Science Fiction Trivia

[goran]

James Blish didn`t publish anything but the short stories until `53, and most of `50 stories makes part 3 of "Cities in Flight".

I give up.

[Lestradae]

Huh, this time it is obviously much more difficult than before. OK, another hint: The exact year Blish published the book for the first time was 1957.

[Commander McLane]

Must be "The Frozen Year" then, later re-published as "Fallen Star".

And the inversion seems to be that it is Earth which appears to have been colonised.

[Disembodied]

Unless it's They Shall Have Stars ... although that's down as being published in 1956. Interesting – I didn't know that was where Ken MacLeod got the "spindizzies" referred to in The Execution Channel!

[Lestradae]

Oh wow. I seem to have generated a question no one seems to be able to solve - despite all the hints including the full name of the author and the year of first publication!

I say, any restraints for googling or wikipediing are lifted now - search-engine away before I have to spill the beans myself

[Cody]

Well, the only thing I can think of is the collection, published as one novel in 1957... 'The Seedling Stars'.

[goran]

If You check http://authors.wizards.pro/authors/writers/james-blish or http://www.fact-index.com/j/ja/james_blish.html , You`ll see that all possible answers are already on the table.

[Selezen]

Well, that first link backs up Commander McLane... 1957 lists only Fallen Star / Frozen Year as novels.

The only other notable publication was "Get Out Of My Sky", a novella. No idea what the inversion would be though.

[JazHaz]

OK, next question: It is a book too, it's theme is the colonisation of interstellar space in a very unusual way - one could even say, inverted to the usually imagined way

Well, the only thing I can think of is the collection, published as one novel in 1957... 'The Seedling Stars'.

Yes it must be The Seedling Stars. I actually have this on my bookshelf. What could be confusing is that although it was written in 1957, it wasn't actually first published until 1967.

The inversion is that it is about colonisation of alien worlds not by terraforming, but rather by genetic engineering of the human colonists to enable them to survive in poisonous (to us) atmospheres.

From the blurb on the back:

Pantropy - total biological engineering - Adapted Man, adapted ante-natally to life on other planets. For instance Sweeney, Ganymede dweller. Selective mitotic poisoning, pinpoint X-irradiation, tectogenetic micro-surgery, competitive metabolic inhibition, together with perhaps fifty other processes produce a man no longer Man.

And on Hydrot: colonists engineered as minute under water organisms that yet retain something of the personalities of their Earth originals. The potential of Homo Sapiens tranlated into other terms. Man survives by becoming non-Man, a dim, racial memory of true Man transmuted into a God myth.

The galaxies seeded with adapted man-organisms.

I really like this book. Have had it for many years.

[Lestradae]

OK, next question: It is a book too, it's theme is the colonisation of interstellar space in a very unusual way - one could even say, inverted to the usually imagined way

Well, the only thing I can think of is the collection, published as one novel in 1957... 'The Seedling Stars'.

Yes it must be The Seedling Stars. I actually have this on my bookshelf. What could be confusing is that although it was written in 1957, it wasn't actually first published until 1967.

The inversion is that it is about colonisation of alien worlds not by terraforming, but rather by genetic engineering of the human colonists to enable them to survive in poisonous (to us) atmospheres.

And the winner is ... El Viejo!

JazHaz' explanation how the colonisation of interstellar space is "inverted" in this book is spot-on what I meant.

This is one of my favourite SciFi books - a fascinating idea, and well-written.

[Cody]

This should be less obscure:

He came from Trinidad, and was a stowaway on mankind’s first mission to colonise another planet.

The character’s names, book title and author, please.

[Disembodied]

That should be Desmond Hawkins (? I think it's Hawkins, same as Jim in Treasure Island, unless I'm imagining it), AKA Coyote, who first appears in Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson!

[Cody]

I thought that might be easy. Your turn again, sir.
(And it is Hawkins.)

[Disembodied]

OK. Another comic-book one here. Name the character:

He's a cyborg. A cyborg with issues, frankly. And a (perfectly understandable, in retrospect) phobia about plants ...

[Disembodied]

First clue: his left arm terminates in an implement. A big, sharp, titanium-steel implement.