Science Fiction Trivia

[jackiebean]

on the tip of my tongue. gah, the books were by some fictional author in the fictional world. the plot mirrors some of what has actually trasnpired in our current history but was way off the mark in other predicitions. slang was kinda weird, but its a british author so go figure. there are other books i liked a lot more from roughly that era but it did have some interesting ideas.

i dont want to be forced to google this so somebody get the right answer lol. i am trying to be good here.

[ffutures]

Another clue - The last words of the story are a non-human equivalent of "Christ, what an imagination I've got!" - the last words of the book describe the technology used in its writing.

[ffutures]

Another clue - this was the first of three unrelated dystopian books by the same author covering some of the "big" tropes of SF - this one dealt with overpopulation and related issues, one of the other two was based on racial and other forms of violence, the other on ecological collapse. Both of them were Nebula Award nominees, but didn't win the Hugo or Nebula. The last of the three was published in 1972.

[ffutures]

Another clue - a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania in East Africa is referenced in the title of the novel.

[Disembodied]

Has to be John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar.

[ffutures]

Has to be John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar.

Absolutely right - your turn!

[Disembodied]

Another list: name five SF protagonists, from five different SF universes, who are also - or who at least have been, for much of their careers - habitual criminals.

For clarity, by "criminal", I mean someone who commits what we would recognise as criminal acts, e.g. smuggling, theft, selling illicit goods, kidnap, assassination, etc. We'll rule out war crimes, so someone like Ming the Merciless wouldn't count: these people would have to be regarded as criminals by their own societies, too. And they have to be career criminals: Doctor Who might have stolen the TARDIS, but it was a one-off theft; and even though the Time Lords might have regarded his interference in other societies as "criminal", those aren't the sorts of crimes I'm looking for here. Similarly, it doesn't count if the character does something which we might regard as a crime - e.g. slave-trading - if it's legal in the character's society. They can be heroes or villains, and they needn't be the central character; but they should be more than bit-part actors.

[Cody]

Good question! Without googling, I've got three:

Vila (I can never remember his surname)
Northwest Smith
Jim diGriz

Possibles:

Nick Succorso/Angus Thermopyle
Kraiklyn

[Disembodied]

Those'll do! Vila's second name is Restal (I googled it). I'd also have accepted Han Solo and Malcolm Reynolds. Over to you …

[Cody]

Guess what - name the tune, name the novel.

[Cody]

Clues: the novel dates from 1959, the song dates from 1975, and another author said:

I've read [the novel] six times now, and it gets better every time. He is an influence, I must own up.

[Cody]

Another clue: the quoted author was rather fond of baths!

[Cody]

Not only does the song share its title with the novel, it also tells the story. Mars gets a mention, as does Mercury - and a moon.

[Griff]

oh man the baths clue got me on the right track with this but there's no way i'm going to be able to set the next question unless 'Q. What was the title of the book I read when I was a kid, so we're talking 80's here where a group of kids find a spaceship and fly off in it, the only thing I can remember is that the spaceship is described like being a spiral seashell thing and possibly made of asteroid stuff' - trouble is I don't know what the book is called and would love to know myself, so if someone gets it right I won't know

[phkb]

I remember that series of books - the Starstormer Series by Nicholas Fisk