Science Fiction Trivia

[spud42]

clue.... n-dimensional space/time

[RockDoctor]

clue.... n-dimensional space/time

Oh, hang on - aren't they the dimensions that Heinlein used when he started to bolt together Stranger, Time Enough, and various others into his Pandimensional Narrative Solipsism sticking-plaster universe. I seem to remember a scene where John Carter, Deja Thoris, A.N.Other were escaping the Bad Boys, and he explained the new additions to the steering wheels of his car full of gyroscopes and orthogonal actuators.

[spud42]

just like some of Heinlein's stories, thats close enough...lol
from The Number of the Beast. wherein Dr Jake Burroughs explains 6 dimensional space time . escape the BlackHats discover that all worlds and universes are myth . Visits Oz, Lilliput eventually find Barsoom. finally tie it into the Lazarus Long stories.

critics didnt like it much , might be what he did to them at the end of the book......... dont care i liked it. i think they took it too seriously.

Over to you Sir...

[Cody]

... escape the BlackHats...

Were they the ones with knees which bent the wrong way?

[spud42]

two knees, 1 bent normal 1 bent backwards... same for elbows. used splints to stop the backwards ones moving...

just to clarify what was implied.. 2 joints per limb.. knees, elbows.

[RockDoctor]

OK.
FTL interstellar travel is theoretically possible ... but every time you send a crew off, they disappear correctly, but never reappear. So you do it the hard way.

[spud42]

not sure i get your question?

[RockDoctor]

not sure i get your question?

This SF universe comprises two linked books which I'm specifically thinking about, but I believe a number of other universes/ authors have dabbled with this universe/ FTL (faster than light) mechanism. As with most interesting FTLs, it has it's limitations. When testing the design for the FTL, your test ship, crew, etc disappear according to plan ... but never come back.
On the one hand, your universe's physics appear to allow FTL. But on the second hand, your FTL doesn't actually work. So on the third hand, you travel slower than FTL because you don't seem to have a choice.

Name the universe/ books.

[ffutures]

not sure i get your question?

This SF universe comprises two linked books which I'm specifically thinking about, but I believe a number of other universes/ authors have dabbled with this universe/ FTL (faster than light) mechanism. As with most interesting FTLs, it has it's limitations. When testing the design for the FTL, your test ship, crew, etc disappear according to plan ... but never come back.
On the one hand, your universe's physics appear to allow FTL. But on the second hand, your FTL doesn't actually work. So on the third hand, you travel slower than FTL because you don't seem to have a choice.

Name the universe/ books.

Is it a book (forget the title/author except that I think it might be Poul Anderson) where the apparent FTL drive actually works at lightspeed, so the first expedition (which visits dozens of worlds over a span of several thousand light years) think they've been gone for months but actually come back several thousand years later? But I remember this as later explorers discovering the truth and setting up a relatively local interstellar society, to which the first explorers eventually return.

[RockDoctor]

Is it a book (forget the title/author except that I think it might be Poul Anderson) where the apparent FTL drive actually works at lightspeed, so the first expedition (which visits dozens of worlds over a span of several thousand light years) think they've been gone for months but actually come back several thousand years later? But I remember this as later explorers discovering the truth and setting up a relatively local interstellar society, to which the first explorers eventually return.

You might be thinking of Tau Zero? By, as you say, Poul Anderson.
Nope.

If I said that the trope of a Caledonian ship's engineer reared it's ugly head, I probably wouldn't narrow the field much.

[ffutures]

Is it a book (forget the title/author except that I think it might be Poul Anderson) where the apparent FTL drive actually works at lightspeed, so the first expedition (which visits dozens of worlds over a span of several thousand light years) think they've been gone for months but actually come back several thousand years later? But I remember this as later explorers discovering the truth and setting up a relatively local interstellar society, to which the first explorers eventually return.

You might be thinking of Tau Zero? By, as you say, Poul Anderson.
Nope.

If I said that the trope of a Caledonian ship's engineer reared it's ugly head, I probably wouldn't narrow the field much.

Not Tau Zero, this was basically an instantaneous transition to light speed which everyone thought was FTL.

Got the answer anyway once you mentioned the engineer - The Mote in God's Eye by Niven and Pournelle and sequel - the Moties try to send a ship through the Alderson Point (wormhole thingy), unaware that the other end comes out inside a sun. After several ships vanish and never return they send a slower than light ship with lightsail and laser boosters instead. Set in the Co-Dominion universe, several other writers have set stories there, and there are others not involving the Moties.

[RockDoctor]

If I said that the trope of a Caledonian ship's engineer reared it's ugly head, I probably wouldn't narrow the field much.

Not Tau Zero, this was basically an instantaneous transition to light speed which everyone thought was FTL.

Got the answer anyway once you mentioned the engineer - The Mote in God's Eye by Niven and Pournelle and sequel - the Moties try to send a ship through the Alderson Point (wormhole thingy), unaware that the other end comes out inside a sun. After several ships vanish and never return they send a slower than light ship with lightsail and laser boosters instead. Set in the Co-Dominion universe, several other writers have set stories there, and there are others not involving the Moties.

Mote and Moat. With the Moties being blockaded into the Mote system since time immemorial (1189 CE, or much earlier) by a combination of the FTL's (Alderson Drive, but not really involving wormholery - that's a plot point for Moat) physiological shock and the unfortunate presence of the outer parts of a red giant star to cook any Moaties who arrived there. So they took the slow route to New Caledonia and ...
Actually, given the duration of the Moatie population/ sociology problem, Niven/Pournelle's astrophysics probably don't work. Unless you add a swarm of McGuffins.

You have the conn.

[ffutures]

OK, let's try for more book identification - a 1967-70 series of three books by three different New York authors, all of them using themselves and the other authors as characters in their stories. All involve drugs and hippie culture. The first is about an alien invasion involving psychedelic drugs which allow their users to alter reality, the second interdimensional travel to various worlds, the third another alien invasion by alien shape shifters which impersonate people and inanimate objects. Name the three books and their authors, and the over-arching title generally used for the series.

[ffutures]

Hint 1: One of the authors has also written a book series based on Sherlock Holmes (Not SF)

[ffutures]

Hint 2 - part of the second book is set in Randall Garrett's "Lord Darcy" universe, and at least two of the three authors of this series have appeared as thinly-disguised characters in the Lord Darcy series.

Hint 3 - the over-arching title refers to a section of New York often associated with hippies.