Science Fiction Trivia

[Rxke]

yep!

[Disembodied]

Hooray! OK, name the eight individuals who landed in the Hipparchus crater in 1952 ...

[Lestradae]

... name the eight individuals who landed in the Hipparchus crater in 1952 ...

Is it "The Adventures of Tintin: Explorers on the Moon" from Herge?

[Disembodied]

Is it "The Adventures of Tintin: Explorers on the Moon" from Herge?

Maybe ... were there eight of them?

[Lestradae]

Is it "The Adventures of Tintin: Explorers on the Moon" from Herge?

Maybe ... were there eight of them?

Well, there are:

1) Professor Calculus
2) Tintin
3) Snowy (Dog)
4) Captain Haddock
5) Frank Wolff (Calculus' assistant)
6) Thomson (Guard 1)
7) Thompson (Guard 2)
8) Colonel Jorgen (Evil stowaway)

And they land in the Hipparchus Crater in 1952!

[Disembodied]

8 out of 8 for Lestradae! Over to you ...

[Lestradae]

Name book and author:

It's from a well-known british author, one of his last works, and the fourth and last part of a series.

A noteable and quite bizarre scene in it has the main protagonist lock himself in a futuristic toilet unable to get out again, while it is hinted that he undergoes an a bit unspeakable ordeal in there

First publication was in 1997.

[JazHaz]

Name book and author:

It's from a well-known british author, one of his last works, and the fourth and last part of a series.

A noteable and quite bizarre scene in it has the main protagonist lock himself in a futuristic toilet unable to get out again, while it is hinted that he undergoes an a bit unspeakable ordeal in there

First publication was in 1997.

Is it 3001: The Final Odyssey by Sir Arthur C Clarke?

[Lestradae]

Is it 3001: The Final Odyssey by Sir Arthur C Clarke?

That was quick, I mustn't go away for a weekend after positing a question myself - perhaps I have to get back to the obscure german scifi ideas again

Yes, that is correct, point goes to JazHaz

[JazHaz]

Is it 3001: The Final Odyssey by Sir Arthur C Clarke?

That was quick...

Yes, that is correct, point goes to JazHaz

Quick, probably because you gave too many clues.

Anyway I have another book cover question for you.

This time however, to defeat TinEye.com, I have desaturated the image with The GIMP, decolourised to black and white.

It's a detail from a cover of a book by a famous US author. Title and author please?

[Lestradae]

A further hint, perhaps?

[JazHaz]

OK one further hint. The book was published in 1966.

[CheeseRedux]

I'm tempted to guess Dune by Frank Herbert, although that was published in 1965.

Addendum: I finished watching the miniseries a couple of hours ago, the one with William Hurt as Leto Atreides. As a fan of both the book(s) and of good acting, I can only say that whoever procured this for my local library ought to be severely reprimanded. (On the other hand, it inspired the idea that someone ought to make a quality TV series out of all of the books, including Kevin J Anderson & Brian Herbert's prequels and sequels. That's 6+6+2 books + some short stories & other stuff. Give it the production quality of, say, Battlestar Galactica, and spend 3, 4 or more episodes per book, and you have a winner.)

[JazHaz]

I'm tempted to guess Dune by Frank Herbert, although that was published in 1965.

As you say that was 1965. Sorry, not this time!

[CheeseRedux]

Hey, tilting my head just now I just realised that what I thought was a crater/ridge/dune is actually a head! And there's sometging that looks like letters above there. (The picture quality is a tad better on flickr than on the bb.)