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* [[Artificial Intelligence]]: A more realistic treatment than usual; the computers are computers, albeit remarkably sophisticated. They're treated as marvelous machines, but never alive.
* [[Asteroid Miners]]: It's a Heinlein story.
* [[Big Fancy House]]: The Conrad estate.
* [[Binary Suns]]: Peekaboo is a binary star system, but the second sun is far enough from the colony planet that it won't be a problem; but it will be brighter than the moon is on Earth.
* [[Black Box]]: How the Relativistic Drive works. It's treated as a [[Black Box]] in the text, and Robinson explicitly calls that in a note after the text.
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* [[Coming of Age Story]]: For Joel.
* [[Compound Interest Time Travel Gambit]]: Of a sort. The banker on board the Sheffield helps everyone on board (with the necessary funds) to take advantage of [[Time Dilation]].
* [[
* [[Dark Action Girl]]: Conrad's bodyguard.
* [[Death by Transceiver]]: Telepaths are aware of the sudden, tragic deaths of their twins.
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* [[Hypercompetent Sidekick]]: Ms. Robb. Her boss isn't incompetent, far from it, but she has to be very, very good at many things to be his Enabler.
* [[Hyperspeed Escape]]: Why Conrad shows up.
* [[Improv]]: Joel's a jazz saxophonist; this is part and parcel.
* [[Incredibly Long Note]]: Joel's Master Piece is an improvised piece involving circular breathing, thus no phrase ever ends, but segues into the next.
* [[Interplanetary Voyage]]: The vast majority of the story takes place aboard the Sheffield.
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* [[Money to Throw Away]]: Joel doesn't go crazy, but he does fix up the cubic he shares with his roommates, making all of them more comfortable.
* [[Polyamory]]: Mentioned in passing as one of the marriage options available on the ''Sheffield''.
* [[Naming Your Colony World]]: And its moons. Actually a discussion in-universe. The colony was technically and formally named "Brasil Novo" (New Brazil), but this was rapidly shortened to "Bravo". The moons were originally [[Name's the Same|Phobos and Deimos]], but were changed to those of [[
* [[No Seat Belts]]: Justified. If you need them at 0.97c, you don't need them. And when things go wrong on the Sheffield, gravity turns off and people float, they don't fly into walls.
* [[Non-Idle Rich]]: The Conrads. They're richer than Croesus, but they put themselves through hellishly difficult educations and work for the money. For all of their medically extended lives. However, see [[Rich Idiot With No Day Job]].
* [[Not with Them for the Money]]: Joel's completely unaware of it. And when he is, he has to flee.
* [[Organization with Unlimited Funding]]: The Conrads.
* [[Religion of Evil]]: The historical perspective is that the restrictive theocracy of Nehemiah Scudder was particularly vile, and the society of Earth is presented as having moved beyond religion and viewing monotheism and religion as being a backwards and rather unpleasant thing. Buddhism is still alive and well, thanks to the author not realizing that theism and religion aren't exactly synonymous.
* [[Rich Idiot With No Day Job]]: If you marry a Conrad and end up not being useful to the family, they'll pension you off.
* [[Secretly Wealthy]]: Jinny.
* [[Screw the Money, I Have Rules]]: Joel's response to being offered a position in a family that owns, roughly, one quarter of all human wealth is, "No thank you, I want to make my own way."
* [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money]]: Conrad's way of life.
* [[She
* [[Songs of Solace]]: After some good friends die, you might need cheering up.
* [[Standard Time Units]]: The fact that Brasil Novo has a slightly different length day, differing seasons, etc comes up, but never really becomes important to the story.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Science Fiction Literature]]
▲[[Category:Variable Star]]
[[Category:Literature]]
[[Category:English Literature]]
[[Category:Works by Spider Robinson]]
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