Through their conversations, played back in Don's mind, the reader can follow multiple strands of arguments about the worth of SETI, astronomy, genetics and more.

Sawyer has referred to Rollback as a "phi-fi" novel - a philosophical novel. The book's events are strongly anchored in current scientific knowledge. It speculates on possible future scenarios in fields like medicine and inter-stellar communication. Yet, this is also very much a human interest story. Sawyer has created memorable characters and realistic environments in which their lives unfold. It will fascinate the fan of Sawyer's sci-fi books as much as the general reader who is interested in a well written story that raises questions some of which we might pose ourselves already today. [Friederike Knabe]

I found this book to be a huge disappointment. I had never read Sawyer before, but after hearing him interviewed on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and reading about all the awards he has won, I expected much more. My appetite was also whetted by the intrinsically interesting themes -- rejuvenation, alien encounters, and ethics.

But Sawyer doesn't deliver. His characters that are drawn so shallowly that it's hard to develop any interest in them. And what we do find, especially in the person of Don Halifax, is a curious inconsistency. On the one hand we're supposed to believe sympathetically that he is at heart a nice guy, a good man, a human being who makes forgivable mistakes. But in fact most of the time he behaves like a jerk. He snaps at people; he cheats on his wife; he's dishonest; he's self-centered. This is a great guy?

Also annoying are the numerous little speeches that the characters make. Few people talk like that in real life. It's especially unnatural when Don and his wife, Sarah, converse about big ideas. They sound like two people in a panel discussion rather than a husband and wife chatting. This is symptomatic of a larger problem with the book: it's sprinkled with mini-essays on a variety of topics. Some readers may find these digressions interesting, but in most cases they do little to advance the story. Their chief purpose seems to be to demonstrate the author's broad command of factoids.

A few minor quibbles: There are several plot points that I expected would lead to a twist or turn, but no, they're left undeveloped. The Atkins diet is promoted shamelessly. The sex scenes are laughably flat and two-dimensional -- obviously not Sawyer's forte. Similarly, in an attempt to infuse some feeling, he throws in a little poetry here and there, but it just doesn't work.

On the positive side, I do give Sawyer credit for a simple, easy-to-read prose style. Except for the intrusive little essays, readers will find that the narrative moves along very well. If you want a light read, enjoy tangential topics, and aren't concerned about character depth, you may find this book worthwhile.

Serendipitously, I read most of this book on my 62nd birthday It could not have been a more appropriate read. First of all, I "enjoyed" it tremendously, if "enjoy" is the correct term for a story that made me cry so often. However, the philosophical questions and issues in this book resonated tremendously with me, even the ones that were not age-related, such as the questions of the value of a life. This type of character-driven story where real people face important life questions that are familiar to current-day readers in a context involving some kind of scientific breakthrough is just the kind of writing Sawyer does best, and he really outdid himself this time.
He neatly missed several chances to make this a pretty bad book. For an example, Peter F. Hamilton, who has written some enjoyable books, wrote a totally DREADFUL novel called Misspent Youth about the effects a man's rejuvenation has on him and the people around him. Sawyer avoided all of his mistakes.
Many writers today seem so pessimistic that it would have been easy to make the book a "downer". For example, I was very sad when one of the main characters died, but it was very consoling that the character died having accomplished a dream in life. That is all anyone today can hope for, so it seems like a pretty good second prize to me, if you miss the "brass ring" of successful rollback.
WARNING: The rest of this review contains what some may consider a "spoiler".
Sawyer could have turned Halifax's affair into something sordid, a rejuvenated man "feeling his oats", and I am glad he didn't do that, either. The story of a decent, ethical husband who is unfaithful to his wife because of very unusual circumstances and how everyone concerned deals with that is much more interesting.
I loved the robot, and I mourned and truly respected his sacrifice---would that all humans were so decent!

Let it be known that I am a big Sawyer fan, I've read many of his books, including my favorite Neanderthal Parallax trilogy. His social commentary is among my favorites along with his scientific backup and plausible scenarios. I was debating on whether or not to post a review since the last thing i'd like to do is discredit this amazing author. Ultimately i decided that maybe criticism is best introduced when coming from a devote fan such as myself.
Now on to the review.

Don Halifax is content with his long life and finds that dying is the next logical and appropriate step he must take. With that, his life is turned upside down when received a rollback that reverts his physiology back to the age 25. As customary with Sawyer many political subjects are touched upon. Sadly the issues weren't of much consequence to the plot. Additionally the big issue of loyalty to a spouse was handled with far too little care. Hormones vs faithfulness seemed to be the prominent factor in the book. Aside all the issues, the heart of the story(that of the alien's messages) were fairly interesting but once again not delved into enough. Throughout the book, i was quite bored and was anticipating a big ending that would rattle me as i've come to expect of Sawyer. Regretfully it was VERY anti-climatic.
Now don't get me wrong, the book was well-written and enjoyable. It's just that Sawyer seemed to lose some of his pizazz. Having said all that, I will continue to read Sawyer albeit somewhat weary of his further approaches at entertaining us.
Lucas.

The first book of his I read was Hominid. It was very good and enjoyable, how unfortunate for me. 2-3 times a year, have books shipped to me overseas, and my last one had three of his. The Humans was a cheap, "Quick, write a sequel to cash in" book. The Golden Fleece left me feeling I'm the one who was fleeced.

Now I've read Rollback. All Sawyer did was take a very superficial view at a bunch of social issues while dropping as many product names and cultural tags as possible. It looks like the book was written with only one thing in mind: movie option.

The only reason I didn't give this only one star is Sawyer has a good sense of humor.

I usually think books are much better than movies. However, this is one you should wait for on DVD...

Rollback (2007) is a standalone SF novel. It takes place mostly in Toronto, Ontario, about four decades from now. This story was first published as a serial within Analog, starting with the October 2006 issue.

In this novel, Sarah Halifax is a retired astronomer in her eighties. Her moment of fame occurred in 2010, when she interpreted the very first interstellar message. After her translation, a response was sent back to the aliens on Sigma Draconis, who had initiated the first message. Now a reply has been received to the human response and, once again, none can interrupt the message. It seems that the message is not only encoded for transmission, but is actually encrypted and no one knows the key.

Donald Halifax is Sarah's husband. When Cody McGavin -- a very rich man -- offers to pay for rejuvenation of Sarah to allow her more time (and energy) to work on the current message, Sarah insists that Donald be rejuvenated as well. So Donald becomes younger, but the procedure does not work for Sarah and she remains old.

However, Sarah continues working on the translation of the new message. She agrees with other translators that a key must have been incorporated in the first message or its response, but nothing can be found. Sarah searches the original messages to see if the key had been muddled in the copies.

In this story, Donald is now a very confused person. Donald and Sarah have been married for sixty years. They are used to doing everything together. They have raised two children and have two grandchildren. Donald hardly remembers his life before Sarah.

Suddenly Donald has the energy and libido of a twenty-five year old man, but is married to an eighty-seven year old woman. Donald is still full of energy when Sarah is drooping. When temptation comes his way, he struggles with his conflicting emotions. Then Donald becomes really interested in Lenore Darby, an astronomy graduate student, who reminds him of his Sarah. So he starts hanging out with people of his own apparent age.

This story is more about Donald than Sarah, but can anything about him be separated from her? His life has been hugely changed. He now has all the capabilities of the young with the experience of the old. Naturally, Donald wants his wife to also be young again, but is that possible? So what will he do for the rest of his extended life?

An early scene hints at the ideational origins of this novel. Sarah and Donald have a conversation about the long-term aspects of SETI, which leads to the notion of longevity. While persistence is necessary in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, such signals might be acquired at any point in time. Truly long-term continuity is only required for communications. As this story vividly illustrates, waiting for replies could take generations.

Highly recommended for Sawyer fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of alien communications, intergenerational relations, and true love.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Robert J. Sawyer's science fiction never fails to engage me. ROLLBACK is no exception. I won't synopsize the plot again as other reviewers have already covered that admirably. Nor will I undertake to methodically analyze the content or the style which, to my mind, don't require any lengthy or critical deconstructing, although one can always get some mental exercise by debating Sawyer's arguments on bioethical issues....

I just want to add my two cents here because after reading -- and thoroughly enjoying -- ROLLBACK, it occurred to me that this sci-fi novel sets forth an optimistic future that one can feel comfortable hoping might actually materialize. Sawyer mentions several times that the middle of the twenty-first century is "the age of miracle and wonder," and he makes his point with many believable details about the world that Don, Sarah, Lenore, and the other appealing characters inhabit. This world is not a quantum leap from our own -- it is not utopia, not wild fanasy. It is rather a credible progression out of our present...that is, assuming the better inclinations and policies vying for recognition and implementation today come to be adopted by humanity. This representation of a solid, gainful, buoyant future isn't typically found in sci-fi these days. Many authors envision futures more dire and dark, filled with war and an almost necessary assumption that sentient species from other worlds would harbor destructive or conquering motives toward us. Sawyer -- in this novel as well as his work product generally -- endeavors to explore a more benign -- even cheerful -- destiny for humanity and other races from the stars whom we might "meet' in some fashion or other.

Sawyer's vision is evidently influenced by the largely upbeat original STAR TREK universe on the TV of his (and my) youth. And LOST IN SPACE -- also mentioned and whose famed robot inspires the naming of the book's perhaps-as-memorable housebot, Gunter -- was another series that strove to illustrate how decency and honor might match and overcome perils of space exploration. ROLLBACK, with its similar positive message, is a salute to these and other enlightened sci-fi forerunners. Even though in Sawyer's story, SETI, not a space ship, makes contact with life orbiting a far off star, ROLLBACK is emphasizing peaceful, rational inter-species communication and association. The imaginative way Sawyer makes physical contact between us and aliens from Sigma Draconis caps the tale nicely and happily steers away from imitating the extraterrestrial meeting mode of the book and movie, CONTACT.

ROLLBACK isn't groundbreaking sci-fi literature, but it is a thoughtful novel I delighted in reading. And I'm already looking forward to whatever Sawyer writes next!

I found this book to be fairly interesting, in that it deals with some of the ethical issues of our day from a perspective of the "near future" in which we can perhaps see these aspects of our culture in a somewhat more objective way than just contemplating them buried in the present moment. The problems are posed somewhat artificially: a dimension of depth seems to be lacking. However, there is a steady sequence of current problems posed and resolved in a smooth, easily absorbed way. It is clear that in ten years or so this novel will look completely dated, but many of us do not have the time to apply to stitching some of the variety of puzzles we face today into the strange three-legged creature discussed in this book. If one is looking for a book that is more than a weave of current dilemmas, such as deep character development, one is bound to be disappointed. However, if one wishes to focus on ideas, such an easy read, with a variety of such ideas, is valuable. It is philosophical fiction, not at its peak perfection, but interesting enough for some of the contemporary ethical problems we face.

If you've read Mindscan, then Rollback will open so many fresh doors in the realm of living forever. A definite page turner. Sawyer has done his research and presented it in an interesting way.

I only rated it as 3 stars because I have to save higher ratings for truly memorable SciFi. This was a good story, it held my interest and had a satisfying ending. I'd recommend it, but it's not one of those books that you have to read if you're a Science Fiction enthusiast.