Science Fiction Trivia

[Gimbal Locke]

Congrats, Oolite community, we have one hundred pages of SF trivia!

Some new hints:

The author is most famous for a (non-SF) book about a young knight who has to deliver a message to the king about an upcoming war, which has recently been turned into a (Belgian) movie.

There have also been plans to make a movie of the book I'm looking for, but there is a problem: while the two towers are very mysterious in the book (in the rural society of the parallel world, there is nothing like them), showing them in a movie would immediately take away their mystique because they are the most ordinary 20th century high-density residential apartment buildings.

[Cody]

Congrats, Oolite community, we have one hundred pages of SF trivia!

Yeah, good is that. I've tried Googling but still no answer... I'm stumped!

[Disembodied]

<googles furiously>

Is it Torenhoog en mijlenbreed by Tonke Dragt?

[Gimbal Locke]

<googles furiously>

Is it Torenhoog en mijlenbreed by Tonke Dragt?

You're very close. But no cigar.

"Torenhoog en mijlenbreed" is indeed another SF book by the author I'm looking for.
But it's set on the planet Venus, not in a parallel world.
I've read "Torenhoog en mijlenbreed" to my kids, it's a great book.

[Disembodied]

AHa! Then it must be De torens van februari then (! should have spotted that one the first time!).

[Gimbal Locke]

AHa! Then it must be De torens van februari then (! should have spotted that one the first time!).

Yes, well done! You get that cigar this time.

[Disembodied]

OK: name the novel set in a not-too-distant future/alternate now, where corporate states dominate the planet. The story begins with a company hiring a hitman to kill people who buy their latest brand of shoes, as part of a new advertising campaign ...

[cim]

OK: name the novel set in a not-too-distant future/alternate now, where corporate states dominate the planet. The story begins with a company hiring a hitman to kill people who buy their latest brand of shoes, as part of a new advertising campaign ...

Max Barry's Jennifer Government?

[Disembodied]

Max Barry's Jennifer Government?

Goooaaal!

Over to you ...

[cim]

A professor demands access to forbidden technology without realising at first why it is forbidden.

[cim]

Clue: The technology is forbidden not for the long-range effect the professor wants it for, but for its short-range effects.

[JD]

That sounds like a short story I read more years ago than I care to remember. The forbidden technology is a time machine?

[cim]

That sounds like a short story I read more years ago than I care to remember. The forbidden technology is a time machine?

You're probably thinking of the right story, though I wouldn't exactly describe the technology as a time machine in the conventional sense.

[JD]

As you say, the "time machine" doesn't quite live up to its billing.

I'm pretty certain I read this in an anthology of short stories. I used to devour those Brian Aldiss and Gollancz collections at my local library. However, even after searching, I'm no closer to the name of the story or its author.

Without (I hope) revealing any crucial spoilers, maybe my vague recollections will spur someone else: A goverment-run project has developed a time machine. The device is, supposedly, prohibitively expensive to operate, and access to it requires government approval. Most applications are rejected. Our protagonists realise there is something fishy going on, and embark on a campaign to open up the technology to all. With unexpected consequences.

[Disembodied]

Is it The Dead Past by Isaac Asimov?