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Re: Science Fiction Trivia
Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2023 9:42 pm
by ffutures
spud42 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 11:30 am
ok cbr is #2
im debating Kryptonite, according to wikipedia " it is a green, crystalline material originating from Superman's home world of Krypton that emits a unique, poisonous radiation that can weaken and even kill Kryptonians."
In my head i thought of a poison as something put into the body either injected or injested.... Radiation works at a distance..... what we call radiation poisioning scientists call Acute radiation syndrome.
ok i will Give #3 to ffutures because i didnt specify how the poision was to be used or even gave an example to hint what i was thinking. also it is commonly called radiation poisioning.
so 2 to go.......
Fair point, but they've shown it as having toxic effects as well as the radiation a few times, so I think it's nasty in all respects.
Re: Science Fiction Trivia
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2023 10:45 am
by spud42
still 2 to go....
ffutures got #3 . Dont make him have to pick a question again , so soon. lol.
Re: Science Fiction Trivia
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2023 11:06 am
by Disembodied
Bryce Mackenzie, CEO of Mackenzie Helium, is assassinated with poison - the Five Deaths of Twé - in the final book of Ian McDonald's Luna series, Luna: Rising.
Re: Science Fiction Trivia
Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2023 7:15 am
by spud42
Ok thats number 4 , 1 to go.
Re: Science Fiction Trivia
Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2023 10:58 pm
by cbr
Number Five is Kryptonite. . .
Re: Science Fiction Trivia
Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2023 4:26 pm
by Cholmondely
cbr wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 10:58 pm
Number Five is Kryptonite. . .
You actually
want the poisoned chalice?
Re: Science Fiction Trivia
Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 12:50 am
by spud42
he obviously doesnt because #3 was kryptonite from ffutures...
still 1 to go.
Re: Science Fiction Trivia
Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 7:59 pm
by ffutures
I can think of a fairly prominent series of books whose main character's life is hugely affected by poisoning, but I'd sooner someone else got this, I'm a bit busy at the moment.
Re: Science Fiction Trivia
Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 8:53 pm
by Disembodied
Well, if it doesn't have to be a fatal poisoning … in William Gibson's
Neuromancer, Case, the former cyberspace cowboy, was caught trying to rip off his employers. As punishment, they crippled his nervous system with poison so he couldn't access cyberspace again.
They damaged his nervous system with a wartime Russian mycotoxin. Strapped to a bed in a Memphis hotel, his talent burning out micron by micron, he hallucinated for thirty hours. The damage was minute, subtle, and utterly effective. For Case, who’d lived for the bodiless exultation of cyberspace, it was the Fall.
Re: Science Fiction Trivia
Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2023 11:58 am
by spud42
well! I didnt specify fatal poisoning so Disembodied gets #5 and the keys to the duboius Vehicle which started life as a Cobra and had warped Chameleon circuit style into a chalice.....
Take it away Big D.
Re: Science Fiction Trivia
Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2023 1:23 pm
by Disembodied
Ah, OK … how about three examples of space elevators in fiction (by which I mean a theoretically physically possible method of reaching planetary orbit by mechanical means, and not the lifts inside the starship Enterprise … or Willie Wonka's Great Glass Elevator). The elevator(s) should be meaningful to the plot, not just a piece of background detail. MBPs for anyone who can find one in film or TV - it seems as if this is one of those SF tropes which is common enough in literature but which is deemed too outré and confusing for screen audiences.
Usual rules, only one per author/universe.
Re: Science Fiction Trivia
Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2023 8:51 pm
by ffutures
Might as well strike early - Arthur C. Clarke's
The Fountains of Paradise (1979) is basically a novel about building a space elevator, not a lot else happens. Some politics, some religious opposition, a daring space rescue that isn't quite unnecessary but comes close to it, that's about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountains_of_Paradise
Re: Science Fiction Trivia
Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2023 8:55 pm
by Disembodied
ffutures wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 8:51 pm
Arthur C. Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise
That's one (and one of the first space elevators in fiction).
Re: Science Fiction Trivia
Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2023 6:07 pm
by Disembodied
Not all space elevators have to be based on Earth … and there are some that are known, colloquially at least, as "beanstalks".
Re: Science Fiction Trivia
Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2023 9:39 pm
by Commander_X
An Ancient Peace by Tanya Huff, has three of them on the planet Abalae.