Science Fiction Trivia

[Cholmondely]

Voltaire reputedly liked his coffee "Hot as Hell, black as night, strong as the Devil and sweet as love" - and drank 40 or so demitasses a day...

[RockDoctor]

Modessit: the initial colonists of Cyador, landing from space, before losing their technology, had coffee (Recluce Saga)

James Holden in The Expanse series is a coffee addict.

The Stainless Steel Rat is Born.. Harry Harrison
several mentions of a large black coffee..

In Ken MacLeod's new novel Beyond the Hallowed Sky, the triple-AI (anticipatory algorithmic artificial intelligence) known as Iskander keeps popping up with coffees just as people are thinking they would like one. And if you crumple your used paper cup and throw it away in a random direction, it'll be there to catch it.

1 to go

ffutures having missed Cmdr James' extirpation of the Black Wine of Thentis, there still seems to be one slot to go.

And I'll take it by various stories in Known Space where Louis/ Carlos Wu drinks a mug of coffee, Beowulf smokes with one foot and drinks his coffee with the foot, while Sigmund worries about the effects Jinxian coffee would have on a normal human. And the Puppeteers substitute warm carrot juice for the coffee while the Kzin drink warm blood (which may or may not taste of monkey).

Assuming that I do indeed have the poisoned chalice, I shall call for five universes/ stories where the author had his humans adapting a local plant, or bioengineering, or somehow creating a coffee-substitute which is not called anything particularly like "coffee".

I'll take two examples off the table - McCaffrey's Pern, being an isolated colony, never got coffee beans to work. But someone came up with a local plant-based brew called klah which merely made the pioneers miss coffee the more, but was perfectly acceptable to the first and subsequent generations as better than a mouthful of live thread.

Actually, I'll leave the other example that was nagging at me on the table. When studying my Swahili a few weeks ago, I discovered that the Swahili for "coffee" is "kahawa" .. and I already knew that. I don't know where from. I'm pretty sure I didn't hear it working in East Africa (too many Septics around for that word to not be translated) ; my best bet is that there is an SF story out there where the coffee-a-like is called "kahawa", and I've forgotten which universe it was. So if you can dig that one out of the communal brain cell, there is an Evergiven loaded with MBPs veering across the Suez Canal in your direction.

EDIT : but no "Black Wine of Thentis". Or any other BDSM drink from Gor.

[Cmdr James]

Assuming that I do indeed have the poisoned chalice,

Indeed you do!

[RockDoctor]

Assuming that I do indeed have the poisoned chalice,

Indeed you do!

And your "it's coffee, but not 'coffee' entry?

[RockDoctor]

And your "it's coffee, but not 'coffee' entry?

Err, yes. Were people waiting for that?
To recapitulate - five universes (etc) where coffee didn't exist, but something similar did which worked as early-morning caffeine ingestion. Maybe not even caffeine - a stimulant, moderately addictive.
Off the table by way of example is McCaffrey's "klah" slopping around and getting the Weyrs of Pern to wake up in the morning. Not-coffee, but it did the job. Also off the table, being coffee by a different name, is Gor's "Black wine of Thentis".
Meaningless bonus points for anyone who can remember which universe/ author called a coffee-a-like "<i>kahawa</i>", which is actually - real world - the Swahili for "coffee".

Can we do the challenge this year? Given that The Law are likely to be testing their water cannon tonight if anyone looks to be having a good time.

[spud42]

well its 2022 over half way through Jan and no replies. i think you need to ask a different question.

[RockDoctor]

well its 2022 over half way through Jan and no replies. i think you need to ask a different question.

Have a chalice. I'm not feeling well.

[Cholmondely]

well its 2022 over half way through Jan and no replies. i think you need to ask a different question.

Have a chalice. I'm not feeling well.

Ahah! you've been drinking from it again, haven't you? One can't afford to confuse it with the Holy Grail...

[spud42]

seeing as it seems the chalice has been dumped( passed) to me lets go....

im over all these 5 of questions so i will start with something simple ( i hope) .

author and book title required.

clue: von neuman probe. controlled by ( and essentially is the probe ) a consciousness from a dying human. The probe is self replicating and does...

[Cholmondely]

seeing as it seems the chalice has been dumped( passed) to me lets go....

im over all these 5 of questions so i will start with something simple ( i hope) .

author and book title required.

clue: von neuman probe. controlled by ( and essentially is the probe ) a consciousness from a dying human. The probe is self replicating and does...

Umm. What do you mean by a "Von Neuman probe"? A self-replicating space-ship?

[ffutures]

I had to cheat a bit by running some searches but I think it's the novel We are Legion (we are Bob) By Dennis E. Taylor · 2017

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/ ... CAAJ?hl=en

[spud42]

and the chalice passes on.....

quite a decent read, there are at least 2 more books maybe 3 by now...

We are Bob
For We are Many
All These Worlds
????
i only have 2 and 3 in audiobook.

[Cholmondely]

I only have 2 and 3 in audiobook.

Audiobook? When do you listen to them? I've toyed with the idea, but much prefer paper.

[Old Murgh]

Audiobook? When do you listen to them? I've toyed with the idea, but much prefer paper.

If the narrator is truly great, it is better than paper.

[spud42]

I only have 2 and 3 in audiobook.

Audiobook? When do you listen to them? I've toyed with the idea, but much prefer paper.

im a field service tech so i do a lot of driving each day. plenty of time to listen. i wouldn't say they are better than reading not worse either depends on the narrator . I have had some books i had to stop listening to because they ruined the book, couldnt stand the voice or the tempo of the delivery etc.

for example i finally got through Moby Dick. the paper book is so dry. if it wasnt for someone reading it to me i would never had got through the book. Personally i still dont get why people think its great. its more of an encyclopedia of whale facts (most wrong) with a bit of story every now and then. The actual story arc could have been done in 2 or 3 chapters...lol