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Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer
01/06/2008 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: TOR/SciFi Channel. 313 page paperback. Price: $ 6.99 (US) $ 8.99 (CAN). ISBN: 978-0-7653-4974-3. Buy Rollback in the USA - or Buy Rollback in the UK  check out website: www.tor-forge.com , www.sfwriter.com and www.groups.yahoo.com/robertjsawyer
With his new novel 'Rollback', Rob Sawyer has managed to mix dealing with alien messages with the problem of how to be there for successive messages. The 'rollback' of the title is a human invention that at a very expensive price allows the rejuvenation of the body to a younger age.
When Dr. Sarah Halifax discovers the encoding key of an alien message which turns into a ethical survey of mankind, billionaire Cody McGavin offers her the treatment so she can be there for the reply. Sarah refuses unless her husband, Don, can have it done as well. McGavin is, fortunately, just rich enough to do so. Unfortunately, the rollback treatment only works on her husband and so there follows an interesting dilemma when the second message arrives and Sarah is an old woman trying to puzzle out the solution.
I thought until a third of the way through this book that Sawyer would avoid giving the nitty-gritty details of the alien message. Instead, he built up to it. In many respects, this story is about the problems of ageing, staying young and preparing for others when they die. It makes the alien message rather secondary although neatly brings it to modern day, albeit forty years into the future, which isn't long away these days. It's also interesting that Sawyer brings in SF references as the time frame. Whether this was for the readership or to affirm that astronomers are SF buffs isn't shown. Keeping it in Canada also draws more on Sawyer's own background knowledge.
The sensitivity of the issues involved here is likely to get this book up for awards in the coming months and you might as well be in on the ground floor and say you've got there before the judges. A compelling read.
GF Willmetts
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