Science Fiction Trivia

[Cmdr James]

The aliens (had to look up their name, apparently Tralfamadorians) from slaughterhouse 5 lived in or somehow saw more dimensions. As I remember it humans did too its just that we couldnt see them.

[Cmdr James]

If I remember right Cthulu is in some way a transdimetional thing. Does that count?

[Commander_X]

I'd have two
One is (shameless self-plug) taken from the previous obscure Gérard Klein's Overlords of War -- the actual overlords lived somewhere out of time and space.
Second(s) are from Culture series: besides the Minds (their built transcended the 3 dimensional volume they occupied), there were also the ascended "older races" -- I think The Hydrogen Sonata goes around this the closest. Culture also has the virtual hells, although the number of dimensions is a bit blurry for these.

[Cmdr James]

(shameless self-plug) taken from the previous obscure Gérard Klein's Overlords of War

How is this a self plug, are you Gerard Klein?!?

[spud42]

Nine Princes in Amber ; Roger Zelazny

[RockDoctor]

Heinlein, IIRC, "Built a Crooked house" in a short story, and ended up looking at the back of his own head. A tesseract, folded up by an earthquake.
Coincidentally, something is rumbling under California.

[ffutures]

I guess the obvious one is flatland.

It is indeed - that's one.

The aliens (had to look up their name, apparently Tralfamadorians) from slaughterhouse 5 lived in or somehow saw more dimensions. As I remember it humans did too its just that we couldnt see them.

That's a bit of a grey area - they were mostly looking at different times rather than extra spatial dimensions - but I'll allow it. That's two.

If I remember right Cthulu is in some way a transdimetional thing. Does that count?

Not Cthulhu so much, I think I'll have to say no on that one. Maybe some of the other Cthuhloid entities?

I'd have two
One is (shameless self-plug) taken from the previous obscure Gérard Klein's Overlords of War -- the actual overlords lived somewhere out of time and space.
Second(s) are from Culture series: besides the Minds (their built transcended the 3 dimensional volume they occupied), there were also the ascended "older races" -- I think The Hydrogen Sonata goes around this the closest. Culture also has the virtual hells, although the number of dimensions is a bit blurry for these.

Overlords of War I don't know, and online reviews don't really clarify it, but I'll accept it. Culture has multiple instances for sure. That's four.

Nine Princes in Amber ; Roger Zelazny

That's the other sort of dimension e.g. parallel worlds etc., so no

Heinlein, IIRC, "Built a Crooked house" in a short story, and ended up looking at the back of his own head. A tesseract, folded up by an earthquake.
Coincidentally, something is rumbling under California.

Definitely yes - that's five, and the hyerball is in your multidimensional manifold.

[Commander_X]

How is this a self plug, are you Gerard Klein?!?

No, I'm not
But I tried to have the audience here discover it, sometimes back

Overlords of War I don't know, and online reviews don't really clarify it, but I'll accept it. [...]

This is the best quote I could quickly grab, in order to support the example: "There is no ‘before’ or ‘after.’ To them, and already to a tiny extent to us, time is a dimension along which events coexist like objects laid side by side."

[RockDoctor]

That's odd - my post seems to have disappeared. Try again.

Give us a half-dozen courses for an SF banquet to exercise your moral compasses. Every course needs to be intelligent enough to communicate with humans, at least until the poleaxe falls.

A valid example would be the Bandersnatch, which were bred in the distant past by the Tnuictipun as spies against the telepathic Slavers. They couldn't talk, but can read and write - given a large enough beach. Another example is the Ameglian Major Cow in H2G2, 'a ruminant specifically bred to not only have the desire to be eaten, but to be capable of saying so quite clearly and distinctly. When asked if he would like to see the Dish of the Day, Zaphod replies, "We'll meet the meat." '
I'm going to exclude real-world species, because some people get really upset over questions like whether dogs or pigs are more intelligent, and so which are more acceptable as a food animal.
Intelligent, edible plants would be good - were Triffids edible?
And we'll leave out cannibalism too - though where that leaves Michael Smith on Mars is a challenge.

[ffutures]

Well, omitting cannibalism stops the obvious one - Soylent Green is made of people.
(from the film Soylent Green based on Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison)

Jonathan Livingston Dog-Vulture, a Judge Dredd story from 2000 AD, has the inspiring story of a mutant dog-vulture in the Cursed Earth who aspires to greater things and flies wider and further than any other dog-vulture, eventually finding Megacity One - where he is immediately caught and slaughtered for food.

[ffutures]

Another one - In Iain M. Banks' Excession the Affront (one of the nastier races of the Culture universe) prefer their food alive, sentient, conscious and terrified.

[Disembodied]

Abelard Snazz, the man with the double-decker brain - star of occasional stories in the 2000AD - is known to boost his thinking powers by consuming the odd Syrian Sentient Milkshake …

[RockDoctor]

Well, omitting cannibalism stops the obvious one - Soylent Green is made of people.
(from the film Soylent Green based on Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison)

Well, I hadn't thought of that one, but yeah, it does freak some people. Good story though. Really inspiring.

Jonathan Livingston Dog-Vulture, a Judge Dredd story from 2000 AD, has the inspiring story of a mutant dog-vulture in the Cursed Earth who aspires to greater things and flies wider and further than any other dog-vulture, eventually finding Megacity One - where he is immediately caught and slaughtered for food.

That makes sense in a rather Judge Dredd sort of way. Ping, five to go!

[RockDoctor]

Another one - In Iain M. Banks' Excession the Affront (one of the nastier races of the Culture universe) prefer their food alive, sentient, conscious and terrified.

Oh, the ideal dinner guest. Ping, four to go!
I've got to get the library to improve their stock of Culture.

[RockDoctor]

Abelard Snazz, the man with the double-decker brain - star of occasional stories in the 2000AD - is known to boost his thinking powers by consuming the odd Syrian Sentient Milkshake …

Another fun cultural depth to plumb. Can we book him for the next Gordon Ramsey vehicle? Three to go.
There's a slightly worrying speed of reply going on here - as if a bunch of space-faring pirate-exterminators were just a little low on the empathy score. BTW, can you convert tonne-canisters of dehydrated flat-packed slaves into canisters of food at a profit?