Science Fiction Trivia

[Disembodied]

A stab in the dark - Counter-Clock World?

Nope: time moves in the usual direction in this novel. But here's a musical clue as to how things work for the book's main character (who is named in the title of the book).

[Disembodied]

It's a recent novel - it won a significant SF award in 2015.

[spud42]

disclaimer: i googled muchly on this one so i hope twas not in vein....

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

[Disembodied]

You googled well: it is indeed The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, by Claire North, which won the 2015 John W. Campbell Memorial Award. One review described it as being like "Groundhog Day on Red Bull" (hence the musical clue). It's an interesting novel, and makes a good partner to Kate Atkinson's Life After Life, which also deals with someone aware that they are living their life over and over - although the two books are very different.

Spud42 reclaims the Object of Desire …

[spud42]

interesting.. i found it as a nomination for the Arthur C Clarke award, it was in the top 5 shortlist but Station Eleven won....

ok.... what book am i currently reading?






ohh, you need a clue already??

the moon is not what it seems, we Earthlings are all aliens though very few know this, the Dinosaurs were wiped out by an impact but it wasnt natural....no this isnt a dino book...

[Cody]

The dinosaurs had it coming!

I have a strange feeling of déjà vu about that question, spud - but searching this forum returns nothing.

[cbr]

lol

I have a strange feeling of déjà vu about that question, spud - but searching this forum returns nothing.

ditto ditto

[Disembodied]

I mentioned David Weber's Empire from the Ashes series a while back, but not as a question … that has a moon that's not what it seems, and I think there's also a suggestion that the dino-squashing KT asteroid was caused by aliens. I don't know which book in the series you're reading, though - is it the omnibus edition?

[spud42]

yet again Big D has it. book 1 of the Empire from the ashes omnibus "Mutineers Moon." the moon was "replaced" by a giant Imperial Fleet Battle ship Dahak 50,000 years ago.
the crew and mutineers fled to earth hence we are all "degenerate" descendants of the 250,000 crew. the Imperials were here to look out for the ancient race that periodically scours the galaxy of any possibility of a competing lifeform.. hence the kinetic missile/asteroid the decimated the dinosaurs with... and they are back heading to earth . an earth that has no idea except for the few imperials left and their close offspring.......

all in all a damn good read, any way back to chapter 17... over to you Big D the newly renamed Object of Desire is on autopilot and heading your way.

[Disembodied]

Thanks - I'll put some newspaper down for it.

Name the novel: in 1999, the manager of an all-girl pop group, on tour through the less-well-known parts of the globe, has his own worries about how to get through Y2K …

[Disembodied]

This is, I admit, a peculiar book, but it's by one of the big names of modern SF … the book title is a single German word, albeit one that has crossed over into English.

[spud42]

Zeitgeist by Bruce Sterling

It’s 1999, and in the Turkish half of Cyprus, the ever-enterprising Leggy Starlitz has alighted — pausing on his mission to storm the Third World with the G-7 girls, the cheapest, phoniest all-girl rock group ever to wear Wonderbras and spandex.

His market is staring him in the face: millions of teenagers trapped in a world of mullahs and mosques, all ready to blow their pocket change on G-7’s massive merchandising campaign — and to wildly anticipate music the band will never release.

Leggy’s brilliant plan means doing business with some of the world’s most dangerous people. Among these thieves, schemers, and killers, he must act quickly and decisively. Y2K is just around the corner — and the only rule to live by is that the whole scheme stops before the year 2000

if i am correct that took a lot of google fu to find...... not having read the book, what is the science fiction aspect of it?

[Disembodied]

Zeitgeist by Bruce Sterling

That's the one!

what is the science fiction aspect of it?

Ah, well … Sterling describes it as "a technothriller with fantastic elements. [The protagonist] Leggy Starlitz is a nonlinear descendant of Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius." There's a whole bunch of weirdness going on: some of it is just capitalism (using a generic bubblegum pop band to sell glitter tube-tops in Turkmenistan); some of it is crime (international heroin trading and money-laundering in the odd corners of global politics); and some of it involves creatures more-or-less made out of media (a wheelchair-bound "Princess", being pushed around airports by a newspaper hack, trailing the scent of rotting flowers).

Back to you!

[spud42]

ok here is your next question.

man builds time machine. want to see how far back he can go. finds himself in the Mesozoic era. facing four foot high reptiles with metal belts and guns.

Author,book and story title. yes its a collection.

[Smivs]

Damn! I've read this and haven't got a clue......