Science Fiction Writer
ROBERT J. SAWYER
Hugo and Nebula Winner

HOME • MENU • Search:

Short Stories

Robert J. Sawyer's short stories have been called everything from "quietly intelligent" (Booklist) to "gobsmacking" (Publishers Weekly). Rob's short fiction has been collected into three ebook volumes, available from all standard vendors:

• Stories 1: Earth (with an introduction by James Alan Gardner)

• Stories 2: Space (with an introduction by Robert Charles Wilson)

• Stories 3: Time (with an introduction by Edward M. Lerner)

Each story in each volume also has an invididual introduction by Rob.

Want a taste of Rob's fiction? The full text of the following short stories is available right here:

• "Peking Man" — the lead story in the 1996 anthology Dark Destiny III. What really happened to the bones of Peking Man? Winner of the Aurora Award (3,600 words).
  • Bonus audio: Rob reading "Peking Man" (21 minutes, recorded 13 June 2023).

• "If I'm Here, Imagine Where They Sent My Luggage" — a prize-winning story from The Village Voice in 1981 (250 words).
  • Bonus: recollections about this story, my first-ever science-fiction publication, included at the link above.

• "Just Like Old Times" — a time-travel yarn, the lead story in the anthology Dinosaur Fantastic, 1993. Midnight Zoo called it "a marvelous story." Winner of both the Crime Writers of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award and the Aurora Award (4,800 words).

• "The Shoulders of Giants" — the lead story in the 2000 anthology Star Colonies. A sleeper ship arrives at a supposedly uninhabited planet. Finalist for the 2001 Aurora Award (5,800 words).
  • Bonus: my essay on writing "The Shoulders of Giants."

• "You See But You Do Not Observe" — from the 1995 anthology Sherlock Holmes in Orbit. Sherlock Holmes tackles the Fermi Paradox. Starlog called this story "delightful." Winner of France's Le Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire for Best Foreign Short Story of the Year (6,400 words).
  
  • Bonus: my essay on writing "You See But . . ."

• "Star Light, Star Bright" — from the 2000 anthology Far Frontiers. A community living on the surface of a Dyson Sphere discovers the universe (4,800 words).

• "The Hand You're Dealt" — from the 1997 anthology Free Space. A murder mystery set aboard a space habitat. Finalist for the Hugo Award for best short story of the year; winner of the Science Fiction Chronicle Reader Award for best short story of the year; finalist for the Aurora Award and the Crime Writers of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award for best short story of the year (6,500 words).
  • Bonus: my notes on the science in this story, and my introduction to the story's Polish edition.

• "Forever" — from the 1997 anthology Return of the Dinosaurs. A tale of intelligent dinosaurs during the Mesozoic. Honorable Mention in Gardner Dozois's Year's Best Science Fiction (3,200 words).

• "Gator" — from the 1997 anthology Urban Nightmares. The truth behind the stories about alligators in the sewers of New York City. Honorable mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (4,400 words).

• "Iterations" — the lead story in Transversions: An Anthology of New Fantastic Literature, 2000. A story of revenge across multiple timelines. (3,800 words).

• "Stream of Consciousness" — First published in the 1999 anthology Packing Fraction. An alien ship crashes in Sudbury. Winner of the Aurora Award (4,100 words).

• "Wiping Out" — from the 2000 anthology Guardsmen of Tomorrow. How do you achieve closure on an interstellar war lasting 500 years? A homage to James White (4,300 words).

• "The Blue Planet" — from the December 11, 1999, edition of The Globe and Mail, following the loss of the Mars Polar Lander. Reprinted in Hartwell's Year's Best SF 5 (1,500 words).

• "Above It All" — from the 1996 anthology Dante's Disciples. A dark-fantasy story set aboard the Mir space station. Winner of the CompuServe HOMer Award for Best Short Story of the Year (4,400 words).

• "The Eagle Has Landed" — from the 2005 anthology I, Alien. An alien explorer watches Earth's progress in space exploration from a vantage point on the moon. (2,500 words).

• "Fallen Angel" — from the 2000 anthology Lisa Snellings' Strange Attraction: Turns of the Midnight Carnival Wheel. A young circus performer fears falling. Finalist for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Short Story of the Year, and one of three stories cited as "highlights" from this the anthology by the Denver Rocky Mountain News (4,700 words).

• "The Abdication of Pope Mary III" — from Nature, the leading science journal. The head of the Roman Catholic Church steps down (800 words).

• "The Stanley Cup Caper" — a short-short commissioned by The Toronto Star in honour of the World Science Fiction Convention coming to Toronto for the first time in 30 years (1,000 words).

• "Ours to Discover" — a short-short by Robert J. Sawyer, plus other short-shorts by Terence M. Green and Andrew Weiner, introduced by John Robert Colombo, from the November 1982 issues of Leisure Ways (800 words).

• "The Transformed Man" — from the 2010 anthology Tesseracts Fourteen: Strange Canadian Stories. Finalist for the 2011 Aurora Award in the category of best poem (!) (1,000 words).

Story from Audible.com

All of my novels are available from Audible.com, but if you want to check out my short stories, there is only one available:

"Identity Theft," first published in Down These Dark Spaceways, then reprinted in Nebula Awards Showcase 2007. Both these anthologies were edited by Mike Resnick.

"Identity Theft" won Spain's top science fiction award the Premio UPC de Ciencia Ficción, for Best Novella of the Year. It was a finalist for both the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 2005.

It's a hard-boiled dectective story set on Mars. It is also the beginning of my novel Red Planet Blues.

Check out Audible.com for "Identity Theft."

Unabridged audio of "Identity Theft" from Audible.com

Identity Theft and Other Stories

The introduction is by Hugo Award-winning author Robert Charles Wilson.

You can order autographed copies of the hardcover from this web site!

More about Identity Theft and Other Stories

Iterations and Other Stories

Reprinted in trade paperback in February 2004 and again in March 2008 by Red Deer Press of Calgary, Alberta.

The introduction is by award-winning author James Alan Gardner.

You can order autographed copies of the hardcover from this web site!

See what the hardcover and trade paperback covers look like.

More about Iterations and Other Stories

"Science Fiction fans everywhere will find something to enjoy in Iterations and Other Stories, a collection of short stories from Hugo and Nebula award winner Robert J. Sawyer. With a vast array of subjects, the short stories range in perspective from that of a T-Rex to that of the pope, and many of the tales are award winners or finalists in their own right. Iterations and Other Stories is a fine addition to any short fiction collection focusing on science fiction." [5 out of 5 stars] —Midwest Review of Books

Relativity: Essays and Stories

Winner of the Aurora Award for Best Work in English (Other).

The introduction is by the late, multiple-award-winning author Mike Resnick.

You can buy copies of this Aurora-Award-winning hardcover from directly from NESFA Press.

More Good Reading

Rob's thoughts on his short-fiction career (2015)

Rob's thoughts on his short-fiction career (2010)

A profile of Rob from Tangent concentrating on his short-fiction career

Robert J. Sawyer's short-fiction bibliography

Sample chapters from Rob's novels

Recurring themes in Rob's work

My Very Occasional Newsletter