Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with sciencefiction

I, for one, welcome your answers.

Behemoth — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:29:16 -0800

We all know about Them! What are other examples of sci-fi stories (serious or otherwise, well-known or otherwise) featuring insects (ants or otherwise, giant or otherwise) terrorizing, enslaving, or endangering humanity?

Curse you, 70s stoner!

le morte de bea arthur — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:15:37 -0800

Oh, Inverted World! Where did your pages go (help me find them)? I found a battered first edition paperback of Christopher Priest's novel 'The Inverted World' at a charity book stall last week, and so far it's been a very enjoyable read. I almost don't want to get to the end and find out what the heck is going on.

Imagine my horror, then, on finding (or rather not finding) two missing pages at the end of Part One of the book!

If you own this book, and could give me a quick summary of the last 3 or 4 pages of Part One of the book, that would be really grand.

I need some advice about publishing my story.

Salvor Hardin — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:04:57 -0800

Hive authors: help me publish a sci-fi story! I've written a science fiction short story (hard sci-fi). I've been told that it's pretty good, so I was thinking about trying to publish it in a periodical of some kind for the fun of it. It's a little over 5000 words. I've never done this before, and I don't read sci-fi magazines very often, so I'm looking for the following:

Suggestions on where to send in the story. How many places?

Warnings, things I should know beforehand or avoid. I'm clueless about copyright, etc.

Estimates of whether or not I can get any money from this. It'd be fine if I didn't, but I'd like to know going in.

Any other advice.

Thanks!

Gifts for my Conspiracy Theory Obsessed Friend!

batonthefueltank — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:05:41 -0800

Every year I am at a loss of what to get my best friend for Christmas. He is a man who really has everything. He likes electronic gadgets but they are usually fairly expensive, and he usually wants something very specific that he ends up buying himself. When I ask him what he wants, he hems and haws and just says, “Nothing, I don’t need anything.” I always struggle for material things to give him, so last year for his birthday I wrote him a very heartfelt letter detailing some lovely memories I had of him from our times together. He loved it!

He is not into reading a lot, but loves watching tv and movies. He loves science fiction and tv dramas. He likes movies like Contact, The Last Mimzy and Braveheart and tv shows like Battlestar Galactica, The Closer, 24, Big Love, Law & Order and Burn Notice. He listens to music by Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen and Jewel. He enjoys spending time with his family, and eating out. He is not very active at all. Every once in a great while he plays a game on the Wii.

His big interest of late is conspiracy theories (and the like). I am thinking that this may be the way to go regarding the gift(s). He is big into people like David Wilcox, Alex Jones, David Icke, Keith Olbermann and Ron Paul. He likes watching movies online about 9/11 truth, preserving the US republic, one world government, the Bilderbergers and radio shows about “The Creature from Jekyll Island.” His latest acquisition is the movie “Zeitgeist”.

I may just resort to a gift card or offer to take him to dinner, but I wanted to see if you all could help me come up with something creative. I'm open to any and everything in the $50-$150 range. Thanks!

What's a good idea for a thesis paper combining English and Physics?

Archibald Edmund Binns — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:25:49 -0800

I go to a small Liberal Arts school in Pennsylvania, and part of the graduation requirements involve writing a substantial Senior Composition, basically a baby thesis (Original research requirements, rigorous, etc.) I'm double-majoring in Physics and English, and I'd love to be able to combine both of these subjects into one comprehensive paper, especially because if i can't, I have to write two separate ones. I've tossed a few ideas around (Analysis of Quantum Mechanics in Orson Scott Card's Xenocide/Children of the Mind; A series of several parables designed to illustrate some facet of quantum mechanics to the average person, etc.), but all of them are mostly English-based and only superficially deal with Physics. (The Physics professors tend to be the harder ones to convince, most English professors are happy to do something different). Any ideas?

"It's obviously a wormhole due to these scientific recordings that show...xyz"

MattS — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:55:45 -0800

Let's say you were an astrophysicist who saw a wormhole open up in the sky above you, and you had video of it, magnetometer readings, whatever else you'd need to record it. What kind of recorded "proof" might be used to identify it as a wormhole-- after the fact? Asking for a friend, who is not an astrophysicist, but working on a sci-fi project.

Her character can have whatever scientific recording devices necessary at the scene of the wormhole, but what could the astrophysicist character later point to in terms of photographs, electromagnetic readings, etc that would identify (or strongly suggest) that the event that had happened in the sky above them was a wormhole?

Obviously this is theoretical, but what might scientifically distinguish a wormhole from just an electromagnetic storm, aurora borealis, etc? And what kind of devices specifically would be required to record such information? Keep in mind all recordings must be taken from the ground, not from, say, a satellite.

Thanks for any help on this.

Name this scifi story about highways of the future

chrisamiller — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:09:15 -0800

Looking for a short sci-fi story that I read on the internet. It was about a police force who worked in the very risky highways of the future, where rocket cars zoomed around at hundreds of miles an hour. Other half-remembered details:

- The protagonists drove in a huge vehicle with three or four personnel, including drivers and a medic

- Traffic was heavy at one point because people were returning to Ohio from a football game in California

- it started snowing at another point in the story

- The highway was several lanes wide and contained differential speeds: 400 mph in the left tube, 300 mph in the middle, etc.

I can't even remember if it was a particularly good story, but I stumbled across it several years back and would like to read through it again. Thanks.

Are there more fantastical World War I novels?

Caduceus — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 11:08:45 -0800

I just finished reading Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, and really enjoyed it. I'd love to read other World War I novels with fantasy/science-fiction/steampunk twists. Are there any? I'd also take fantasy/sci-fi/steampunk novels about other wars, like the American Civil War, the Crimean War, the Napoleonic Wars, or possibly imaginary wars set in Victorian/Edwardian times. I've pretty much had my fill of Occult Nazis, though, so unless it's truly amazing, refrain from suggesting World War II novels.

I'd also take movies and games and other media, with the same restrictions, and with the caveat that I've already played Shadow Hearts and the sequel. I've also I've read War of the Worlds and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

Name this children's book

penguinliz — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:44:27 -0800

Name that book filter: guess this children's SF book from minimal clues. All I remember about this book is the central character was a cub or boy scout, who went on some camping trips. At some point he finds a small red box with a mysterious symbol on the front which has, I think, several sets of earplugs in it, and he contacts aliens through it. I think the aliens are fighting a war of some kind and he helps them?

It's set in the UK, and I must've read it some time between 1988 and 1998. Any guesses?

please help me identify this scifi short story...

maryrussell — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 14:49:14 -0800

please help identify this short story...I believe I would have read this in the 80's. There was a team of psychic investigators, and they are called to look into strange events (unexplained accidents?) on a section of highway. In the end it turns out that cumulative spiritual energy of roadkill animals is somehow striking back/rising up, and there is an exorcism of some sort. Then they hear about the bus full of dangerous inmates which has crashed...(implying that the aftereffects will be horrific) I believe I read this in an anthology. The characters seemed well developed, and it had the feel of one of a series of stories. I seem to remember some backstory on how each member joined the team. I might be conflating that last part with the novels about psychic spies by Herbert Burkholz (which were very good, but no supernatural elements outside of the mind-reading). Help?

Name that forgotten novel (scifi)

stbalbach — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:40:45 -0800

Memory help: What was the SciFi novel about a man who dies in his 40's to be re-born again as a teen, cycling over and over again ala Groundhog Day, with his memory of former lives intact, re-living the same time period (mid-20th century) over and over. I read it in 1980 or so. Elements of the story I remember are in one life cycle he uses his foreknowledge of events (who will win the Superbowl, which companies to invest in) to amass a fortune - in another life he marries and settles down with a family - in another life he lives as a hermit.

Name that SF story -- traffic jam edition.

escabeche — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:44:00 -0800

Identify a science fiction story about a giant, unfixable traffic jam. (spoilers inside.) Here's what I remember: story set in the near future. There's a massive traffic jam, I'm pretty sure in Los Angeles. The story takes place over the course of days and weeks as the residents of the jam find ways to fend for themselves. At some point there's a gag that the whole jam was started by a "little old lady from Pasadena." The story ends with helicopters or planes flying over the traffic jam, dumping wet cement on cars and people alike in order to form a new highway over the old. I would have read this in the very late 1970s or early 1980s, probably in OMNI, but possibly in an anthology. Any ideas?

Ideas for a funtastic Sci-Fi convention themed party

Lapin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:07:00 -0800

I need ideas for a Sci-Fi convention themed book club party I am hosting this weekend. My book club is reading Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life and Others and I am hosting the meeting/party this Sunday. We generally have theme parties related to the book and since the book we chose was a book of Sci-fi short stories I decided to make it a Sci-Fi convention themed party. I am baking Battlestar Galactica , Star Trek and Doctor Who cupcakes. I am dressing up my toddler as Yoda for the day. The husband and I will probably wear one of the many geeky sci-fi related shirts we own. I’m thinking of printing generic labels to put on soda and beer a la Repo Man. Any other relatively easy and inexpensive food or decoration ideas to make my party a smashing success?

Help me find my moon story!

mahke — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:18:50 -0800

Please help me find this SciFi story I remember reading as a kid. This is what I remember - unfortunately I can't remember if it was an extended short story or a novel (I read it in school, about 20-25 years ago!).

This is what I do remember:

* the setting is the moon, where a colony live in an air-tight dome
* two friends steal a moon buggy to go for a joy ride
* the end up crashing into/through a crater, and discover a hidden pocket of oxygen in which they can breathe, and in which vegetation/flowers etc have thrived

Not sure what else happens to be honest, but hopefully that's enough to go on!

Underground, overground...

Artw — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:16:09 -0800

Half remembered short story identification filter: A story in which scientists discover grids underground which might be the cities of beings who live at a greater density, and then at the end scientists from the underground city are looking through the documents, having wiped out humanity accidentally just by coming to the surface.

There are no gay people in the future. (Or are there?)

mumble — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 15:55:41 -0800

Looking for book recs about sci-fi, specifically about gender issues and jetpack-related physics. Slowly easing my way into science fiction (classic Star Trek as of right now, with some Blade Runner/Electric Sheep-related thoughts and plans to branch out some more), interested in two aspects of discussion right now. I did some quick Amazon and Google searches (not very helpful) and poked around a bit at AskMe, and was hoping for specific recommendations about these things:

1) Sci-fi as a white, male space </allegation>: Essay collections prefered over single-topic tomes. I'm referring specifically to sci-fi movies and novels and the way women, sexuality and/or race are handled in the narrative and, to a lesser extent, the history and culture of the genre as a whole.

2) Why transwarp teleportation will never be possible </opinion>: Books on the science behind the fiction, preferably written for the layperson without being overly cutesy about it. This sounded pretty ideal, until I read the last paragraph of this review. See 1).

Not looking for actual novel recs, just the meta. Will also take specific essays that can be found online, if you feel like sharing a link. Thanks very much in advance!

My affair with scifi is going through a rough patch

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:00:01 -0800

My visceral dislike of the movie District 9 combined with years of other sub par science fiction movies has pretty much killed any desire to see more films of the genre. Help me rekindle the flame. (Minor District 9spoilers inside) I was interested in seeing the movie anyway, but the reviews are what really got me excited about seeing it because the film was lauded with variations of "smart"and "original". While the premise was interesting, I thought the plot was a series of ridiculous situations framed by groan worthy clichés and populated by silly and/or stock characters. This movie felt like another in a long series of disappointing scifi movies, where potentially interesting ideas are underdeveloped and the plot devolves into uninspired action sequences (Ok, I did geek out a bit on the title character being in the battle suit).

I know this sounds silly, but the movie left me fairly shaken as to viability of putting SF on the big screen. Seriously, I'm like "I'm DONE, this genre has wasted enough of time and money, there are plenty of other movies to watch that can speak not only to intelligence but maturity!" If I'm getting the most enjoyment out of films that aren't SF, then why waste time and money on SF? This is really bothering me, having grown up watching and enjoying the genre so I'm a bit lost as to where to go from here. Friends who are fans of SF haven't been able to offer much in the way of solutions, so hopefully Mefi can bring the goods.

Here's few specific questions:

1. If you enjoyed District 9, can you explain why in a few sentences (hey, I could be missing something)? It just struck me as silly that an advanced race couldn't handle being stuck on a planet and let themselves be bossed around by humans. Everything went down hill from there.

2. Are my perceptions off or are SF movies really that bad in general, to the point that anything that even tries to be intelligent becomes "great" just for trying as opposed to being actually good? Is there any data to back up this point of view, any official studies, not just web surveys?

3. What movies would you recommend for "good" science fiction, and please don't limit yourself to American made films (which I suspect may be part of the problem)? Some of my favorites are (in no particular order) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Road Warrior, Empire Strikes Back, Contact, and Signs. I'm not saying these movies are 100% perfect or the same type of movies, but they exemplify what I look for, strong characters and plot that force a re-examination of being human (both good and bad) by placing people in extraordinary settings.

Where's the sci-fi with actual characters?

colinmarshall — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:04:18 -0800

What are some or how can one best find science-fiction novels that are good by general literary standards? Bemoaning the disappointment I've repeatedly endured at the hands of science fiction is, to those who know me well enough, a well-worn leitmotif. You'd think I'd be at least as smart as children who refrain from touching red-hot burners twice, but no: I pick up a sci-fi novel, more often than not get burned by it, and no sooner have the blisters subsided than I'm back at the shelf. My problem perhaps reduces to desire for speculative stories featuring actual characters. It's not that the sci-fi novels I've read are literally missing invoked human (or alien, or robot) entities; it's that they present these entities as lists of traits rather than as nuanced, thinking (as distinct from simply speaking), changing beings whose lives extend beyond the page.

I've found this disease pervasive in and crippling to the genre, but the diehard fans I talk to don't seem to notice it. And if they do notice it, they don't mind. I once read a forum-dweller grumble about his wish that sci-fi's lack of character depth just stop being considered a weakness already. At a panel, I heard one veteran sci-fi novelist pronounce that, in the genre, character is necessarily subordinated to speculation. But can't character and speculation sit on the same tier? This may seem a matter of wanting to have my cake and eat it too, but I'd say I simply want to eat my cake in the context of an actual meal. Isn't complaining that weak characterization is regarded as a flaw like complaining that a computer's inability to accept input is regarded as flaw? You can junk speculation, plot, aesthetics, form, comedy and tragedy and your work will still come out a lot better than if you'd played loose with character.

Beyond science fiction, I suppose I'm generally long for novels of ideas whose ideas don't displace their people. Perhaps no genre is flexible enough to provide this combination, and I'd do better to camp out in the categorical borderlands.

In space no one can here you scream, he wrote

fearfulsymmetry — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 08:41:29 -0800

What's the best literary equivalent of Alien/Aliens? Well obviously there's the Alan Dean Foster adaptations for a start... and the comics.

And I'm not limiting it to 'monster on a spaceship' or 'monsters on a planet + space marines' but anything that successfully merges Space Fiction/Opera and Horror.

Recommendations for erotica

ninebelow — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:56:03 -0800

Recommendations for erotica I'm interested in reading erotic novels but I need a bit of guidance. Virgin Books are the biggest erotica publisher in the UK and I've dipped into a few of their titles at random but they've been uniformly awful. Google has not been my friend either because there is a lot of chaff out there. So I am looking for (ideally) a good reviews/recommendation site or (failing that) individual recommendations for novels, authors or publishers.

I'm a straight male interested in the porn rather than romance end of the spectrum and when I say novels I mean actual printed books. Bonus points for science fiction or fantasy recommendations (although I am not after a million recommendations for Jacqueline Carey).

Intergalactic hip hop, where are you?

slappy_pinchbottom — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:52:02 -0800

Can you point me toward some slammin' science fiction-themed hip hop? Specific tracks would be best; for example, I know that MF Doom and Kool Keith in his various incarnations both play with SF, but I don't know where to look in their sizable oeuvres for the best examples.

I have an hour of radio to fill on this theme, so all suggestions welcome! (I've got MC Frontalot pretty much covered, btw.)

Intelligent space opera?

Grinder — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:49:20 -0800

Intelligent space opera? Recently, I've found myself enjoying space opera and hard science fiction but some authors seem to focus more on the technology and big explosions than on realistic characters and interesting themes. Can anyone recommend good authors, preferably ones writing now (as I find that books that were written before digital technology and the end of the Cold War make it hard for me to suspend disbelief), who have a bit of depth to them?

I like stories with a bit of action and a good pace, but interesting people and a willingness to explore "big questions". This is reading for pleasure rather than improvement, but if I learn something along the way, so much the better.

I have read some of the English authors working in the area - Peter F. Hamilton, Neal Asher - but although they put together big plots on a big canvas well, they seem to construct their characters out of cardboard and there's no sense of an ongoing social, cultural or natural history in their galaxies. I end up somewhat unsatisfied. I've enjoyed Kim Stanley Robinson's "Red/Green/Blue Mars" series much better (I know it's not strictly space opera), and in the past, I really liked Frank Herbert, particularly the Dune series. Anything along those lines would be ideal.

Kid's scifi with nothing but potato salad?

eleanna — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:45:05 -0800

I am looking for a book from my boyfriend's childhood. What he remembers: kids controlling a spaceship who can't get the food replicator to make anything other than potato salad. Other notes that might help:

1) Boyfriend grew up abroad (in Africa), so while English language, this could be English, Australian, Canadian, or American.
2) This was definitely science fiction.
3) He would have been the right age to read this in the early 1980s.

I've tried asking this on abebooks (under BookSleuth) and through children's librarian friends and...no luck. He's having a really hard time of it of late, so I hoped to find this and maybe cheer him up a bit.

Thank you for any ideas.

Good reads for my honeymoon?

mikeweeney — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:45:26 -0800

Can you recommend some good beach reads for my honeymoon in a few weeks? I'm getting married in a few weeks and we're taking a 9 day trip to the carribean. We're staying at a secluded, low-key resort and plan on spending a lot of time lounging around on the beach and on our deck... which means lots of time for reading. Genres I'm into include horror, sci-fi, and fantasy.

- In the last few years I've gone through most of Vernor Vinge and Dan Simmons' works. I'm looking for a new author to try out... hard SF is a plus, and the ability to tell a story well is also important.

-I wouldn't mind reading fantasy, but I don't want to get sucked into a long series that never ends. I made it through 7 books of Goodkind's Sword of Truth Series and 1.5 books of Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, but I just don't have the patience (or time) for it anymore. I would, however, be willing to read a good one-book fantasy story

-I haven't been much into nonfiction, but on my last vacation I picked up Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil out of the ship library, and devoured it in 2 days. Anything like that?

-Finally, I'm interested in reading a really good historical biography... ideally in US history. Where should I start?

Thank you for your suggestions!

SF story about formerly-mortal woman

tigrrrlily — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 11:44:57 -0800

SFShortStoryFilter: Looking for a short(ish) story I must have read in one of the more popular SF anthologies about a human race of nigh-immortals spread out through several verses. The protagonist of the story was a woman who had been born before the advent of the technology of gradually supplanting the human brain with some sort of crystal medium. This made her practically unique in an infinite sea of later generations, and infinitely lonely. She had also, somehow, been responsible for humanity's expansion into different dimensions/verses through some sort of mathematical breakthrough.

Other details I remember:

She'd had a friend in her youth who'd managed to commit suicide. Either that friend or the protagonist herself had some Hungarian-sounding name (Magda? Margit? something like that). There was a game in the story that was reminiscent of volleyball with energy waves. Also, when people grew tired of their surroundings they never said goodbye, they just packed up and slipped away quietly in the night, to set up in some other community.