Oolite Bulletins

Aye... chapter VII of The Wind in the Willows is entitled The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, wherein Mole and Ratty encounter Pan.

Over to you, sir.

Ah sh!t...now I have to think of something.

<thinks>

I would like the name of the film that links an 1804 American expedition to a failed gravity drive experiment in 2040?

That would be 'Event Horizon'. The 'Event Horizon' is a ship carrying out research near a black hole, in distress. The rescue vessel is named 'Lewis and Clark' after the renowned American explorers.

Well done, Smivs. Over to you.

Sorry for the delay...

What is the main Claim to Fame of the android Hadaly?

Time for a clue.
The novel featuring Hadaly is generally accredited with popularising the term 'Android', but the question relates to an event ten years after the novel was first published.

Despite being well googled, I cannot fathom...

The book "L'Eve Future" (The Future Eve) was in 1886, the movie (first robot movie??) was in 1896.

Very well deduced...indeed Hadaly is the first ever movie robot. Sadly, as far as I can find, the film itself is now lost.
If you are interested, the only mention of the movie I found is here. The novel is detailed on wikipedia here.
Over to you...

Smivs wrote:

Very well deduced...indeed Hadaly is the first ever movie robot. Sadly, as far as I can find, the film itself is now lost.
If you are interested, the only mention of the movie I found is here. The novel is detailed on wikipedia here.
Over to you...

There is a very good movie museum in Brussels, I'll check if they know something about the fate of this film.
The original book (in French) is available online: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26681/26 ... 6681-h.htm

Now for my question: I'm thinking of a 20th century book which described a near future. Humanity is confined into buildings, going outside is dangerous because of the bad air due to global warming, but even more because of alien attacks. The protagonist of the book, who is an expert in ancient & medieval Asian history, discovers a conspiracy to kill him and fellow scientists when the detector on the balcony of his apartment to warn him against alien presence is sabotaged. Can I have the title, please?

Some more hints:

In the book, the buildings in which the 21st century humans live, are connected to each other by (1) matter transporters and (2) a computer network - this allows them to live without ever going outside.

In one of the assassination attempts, the matter transporter is used to send explosives to Ale (the protagonist of the book).

Information from the network is always paid by what we would call today "micro-transactions". Between the chapters of the book, short messages from the network are printed, they resemble something we now call "tweets". When the book was published, the internet did already exist (but was not accessible outside academia/government), the world wide web was not yet around.

Ale is working for a company which provides expert advice or information to the public over the network. He has access to an advanced network (proprietary to his company, Ale connects to it by an implant) in which he can see and consult his colleagues in a virtual 3D setting, grouped by specialisation. The name of this advanced network is the title of the book. Except for some punctuation, it is also the name of a behemoth company in the real IT business, but I don't think that this was intended by the author (it's just a very popular word, often used in both SF and IT settings).

Having read this thread, it makes clear to me just how much Sci-Fi I have Not read.

Edit: typo.
Edit: another typo :p

Some more hints on the book I'm looking for:

The aliens in the book look like pterosaurs (Jurassic flying reptiles) and they attack humans on sight. They are intelligent, but they (almost) always refuse to communicate. They fly over human cities using their own wings, while their mother ships remain in orbit.

After a flood (the global warming theme), a hacker is relocated to stay in the apartment of Ale and his wife. The three of them try to counter the conspiracy against the scientists and to liberate humanity from the aliens.

The book has been translated from the original English into Dutch (the version I've read), Spanish and French - the French translation has won a literature prize in 1986/1987 for being the best novel on information technology.

The author is not really famous, but he was a leading figure in Nebula Award juries and in the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America). His debute was in ANALOG in the early seventies.


@Wardy: I have exactly the same feeling, and I didn't even read the entire thread.

For the first time there is a glimmer of vague recognition (flying reptile aliens). I will ponder this some...

Wardy wrote:

Having read this thread, it makes it clear to me just how much sf I have not read.

Edit: typo.
Edit: another typo. :p

HTH



<runs off to the pub for lunch, sniggering>