Science Fiction Trivia

[Cody]

Fallen Angels by Niven, Pournelle and Flynn.

[Selezen]

Ding!

Well, done, My Mexican Friend. The stage is yours.

[Cody]

A young man is killed in a car crash, but awakes over a century later to find himself a prisoner on a supervillain’s personal asteroid.

The novel's title and author, please.

[Selezen]

Sounds similar to "For Us, The Living" by Heinlein, but the blurb mentions nothing about an asteroid (I have a Heinlein collection of eBooks that I haven't read yet and this one stuck in my mind because it has a naked lady on the cover...)

[Cody]

Sounds similar to "For Us, The Living" by Heinlein, but the blurb mentions nothing about an asteroid (I have a Heinlein collection of eBooks that I haven't read yet and this one stuck in my mind because it has a naked lady on the cover...)

Nope, not Heinlein... although this author is known for being a little 'rude'!

[Disembodied]

Then that must be Allen Steele's A King of Infinite Space!

[Cody]

Indeed it is... there are many sci-fi authors that I admire, but if I could choose to write like one of them, it would be Allen Steele... a brilliant writer. Your turn, sir!

[Disembodied]

OK ... in a similar vein, in some respects, to A King of Infinite Space, name the author and title:

Some two hundred plus years hence, the human race is made up of an earthbound population struggling to regenerate the planet's ecosystem, and a scatter of diverse and divergent colonies spread around the solar system. The novel tracks the shifting machinations of various factions as tensions build, and follows the viewpoints of several characters: some are influential, controlling figures; others their pawns and protégés; and some are simply those swept along by events.

[Disembodied]

There are actually two published books that make up the whole story (a dilogy?), and the author also wrote a scatter of short stories set in and around the same events and locations.

[Disembodied]

Another clue, then: one of the character names in William Gibson's Neuromancer is a Spooneristic reference to this author's name (although nobody seems to have noticed ...).

[Cody]

Is it The Quiet War by Paul J. McAuley?

[Disembodied]

Is it The Quiet War by Paul J. McAuley?

Goooaaal!

It is indeed. It's a densely plotted work and contains a fair bit of info-dumping – but the info-dumps themselves are really very interesting indeed (even the bits about manufacturing soils, and how crucial this would be for human colonies). This really shouldn't put anyone off, by the way: the info-dumps slide down easily and you barely notice your mind expanding. The Quiet War, and its follow-up Gardens of the Sun, are gripping, edge-of-the-seat hard SF at its best.

[Cody]

The Quiet War, and its follow-up Gardens of the Sun, are gripping, edge-of-the-seat hard SF at its best.

Agreed... McAuley is a great writer.

Onwards... in a near-future world, governed by the UN, a ‘peacekeeping’ strike causes unexpected side-effects, leading to a global climate catastrophe.

[snork]

Hm, maybe something Heinlein ? (It is >20 years since I read some Heinlein books)

[Cody]

Hm, maybe something Heinlein ?

Nope... not Heinlein.

Clue the first: the 'peacekeeping' strike referred to in the original question is intended to protect Alaska Free State.