Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with story and scifi

Can you help me find a scifi short story?

ymgve — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 18:13:46 -0800

I remember reading a scifi short story about people finding a dead/frozen angel floating in space, where there was just enough brain activity in the being that it was able to play a board game. It sounded like something that Ted Chiang might have written, but I didn't see it in the post about him that was here a while ago. Does this ring a bell for anyone?

sci fi story - man dies in a car crash, nobody can see him

wintersonata9 — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 18:53:17 -0800

Name that sci-fi book/story! This week's edition: man dies in a car crash, nobody can see him, sailors and baddies abound in this ghost-world. This is all I have to go on from a customer who came in and asked about it today. He says it's an older work. Any thoughts?

Looking for old sci-fi short story about patent system gone amok.

tk — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:29:40 -0800

Looking for old sci-fi short story about patent system gone amok. Researching for a book project. As described to me, an old (1930-1950?) short story about a man from Earth who goes to another planet. On this planet, the patent system has been taken to ridiculous extremes, with all but the most common words, facial expressions, even feelings and actions, having been patented. E.g. you have to pay a license fee to tell someone you like them, or find an entirely novel way to express it.

So, Earth man meets local woman, realizes nature expresses his feelings for her and takes her to the countryside so the birds and beauty of the surroundings can demonstrate his affection without patented expressions. The ha-ha conclusion is that her reaction is "we can patent all this and be rich!"

Or something like that, interviewee wasn't 100% on the details. I've found various stories about patents, including Clarke's "Patent Pending" and Darlington's "Patent Rights." Also found a sci-fi comic with a very short tale called "The Patent Planet". None follow the described plot.

Thanks for any help.

Yet Another Sci-Fi story title quest

bongo_x — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 21:16:39 -0800

I’m looking for the title of a Sci-Fi short story. It involves a species of near humans that live on Earth, but camouflage themselves by the fact that humans can’t remember them. The species are often talented on are leaders in their fields, set sports records, etc. Yet no one remembers them. The main character is one being who’s house is being torn down for a freeway (I think) because the people in charge keep forgetting his house is there.

I thought I would be able to find this in a search, but I think the concepts are too vague, or common.

ID Story about cybersex and overseas lag?

dragoon — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:27:04 -0800

Looking for a story identification about cybersex, strokes and intercontinental lag. I'm looking for a story someone told me about, but never read myself, so I'm not sure if this is a short story or just a part of a larger novel.

The situation is a man notices something wrong with a habitual cybersex partner, an older man overseas who pretends to be female.

Investigating, he finds out that the partner has died or is incapacitated, I think from a stroke. The software has always had to deal with lag from the distance and emulated his partner's behavior to hide that, and now that the partner is dead, it's tried to emulate him completely.

Sound familiar to anyone?

Another lost-book-title title question. 80's Scifi Edition vol 237

Fiat124 — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 11:12:07 -0800

Another lost-book-title question. 80's Scifi Edition vol 237 In mid 1985 I took a road trip across the US and read a SciFi book whose title I cant remember. Here is what I do remember about the book:

One character was an explorer-type who was responsible for exploring or charting a new planetary system with something like 5 planets. Coincidentally, his home system also had the same number of planets. His home planets had small populations (maybe 100k each?). The new planets (and maybe his home planets) had some series of underground ley lines which radiated some kind of electrical power. This could have been book 2 or 3 of the Whatever series

Any help would be much appreciated!

Sci-fi short story with giant blobs on jungle planet?

j.edwards — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 18:04:34 -0800

Yet another sci-fi short story identification... this one about a jungle planet inhabited by giant destructive protoplasms. But it's *not* "Parasite Planet". I know it sounds just like "Parasite Planet" and it's probably a ripoff, but the story I'm recalling was specifically a voyage of discovery -- a mission lands on the jungle planet and finds huge bare swaths, which are rapidly repopulated by the native jungle life. Eventually they realize that there are enormous amorphous lifeforms (like shoggoths or the doughpots of "Parasite Planet") that carve the swaths of destruction, and witness a battle between two of them, and then are almost consumed. They end up hiding in their spaceship in the mountains and one of the creatures tracks them down.

Short story ID: refugee from alien bionanotech in Africa

signal — Sun, 15 May 2011 09:02:39 -0800

Help me identify this Sci-Fi short story: bio-nano-tech, Africa, refugee camp. A few years back, I read a short story, set in the near future, in a refugee camp in Africa (I think), told from the point of view of one of the refugees, a girl? What had made them refugees was that there area that had been colonized by a sort of alien green-goo, bio-nano-tech. It was very vivid as to life in a refugee camp, and at the end I think the protagonist wound up inside the off-limits area with said green goo and realized it was some sort of paradise.

This is all very sketchy, and I might have gotten all the details wrong but I remember how much I liked the story and would like to re-read it and anything else by the same author.

Would-be colonists beaten by faster ship

snarfois — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 07:12:57 -0800

Help me remember a science fiction story: colonists beaten to objective by faster earth ship. I just read this enjoyable short story by Caleb Scharf. But I got a strong sense of déjà vu. I'm sure I've read another story where the colonists arrived at their destination star after millennia of interstellar travel, only to find that a more modern Earth ship beat them to it and have a well-established colony already.

I'm only asking because it's niggling at me. I don't mean to criticise or detract from Scharf's story at all. (I highly recommend his blog.)

Help me find this story?

valkyryn — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:28:23 -0800

[StoryIdentificationFilter] It's mostly sci-fi and has to do with the disappearance of the Maya. And I can't remember what it is. I remember listening to an audiobook in the 1990s which contained a short story/novella about an explorer whose expedition got lost in the rainforest, then stumbled upon an ancient Mayan temple. The temple contained some sort of portal to another world, where the Mayas had gone and were still living. The reason their civilization disappeared in our world is that they all fled in the face of the European invasion.

I seem to recall there being something vaguely sinister about the proceedings, but exactly what escapes my memory. The protagonist eventually returns to our world but is unable, despite his best efforts, to rediscover the temple.

I can't for the life of me remember the author, and my google-fu is failing me. Help!

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!

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.

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!

Trying to chase down cheesy scifi story.

pointless_incessant_barking — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:59:03 -0800

I'm looking for the title and author of a sci-fi short story about a man who dies creating a rogue black hole, which then falls in love with the man's wife. I read this story maybe 25 years ago. As best as I can recall, the plot went thusly: a mad-scientist type creates a black hole, dying in the process. The black hole 'imprints' on him, absorbing his feelings for his wife... she temporarily escapes with the scientist's space-beast(?).

The story ends with the woman and the black hole being transformed into sentient stars.

SciFi Story Identification - Body Switching and Mindreading

anthy — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 09:38:08 -0800

"What science fiction short story is this?" filter. One story about body switching/different perceptions, and another about mindreading. I read these two short science fiction stories probably about a decade ago. I think both were in books rather than magazines - part of science fiction story collections. I don't read too many collections, so they may have even been in the same volume. I've tried googling for various things, but nothing's coming up.

One was about a science experiment that allowed you to perceive things as others did. I don't remember if it was an actual body switch, or just a change in the way you perceived things. I use "perceive" because it wasn't just sight. It was other senses as well.

I remember that other people perceived things in completely different ways...like I think some people saw different colors than others (what was blue to one person would be red to another) and felt different textures. In some cases, things were a lot sharper/more alarming, or softer/brighter. One thing that stood out was a guy who was seeing things from a particular woman's perspective, and I THINK everything was soft and squooshy. This was why she was so optimistic all the time. The guy was horrified.

The other story was about man who could read other people's minds. He was the only one who could do so, and he took full advantage of this. No morals about rummaging around to find things out whatsoever. I believe that he felt he was superior to other people because of this power. At the end of the story, he...either hunted down or bumped into another person (a woman?) who could do the same thing. At first he was excited about this, but then when they were actually in "range" of each other...the story ended with them both screaming "get out of my mind!" at each other telepathically.

It's been a long time, so it's possible that some of these details are wrong.

Anyone know what stories these are, and who wrote them?

Thank you in advance!

Colonization: Lost in Space?

Iosephus — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:38:50 -0800

YAWWTPCGQ (yet another "what was that PC game?" question) I haven't seen this one on abandonware sites, but if I'm wrong please point me to such a link for extra kudos... It went sort of like this: you are the captain of a second human colony ship, just arrived to some extrasolar system. You were supposed to find the first ship waiting for you or at least a message, but nothing is in sight. You can defrost your people and build colonies on the several planets and moons to get needed supplies, do fixes and all such. While exploring the local system, ruins abound, and depending on how you interact with them different things and game-lines unfold. I recall that trying to mine the upper atmospheres of the gas giants, for instance, caused some creepy psi message from a jovian species, which in part explained where the first ship went wrong. At some point the local star did a mininova, pretty much ruining all your supply gathering and ship fixing. This was more or less the point at which I always got boggled and failed to forever find out what happened. I recall having played the game around 1995, and it had pretty good graphics for its time (VGA?). Triple kudos if you can tell me the end!

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

lockle — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:37:35 -0800

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. From what I remember, the three boys are playing out in a field off and on throughout the story. The youngest boy is teased and picked on by the eldest boy the most. The eldest boy decides to play a trick on the youngest and looks through the naturally occuring hole in the center of a river rock and tells the boy that he can see into another world.

The younger boy looks through the hole and gets excited; he can see the world too! This makes the older boy angry since he was just trying to make the little kid feel bad that he couldn't see another world.

The little kid gets obsessed with this other magical world and starts gathering hundreds or thousands of stones in order to construct a small hut. He builds this hut and sits inside so he can look all around him and see into the other world.

The older boy, even angrier now, decides to teach him a lesson and knocks the hut down with the child inside. Instantly feeling guilty, he shifts the stones to get the kid out and the younger kid has disappeared, presumably into this alternate world.

Any idea what the title or author might be? Thanks!

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

so_necessary — Tue, 29 May 2007 15:37:05 -0800

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... So I read this story online maybe a couple of years back. A system is invented that essentially orders around junior employees via earpieces by providing very precise instructions. (Now, sweep the floor. Done? Now, wash your hands. Done? Now...) This essentially replaces middle management, especially when they upgrade the system so it can also track performance, share performance with the systems of other employers, and so on.

Eventually this leads to a massively chaotic society where really only company owners have any assets, and millions of unemployed are shifted to special camps to keep them under control. However, at this point in the story some contrivance (possibly involving uploading to a 'virtual world', but maybe not) leads to things ending up happily ever after. It may instead have been an illustration of a different society where the technology had been used for the common good and the benefits shared equally among everyone. In this better society, everyone spent all day having fun, being creative, and stuff like that.

Essentially though, I'm looking for the first bit. The technology itself was explained in the context of a fast food restaurant, I believe. Orders came to you via earpiece.

Ring any bells? Let me know! Thanks.

Forgotten title of amazing online sci-fi story

pollystark — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 06:58:07 -0800

[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. I have:

* Sci-Fi
* Basic plot involved a guy who agrees to be a subject for the trial of a new intelligence-boosting drug. He takes the drug and feels intense pain, then experiences a massive, permanent boost in intelligence. The rest of the story involves him getting more of the drug and then becoming engaged in a battle of wits with a fellow test subject. This battle involves some sort of subliminal mental warfare
* I definitely read it online for free.
* Not longer than 10,000 words.
* Needless to say, it was an amazing story and I'd love to read it again.

Thanks very much.

Help Find a Scifi Short

gnomicPerfect — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 07:38:00 -0800

SciFiFilter: A while ago, I read a short story called (something along the lines of) New York vs. The World....and I can't find it again! It was about 8 months ago, I think, and was probably linked to from one of the blogs I read (think boingboing, et al.) It consisted of a dialog between the 'entity' of NY and then 'Entity' of The World and was moderately-to-quite though-provoking.

Sci-Fi Story

easyasy3k — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 18:58:27 -0800

Sci-fi story identification filter. I'm trying to remember one about copyright and musicians in the future... I swear I didn't just make it up after reading Lessig. [MI] I think it was written by Issac Asimov or Arthur C. Clarke, probably Clarke. It goes something like this:

Musician pleads to a high government official to eliminate infinite copyright, since melodies are discovered not "made". Friend of musician committed suicide when song he wrote for his girl after 20 years of failing to discover new melodies was actually under copyright already (was "saints go marching in" or something along those lines). The rest I don't remember.

Bonus points if you find a copy of it online somewhere.