Science Fiction Trivia

[Cody]

I'm surprised no-one mentioned the Time Traveller!

[ffutures]

I'm surprised no-one mentioned the Time Traveller!

He doesn't interact with himself in Wells' version. He leaves, visits the future, returns, then leaves again, but he doesn't appear to overlap at all.

[Cmdr James]

Sorry for the delay, wanted to make sure I have a question that I can confidently answer myself (just in case!). Though I do have several examples myself Im really hoping to learn of some good books to read or other media to consume.

As I saw the film The Beast recently, Im interested to know of 5 Sci-Fi stories about or prominently featuring one or more tanks , whether autonymous or crewed. Similar military vehicles such as self propelled guns are acceptable, Terminator, ED209 or the robots from Short Circuit are not as they are more robot than tank, at least in my opinion. Im happy to accept film, novels, comics but I draw the line at tabletop gaming etc as that tends not to really have a story. Usual rules, one per author and universe.

[ffutures]

OK, let's go for the low-hanging fruit - Keith Laumer's Bolo novels and stories. Bolo: Annals of the Dinochrome Brigade (1976) and later books.

Also Tank Girl - British comic, later filmed.

[spud42]

Tank Girl.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Girl

dang it ffutures you posted as i was writing... lol

[Cmdr James]

OK, let's go for the low-hanging fruit - Keith Laumer's Bolo novels and stories. Bolo: Annals of the Dinochrome Brigade (1976) and later books.

and excellent they are too.

[ffutures]

OK, let's go for the low-hanging fruit - Keith Laumer's Bolo novels and stories. Bolo: Annals of the Dinochrome Brigade (1976) and later books.

and excellent they are too.

Not a quiz answer, since I've already given Laumer, but he also wrote A Plague of Demons (1965) which is sort of a Bolo variant and now largely forgotten - it has Bolo-like tanks in an alien war, which are actually piloted by the brains of abducted humans with lots of conditioning to make them into obedient slaves. The hero breaks his conditioning and wackiness ensues... Still available as an eBook and as part of a Baen collection.

Much later - actually, I think it's a Bolo predecessor or ties with the Bolo stories. The earliest Bolo story was around the same time. Laumer may have written it while he was developing the idea of the bolo, given the time lag on publication.

[ffutures]

Since it's gone very quiet I'll post another answer - Judge Dredd, the Cursed Earth saga has Dredd and a small team travelling in a tank/ATV for extended periods.

[Cmdr James]

Very good!

There is also (a little hint) a well known scifi series about tanks which shares a name with a common household tool.

[Disembodied]

Very good!

There is also (a little hint) a well known scifi series about tanks which shares a name with a common household tool.

Ah, of course - the Hammer's Slammers series by David Drake.

[Cmdr James]

Thats 4, one more to go!

Whilst I said i dont believe table top games to count as stories,I could accept something from the black library (I havent read any myself), or there are any number of Japanese scifi stories I can think of, for example one about a laughing man. Or according to a little google searching there is an (apparently good!) book featuring a space war which is a continuation of the Yugoslav civil war.

[Commander_X]

[...] any number of Japanese scifi stories I can think of, for example one about a laughing man. [...]

Will come with an alternative to the one you mentioned: the Mobile Fortresses in Appleseed (2004) anime movie.
And of course, the one you suggested, the Tachikomas in Ghost In The Shell series.

[Cmdr James]

Excellent, over to you!

[Commander_X]

Ok, back to 5s: five examples of <insert your favorite poison here -- books, movies, series, games, comics, etc.> where human or alien consciousness is transferred into an artificial entity - no cyborg approach, i.e. no RoboCop.

[ffutures]

The Rogue Trooper strip (2000 AD etc.) where the hero has several pieces of equipment containing biochips, recordings of the personality of a dead comrade made at the time of their death.