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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

i'm reading gibson's pattern recognition. i'd like something the same, but better. more inside. [more inside]
posted by andrew cooke on Jun 20, 2004 - 27 answers

Who can recommend some good time travel fiction? (Yes, I'm a geek)
posted by Robot Johnny on Jun 10, 2004 - 46 answers

Like many other geeks here, I grew up reading sci-fi and fantasy. But I gradually got tired of it, because so much of it was poorly written or antithetical to my tastes. But I still yearn for other worlds at times, so I'd be interested in recommendations. [more inside.] [more inside]
posted by grumblebee on Dec 16, 2003 - 64 answers

I'm in the process of trying to buy Christmas presents for my father and his wife. My father likes science fiction (hard, mostly) and I've had luck with Vernor Vinge and Neal Stephenson in the past. His wife... doesn't, although I am told she likes biographies. Can anyone recommend some good hard sf or biographies that might go over well?
posted by Karmakaze on Dec 12, 2003 - 36 answers