Science Fiction Trivia

[ffutures]

Without checking, I'm pretty sure that the first one is killed by being impaled by the roots of an aggressive tree-monster while trying to hide from Gerson in a tunnel, and at least one is killed by someone else, though again as a result of Gerson stirring things up. Beyond that I'm not sure, so I'll go with three out of the five killed by Gerson.

[Malacandra]

Without checking, I'm pretty sure that the first one is killed by being impaled by the roots of an aggressive tree-monster while trying to hide from Gerson in a tunnel, and at least one is killed by someone else, though again as a result of Gerson stirring things up. Beyond that I'm not sure, so I'll go with three out of the five killed by Gerson.

I'll take that. Although to be fair, the tree-monster was only feeding on burrowing life-forms in the swamp and had no reason to know that Malagate was a sapient creature. Howard Alan Treesong has his legs marmelised by the Cleadhoes and then apparently commits suicide despite being paralysed and sat in a chair. Kokor Hekkus is straightforwardly shot by Gersen; Lens Larque gets a quickly fatal dose of cluthe from him; the only ambiguous case is Viole Falushe who appears to twist free while trying not to be defenestrated, and falls ten thousand feet into the sea anyway.

Batter up!

[ffutures]

A few lines from a poem that is generally sung:

Holy State or Holy King--
Or Holy People's Will--
Have no truck with the senseless thing.
Order the guns and kill!

What's the motto of the nearest thing to a government in the world in which that verse was written? And what's the story and author?

[Malacandra]

A few lines from a poem that is generally sung:

Holy State or Holy King--
Or Holy People's Will--
Have no truck with the senseless thing.
Order the guns and kill!

What's the motto of the nearest thing to a government in the world in which that verse was written? And what's the story and author?

I recognised the verse -- though I had to Google -- as I'm quite the Kipling fan, but I couldn't tell you the science fiction connection and I presume "the world in which that verse was written" is not, in context, Earth.

On edit: It is Kipling, and the story is "As easy as A.B.C.", the world is Earth, and I'm still investigating the government motto.

On further edit: "Transportation is Civilisation". And it turns out I have some Kipling still to read. Many thanks!

[ffutures]

Absolutely right - the ball is in your court.

And I have versions of With The Night Mail and As Easy as ABC on my web site with illustrations from their original publication, I based the first Forgotten Futures game on them:

http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/ff1/nm-abc.pdf

[Malacandra]

Absolutely right - the ball is in your court.

And I have versions of With The Night Mail and As Easy as ABC on my web site with illustrations from their original publication, I based the first Forgotten Futures game on them:

http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/ff1/nm-abc.pdf

A delight to meet a fellow fan! Also for me to wake up, realize who you are, and thank you for your enjoyable contributions to White Dwarf back in the vintage days.

ISTR reading "Night Mail" some years back when I downloaded Kipling's complete works from Gutenberg onto my Kindle; but that Kindle broke and I never got as far as ABC. OK, another question forthcoming as soon as I can compose one.

[Malacandra]

Next up then:

"Where are the cold marriages?"

This question appears in the works of an author whose life overlapped with Kipling's but was active a few decades later. Like Kipling, he's not especially known for science fiction, but he did write about life on other planets.

[ffutures]

Hate to say it, but this is another one I know - they're on Sulva, our Moon, mentioned in C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength, the third book of the Out of the Silent Planet sequence.

[Malacandra]

Hate to say it, but this is another one I know - they're on Sulva, our Moon, mentioned in C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength, the third book of the Out of the Silent Planet sequence.

Yup. Back to you!

[ffutures]

OK - what links Jehovah's Witnesses, Battlestar Galactica, The Watchmen and the TV series Lucifer?

[Malacandra]

OK - what links Jehovah's Witnesses, Battlestar Galactica, The Watchmen and the TV series Lucifer?

Watchtower. Magazine delivered by the JWs, and a Bob Dylan song "All Along The Watchtower" quoted in all the other three.

Assuming by "The Watchmen" you just mean "Watchmen", that is.

[ffutures]

Absolutely right - have a virtual coconut! Your turn.

[Malacandra]

Super, the board's back. Okay, let's see what I can manage...



He was the antagonist (to call him a villain is to traduce this superbly-drawn and rather complex character) in one famous 19th-century book and a mysterious ally in a later work by the same author, but he changed nationality between one book and the other because the author didn't want to upset his country's ally but didn't mind upsetting the English. Presumed lost in the first book, he definitely does die in the second. Character and books, please?

[Disembodied]

That sounds like Captain Nemo, from Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas and The Mysterious Island.

[Malacandra]

That sounds like Captain Nemo, from Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas and The Mysterious Island.

It does. Are you able to elaborate before you chip in with your next question?