Science Fiction Trivia

[ffutures]

OK, that's #4; one to go.

[ffutures]

Things I've found in about five minutes that would be good answers:

A two-word short story collection title - HW?
A Hugo-winning short story - TOWWAFO
A Japanese novel better known for the animated film of the same title - TGWLTT
A parody crime novel with fantasy and SF elements - TDWTGT

[Disembodied]

Of course - Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas".

[ffutures]

Of course - Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas".

Absolutely right! Your turn!

The others I mentioned:

A two-word short story collection title - HW? - Howard Who? by Howard Waldrop
A Japanese novel better known for the animated film of the same title - TGWLTT - The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
A parody crime novel with fantasy and SF elements - TDWTGT - The Dragon With The Girl Tattoo

[ffutures]

And I just realised that the last one has no "Who" in the title, which is why I shouldn't have made my list up at 3 AM and copied it in without thinking about it.

[Disembodied]

OK: three examples, from different SF universes, where the Arthurian legends are explicitly referenced. I'm prepared to accept a very broad definition of "SF", here - bits of fantasy stuff are fine, as long as there are at least some standard SF tropes (aliens, spaceships, etc.) involved too. The Arthurian element(s) should be overt and specific: "Such-and-such a character is loosely based on Parsifal" is not sufficient.

[Cody]

Would an ancient spaceship named Excalibur, found buried beneath Stonehenge, count? I recall reading some nineties self-published pulp called The Dyason Series. I think there were other Arthurian elements too, but it was terrible!

[Disembodied]

Never heard of it (and indeed it sounds pretty terrible, from what I've been able to find our about it online - my Amazon Recommends are going to be pretty peculiar for a while now) … but you're right, there do seem to be some Arthurian elements sloshing around in there. That's one!

[Cody]

It's on Amazon? <goes looking> Good grief! And people like it? [speechless]

[Disembodied]

This is science fiction adventure before the days of cyberpunk, tortured and torturous psychology and raging moralising.

Translation: there are very few girls.

[ffutures]

Stargate SG-1; the Avalon story arc at the start of S9 had them looking for Arthurian treasure under Glastonbury Tor, eventually finding an alien communications device which sends their consciousness across the galaxy, lots of other treasure etc.

[Disembodied]

Stargate-SG1 is a definite yes. That's two - next one takes the prize!

[Malacandra]

Camelot 3000? It's a comic mini-series from the 1980s and it's about Arthurian legend reappearing in the year 3000, with science-fiction elements including genetic engineering, aliens from another planet, and nuclear weapons.

[Disembodied]

Camelot 3000 definitely fits the bill. Over to you, Malacandra!

Other possibilities could have included the Sylvester McCoy-era Doctor Who story "Battlefield", or (with a loose definition of SF - time-travel via a blow to the head) Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and/or its various spinoffs.

[Malacandra]

I was all set to pose a question, but it's been asked in this thread a small matter of six years ago (thank you Google). Will need a little longer...