Robert J. Sawyer: The Terminal Experiment (1995)
333 pages
English language
Published Jan. 3, 1995
The Terminal Experiment is a science fiction novel by Canadian writer Robert J. Sawyer. The book won the 1995 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1996. Sawyer received a writer's reserve grant from the Ontario Arts Council in 1993 in support of his writing the novel.The story was first serialised in Analog magazine in the mid-December 1994 to March 1995 issues, under the name Hobson's Choice, before its first novel publication in May, 1995. A Hobson's choice is an apparently free choice that is really no choice at all. In this book it is a play on the main character's name and describes the choice between immortality and provable life after death.
Nobody does courtroom drama like Sawyer. Although there's a fair bit of technological misfiring (wasn't this 1995?) It's surprisingly cogent and enjoyable. Ending is very typical, though.
