Robert Sawyer's "The Downloaded" is great example of what happens when two different groups of people are thrust together to overcome adversity and, well, their own imminent death. Set in the not-so-distant future, the plot unfolds through interviews with multiple points of view and tells the tale of a group of astronauts who were preparing for Earth's first interstellar trip, and a group of convicted murders who were serving virtual reality prison sentences. Each group has different understanding of what has brought them to where they are now, and different expectations on what should be done moving forward. As tensions escalate, they must work together to unfold the secrets of what has brought them to the situation they find themselves in and how to figure out a way forward.

Sawyer manages to weave together intricate plotlines, bringing readers into a society on the verge of collapse. "The Downloaded" offers a blend of post-apocalyptic drama and sci-fi intrigue, catering to fans of both genres. Fans of "Wayward Pines" will find themselves drawn into the similar themes of survival and mystery, as Sawyer delivers a tale that leaves a lasting impression on readers long after the final page is turned.

he Downloaded by Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer is a very short novel, at just 190 pages. But these 190 pages pack more ideas than many novels twice its length.

The book begins with Dr. Jurgen Haas being interviewed by an unknown person, describing how he was brought out of his virtual reality environment by the Captain of their expedition to Proxima Centauri. The crew was supposed to wake up from cyronic suspension in 500 years when their vessel arrived, with their minds conscious of only a few years passing in virtual reality. Instead, they wake up in 2548 to discover that they never left Earth, which is now in ruins.

The would-be astronauts are not the only ones to be revived. The Quantum Cryonics Institute also houses convicted criminals who were supposed to complete their sentence in a sped-up virtual reality. One of these former criminals immediately tries to rape a Mennonite girl; from the religious group that seems to be the only surviving humans (because they know how to survive without technology).

So, the book has conflict between the astronauts and the criminals, the mystery of what happened to Earth (and the first answer they believe is not the real story), a murder mystery as the coffin of their chief robot expert had been vandalized (making his revival impossible), the threat of an asteroid that one of the scientists has discovered will hit the Earth in 2555, trans romance, robot rights, and the eventually revelation of the person who has been conducting the interviews that comprise the book. Most authors would spread all these plot ideas into a trilogy, not cram them into less than 200 pages of a single book. But Sawyer makes it all work.

Despite this packed plot, Sawyer doesn't shortchange his characters. He gives a full background to his three main characters--the doctor, the Captain, and the former criminal who becomes the mayor--as well as developing a few more characters. Even the robots have some characterization.

Inevitably, some of this feels rushed and some readers may think the frantic pacing does not allow the story room to breathe. Still, I think it is better to avoid the bloat that plagues many doorstoppers and provide readers with an interesting story that has no time to grow boring.

It is worth noting that, even though Sawyer is one of the big names in science fiction, with twenty-five novels to his credits along with a Hugo, a Nebula, and multiple Canadian Aurora Awards, he chose to publish this book through Shadowpaw Press, a small new Canadian publisher. (The book was originally published as an audiobook-only Audible Exclusive.)

I recommend this book for anyone who still sees science fiction as the literature of ideas.

Excellent novel, thought provoking and intriguing.
Due to health issues cannot write a proper review now even if I enjoyed this book.
A more extensive review will follow
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This had everything I could possibly want from a good science fiction read. Mysterious and strange, I couldn't put it down. Highly recommend it for genre fans.

"Store the body at sub-zero temperatures; store the mind in a quantum computer—and reunite them at some point in the future. It was a perfect solution not just for those seeking to beat death, like my grandpa, but also for astronauts like Jürgen and me planning to go on a centuries-long interstellar voyage. Except, damn it all, something went horribly, horribly wrong."

Set in the future, humans have perfected cryogenics. The trick is that the mind and the body have to be stored separately and the mind downloaded from the quantum computer back into the body when the body is defrosted. We meet two groups of people - astronauts who were meant to be frozen for a long space voyage to a distant star and prisoners wh were meant to serve a 20 year prison senence in 10 months in a sped up simulation. Hower, things don't quite go as promised and everyone wakes up on or around an earth they don't recognise 500 years later. These are their stories, told through a series of interviews, as they share who they are.

I was immediately intrigued when I saw the concept. The book may be short but it covers quite a lot in it pages. But because of its length a lot of these things unfortuanately aren't looked at much deeper than surface level (altough some points like COVID in this case both 19 and the new 50 disease were brought up multiple times, still not nearly as deeply as many other books look at pandemics though). I wasn't aware of the interview structure before I started. Although it maybe makes things a bit more fragmented than they would otherwise have been (each interview is quite short!), the fact that this isn't done through dialogue (i.e. it's just one character talking at a time without interruptions) means it mostly reads as any other story would. This started as an audio format and there were definitely times when I could tell that this was written with that in mind. There are times when it becomes more stream of concious and I imagine those parts work much better inan audion format as that kind of rambling tone doesn't necessarily transate as strongly to a print format - this is not the majority of the book though. Just parts here and there. But overall, this was an interesting book and I'm glad I read it! I'm definitely a little curious about what happes to our characters next.

Great sci-fi novel!

"In 2059 two very different groups have their minds uploaded into a quantum computer in Waterloo, Ontario.
One group consists of astronauts preparing for Earth's first interstellar voyage.
The other? Convicted murderers, serving their sentences in a virtual-reality prison."

Their planned stays in these virtual realities and their bodies' cryo-sleep don't go as planned though and they all wake up together to a destroyed Earth centuries in the future. The novel is written as a series of interviews as they are trying to figure out how things could have gone so wrong, as well as how one of their bodies was murdered in their sleep.

Highly recommended to any sci-fi readers! This works for sci-fi newbies as well - the author really centers the story to questions about humanity, and it's a very character-driven story. Timely with the increasing possibilities of AI and virtual reality as well.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an eARC for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

I thought I had already given a review of this book, unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case. I do not recall a lot of the details behind this book, but I do recall that I enjoyed the book. It had great pace and kept me engaged throughout.

I love me some Robert J. Sawyer. I find his books to be interesting, sometimes clever, and written in a clean, brisk style that moves both story and character development along at a nice pace. The Downloaded is no exception to this.

Presented as an oral history- or possibly testimony- The Downloaded examines a post-apocalyptic world where Mennonites, astronauts, ex-convicts, and robots are all reacting to both the fall of civilization and displacement in time.

The books examines how societies form, the role of cryogenics and personality upload, and how humanity comes back to familiar themes over and over again.

The length of the book (it's a short one) means that the ideas are touched on, but not deeply explored. Which I personally liked because I think that's how most of us live our lives: touching on ideas without digging deeply and still having to make decisions and move forward.

The Downloaded is a good piece of science fiction and inspires some thought. I especially enjoyed the commentary on Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.

The Downloaded by Robert J. Sawyer is a so-so light science fiction novel set in 2059 featuring cryogenic freezing and quantum computers.

"In 2059 two very different groups have their minds uploaded into a quantum computer in Waterloo, Ontario. One group consists of astronauts preparing for Earth’s first interstellar voyage. The other? Convicted murderers, serving their sentences in a virtual-reality prison. But when disaster strikes, the astronauts and the prisoners must download back into physical reality and find a way to work together to save Earth from destruction."

The plot and, sadly, the writing are just okay in The Downloaded, and, honestly it was disappointing. Science fiction is a genre I generally enjoy, but what I really like is hard science fiction with all the facts and details concerning the real science supporting the story line. That is absent here, perhaps because it is a very short book. What is present is another lecture wrapped around a short story. The light plot and tedious lecture series insured I would lose interest quickly.

Yet again I need to caution an author to keep their personal political/social views on contemporary topics to themselves as it diminishes and dates the novel. There were multiple examples of this lecturing on several different topics, including numerous times those who didn't mask or vaccinate for COVID were demonized. I'm reading fiction for entertainment and escapism. If I want a lecture on social topics, I'll select the nonfiction books and topics. Thanks to Shadowpaw Press for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Solid sci-fi with interesting characters and situations.

I really appreciate the free copy for review!!

Robert Sawyer's "The Downloaded" is great example of what happens when two different groups of people are thrust together to overcome adversity and, well, their own imminent death. Set in the not-so-distant future, the plot unfolds through interviews with multiple points of view and tells the tale of a group of astronauts who were preparing for Earth's first interstellar trip, and a group of convicted murders who were serving virtual reality prison sentences. Each group has different understanding of what has brought them to where they are now, and different expectations on what should be done moving forward. As tensions escalate, they must work together to unfold the secrets of what has brought them to the situation they find themselves in and how to figure out a way forward.

Sawyer manages to weave together intricate plotlines, bringing readers into a society on the verge of collapse. "The Downloaded" offers a blend of post-apocalyptic drama and sci-fi intrigue, catering to fans of both genres. Fans of "Wayward Pines" will find themselves drawn into the similar themes of survival and mystery, as Sawyer delivers a tale that leaves a lasting impression on readers long after the final page is turned.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the premise was excellent. The characters were believable and likeable. The world was one in which i would gladly have spent more time in it…….which brings me to my one major flaw with it. It’s way too short. I felt the book was just hitting its stride when it was ending. I found the world and characters intriguing but due to it’s length didn’t feel fleshed out enough for my tastes. I would definitely recommend it but you may well be left wanting more.

Two groups of people have their bodies frozen and their brains uploaded to a quantum computer : a crew of astronauts on a colonising trip to another planet and a group of prisoners serving their time in a virtual reality prison. Both are downloaded 500 years later on a depopulated and ruined earth. How will they survive?
The book is written as a series of interviews with the various characters, both astronauts and ex convicts. It’s cleverly written and entertaining, with lots of sci-fi and other references. A fun read.

Interesting but underdeveloped. Unfortunately I read it a few weeks ago and forgot to write a review at the time and now I hardly remember it. It was a short and quick read and could easily have been twice as long.

3.25/5 stars. Yeah, that's slicing it fine, but to me, 3.25 is slightly above "Well, I read it at any rate," but falls short of "Not bad. Not great, but not bad."

I quite liked the story in the book, it was a bit short, I wish I could have more from some characters (Jameela Chowdhury, gave me serious River Song Vibes, a sassy English woman, really clever, yes! To me she could outsmart the doctor hahah), and a lot less from others (penolong, why were the robots so human in this book? Would Ai be stupid and human? Why imitate what we have of worse?, when you get to around 80% of the book, you’ll understand what I mean, the first remarks of the robots, not this one, but even so, are so human, that I don’t know if they were only trying to be funny or if it was how the author imagined them to be…

This book is more on the woke side, and I still had fun, I just ignored what I didn’t really care about, I did like the part about downloading their minds into the computer, having their personal heaven or hell in there, we also had a transexual astronaut, that only came out in his\her personal heaven, and couldn’t really live in reality even thou there where a man that could replicate that love even with a male body, but without spoilers, its a sound story and I had fun.

This is a good read, a bit short but it was very worth of our time.

Thank you Netgalley and Shadowpaw Press, for the free ARC and this is my honest opinion.

We always buy Robert J. Sawyer for our library. The only complaint I have is I'd like it to be longer.

Thanks to Robert J. Sawyer, Shadowpaw Press and Netgalley for access to the advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Another excellent science fiction story from Canadian science fiction master Robert J Sawyer. The plot involves uploading minds to a quantum computer to facilitate an interstellar voyage, but things don’t go according to plan. Thought provoking ideas around usage of quantum computers, establishing new colonies, justice, and the role of government. Recommended.

Review posted to Goodreads manually due to technical issues:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6248951286

As much as I want to say I enjoyed this book, which I did through approximately half, I was deterred from fully liking it by its politically pushed finish. The story itself was really good, but I really didn't need to feel right or wrong reading it depending on which side of the political spectrum I was on.

A fascinating take on the dystopian/utopian idea. The start of the book is definitely utopian, with Jurgen creating his own reality. But things quickly turn out to be not quite so idyllic as he is wrenched into reality. To discover reality is rather non-existant. To make matters worse, besides the astronaunts, the only people alive are some now ex-convicts. And it turns out there is a colony of Mennonites still alive.

This book is both amusing, and reflective. Very enjoyable read.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and I'm willingly leaving a review
The idea of putting the worst criminals into cryogenic status while watching videos to help them back into civilization seemed like a good therapy but didn't take off the violence out of those people and it doesn't appear to have worked for at least one of them who tried to go back to his old ways (TRIGGER: attempted rape with details). Sawyer added some gender naming and trans, politics, religion, and other similar issues, which didn't add anything at all to the story. There is so much swearing that it put me off. I was really confused most of the book because of the one-way conversations between the people and an alien: "I was as surprised as Jürgen was when he found that out" Find what out? Some parts are quite unbelievable, such as the food has been there, secured, for the last 500 years, in freezers, and it's still good. Yeah, okay. Another big one was why they didn't wait to solve the murder before getting the man another body; wouldn't that person try again? A few smiles came out, such as when the mayor had a "pressing governmental matter" ended-up being a toilet leak. Entertaining, but would not read again.