Science Fiction Trivia

[cim]

Well, I wasn't going to miss a chance at the first one I actually knew for months... since there's been a few discussions about taxation in Oolite recently:

As a result of the protagonist's tax evasion, they discover and foil a major conspiracy by a religious group.

[cim]

Clues:
- the tax evasion is set on a planet with no laws (but in a "working anarchy" way still has a functional tax system)
- the conspiracy relates to something secretly guarded by humanity due to its religious significance to thousands of species.

[Disembodied]

It's the Buck Godot adventure The Gallimaufry!

[cim]

It's the Buck Godot adventure The Gallimaufry!

Correct!

[Disembodied]

OK ... who (or what), from which debut novel, said

"Thou shalt not violate causality within my historic light cone. Or else."

[snork]

no idea about that debut novel, as I try to avoid Vogon poetry, but he who said that must definitely have been this one :

[Disembodied]

no idea about that debut novel, as I try to avoid Vogon poetry, but he who said that must definitely have been this one :

No, this particular pronouncement was made by something significantly more ... specific. And emphatic.

[Disembodied]

Clue time: it's the sort of thing that might get immanentized, so I've heard ...

[Cody]

I'd already Googled this unfortunately, as the clue would have tipped me off (think Illuminatus or religion).
It's the Eschaton from Singularity Sky by Charles Stross.

[Disembodied]

I'd already Googled this unfortunately, as the clue would have tipped me off (think Illuminatus or religion).
It's the Eschaton from Singularity Sky by Charles Stross.

It is indeed – an entity which has left the message etched into mountain ranges, carved onto moons and distributed around networks across known space:

I am the Eschaton. I am not your God.
I am descended from you, and exist in your future.
Thou shalt not violate causality within my historic light cone. Or else.

Over to you, EV!

[Cody]

I must get that from the library, as it sounds excellent.

Onward: an old sailing boat is found on a farm, which is nowhere near the sea.
Title and author of this novel, please.

[Selezen]

From the top of my head that could be the first book of the Spelljammer Cloakmaster Cycle.

Beyond The Moons by David Cook?

[Cody]

Nope! Not much to go on in that question, was there. First clue due this evening.

[Cody]

Clue the first: the sailing boat is in near-perfect condition, but it is very, very old!

[Cody]

Clue the second: at first simply a curiosity, after investigation the old sailing boat is found to be made of a previously unknown material. Further investigation of the locality uncovers a 'boathouse' made from the same material. Within this 'boathouse' a portal device is discovered, which leads to 'other' places not on this Earth.