Origin of the Matrix relating to a Science Fictional setting... [more inside]
posted by madmamasmith on Dec 24, 2009 - 19 answers

Looking for a science fiction book I read a few years ago. I believe it came out within the past five years. Basic plot was that a guy died and then his mind was uploaded into a robot. I think the main character might have been fairly poor at one time and then started dating an heiress which was why he was able to do the upload after death. [more inside]
posted by sorindome on Nov 29, 2009 - 4 answers

Sci-Fi Movie Filter: Trying to locate the title of a movie I saw in the late 80's. It was set in the US in the near future. A private eye or cop was trying to track down someone smuggling a deadly drug or chemical that - when it came in contact with the human body - dissolved it in a fantastically gruesome fashion with smoke and screaming. [more inside]
posted by ninazer0 on Nov 1, 2009 - 5 answers

If I'm sitting on the terraformed surface of a Culture orbital, what does the horizon look like? [more inside]
posted by reverend cuttle on Oct 26, 2009 - 12 answers

Book like William Gibson's Pattern Recognition and Spook Country. Near-future, near-science fiction, non-fantasy, non-artsy-fartsy, delving into technological culture. [more inside]
posted by Cool Papa Bell on Oct 22, 2009 - 38 answers

Children'sBookFilter: Please help me identify these two young reader novels which I read many years ago. [more inside]
posted by dave99 on Aug 15, 2009 - 5 answers

What's the best literary equivalent of Alien/Aliens? [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry on Aug 9, 2009 - 21 answers

Could an AI zombify another? [more inside]
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit on Jul 27, 2009 - 12 answers

Show me the Best Online Science Fiction book list... Not a title, but a list! [more inside]
posted by samuel1613 on Jul 13, 2009 - 12 answers

Can you ID these short stories and help me find them? I think there were at least two, they were written by Keith Laumer, and they appeared in a paperback IF anthology that I can't find. They are about the right of revolution (one may be titled something like that) and take place on a mining colony on another planet. I think the first is about the miners who revolt and are led by an Ayn-Rand-character-like person (his name is John Ralt or something). The second is about the 'ARcl' person who is now in charge and must deal with dissenters who contest his moral and political authority. And were there any more stories in this vein, or just two?
posted by Mr. Justice on Jul 8, 2009 - 5 answers

I've just finished reading Let The Galaxy Burn, a collection of Warhammer 40k short stories, and I really liked it. What are some other good Warhammer 40k books? [more inside]
posted by thewittyname on Jun 9, 2009 - 11 answers

Continuing a long tradition of "Name this [whatever]," I'm trying to identify a science fiction story or series of stories published in Boy's Life Magazine in the mid-1960s. [more inside]
posted by lhauser on Apr 12, 2009 - 9 answers

Help with my homework filter!! I want to compile a list of time travelers from literature, television and cinema. I am looking for a couple specific attributes. [more inside]
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur on Mar 9, 2009 - 35 answers

Does anyone know of examples of science fiction about farming? I am especially interested in illustrated stories, movies, comic books, or anything with pictures. [more inside]
posted by tnygard on Feb 12, 2009 - 16 answers

I've been waxing poetic about AskMeFi for a while, and a coworker asked for help identifying a story about an experiment with dancing children. Save my co-worker, MeFites! [more inside]
posted by Gorgik on Jan 15, 2009 - 7 answers

Help me with the name of this obscure military science fiction television show. I'm presuming it was the early nineties when it was on. It focused on a small unit of soldiers which had a mix of clones and humans. I believe they were fighting evil robots that looked like humans and were obsessed with the notion of chance or fate. The only other thing I remember is that the clones were called nipple necks since that's where the tank's umbilical cord was attached.
posted by TorontoSandy on Dec 6, 2008 - 11 answers

I'm trying to remember a children's science fiction book (or series of books) that I read about 35 years ago. One had a giant tentacled creature that held the good guys in its tentacles--drawn either on the cover or within the book. The other book I think was called "The Boy With the Power". The boy of the title I think was eventually revealed to have telekinisis or something, but as the book starts, he has amnesia and wakes up on a planet of Alpha Centuri, where he walks by a barbecue, smells hot dogs and hamburgers, and finds the hambergers tastier. Odd collection of things I remember--can anyone find links to the actual books?
posted by Schmucko on Nov 14, 2008 - 1 answer

Suggest some magazines which publish short stories and poetry that are not stuffy and pretentious. Also, any science fiction magazines that are worth reading would be greatly appreciated as well. [more inside]
posted by scarello on Nov 4, 2008 - 9 answers

I'm looking for a 1950-ish science fiction movie. In the scene I most clearly remember, a man and a woman are on the bridge of an alien spaceship. She is a Russian mathematician and he is a pilot. The ship is being remotely controlled and is automatically flying through the solar system. It becomes clear that it is on a collision course with Saturn. [more inside]
posted by CollectiveMind on Sep 23, 2008 - 5 answers

Looking for old animated film of aliens. I saw this on t.v. in the late 70's or maybe the 80's. Aliens that kind of looked like people were in animation and sometimes they would sit like they were meditating and then a big bubble would float above them, and you could not figure out if their soul was in the bubble, or if they were somehow procreating with others by doing this. I remember that the children were not suppose to bother someone who was doing this. It was a very interesting animation. I thought that the word "planet" was in the title but I'm not sure. Any ideas??
posted by lynnie-the-pooh on Sep 13, 2008 - 5 answers

I'm looking for a book I read as a pre-teen around 1977. It was a coming of age story about a girl who was having problems so she went to this big tree and I think she pressed against it and then went into some fantasy world where she became some kind of indian girl or primative girl and she went on adventures. I always wanted to know the name....can anyone remember this book? What I remember most was that the tree was the secret gate to moving back and forth into these two worlds. And also that as the indian, she had to live a very rustic life. Thanks. Lynn
posted by lynnie-the-pooh on Sep 4, 2008 - 10 answers

What are the best examples of human/computer interaction in tv and movies (please mention specific scenes and episodes if you can). ex: HAL in 2001, The touch screen in Minority Report, Scotty talking to the mouse in Star Trek IV -lol, etc...
posted by libraryman on Jul 13, 2008 - 33 answers

Please-help-me-identify-a-book-filter. Trying to track down a young adults hardish sci-fi book from the mid 80s in the UK about a space medic in trouble. [more inside]
posted by ArkhanJG on Jul 1, 2008 - 3 answers

I'm looking for an old science fiction novel about an evil, blue giant titled "The Blue Man" - the Google and Amazon search is poisoned by both The Blue Man Group, and a young-adult science fiction novel "The Blue Man" which isn't it at all. [more inside]
posted by Slap*Happy on Jun 27, 2008 - 3 answers

Aliens, monsters, and ghosts. The big three. But is there a fourth? [more inside]
posted by Flying Saucer on Jun 26, 2008 - 42 answers

Question about obscure science fiction short story, "Allegory," by William T. Powers, which was reprinted in Groff Conklin's 13 GREAT STORIES OF SCIENCE FICTION. The question is: what is this story an allegory of? To put it another way, is there some real-world or historical event that this story is a comment on? [more inside]
posted by Mr. Justice on Apr 29, 2008 - 8 answers

Yet another what-is-this-book/story question (sci-fi, possibly young adult, writen pre-1983) [more inside]
posted by pointystick on Apr 22, 2008 - 15 answers

A novel about a computer that attempts to create art? Help me identify this sci-fi book. [more inside]
posted by bradth27 on Apr 22, 2008 - 5 answers

looking for a book, its about a geneticly altered boy (his whole colony was altered thus) he is really big and strong, they raise dangerous animals as pets. Anyway he is the first of his colony to go off to a sort of galactic school, where he ends up fighting all sorts of creatures, near the end he fights a huge mutant bear and wins by smashingits head with a camera. I aplogize if this is not the proper place to post but i could not find what i need
posted by quseio on Apr 8, 2008 - 5 answers

I am trying to find a SciFi book that I read the first couple of chapters of. It involved two companies racing to come up with some kind of genetic cure and in the process creating a monster or something. [more inside]
posted by rbs on Feb 23, 2008 - 6 answers

Looking for a Science Fiction book about an alien/cyborg surgically altered to appear human that is sent to New York City to make sure a planned visit by his people goes ok, because they're sick and tired of all the NASA probes. To help him blend in, his crampt spaceship is disguised to look like a rooftop building air conditioner and his superiors have already got him a job as an assistant science editor for Time Magazine. [more inside]
posted by Kioki-Silver on Feb 7, 2008 - 7 answers

How can I write better short stories (science fiction) [more inside]
posted by Wolfster on Jan 25, 2008 - 20 answers

I'm looking for a series of hardback science fiction anthologies I dimly remember from childhood (sometime in the mid 80s). I think it had a one word title with a number, and the series went up to at least number five. I remember two stories in particular... [more inside]
posted by Artw on Jan 13, 2008 - 11 answers

Is there any time travel fiction based on the idea of only sending signals/information into the past? [more inside]
posted by clockworkjoe on Dec 9, 2007 - 41 answers

BookFilter: I read an odd science fiction book when I was younger, but then it got lost in a move long ago and ever since I've been wondering what it was. [more inside]
posted by chrominance on Jul 30, 2007 - 12 answers

Help me remember the name of a science fiction short story (possibly by asimov) [more inside]
posted by sorindome on Jul 27, 2007 - 5 answers

Looking for fascinating SF story, pretty old, 40's or 50's perhaps. Plot is of a man, while dreaming, waking up in a catatonic and fat woman's body, with a 12 hours time difference. Gradually he achieves muscle control over the woman's body, get's her/him to exercise and eventually leave the instution where she spent many years. [more inside]
posted by Eltulipan on Jun 11, 2007 - 3 answers

ScienceFictionBookFilter: What is the title of a science-fiction book about a cold, snowfilled planet being colonized by residents from Finland? Artificial suns and mystical powers involved... [more inside]
posted by rlef98 on Feb 9, 2007 - 4 answers

I'm reading Alastair Reynold's excellent Pushing Ice and I'd love to read more like it - help me Mefi! [more inside]
posted by Happy Dave on Jan 27, 2007 - 24 answers

Is Science Fiction primarily an American genre of literature? [more inside]
posted by Deep Dish on Nov 4, 2006 - 35 answers

When I was a kid, I read a science fiction book. I'd like now to find out what its name was, but, since I didn't read it in English, and it was about 20 years ago, I would have not a clue where to look. [more inside]
posted by bokononito on Sep 22, 2006 - 8 answers

Of SciFi con behavior and solo female travelling... [more inside]
posted by Chorus on Aug 31, 2006 - 37 answers

Fidonet: Where can I find archives of my posts from a bygone era? [more inside]
posted by thanotopsis on Jul 6, 2006 - 2 answers

The Protagonist: What can you tell me? [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Jun 8, 2006 - 17 answers

SciFiFilter: Trying to track down a story about a professor and several students who travel to alternate dimensions through the power of hypnosis. [more inside]
posted by RobotHero on Jun 7, 2006 - 5 answers

I'm looking for science fiction/speculative fiction without depictions of sexual violence. What books should I read?
posted by billtron on Mar 6, 2006 - 48 answers

EndOfTheWorldFilter: Biologists in the house? What happens to all the animals if men were to disappear? [more inside]
posted by frogan on Feb 21, 2006 - 26 answers

I've read everything by Neal Stephenson (and other cyberpunk authors) and most recently finished the baroque cycle. I am looking for recommendations for interesting historical fiction that has that same sort of feel--convoluted, anachronistic, sprawling, adventuresome, but not too adolescent. I need to leave science fiction for a while and need some direction. Thank you!
posted by craniac on Feb 9, 2006 - 48 answers

This is a question about temporal mechanics for scifi readers. [more inside]
posted by BorgLove on Nov 17, 2005 - 67 answers

Please ID this SI-FI novel [more inside]
posted by jeffr062 on Oct 31, 2005 - 6 answers