Science Fiction Writer
ROBERT J. SAWYER
Hugo and Nebula Winner

HOME • MENU • Search:

[My father, who is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Toronto, was born in Toronto in 1924; my mother, who has retired from being a lecturer in statistics at the same university, was born in Appleton, Minnesota, in 1925. They both encouraged me to develop a love of reading.]

This novel would not have taken flight without the help and encouragement of:

• Algis Budrys [after it had been bounced from several magazines, I submitted the novelette version of Golden Fleece to the "Writers of the Future" contest in August 1986; Budrys, the lead judge of that contest, gave it an honorable mention and wrote some very useful comments on the title page of the manuscript; I followed his advice, and sold the revised version to Amazing Stories]
• Dr. R. W. Bussard [the inventor of the Bussard ramjet starship, who kindly read the novelette version and gave me his technical feedback; I met him through the WordStar Forum on CompuServe]
• Richard Curtis [my original literary agent, who sold this book to Warner, which was the first place he'd submitted it to]
• Terence M. Green [friend and mentor in Toronto, who read an early draft of the "Golden Fleece" novelette, and also commented on a draft of the novel version]
• Patrick Lucien Price [the editor of Amazing Stories magazine, who gave me some excellent editorial suggestions on the short version, and featured it as the cover story of Amazing's September 1988 issue]
• Dr. Ariel Reich [a friend from high school who went on to get a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California (Berkeley), and who serves as technical consultant on all my books; he spent a lot of time with me working out the relativistic details of the Argo's flight]
• Brian M. Thomsen [the editor at Warner Book's Questar imprint who bought Golden Fleece in January 1990]
• and especially Carolyn Clink [my wife]

Beta testers for Golden Fleece were:

• Ted Bleaney [high-school friend and avid SF reader]
• David Livingstone Clink [my brother-in-law]
• Franklin R. Haber [a friend and computer expert in New York city; I met him through the WordStar Forum on CompuServe]
• Mark C. Petersen [co-owner of Loch Ness Productions, a leading producer of planetarium shows; I met him, too, through the WordStar Forum on CompuServe]
• Alan B. Sawyer [my brother]
• Andrew Weiner [Toronto SF writer, who by coincidence had a story of his own in the September 1988 Amazing Stories — the issue that featured the novelette version of "Golden Fleece"]

Any remaining bugs are my own.

["Beta tester" is a term from software development; it refers to people who test a program prior to its public release. It seemed a cute term to use for my manuscript-critiquers, given that the novel was about artificial intelligence; same thing for the reference to "bugs" at the end.]

More Good Reading

Other dedications and acknowledgments
More About Golden Fleece

My Very Occasional Newsletter