Dragons are not for me. I also shy away from vampires, and from fable-like, mythical sounding works of fiction. Although sci-fi and fantasy are routinely clubbed together, they are very different. While fantasy is what it says it is – fantasy, featuring make-believe creatures, or creatures that once existed, science fiction is based upon some scientific beliefs (pretenders get called out). The sci-fi can be futuristic but generally is based upon or purports to be based upon some laws and knowledge of science.

When it comes to hard science fiction, some names can always be trusted. There’s Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinleim. When I read Robert J. Sawyer’s “Mindscan” I added him to this list. I then read the Neanderthal Parallax trilogy (Humans, Hominids, Hybrids) which I found fascinating. Lots of series have a very strong first book and the consecutive ones can never live up to it. “Ender’s Game” is an example, and so is “Dune”. Both these books were fantastic, but I’ve never been compelled upon reading reviews, to pick up the other books in the series. The Neanderthal Parallax series, fortunately, builds nicely and continues to be exciting and strong on content throughout the three books. Highly recommended if you love science fiction and anthropology.

I’ve since picked up Sawyer’s most recent trilogy : WWW – Wake, Watch, World. Wake, the first book in the series has an intriguing storyline. Caitlin Decter, a blind high-schooler, who’s recently moved from Texas to Canada, is enlisted by a Japanese scientist to participate in a sight-restoring scientific breakthrough. When Caitlin is setup with the technology, she, much to her disappointment can’t see the world. What she can see is the internet, which makes her relatively happy, since she’s a math whiz and very interested in technology and the WWW. As she goes about exploring this new world, Caitlin finds a web-based intelligent entity on the networks and tries to help it learn.

In parallel, Sawyer also tells us about an avian flu outbreak in China. And then there is the story of Hobo, a bonobo ape who is being taught/conditioned to learn and can actually communicate with his human trainers via hand signals. Caitlin’s story is the strongest thread in “WWW: Wake”, but while all three stories were interesting to read, neither of them went to any conclusion in this book. This is a first book of a series and presumably Sawyer will take these unfinished stories ahead in the later two books. Still, with all the loose threads, and no satisfying conclusions (save one maybe) this book did not have that sense of closure. I’m not awed as I expected to be awed.

Sawyer is a good writer. His language is simple and very descriptive. He explains scientific concepts (mostly via characters talking) in great detail without sounding “jargony”. While I’m not too satisfied with “Wake”, owing to Sawyer’s style of writing and his strong content I had no trouble clip-clopping through it at a pretty good pace. Yes, I can’t find enough reasons to pick up “WWW:Watch”, but will probably still try other books by him. Wake is a decent enough book, but be prepared to forge ahead in quick order with the series if you do pick it up.