54 posts tagged with fiction and scifi. (View popular tags)
Displaying 1 through 50 of 54. Subscribe:

Is there a blog that will tell me what sci-fi movies to see in theater?

Can you please suggest a blog or resource that will tell me what under-the-radar science fiction movies I should go see? [more inside]
posted by rebent on May 21, 2013 - 6 answers

 

Science Fiction Short Stories About Personal Identity

I'm a graduate student about to propose a college writing class on science fiction and personal identity. The stories need to be short and brand name authors are preferred. I've got a prospective syllabus (see inside), but I bet there's a lot of good stuff that I'm missing that you know about. [more inside]
posted by vathek on Feb 12, 2013 - 50 answers

Details, details, details...and then BAM!

As a reader of fiction (especially if you're a devotee of speculative fiction), how much do you like detailed descriptions and/or lists as part of the story? What if the story switches between detail and expediency? [more inside]
posted by batmonkey on Dec 28, 2012 - 12 answers

A scifi book about kids who traveled to an alternative universe?

I'm looking for a sci-fi book about young people who traveled to an alternative universe on multiple occasions. There was something about a power station and the story may also have mentioned a triangular symbol. It turns out that their switching between universes was limited for some reason. [more inside]
posted by who squared on Oct 20, 2012 - 13 answers

Metaphysical, medical and media representations of the Double?

Looking for instances, whether fictional, religious or otherwise, of the idea of the "double". [more inside]
posted by Lorin on Sep 30, 2012 - 33 answers

Dramatic (non-campy) science fiction musicals?

Are there any scifi musicals that aren't comedies? [more inside]
posted by lemoncakeisalie on May 25, 2012 - 32 answers

Transfer questions

Transfer, the 2010 German movie: questions! (big spoilers inside; avoid if you haven't seen this awesome movie) [more inside]
posted by lorimer on May 25, 2012 - 0 answers

Uplift

Please recommend novels that deal with Uplifting sentient species, bootstrapping technology, a la David Brin's Upllift novels and Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought series. [more inside]
posted by kittensofthenight on Apr 18, 2012 - 22 answers

Looking for novels about AI in the very distant future

Looking for sci-fi novels with a theme similar to Karl Schroeder's Ventus. [more inside]
posted by Burhanistan on Apr 11, 2012 - 16 answers

A tin foil for humanity

Please recommend sci-fi featuring “noble” androids. [more inside]
posted by audi alteram partem on Apr 3, 2012 - 26 answers

What is the name of this blasted book?

What is the name of this SciFi book? [more inside]
posted by BlueHorse on Mar 1, 2012 - 4 answers

Help me locate a short science fiction story available online

I'm trying to find a science-fiction story that I saw on a webpage once. I can only remember a few odd miscellaneous details: the author was gay and French, he had a page about his graduate-level math research, and I think his name may have had "David" or "Simon" in it. His webpage was in both English and French, and I'm pretty sure it talked about Alan Turing on part of it. The story itself was based on the premise that the ancient Greeks discovered space travel 2000 years ago and spread throughout the galaxy, creating a galaxy-wide Hellenic-style empire. I believe only the first chapter of the story was written, which was mostly the Earthling protagonist discovering the empire, exposition about its history and politics, and him having sex with some Greek-god-lookalike guy from the Empire. [more inside]
posted by aurochs on Dec 1, 2011 - 3 answers

Whither a space opera wilt not wither?

What's the best venue to submit a politically tinged left-leaning science-fiction short story? [more inside]
posted by Slap*Happy on Aug 24, 2011 - 14 answers

Memo to central casting

Help me construct a typology of fictional (but familiar) technological epochs -- along with the genre-conventions and stock-elements that characterize each. [more inside]
posted by foursentences on Jun 28, 2011 - 7 answers

LIBERTARIAN ENGINEER SAVES THE WORLD

Give your best examples of the SF/ Survivalist/ Wish Fullfillment sub-genre "libertarian engineers do everything better" or "objectivist superman saves history". More specifically ones where someone is the last man on earth/sendt back in time and constructs a free market utopia through sheer smarts and rationality ( with himself on the top of it, of course). [more inside]
posted by The Whelk on Jun 9, 2011 - 28 answers

Help looking for a sci-fi story?

I'm looking for a web novel/short story: sci-fi, underwater research facility, end of society, etc. [more inside]
posted by Cpt. The Mango on Apr 26, 2011 - 5 answers

Young Adult dystopia?

[YA book filter] I would like to find some YA or easy-to-read adult sci-fi, speculative fiction, or dystopian fiction. Preferably, about the United States or other earthly country, not deep-space intergalactic stuff. [more inside]
posted by lockstitch on Mar 29, 2011 - 37 answers

Why won't iBooks let me give it my money?

Why isn't Dan Simmons' The Fall of Hyperion available as an ebook? [more inside]
posted by ArmyOfKittens on Oct 26, 2010 - 7 answers

Robot toys and fiction on the topic of robots / artificial intelligence and learning?

Robot toys and fiction on the topic of robots / artificial intelligence and learning? [more inside]
posted by groovinkim on Apr 27, 2010 - 15 answers

Hard boiled in spaaaaaaace.

Future noir. Please recommend detective fiction in a scifi setting. [more inside]
posted by porpoise on Feb 8, 2010 - 67 answers

Really plausible space marines

What are some details of military life that authors writing for generic military settings often get wrong? What details, if I got them right, would convince you that I had really done my homework? Note that I'm not looking for punctilio like the particular way somebody carries his hat indoors but rather broader things that would be ring true for servicemen of any tradition (e.g., strict rules about exactly how to carry a hat). [more inside]
posted by d. z. wang on Feb 7, 2010 - 21 answers

Help me find this book

Looking for a novel I once read about on Metafilter. Sci-fi / post-apocalypse: [more inside]
posted by Baby_Balrog on Feb 4, 2010 - 7 answers

Can you recommend Science Fiction novels for me?

The only science fiction novel I've read is "Contact" by Carl Sagan. Can you recommend me more? [more inside]
posted by tumbleweedjack on Dec 26, 2009 - 51 answers

Finding an old 80's sci-fi flick.

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

What if the world was a glorious donut?

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

Name that book series I barely remember

Back in the 70's/80's, I remember seeing a series of scifi/fantasy books, where the cover art for all the books had a consistent theme of a red/orange sun that figured prominently. What was it? [more inside]
posted by nomisxid on Oct 6, 2009 - 19 answers

Know any good read-only time travel stories?

Can you recommend any good stories/books that deal with unobtrusive time travel tourism? Tourists from the future going back in time to view historical events, or catch a glimpse at a historical person, but not interacting or interfering in any way, shape, or form... read-only time travel, if you will.
posted by bjork24 on Sep 14, 2009 - 15 answers

Help me find my moon story!

Please help me find this SciFi story I remember reading as a kid. [more inside]
posted by mahke on Sep 11, 2009 - 2 answers

Name some good Warhammer 40K novels.

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

SciFi X SciFi

Is there any first contact science fiction (or other types of scifi, more generally) where the characters have actually READ first contact science fiction before? [more inside]
posted by OmieWise on Mar 24, 2009 - 23 answers

Short story involving children seeing an alternate world in the holes of stones

Short Story Filter. I remember a short story that I read in a sci-fi story anthology back in the mid 90's that I haven't been able to find since. There are a group of three boys, one of them substantially younger, who play out in a big field. One of the older boys tells the younger boy, as a joke, that if you look through the hole in the middle of a stone, you can see into another world of some kind. Mysterious circumstances then occur. [more inside]
posted by lockle on Oct 23, 2008 - 2 answers

Sci-fi spitting in Mona Lisa's eye

Short Story Askme: I read a short dystopian story many years ago set in a run-down, post apocalyptic future. A queue of people line up on a street to spit at a painting. The painting represents all the problems of the past. It is implied that the painting is The Mona Lisa. What is the story?
posted by bollockovnikov on Sep 25, 2008 - 2 answers

Help me find a young adults hard sci-fi book about a space medic?

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

Who's that frog-licker?

WhatWasThatBookFilter: a friend of mine needs help tracking down a fantasy/sci-fi paperback she read back in 1997. Full description below. [more inside]
posted by bettafish on Jun 11, 2008 - 5 answers

Some kind of monster (book)

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

My god, it's full of Stars

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

Stories about sending signals to the past

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

Yet another sci-fi story ID request...

[ObscureSciFiFilter] Help me identify these science fiction stories please? [more inside]
posted by herichon on Jul 8, 2007 - 15 answers

Know a short story where service-worker drones started being managed by constant messages in their earpieces?

Looking for a short story I read online, where technological advances eliminate middle management and then junior employees, with a fast food restaurant used as an example... [more inside]
posted by so_necessary on May 29, 2007 - 8 answers

name this sci-fi short story from the 80s

Trying to remember a sci-fi short story - I used to read Nebula Award collections when I was a kid and this one was in one years collection, but I am pretty sure it did not win. I've been trying to figure out what it was for years now. I'll tell you what I remember from it inside here... [more inside]
posted by darkpony on May 2, 2007 - 12 answers

Forgotten title of amazing online sci-fi story

[StoryFilter] About a year ago, I read a piece of sci-fi on the internet. I can't remember the web address, author or title. [more inside]
posted by pollystark on Mar 12, 2007 - 11 answers

If it were Chalker I'd know it.

Help find a SF book that my friend can't quite recall, but remembers themes of? [more inside]
posted by Meep! Eek! on Sep 1, 2006 - 7 answers

Science Fiction story about hypnosis

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

Identify this novel.

This should be an easy one. I'm trying to remember the title, and author, of a sci fi / cyberpunk novel I read a few years back. The book started in Galveston, Texas, then moved on to guys in the Caribbean running ecosystems on ships. I think it also involved an escape from Hong Kong on a ship, and later, jail in Mali. Oh and while you're at it, reccomend some lesser known books with a similar vibe, if you can.
posted by Jimbob on Mar 27, 2006 - 10 answers

Database of science fiction by subject matter?

Is there an online database of science fiction writing by subject matter? [more inside]
posted by xpermanentx on Nov 22, 2005 - 10 answers

Temporal mechanics for scifi readers

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

Does anyone know the name of a SciFi book that involves computers, rubber golves, and AIDS?

Once I read a story about people who could give a disease to computers. Or possibly they could catch this disease through the keyboard. Citizens with this disease, I vaguely recall, were not allowed to use computers without rubber gloves. If you had AIDS or HIV you were protected and allowed unrestricted access to computer keyboards. Does this ring a bell for anyone? [more inside]
posted by dual_action on Sep 14, 2005 - 1 answer

Is there any science-fiction that predates Mary Shelley's Frankenstein?

Are there any precursors to the science-fiction genre that appear earlier than Frankenstein? Essentially, I want to know: what is the first ever appearance of science-fiction?
posted by monsterhero on Apr 26, 2005 - 30 answers

Early SciFi

Suggestions for a friend on a speculative fiction / early Sci-Fi kick (stuff along the lines of H.G. Wells' "The War in the Air" and John Jacob Astor's "A Journey in Other Worlds")?
posted by Polonius on Mar 4, 2005 - 14 answers

Looking for a fiction anthology

I'm looking for a fiction anthology, and only vaguely remember the title or what the book looked like. [more inside] [more inside]
posted by FunkyHelix on Nov 28, 2004 - 4 answers

Page: 1 2