SF short story - radio waves
October 15, 2019 9:53 PM Subscribe
Yet another science fiction short story request!
Trying to identify a science fiction short story:
* Spaceship is traveling through space, passing through the waves of television and radio programs that leaked out into interstellar space. The pilot is stuck out there, either on some mission or possibly as some sort of incarceration. So he listens to the programs to pass the time, but he keeps hitting the very last ones - where Earth is starting a nuclear war.
* I think the pilot is an alien (mourning our species) but could be a human.
* Definitely in a published anthology. Leaning more theme anthology than single author.
* Book publish date no later than 1990. The story itself felt older, more like 60s.
Trying to identify a science fiction short story:
* Spaceship is traveling through space, passing through the waves of television and radio programs that leaked out into interstellar space. The pilot is stuck out there, either on some mission or possibly as some sort of incarceration. So he listens to the programs to pass the time, but he keeps hitting the very last ones - where Earth is starting a nuclear war.
* I think the pilot is an alien (mourning our species) but could be a human.
* Definitely in a published anthology. Leaning more theme anthology than single author.
* Book publish date no later than 1990. The story itself felt older, more like 60s.
Response by poster: I *think* it's the same war. That the ship is traveling in such a fashion that it repeatedly crosses the same chronological group of broadcasts. So the pilot is listening to Fibber McGee and Molly or whatever, and then is, "...no...not again, NO!"
posted by Chrysostom at 5:33 AM on October 16, 2019
posted by Chrysostom at 5:33 AM on October 16, 2019
Best answer: I got you! It's Adrift Among the Ghosts by Jack L. Chalker, 1988.
posted by showbiz_liz at 6:35 AM on October 16, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by showbiz_liz at 6:35 AM on October 16, 2019 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: That's it, thank you showbiz_liz!
For the record, I read it in Chalker's 1988 collection, Dance Band on the Titanic. It may have been a trunk story - it looks like it had never been published previously.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:58 AM on October 16, 2019 [1 favorite]
For the record, I read it in Chalker's 1988 collection, Dance Band on the Titanic. It may have been a trunk story - it looks like it had never been published previously.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:58 AM on October 16, 2019 [1 favorite]
I read it in the 1989 Annual World's Best SF collection. ISFDB has every place it was published if that's useful info!
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:38 PM on October 16, 2019
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:38 PM on October 16, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Mogur at 5:06 AM on October 16, 2019