Science Fiction Writer
ROBERT J. SAWYER
Hugo and Nebula Winner

SFWRITER.COM > About Rob > Recurring Themes

Recurring Themes

In April 1999, as I was finishing my twelfth novel, I began to contemplate the recurring themes in my fiction. I've identified over thirty themes, topics, and motifs that occur over and over again in my novels and short stories. I'm providing the following list of them [updated in May 2006] for two reasons:

1) to help students doing essays and theses about my fiction in finding related works by me to contrast and compare; and
2) to help readers who enjoyed my treatment of a particular theme to easily find the other works by me that deal with the same theme.

Some scholars look for recurrent themes to try to divine something about the author's own life; in my view, this is folly. As Isaac Asimov said in an interview I did with him for CBC Radio, even pacifists such as himself write about war and violence simply because it's more dramatic than the alternative.

In the list below, besides such SF-related topics as "artificial intelligence" and "first contact," you'll also find such themes as murder, suicide, terminal illness, infidelity, parenting, abortion, and Judaism — but no one I've ever been close to has killed or been killed; none of my friends or family members have ever committed suicide; no pal or relative of mine has ever died of a terminal illness (other than the usual vagaries of old age); my wife and I have a happy marriage; we don't have any kids; we've never had an abortion; and I'm not Jewish.

If you're looking for insights into me as a person, you might do better to turn to the numerous interviews and published profiles of me available on this web site or at any large library, or read this long autobiograpy.

(Also please note, as I pointed out to one angered correspondent a few years ago, that as an author I no more am obligated to truly believe in all the things I write about than George Lucas is obligated to really believe in the Force.)

Within each theme, the works that touch on the topic are grouped chronologically. Novel titles are shown in italics; links to them take you to the index page for that novel. Short-story titles are shown in quotation marks.

SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence)

Golden Fleece (1990)
End of an Era (1994)
"You See But You Do Not Observe" (1995)
Factoring Humanity (1998)
Calculating God (2000)
"The Shoulders of Giants" (2000)
"Ineluctable" (2002)
Mindscan (2005)
"Flashes" (2006)
Rollback (2007)
"Looking for Gordo" (2015)

First Contact

"Motive" (1980)
Foreigner (1994)
End of an Era (1994)
Starplex (1996)
"Peking Man" (1996)
Illegal Alien (1997)
Factoring Humanity (1998)
"Stream of Consciousness" (1999)
"Mars Reacts!" (1999)
Calculating God (2000)
Hominids (2002)
Rollback (2007)
Wake (2009)
"Looking for Gordo" (2015)

Artificial Intelligence

"Motive" (1980)
Golden Fleece (1990)
The Terminal Experiment (1995)
Factoring Humanity (1998)
Hominids (2002)
Mindscan (2005)
Rollback (2007)
Wake (2009)
"Looking for Gordo" (2015)

AI or Robot Companions or Confidants

Factoring Humanity (1998)
Hominids (2002)
Humans (2003)
Hybrids (2003)
"The Eagle Has Landed" (2005)
Rollback (2007)
Wake (2009)

The Nature of Consciousness

Scanning Brains / Uploading Consciousness

Golden Fleece (1990)
"Where the Heart Is" (1992)
Foreigner (1994)
The Terminal Experiment (1995)
FlashForward (1999)
Calculating God (2000)
"Iterations" (2000)
"Shed Skin" (2002)
"Kata Bindu" (2004)
Mindscan (2005)
"Identity Theft" (2005)
"Biding Time" (2006)
Red Planet Blues (2013)

Biology Determining Psychology

"Motive" (1980)
Far-Seer (1992)
Fossil Hunter (1993)
Foreigner (1994)
End of an Era (1994)
The Terminal Experiment (1995)
Starplex (1996)
Illegal Alien (1997)
Calculating God (2000)
"Ineluctable" (2002)
Hybrids (2003)
"Relativity" (2003)
Mindscan (2005)
Quantum Night (2016)

Paleontology

"If I'm Here, Imagine Where They Sent My Luggage" (1981)
Far-Seer (1992)
Fossil Hunter (1993)
"Just Like Old Times" (1993)
Foreigner (1993)
End of an Era (1994)
"Lost in the Mail" (1995)
"Peking Man" (1996)
"Forever" (1997)
"Gator" (1997)
Calculating God (2000)
"Identity Theft" (2005)
"Biding Time" (2006)

Dinosaurs

"If I'm Here, Imagine Where They Sent My Luggage" (1981)
Far-Seer (1992)
Fossil Hunter (1993)
"Just Like Old Times" (1993)
Foreigner (1993)
End of an Era (1994)
"Forever" (1997)
"Gator" (1997)
"Looking for Gordo" (2015)

Prehistoric Humans

"Peking Man" (1996)
Frameshift (1997)
Hominids (2002)
Humans (2003)
Hybrids (2003)

Time Travel

"If I'm Here, Imagine Where They Sent My Luggage" (1981)
"Just Like Old Times" (1993)
End of an Era (1994)
Starplex (1996)
FlashForward (1999)
"On the Surface" (2003)

Canada

"Ours to Discover" (1982)
"Where the Heart Is" (1992)
End of an Era (1994)
"Lost in the Mail" (1995)
The Terminal Experiment (1995)
Frameshift (1997)
Factoring Humanity (1998)
FlashForward (1999)
Calculating God (2000)
Hominids (2002)
"The Stanley Cup Caper" (2003)
Humans (2003)
Hybrids (2003)
Mindscan (2005)
Rollback (2007)
Wake (2009)
Quantum Night (2016)

Judaism

Nostalgia for the Apollo Program

Hybrids (2003)
"Mikeys" (2004)
"The Eagle Has Landed" (2005)
Wake (2009)

The Moon

"Kata Bindu" (2004)
"The Eagle Has Landed" (2005)
Mindscan (2005)

Mars

End of an Era (1994)
"The Blue Planet" (1999)
"Come All Ye Faithful" (2003)
"Mikeys" (2004)
"Identity Theft" (2005)
"Biding Time" (2006)
Red Planet Blues (2013)

Number-Crunching

Golden Fleece (1990)
The Terminal Experiment (1995)
Factoring Humanity (1998)
FlashForward (1999)
"Looking for Gordo" (2015)

Murder

"Motive" (1980)
Golden Fleece (1990)
"Just Like Old Times" (1993)
Foreigner (1994)
The Terminal Experiment (1995)
"Peking Man" (1996)
"The Hand You're Dealt" (1997)
Frameshift (1997)
Illegal Alien (1997)
FlashForward (1999)
"Iterations" (2000)
Hominids (2002)
"Identity Theft" (2005)
"Biding Time" (2006)
Red Planet Blues (2013)

Courtroom Drama

"Motive" (1980)
"Just Like Old Times" (1993)
Frameshift (1997)
Illegal Alien (1997)
Hominids (2002)
Mindscan (2005)
"Looking for Gordo" (2015)
Quantum Night (2016)

Love and Marriage

"Where the Heart Is" (1992)
Fossil Hunter (1993)
End of an Era (1994)
Starplex (1996)
Frameshift (1997)
Factoring Humanity (1998)
FlashForward (1999)
Calculating God (2000)
Hybrids (2003)
"Relativity" (2003)
Mindscan (2005)
Rollback (2007)

Infidelity or Contemplated Infidelity

Parent-Child Relationships

Far-Seer (1992)
Fossil Hunter (1993)
Foreigner (1993)
Frameshift (1997)
Factoring Humanity (1998)
FlashForward (1999)
Calculating God (2000)
Hominids (2002)
"Relativity" (2003)
Mindscan (2005)
"Flashes" (2006)
"Biding Time" (2006)
Rollback (2007)
Wake (2009)
Quantum Night (2016)

Psychotherapy / Counseling / Psychological Testing

Suicide or Contemplated Suicide

Far-Seer (1992)
Foreigner (1994)
"Above It All" (1996)
Frameshift (1997)
Factoring Humanity (1998)
FlashForward (1999)
"Shed Skin" (2002)
"Flashes" (2006)
Rollback (2007)
Watch (2010)

False Accusation

Whether There Can be Scientific Proof for Matters of Faith

Far-Seer (1992)
The Terminal Experiment (1995)
Frameshift (1997)
Illegal Alien (1997)
Calculating God (2000)
"The Abdication of Pope Mary III" (2000)
"Come All Ye Faithful" (2003)
Hybrids (2003)

The Conflict Between Religion and Science

Far-Seer (1992)
Fossil Hunter (1993)
The Terminal Experiment (1995)
Illegal Alien (1997)
Calculating God (2000)
"The Abdication of Pope Mary III" (2000)
Hominids (2002)
Humans (2003)
"Come All Ye Faithful" (2003)
Hybrids (2003)

Mundane Beings Becoming Gods

The Devil as a Character / Hell as a Place

"If I'm Here, Imagine Where They Sent My Luggage" (1980)
"The Contest" (1980)
"Fallen Angel" (1999)
"Above It All" (1996)

God as a Character

"The Contest" (1980)
Fossil Hunter (1993)
Calculating God (2000)

Immortality (Figurative and Literal)

The Terminal Experiment (1995)
Starplex (1996)
Frameshift (1997)
"Forever" (1997)
FlashForward (1999)
Calculating God (2000)
"Immortality" (2003)
Rollback (2007)

Terminal Illness

Abortion / Birth Control / New Reproductive Technologies

Evolution

Fossil Hunter (1993)
The Terminal Experiment (1995)
"Peking Man" (1996)
Frameshift (1997)
Illegal Alien (1997)
Factoring Humanity (1998)
"Mars Reacts!" (1999)
Calculating God (2000)
Hominids (2002)
Rollback (2007)
Triggers (2012)

Genetics

Modern Physics and the Nature of Reality

"Lost in the Mail" (1995)
"You See But You Do Not Observe" (1995)
Starplex (1996)
"Gator" (1997)
Factoring Humanity (1998)
FlashForward (1999)
Calculating God (2000)
"Iterations" (2000)
Rollback (2007)
Quantum Night (2016)

Parallel Worlds

End of an Era (1994)
"Lost in the Mail" (1995)
"You See But You Do Not Observe" (1995)
"Gator" (1997)
Factoring Humanity (1998)
FlashForward (1999)
Hominids (2002)
Humans (2003)
Hybrids (2003)

The Anthropic Principle

Frank Tipler's Omega Point Theory

FlashForward (1999)
"Iterations" (2000)

Science Fiction Writer ROBERT J. SAWYER Hugo and Nebula Winner