The Downloaded by Robert J. Sawyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This novella by Robert Sawyer has a bunch of rather interesting, even oddball elements that, for the most part, work very well together.

What happens when you incorporate Mennonites, androids, deep space astronauts, deep simulation, and convicts -- shaken, not stirred -- and make them work out some ethical concerns, both personal and on a huge scale?

Indeed, there's some interesting questions to be resolved and even stranger outcomes. And honestly? I can't quite blame any of their conclusions. Decent story.

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC of this book available to me.

A group of 20-some astronauts (whose bodies have been preserved cryogenically and their consciousnesses maintained in an artificial reality) are resuscitated only to discover that their spaceship never left orbit, they were still on Earth, and 500+ years had passed since a cataclysm devastated the planet. Likewise, a group of 30-some ex-cons in a similar state have been resuscitated only to discover that their realtime sentence that was to cover a few months lasted 500+ years instead. Ouch. All told through a series of journal entries from the points of view of a half dozen of these survivors. And, yes, it works.

What ensues is these two groups coming to terms with each and with the few remaining inhabitants, and trying to figure out what comes next. Of course, things get complicated. And then complicated again.

Short novel, easy read, pretty well thought out, and quite entertaining.

I’ve enjoyed a lot of Sawyer’s stuff, but this one left me cold. More a novella than a full-length novel, The Downloaded is entirely narrated in first-person interviews. There are a couple interesting technical ideas but they aren’t explored in enough detail to really be compelling. All in all, a disappointing book.

The book grabbed me from the very first page. The story is thought-provoking and well paced. The world-building is excellent and the characters are wonderful. I also liked the Canadian setting and the pop-culture references. And there was some very well-placed humour. This is science fiction at its finest. Thank you to Netgalley and Shadowpaw Press for the advance reader copy.

An absolute page turner. I couldn't put it down. Definitely pick this one up if you are looking for a short and thrilling read.

The Downloaded is an interesting read. Cryogenics to preserve astronauts as they travel to a potential hospitable planet in the far future (and far distance). Criminals spending their time in the same cryogenics facility. This is a multiple POV story with a great variety of characters. Due to events, their journey isn't as expected and they must learn to exist with each other as well as others. I loved the full cast audio, great sound effects that really added to the reading experience.

Characters were great, world building was good, plot was great and really thought provoking.

A interesting take on who we are. Two groups downloaded and awakened into a strange Earth shows what we can become and what hard choices we face. Told by different individuals it kept me wondering. Hard to put down. Plenty of great story telling. Perfect for Science Fiction fans.

"The Downloaded" by Robert J. Sawyer was a lot of fun to read! The plot was delightful to SF fans. The scope spans over 1000 years and tens of light years. In addition to the use of quantum computing and cryptotechnology to enable interstellar travel, the novel take a really hard look at issues of individual and species survival and possible potential futures of humanity. And let us not forget artificial sentience and their rights...

I thank Robert J. Sawyer and Shadowpaw Press for kindly providing an electronic review copy of this excellent novel.

This is a short book that presents a situation and solutions. In the not too distant future a ship is launched to the stars. The crew are physically frozen with their minds uploaded into virtual reality sims so they an enjoy themselves for the 400 years of travel. Except it doesn't work out that way. The ship never left, because an EMP blast destroyed civilization after uploading but before departure. The crew awakens at a flight center near Toront0. Also housed at that facility were criminals participating in a new form of incarceration in virtual reality. How will these two groups live together? How will they interact with any people they might find?

It's a good premise but written in a lazy style of interview transcripts between the downloaded crew and ex-cons and a post-human Martian who pops in to see what's going on. The book takes no time at all to read and is not particularly satisfying.

However, when I was getting ready to upload my review onto another site, the first entry to pop-up was an audio presentation from last year. I think that the play came first and now this paperback has been added. Perhaps the interview format derives from the play, not from laziness after all.

I had seen this advertised as an audiobook and was glad to see there's a print/ebook version coming out. This was pretty good if you like Sawyer's stuff -- there's an SF/philosophical idea, then some twists on it, and it adds some interesting characters. This one is presented as interviews after the events of the story, some characters recurring and then a few have only one or two interview segments. It works pretty well and I think Sawyer keeps getting better with the people parts of his books. His plotting and ideas have always been good.

4.5 really unique really intriguing idea with a lot of good characters and a lot of interesting combinations paired together from this great author. Thanks for the arc.