Cover reveal!

And a special pre-order deal for Canadians

Here’s the gorgeous cover for my 26th novel The Downloaded 2: Ghosts in the Machine. It’s already out as an Audible Original, but the print and ebook editions are coming on May 19 — and here’s an advance look at the cover for those editions. As with the original The Downloaded, this cover is by the amazing Alisha Souillet of Bibliofic Designs in Red Deer, Alberta. The print edition is coming from Shadowpaw Press, a Certified Canadian Publisher.

The novel will be available in bookstores across North America. Canada’s largest bookstore chain, Indigo, has made a major buy of the book, and they’re promoting online pre-orders from now until Sunday, February 8, at 25% off:

https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/the-downloaded-2-ghosts-in-the-machine/9781998273560.html

(Ebook preorders will be available from all major ebook vendors later this month.)

I’ll be on book tour in May to promote the release. Come see me in Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Kitchener, or Saint John:

https://sfwriter.com/lnappear.htm

“In the provocative and compelling follow-up to The Downloaded, Robert J. Sawyer tackles meaty questions of identity, embodiment, and technology. Written with wit, empathy, and an incisive analysis of the ethical questions posed by emergent technologies, this page-turner will keep you thinking long after you’ve closed the book.”—Rachel A. Rosen, author of Cascade

“Speculative fiction at its very best, at once ferociously brilliant and heartbreakingly human with moments of absolutely delightful humour—a story of real people across the diverse spectrum of lived experiences navigating life in a strange, sometimes terrifying new world. The sharp plot twists combined with the genuine character relationships made it impossible to stop reading.”—Finnian Burnett, author of Redshirts Sometimes Survive

Oh! And on the same date that The Downloaded 2: Ghosts in the Machine is coming out — May 19, 2026 — Shadowpaw Press is also launching a new edition of the book I think is the best one I’ve ever written: The Oppenheimer Alternative, with a fabulous new cover. You can preorder that one from Indigo (or your favourite bookseller), too:

https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/the-oppenheimer-alternative/9781998273577.html

“An imaginative restructuring of a phantasmagoric life into an alternative phantasmagorical story. Oppenheimer fans will be intrigued.” —Martin J. Sherwin, co-author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the basis for Christopher Nolan's movie Oppenheimer