Sci Fi Trivia

[StarRider1701]

OK, here's a couple of tough ones. Though if you get any of them, you too are SF weenies like me.

1. Who is Barliman, and what is his mission?

2. What commander's pet is named after a 20th century military man?

3. What planet does Borloi come from?

4. Name me one of Adzel's hobbies.

Thanks for the clues, they did help although I wouldn't say they gave the answers away. Just gave a little bit better idea of where to look for the answers. I have two standard bookshelves with which I purchased an extra shelf to accomodate all the paperback books I have. If I still had every book I ever read, I would need several dozen bookshelves...

2. Commander Honor Harrington has a cat named Nimitz. On Basilisk Station and The Honor of the Queen were both good books and there may have been more, Honor Harrington was a popular character in the '90s.

3. I was right about Borloi, it was the drug that kept the CoDominium in power for several hundred years. Still cant remember which planet it was grown on, either Sparta or Freidland I think. Good Universe, many people besides Pournelle wrote some pretty good stories in it...

Still have absolutely no recollection of the name Barliman, liked Hal Clement but didn't read every book he ever wrote...

Loved Poul Anderson, my old brain tells me I should know who Adzel is but still can dredge it up!

 

[yevaud]

I'll answer #1, since it is obscure - unless you're old school SF like me:

The book is Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement. Barlennan (crap, I misspelled his name in earlier posts...sorry) is the captain of a ship hired by the humans to conduct a mission. Barlennan is a large, incredibly tough creature who resembles a giant centipede. And the planet, Mesklin is a real oddity, with gravity ranging from 3 G up to hundreds, depending where you are.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_of_Gravity

As to the others, all more/less correct. Oh, and the planet Borloi is grown on is Tanith.

 

[StarRider1701]

I'll answer #1, since it is obscure - unless you're old school SF like me:

The book is Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement. Barlennan (crap, I misspelled his name in earlier posts...sorry) is the captain of a ship hired by the humans to conduct a mission. Barlennan is a large, incredibly tough creature who resembles a giant centipede. And the planet, Mesklin is a real oddity, with gravity ranging from 3 G up to hundreds, depending where you are.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_of_Gravity

As to the others, all more/less correct. Oh, and the planet Borloi is grown on is Tanith.

Tanith, a Hell of a world if I remember. Most who go there are slaves, not a fun place to be unless you are at the top of the food chain.

Funny thing is, I read Mission of Gravity, once you said it I remembered. Not sure if spelling his name right would have helped though...

For the record, I didn't look up anything on Wiki or anywhere else on the internet.

 

[yevaud]

For the record, I didn't look up anything on Wiki or anywhere else on the internet.

I don't either, except for things I am proof-positive about, and then it's to double-check my memory.

Here's another obscure one: what is the name of the world on which human crash survivors eke out a bare existence on a marginal world, and their "elite" develop various (hereditary) powerful psychic powers?

(You are a 60's SF wonk if you know this one. My Mom was a fan during the 40s-60s, which is where I was addicted.)

 

[StarRider1701]

I don't either, except for things I am proof-positive about, and then it's to double-check my memory.

Here's another obscure one: what is the name of the world on which human crash survivors eke out a bare existence on a marginal world, and their "elite" develop various (hereditary) powerful psychic powers?

(You are a 60's SF wonk if you know this one. My Mom was a fan during the 40s-60s, which is where I was addicted.)

That sounds like an episode of Star Trek, what was the name of that planet? Thanos maybe? But I'm going to guess that you are not talking about "Concious of the King" and are talking about a book. As a young lad of 13, I discovered the joys of reading Science Fiction in the school library in 1968. So I'm not really a '60's SF wonk. Not asking for a hint just yet, need a bit of time to try to remember...

 

[strandedonearth]

Here's another obscure one: what is the name of the world on which human crash survivors eke out a bare existence on a marginal world, and their "elite" develop various (hereditary) powerful psychic powers?

(You are a 60's SF wonk if you know this one. My Mom was a fan during the 40s-60s, which is where I was addicted.)

Sounds like Dathomir could fit the bill, but obviously the wrong era :mrgreen:

 

[crazyeddie]

Here's another obscure one: what is the name of the world on which human crash survivors eke out a bare existence on a marginal world, and their "elite" develop various (hereditary) powerful psychic powers?

(You are a 60's SF wonk if you know this one. My Mom was a fan during the 40s-60s, which is where I was addicted.)

Sounds like the episode that guest starred the well-known (at the time) dwarf actor, Michael Dunn, and famously featured TV's first interracial kiss between Kirk and Uhura. I remember the inhabitants modeled themselves after human's ancient Greek society, but I can't remember what they named their world (without looking it up, that is).

 

[starsinmyeyes44]

"Plato's Stepchildren"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato's_Stepchildren

 

[StarRider1701]

"Plato's Stepchildren"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato's_Stepchildren

Thanks Stars, I'm lousy at Star Trek episode names.

 

[strandedonearth]

I recently picked up a collection titled The Mammoth Book of Golden Age Science Fiction, containing classic science fiction works from the '40's. I thought I'd see of anyone remembers these...

1. From Ross Rocklynne's Time Wants a Skeleton. A cop (Tony Crow) finds a skeleton with a distinctive ring in a cave after being marooned on an asteroid. He then captures the outlaws but wrecks their ship as well. They are all rescued by a ship with an experimental drive, which accidentally travels millions of years back in time to when the asteroid was part of a planet, shortly before it was obliterated in a collision with another planet. The debate is on about who will become the skeleton that will be found in the cave. So the question is who, or what (big clue there), is the skeleton?

2. From Theodore Sturgeon's Killdozer. This is a story which sounds like it may have inspired Stephen King's short story "Trucks," which was the basis for his movie "Maximum Overdrive." A bulldozer being used for a runway project on an otherwise deserted island becomes possessed by an ancient electromechanical consciousness and begins killing off the construction crew. What was the model and/or nickname of the Killdozer?

I must say, I found this collection's terminology rather quaint. Everything was "atomic," not a "nuclear" in sight.

 

[strandedonearth]

OK, so those were ridiculously hard. Maybe if I try any more of those I'll have to ask the questions in a "Name that Story" format. Answers, if anyone cares:

1. Amos, a classroom skeleton.

2. Daisy Etta, a model D7 (de siete)


I'll make it much easier now. In what book and on what planet can one find NightSisters?