Oolite Bulletins

There was a season in Paris when Darger and Surplus, those two canny rogues, lived very well indeed. That was the year when the Seine shone a gentle green at night with the pillars of the stone bridges fading up into a pure and ghostly blue, for the city engineers, in obedience to the latest fashions, had made the algae and mosses bioluminescent.

Paris, unlike lesser cities, reveled in her flaws. The molds and funguses that attacked her substance had been redesigned for beauty. The rats had been displaced by a breed of particularly engaging mice. A depleted revenant of the Plague Wars yet lingered in her brothels in the form of a sexual fever that lasted but twenty-four hours before dying away, leaving one with only memories and pleasant regrets. The health service, needless to say, made no serious effort to eradicate it.

Small wonder that Darger and Surplus were as happy as two such men could be.

One such man, actually. Surplus was, genetically, a dog, though he had been remade into anthropomorphic form and intellect. But neither that nor his American origins was held against him, for it was widely believed that he was enormously wealthy.

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Mon Aug 31, 2020 12:08 am

OK, I'll try to rule out another biggie. One of the dominant characters throughout the Known Space stories (Larry Niven, as if I needed to add it) is Beowulf Schaeffer, who is introduced to us as a fraudster, living way beyond his means, plans a career in piracy/ spaceship theft/ illicit arms dealing before being forced back onto the straight and narrow(-ish) by a cop acting considerably beyond his powers. That story ends with an incipient career in blackmail ("One million Credits? I'd be fascinated!"). (EDIT: Neutron Star, if anyone needed it.) Later stories detail various other dubious acts including Grand Theft Techno, a wide slew of immigration and emigration crimes and ... (EDIT: The "Crashlander" anthology and it's framing story, "Procrustes")
Long enough rap sheet?
And we haven't even started on the crimes of the three-legged one with a name almost suspiciously unrelated to "Jake the Peg". Who's he trying to kid?

cbr wrote: ↑Mon Aug 31, 2020 12:13 am

Those pesky icestealers called The Ice Pirates...

Disembodied wrote: ↑Mon Aug 31, 2020 9:28 am

Michael Swanwick's "Darger and Surplus" stories feature Aubrey Darger and Sir Blackthorpe Ravenscairn de Plus Precieux (AKA Surplus), two conmen (well, one con-man and one con-genetically enhanced dog), and are set in a postutopian future. One of the stories, "The Little Cat Laughed to See Such Sport", is online here:

https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-little-cat- ... rt-5802446

There was a season in Paris when Darger and Surplus, those two canny rogues, lived very well indeed. That was the year when the Seine shone a gentle green at night with the pillars of the stone bridges fading up into a pure and ghostly blue, for the city engineers, in obedience to the latest fashions, had made the algae and mosses bioluminescent.

Paris, unlike lesser cities, reveled in her flaws. The molds and funguses that attacked her substance had been redesigned for beauty. The rats had been displaced by a breed of particularly engaging mice. A depleted revenant of the Plague Wars yet lingered in her brothels in the form of a sexual fever that lasted but twenty-four hours before dying away, leaving one with only memories and pleasant regrets. The health service, needless to say, made no serious effort to eradicate it.

Small wonder that Darger and Surplus were as happy as two such men could be.

One such man, actually. Surplus was, genetically, a dog, though he had been remade into anthropomorphic form and intellect. But neither that nor his American origins was held against him, for it was widely believed that he was enormously wealthy.

Disembodied wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 9:33 am

In William Gibson’s Neuromancer the protagonists have to hack the Tessier-Ashpool cores and break the Turing locks on the company AIs - which is definitely a crime. Although Molly deals out a bit of violence, it's essentially a heist story.

spud42 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 1:48 pm

for your consideration.... Marion Zimmer Bradley The colours of Space. the main character Bart Steele breaks the law and goes into space as a Lhari to prove that humans dont die in hyperspace.

spud42 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 11:00 am

ok this should be a quick one for the genius ' in this forum

im searching for a book i read many moons ago. i dont know the name or author.
All i remember is children needing to eat something special/rare and probably expensive . the children who didnt eat were mentally disadvantaged and i think died young..... not a lot to go on i know but 25 years ago i wouldnt have forgotten any book i read...

spud42 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 11:00 am

ok this should be a quick one for the genius ' in this forum

im searching for a book i read many moons ago. i dont know the name or author.
All i remember is children needing to eat something special/rare and probably expensive . the children who didnt eat were mentally disadvantaged and i think died young..... not a lot to go on i know but 25 years ago i wouldnt have forgotten any book i read...

ffutures wrote: ↑Fri Sep 04, 2020 5:13 pm

OK, I'm in a musical mood, so let's have five SF stories / films / TV episodes / whatever which have the NAME of a musical instrument in the title. Meaningless bonus points if it is actually about music.

Only one title per musical instrument. And the usual rules -

Disembodied wrote: ↑Fri Sep 04, 2020 5:22 pm

The Doctor Who episode "The Sound of Drums".

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Fri Sep 04, 2020 5:57 pm

I'll try to take the Good Doctor off the table. You mention stories and episodes on an even par, so ... one of the chapters in "Foundation and Empire" (was it one of the original serialisation episodes, way back in the late 40s?) related the Mule's undermining of morale at the Foundation, using an instrument called a "VisiSonar" - gaving the chapter it's title.

cbr wrote: ↑Fri Sep 04, 2020 6:21 pm

I think i stretch the use of the word musical instrument by presenting,

from ST voyager, the singing hologram in 'Virtuoso' ...