Ontario-based author Robert J. Sawyer easily ranks among the sci-fi greats – illustrious among those in the know. He is one of only seven people to have won all three of science fiction’s top awards for best novel of the year: The Hugo, the Nebula and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.

Now Sawyer’s work is being taken to another level. Thursday, Sept. 24 marks the premiere of ABC’s FlashForward – a new television series inspired by Sawyer’s 1999 novel of the same name.

The Thin Air Winnipeg International Writers Festival has arranged a premiere party at McNally Robinson Polo Park that evening. Sawyer is looking forward to speaking at the bookstore (one of his favourite Winnipeg haunts) before and after the show airs.

“My inspiration for FlashForward came from a 20th anniversary high school reunion that was held at my house,” Sawyer said by phone from his Mississauga home last week.

“Everybody was saying the same thing: ‘If only I knew then what I know now, my life would have been so much better. I wouldn’t have had that dead-end job or the bad marriage. Everything would have been better had I known.’ So I suggested a thought experiment: let’s find a way to see if that really is true. FlashForward explores that issue at length – would we better off with knowledge of our destinies?”

In the book, the entire human race loses consciousness simultaneously for just over two minutes as the result of a scientific experiment gone awry. During that time, nearly everyone sees themselves about 21 years in the future – or, in the show, six months.

FlashForward explores how the characters respond to this knowledge of the future.

“ I’ve always wanted to help to make the world a better place – to set a good example with my work.

Robert J. Sawyer, sci-fi writer

Sawyer has been writing for his entire life, making his first sale at the age of 19. The original Star Trek television series as well as movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes provided inspiration.

“The ‘60s were good but I thought things could be even better in the future. We were in the process of deciding what we would do as a species for the rest of time.”

Sawyer sees himself as a child of science fiction. Whenever the question arises as to what direction the human species will take, Sawyer has sought to provide an optimistic example, echoing the work of Arthur C. Clark, Isaac Asimov and Gene Roddenberry.

“I’ve always wanted to help to make the world a better place – to set a good example with my work.”

When asked if there’s anything that makes his work distinctly Canadian, Sawyer responded that his settings are all Canadian. He added that this has posed no problem in attracting international markets. His characters are also of diverse nationalities, reflecting the diversity of Canadian society.

Perhaps most interesting is a more subtle difference that distinguishes Sawyer’s work from novels from the U.S.

“American science fiction novels end triumphantly and this is like the American approach to life. They are big and powerful and they get their way. Canadians tend to seek compromise.”

The FlashForward premiere party begins at 6:30 p.m. Sawyer will also appear at the University of Winnipeg’s Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall on Friday, Sept. 25 at 2:30 p.m. with fellow sci-fi writers Nick DiChario and Robert Charles Wilson on a panel discussing the future.

Published in Volume 64, Number 4 of The Uniter (September 24, 2009)