Robert J. Sawyer, where to begin?

Robert Sawyer has been publishing SF novels since the 1990s, yet I haven’t read any of his works. I heard an interview with him discussing Star Trek with the Mission Log guys (episode 019A) and my interest has been piqued. But where to begin? Suggestions?

Looks like his first major award was a Nebula for *The Terminal Experiment. *Followed by Hugos for *Calculating God *and
*Hominids.

*[URL=“Robert J. Sawyer - Wikipedia”]

As noted in the Wikipedia article you linked to, many of his novels have a murder mystery element to them. Depending on how you feel about that, you might either seek those out or avoid them, though IMHO they’re well done and interesting.

FWIW I’ve enjoyed almost everything by him that I’ve read so far (Golden Fleece, Flashforward, Calculating God, The Terminal Experiment, Illegal Alien) except for Frameshift, which for some reason I couldn’t get into.

If I start with Calculating God, will I be lost? Do I need to understand his world/universe first by reading some earlier stuff or are they more or less standalone books? Thanks.

Avoid the Neanderthal books, they’re just screeds in sci-fi form, very disappointing.

I did like his WWW:Watch stories, but they are a bit juvenile.

His stuff is mostly standalone, no shared universes. The only books of his that this doesn’t hold for are his two (that I recall) series: the WWW books and the Neanderthal books.

I liked his stuff for a while - he wrote decent science fiction with complex moral questions, like the book where a married couple take an anti-aging treatment, but it only worked on one partner but not on the other. Much of the novel was spent working on how their relationship can continue, which was really interesting.

But the Neanderthal books… wow, those really put me off Mr. Sawyer.

He has a few trilogies (the Hominids books, the one about the dinosaur civilization (Farseer, etc.) and the Wake trilogy) but most of his books (including Calculating God) are stand alone with no links to other books.

No, you won’t be lost; in my estimation that book is as good a place to start as any.

Begin by covering up that picture on his Wiki page! Creepy alien smile!

I read Calculating God and was not moved to read anything else of his. There’s something clunky about his writing style, in my view.

I would second this, unfortunately.