Robert J. Sawyer
Far-Seer

Robert J. Sawyer, Canadian born in 1960, has historically been one of the most appreciated and published authors by 'Urania' in recent years.

Winner of the Nebula Award in 1995 with the novel 'Killer On-Line', in Italy he has become particularly known for the 'WWW' trilogy, one of the most interesting and suggestive works related to the mysteries and developments of the web.

Considered the only full-time Canadian sci-fi writer and particularly followed by his enthusiasts, with this publication 'Urania' presents the first of his novels that make up the so-called 'Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy'.

Set on the planet Quintaglio, the novels tell the stories of extraterrestrial equivalents of Galileo, Darwin, and Freud on a planet populated by evolved and intelligent dinosaurs. For completeness, it should be said that, even though it is never specified within the text (the denominations of each dinosaur are deliberately different from ours), the intelligent and evolved population is composed of tyrannosaurs. While the other dinosaurs are variously used as means of transportation or as game for a species that is clearly a hunter and carnivorous.

This novel in particular, titled 'Far-Seer' and first published in 1992, re-proposes in a parodic manner, but not for this in any way 'ridiculous' or easy, the historical events and processes that led to the act of abjuration by Galileo Galilei on June 22, 1633 (how not to also suggest in this regard the reading of a brilliant work like that of the play 'Vita di Galileo' by Bertold Brecht).

Everything is proposed, of course, in a radically different context and described with accuracy and without ever tiring the reader thanks to the skilled descriptive abilities of the author and within an adventurous novel whose protagonist, the young apprentice astrologer Afsan, will embark on a long journey circumambulating for the first time the planet and, thanks to his brilliant insights and the aid of a rudimentary telescope, will question the entire theological and consequently social system on which Quintaglio is based, while at the same time discovering a dangerous truth that could seriously compromise its very survival.

Returning to Capital City, the most important city of the eight present on the planet, at the end of his adventurous journey and after finally coming of age, having also fulfilled every necessary procedural rite, Afsan will soon find himself against the religious and political institutions and will end up imprisoned and tortured because he is accused of blasphemy and defined as a 'demon'. But while contingent facts and catastrophic natural events seem increasingly to give credit to his theories, a group of believers in a dissident sect from the central power recognizes in him what the legend defines as the 'one', openly igniting the confrontation against the dominant institutions.

A science fiction novel that talks about dinosaurs in a way that I believe has no precedents in the history of science fiction. Historically adored by children, these large lizards have populated the more naive sci-fi imagination ever since the Made in Japan cinematic proposal of the monster Godzilla (which in truth technically wouldn't really be a dinosaur, despite the size) and then up to one of the most typical blockbusters of the nineties, namely 'Jurassic Park', the film based on a novel by Michael Crichton that has had several sequels over the years.

It seems evident to me that here, however, even though the premise might surely make one smile and some scenes might also refer to clearly surreal situations, we are faced with something completely different and with a work that leaves a bitter taste because it evidently needs the sequel; it offers us a piece of our history and that instrumental and power-driven debate between 'faith' and 'science' that has constituted and still constitutes today a topic of discussion. Not to mention the return of the 'Flat Earth Society' and its conspiracy theories that, between the serious and the facetious, seem to push to reopen an unlikely debate and still manage to resonate with a certain audience.