Sign in

Robert Charles Wilson

@wilsonspin.bsky.social
1.5K followers 249 following 70 posts

Hugo Award-winning author of SPIN, BLIND LAKE and a bunch of other novels, plus short story collection THE PERSEIDS and nonfiction semi-memoir OWNING THE UNKNOWN.

PostsRepliesMedia
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 11h
My new novel doesn’t drop until May 4th, but suddenly it’s available for pre-order on the usual sites, and…wow, I guess it’s real. Forty years in this business, and every time feels like the first time. @tachyonpub.bsky.social
amazon.ca
Forty Million Summers : Wilson, Robert Charles: Amazon.ca: Books
Forty Million Summers : Wilson, Robert Charles: Amazon.ca: Books
084
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Here’s another instalment of my Substack series looking at Library of America’s SF novels of the 1950s (no paywall, free to read). This time it’s Richard Matheson’s The Shrinking Man.
robertcharleswilson.substack.com
Against Nostalgia: Reading Library of America’s Science Fiction Novels of the 1950s
Part Five: The Shrinking Man
051
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Here you go: the official cover reveal for my new novel Forty Million Summers, due next May. Maybe I should be jaded after forty years in the business, but I have to say I’m especially proud of this big, far-ranging book and pleased that it found such a good home.
tachyonpublications.com
Forty Million Summers - Tachyon Publications
“I can’t think of another science fiction writer who understands the strengths of the genre so well.” —The New York Times An inexplicable ecological disaster is rapidly making the Earth uninhabitable...
4202
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Another instalment in my Substack series looking at Library of America’s collection of science fiction novels of the 1950s. This time it’s Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow.
robertcharleswilson.substack.com
Against Nostalgia: Reading Library of America's Science Fiction Novels of the 1950s
Part Four: The Long Tomorrow
1222
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
So this happened last week: Canadian production company Skywild announcing the acquisition of rights to three novels, including one of mine. It’s only an option, so nothing is guaranteed, but it’s super nice to be included here.
hollywoodreporter.com
Tom Ryan’s Murder Mystery ‘The Treasure Hunters Club’ Optioned for TV Adaptation (Exclusive)
Skywild Pictures has also picked up rights to two other novels, ‘Our Little Secret’ and ‘The Affinities,’ for similar page-to-TV treatments.
170
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Just posted: part three of my Substack series on Library of America’s SF novels of the 1950s. This time around it’s Theodore Sturgeon’s More Than Human. This was fun to write but hard to boil down to a readable length—there’s so much more I could have said.
robertcharleswilson.substack.com
Against Nostalgia: Reading Library of America's Science Fiction Novels of the 1950s
Part Three: More Than Human
193
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
The latest instalment of my series about Library of America’s collection of science fiction novels of the 1950s is up at Substack. This time I take a look at The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth. robertcharleswilson.substack.com/p/against-no...
robertcharleswilson.substack.com
Against Nostalgia: Reading Library of America’s Science Fiction Novels of the 1950s
Part Two: The Space Merchants
140
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
The latest issue of the French magazine Bifrost is a tribute to the long and fascinating history of Amazing magazine, but they found room for my little micro-story “Homage to Pandora,” ably translated by Gilles Goulet.
151
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
Here’s my new Substack post: some thoughts about my forthcoming novel Forty Million Summers, plus Loren Eiseley and Ray Bradbury. Still free to read and subscribe, no paywall.
robertcharleswilson.substack.com
Forty Million Summers and Other Books
Loren Eiseley, Ray Bradbury, and the Paleontology of Words on Paper
1100
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
I’ve posted so sporadically here that I’m not sure who’s listening, but for those of you who might be interested, my first new novel in ten years is called Forty Million Summers and it’s been acquired by Tachyon Publications. So I’m doing my happy dance today.
9756
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
One of the first rules of professional writing I learned was “Never give away anything for free.” But I’m old enough to break the rules if the spirit moves me. This is a tiny little brand-new science fiction story, which I hope might make you laugh…or not, depending on the mood you’re in.
open.substack.com
Homage to Pandora
A Tiny Little Short Story
1121
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
This might have been more appropriate for Halloween, but, like a pumpkin-spice latte on a hot September day, it arrived before its time.
robertcharleswilson.substack.com
Why We Don't Ask Why
Close Encounters, The Exorcist, And The Questions We Don't Ask
061
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 09/08/2025
I haven’t been active here for a while, and I apologize to anyone who follows me. Part of the reason is that I’ve been busy setting up a Substack newsletter. This is the latest post—witches, beatniks, the Lavender Scare, and a movie I watch every Christmas. (Subscriptions are currently free.)
robertcharleswilson.substack.com
Zodiac Carousel
Bell, Book and Candle and the Hinges of American Culture
190
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
Extremely interesting, if far from conclusive. K2-18 wouldn’t be a comfortable place for human beings—more than twice as large as Earth and nine times as massive, orbiting a red dwarf star—but it’s fun to imagine a big watery world teeming with sentient seaweed or philosophically-minded jellyfish.
theguardian.com
Scientists hail ‘strongest evidence’ so far for life beyond our solar system
Astrophysics team say observation of chemical compounds may be ‘tipping point’ in search for extraterrestrial life
2123
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
If you want to support something reliably Canadian instead of products tainted by their connection to the US, choose: —Laura Secord, not Hershey’s —Maple Leaf, not Oscar Mayer —Mark Carney, not Pierre Poilievre
0185
Reposted by Robert Charles Wilson
Steven Beschloss @stevenbeschloss.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
Real Americans are all-in for our great neighbor Canada.
34818128
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
The more I see of Mark Carney, the better I like him. He’s smart, knowledgeable, at ease at the podium, and a perfect foil for the attacks on Canada’s sovereignty emanating from south of the border. The opposite of Poilievre, whose shallow sloganeering is instantly tiresome.
2386
Reposted by Robert Charles Wilson
Physicians for a Healthy Democracy @physiciandemocracy.medsky.social · 18/03/2025
March Madness
13877245
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
Best analysis I’ve seen yet, at least from a source outside Canada.
snyder.substack.com
Blame Canada
Our warmongering, drugged-out conspiracy theory
361
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
I’d kinda forgotten that this is the book’s 20th anniversary. Without question, the most popular and most commercially successful of all my novels.
6203
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Taking a little time for some vintage science fiction, especially the work of John Christopher, whose opus I somehow neglected. (I did read and enjoy his Tripod trilogy many years ago, and I’m looking forward to No Blade of Grass, The Long Winter, and The Ragged Edge.)
180
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
A Publishers Weekly article about the near-death of the mass market paperback, and you can spot a copy of my novel Spin in the photo that illustrates it. Sort of like coming across your own name on a tombstone.
370
Reposted by Robert Charles Wilson
Sharry Wilson 🇨🇦 @sharryw.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Fellow Canadians! 🇨🇦 Consider signing the petition below asking the Prime Minister to consider revoking Elon Musk’s dual citizen status and revoke his passport immediately. www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en...
ourcommons.ca
Petition e-5353 - Petitions
031
Reposted by Robert Charles Wilson
Brittlestar @brittlestar.com · 21/02/2025
It's Nice To Be Disliked (By One Of Those)
351292534
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
Celebrating Flag Day today—and reclaiming the flag from the “convoy” quislings, at a time when we face an unprecedented threat from south of the border. (Also bracing for the winter storm heading for southern Ontario!)
6455
Reposted by Robert Charles Wilson
Charlie Angus @charlieangus104.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
An American draft resisters crew, Toronto. 4th from left is Mary M from Georgia. She was a spirit guide to my wife and I. 3rd is Phillip from Texas. He taught me to be a carpenter. During Vietnam many young Americans came here, built lives, changed our politics. Maybe we need that influx again.
96884121
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Trump has backed down…for now, in exchange for some fairly trivial gestures from Ottawa. But we still have a gun pointed at us—the US administration is still hostile and shockingly authoritarian—and I’ll be buying Canadian and boycotting US products until that changes.
2181
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Pierre Poilievre is currently on the CBC trying to promote himself by lending credence to Trump’s ludicrous rationale for tariffs. “Tariffs are wrong, but…” But nothing. Quisling.
2161
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Trump’s “reasons” for imposing tariffs on Canada are so implausible that he obviously has a different motive—presumably to crush Canadian independence, economically or politically or both. Buy Canadian, boycott American. True north strong and free.
2104
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
We’re shopping more carefully now that Canada is under economic threat—postponing big purchases, planning more plain-&-basic meals, avoiding US products, buying Canadian wherever possible. This country is worth any sacrifice we might have to make. Canadians have done it before & we can do it again.
0193
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
Best thing I’ve seen yet about Trump’s threats to Canada.
macleans.ca
Why America Can’t Conquer Canada - Macleans.ca
Donald Trump’s nonsensical threats are an attempt to distract from his own country’s self-destruction
22510
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
“Danielle Smith, Kevin O’Leary, and Jordan Peterson walk into Mar-a-Lago—“ “Wait, is this a joke?” “Yes. But not in the good way.”
cbc.ca
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith visits Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago | CBC News
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith visited Mar-a-Lago, the Florida home of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, on Saturday.
1153
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
“Number 24” is a poignant dramatization of the experience of Norwegian WW II resistance fighter Gunnar Sønsteby. Maybe especially poignant for Canadians, at a time when the apparently psychotic leader-in-waiting of the country to the south of us is making mouth noises about annexing our country.
rogerebert.com
Number 24 movie review & film summary (2025) | Roger Ebert
A sturdy, handsomely mounted period piece depicting the emotional toll required for freedom.
1141
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
Every year after Christmas dinner Aunt Felicia would entertain the family with her reenactment of a scene from Ridley Scott’s Alien.
0170
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
Once a year I have to take the platter off my sixty-year-old idler-drive turntable and oil all the mechanical bits that need lubricating. This is the sort of entertainment you don’t get with Spotify.
2221
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Some Canadian art for tomorrow’s solstice: Lawren Harris, “Winter Morning,” 1914. I don’t mind these dark and moody winter days—great for sitting by the window and writing—though they tend to wear out their welcome by the time February staggers into March.
1150
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
This 4-LP boxed set was distributed by the Book of the Month Club in 1964, and they must have made a million of them—they’re a yard sale mainstay, the opposite of “collectible” vinyl. But it’s actually a pretty good introduction to the pre-Dylan folk scene.
270
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
The incoming US president called our prime minister the “governor” of a “state,” so I thought I’d check, and as of dawn’s early light the flag was still there.
3162
Reposted by Robert Charles Wilson
Harry Litman @harrylitman.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
If one grim day, historians and a stunned American people construct a timeline for how we came to decline from a democracy to at least a quasi-authoritarian state, they will include 1) the destruction of the norm of FBI director independence from POTUS; and 2) the pardon of the January 6 defendants.
40881173
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Anybody else watching this? I’m normally a science fiction guy when it comes to TV—loved The Expanse & For All Mankind—but this series hooked me from the beginning. Like watching alternate-universe versions of people you’ve known all your life—you recognize them even when you don’t recognize them.
variety.com
’Somebody Somewhere’s’ Final Season Is Exceptional Television: TV Review
In the third and final season of HBO's stellar dramedy, ‘Somebody Somewhere’ Bridget Everett and Jeff Hiller have never been more magnetic.
1101
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
The older I get, the more my record collection feels like a time machine: eavesdropping on the past by listening to music. “Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section” was recorded (superbly) in Los Angeles in 1957—the year Sputnik went into orbit and Paul McCartney was introduced to John Lennon.
050
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
Revisiting the (relatively) obscure corners of my record collection again, and this is a good one: straight-up electric blues circa 1965 to warm up the room on a chilly day.
1110
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
In his book @mattstrassler.bsky.social often uses air and wind as an analogy—air as a medium, wind as a field, sound as a wave—which always reminded me of the Christina Rossetti poem: Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I: But when the trees bow down their heads, The wind is passing by.
160
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Lately I’ve been listening to some of the more obscure discs in my collection. Not sure how to describe this one—quasi-psychedelic big band jazz exotica? Very much of its time (1967), eccentric and kinda kitschy but oddly enjoyable.
090
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
The local thrift shop has been a dry well for the last few months, but I found these today.
2100
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
Forthcoming Italian edition. Gorgeous cover art!
4170
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
I wouldn’t know a boson from a fermion if it bit me on the ankle, but I do love reading popular science books. This looks like an especially good one.
2180
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Len Deighton’s Bomber is a fine novel, and I was fascinated to learn it was the first work of fiction to be written on a word processor—an IBM MT72 “the size and shape of a small upright piano.” Deighton was the only private individual IBM allowed to own one, circa 1969.
0110
Robert Charles Wilson @wilsonspin.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
I’m occasionally asked for writing advice. But no two writers have the same problems—what comes easily to me might be a struggle for you, and the bump you glide past like an Olympic skateboarder might be the one that leaves me face down on the pavement…
1110