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Re: Science Fiction Trivia

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2017 11:42 am
by Cody
This sounds familiar - so familiar, it'll annoy me 'til I see the answer.

Re: Science Fiction Trivia

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2017 2:05 pm
by Malacandra
Mathematically, we're talking about doing something an infinite number of times without the result itself going to infinity. (The author is writing about what he knows here.)

Re: Science Fiction Trivia

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2017 2:10 pm
by ffutures
Larry Niven, I think Convergent Series but I could be wrong.

Re: Science Fiction Trivia

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2017 6:47 pm
by Malacandra
No, you're exactly right. The narrator wishes for the demon to stop time, and then repaints the summoning pentagram on the demon's belly - so that when time restarts, the demon is trapped trying to reform himself in a too-small pentagram that shrinks just as fast as he does.

*hands over ziplocced kipper*

Re: Science Fiction Trivia

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2017 7:12 pm
by ffutures
Talking of kippers and food that made the Empire great:

"...the British Empire stands on the brink of an invasion by highly intelligent hats from the future!"

Name the book and author...

Re: Science Fiction Trivia

Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2017 10:19 am
by Cody
<resorts to google> Starcross by Philip Reeve?

Re: Science Fiction Trivia

Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2017 12:44 pm
by spud42
thats what i got too... but i just highlighted the question and chrome searched google...lol

Re: Science Fiction Trivia

Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2017 6:11 pm
by ffutures
Cody wrote: Thu Feb 23, 2017 10:19 am
<resorts to google> Starcross by Philip Reeve?
Exactamundo - the kipper is yours.

Re: Science Fiction Trivia

Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2017 6:54 pm
by Cody
<opens ancient book of code, utters magic words, transmutes potassium into chlorine> The kipper is now a clipper!



In whose autobiography, set in a fully-colonised and exploited Solar System, is the Great Red Spot a parallel of present-day Mexico?

Re: Science Fiction Trivia

Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 8:23 am
by Malacandra
Cody wrote: Thu Feb 23, 2017 6:54 pm
In whose autobiography, set in a fully-colonised and exploited Solar System, is the Great Red Spot a parallel of present-day Mexico?
Hope Hubris. It's the Biography of a Space Tyrant series, Piers Anthony. Perhaps not the "hardest" science fiction ever to hit the shelves...

Re: Science Fiction Trivia

Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 10:23 am
by Cody
Aye, Hope Hubris it is. And yes, not the hardest of sci-fi - but a good tale, nevertheless. The clipper is yours!

Re: Science Fiction Trivia

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 7:59 am
by Malacandra
Also not hard science fiction, which three-book series began with this note:

"The author would be sorry if any reader supposed he was too stupid to have enjoyed Mr H G Wells's fantasies or too ungrateful to acknowledge his debt to them."

Re: Science Fiction Trivia

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 3:48 pm
by Smivs
<Resorts to Google to get the ball rolling again...>
C S Lewis - The Ransom Trilogy.

Re: Science Fiction Trivia

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 3:54 pm
by ffutures
Dohhhh! I should have remembered that...

Re: Science Fiction Trivia

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 4:57 pm
by Malacandra
I had half a mind to mention that my username was a clue, but given that the entire phrase could be highlighted and Googled and hit practically instantly, it seemed unnecessary.

Owing to an unfortunate kerning accident, it seems that the clipper has transformed itself into a dipper. Off you go!