Science Fiction Trivia

[spud42]

one of the Star Trek movies... several of them have similar flybys....

[cbr]

no trekkies

It's a singular movie in space

[Norby]

Serenity?

[cbr]

No not the browncoats

It´s featuring a slow flyby and i believe it to be a singular movie or was it a singularity?

[Malacandra]

The Black Hole?

[cbr]

Nice sf movie with robots, gorgeous exploration spaceship and 'gravity' induced meteor storms ( and disney )

Malacandra over to you!

[Getafix]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078869/

[Malacandra]

Okay, a science fiction novel here: a planet with steam-age technology sends an expedition to a planet with mediaeval-age technology in search of a technological advancement. What is it that they are looking to build?

[Getafix]

It seems that we are talking about Timeline and a time travel machine?!?
Actually I'm pretty sure that this is about the Timeline novel, but not for the answer to the question.

[Malacandra]

No time travel is involved...

[ffutures]

A rocket - they're looking for stuff left over from the old Terran Empire(?) that colonised both systems which will give them a technological boost. If they can build a ship, they get better status in the current terran empire. At least that's how I remember it, it's been a long time since I read it.

King David's Spaceship by Jerry Pournelle

[Getafix]

Self-sarcasm definition:

Getafix wrote:
Actually I'm pretty sure that this is about the Timeline novel...

Yeah, right!

[Malacandra]

A rocket - they're looking for stuff left over from the old Terran Empire(?) that colonised both systems which will give them a technological boost. If they can build a ship, they get better status in the current terran empire. At least that's how I remember it, it's been a long time since I read it.

King David's Spaceship by Jerry Pournelle

Spot on, excellent synopsis - the dipper's all yours.

[ffutures]

In a far-future(ish) SF series the hero (who owes more than a little to The Saint and Raffles) is a celebrity Allowed Burglar, a profession which is exactly what it sounds like - if you can steal something and keep it for a while it becomes your property, and you can do what you like with it. Needless to say there's a league table and you get points for style, the nature of the theft, etc. which impacts how much you get for selling things like the TV rights (or future equivalent)

Making it easy, name the character, the series, or one of the novels and the author. Bonus points for a description of the most popular religion in that universe!

[ffutures]

Clues - the author is American and all of the books were published in the 20th century.