Science Fiction Trivia

1. Loveday, aka Lovey, started life as the AI "brain" of a spaceship before she died, was revived, and moved herself into a human simulacrum to try and find her "happy ever after". In which book do we hear the story of her new life?

From Quiz Oh, the Humanities!

Answer: A Closed and Common Orbit

Becky Chambers' novel "A Closed and Common Orbit" (2016) was nominated for both the Hugo Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for best book in 2017. It is the second volume of the "Wayfarers" series. The first is "A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet" (2014).

From Quiz Time is Running Out

Answer: Earth and Mars

In "War of the Worlds", invaders from Mars began attacking the Earth and its inhabitants. They killed people and destroyed towns and cities with their superior weapons and technology. Their heat rays and chemical weapons proved no match against the military on Earth. The story is told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator who lived in the south of England near where a group of the aliens had landed.

From Quiz Something Doesn't Add Up

Answer: We Can Remember It for You Wholesale

In "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (1966), office worker Douglas Quail buys a Rekal Incorporated memory implant session, so he will believe he has experienced his lifelong dream of going to Mars as a spy. After the implant, to everyone's shock, Quail claims he actually IS a spy who has been to Mars, though his memories of it were wiped. When the implant is removed Quail is uncertain which of his life experiences are real and which are false memory. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the hero, renamed Quaid, in a 1990 film adaptation. Schwarzenegger penned his autobiography, "Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story" in 2012. The film "Total Recall" was remade in 2012 starring Colin Farrell, though Dick is not credited. "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" is also a 1990 collection of Philip K. Dick science fiction stories.

From Quiz Hugo Winners Since 2000

Answer: Harry Potter

Though this is most certainly the famous book I'll mention on this quiz, the 2001 win for "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" is the only Hugo win that J. K. Rowling has received. She was also nominated for "Prisoner of Azkaban" the previous year.

From Quiz Dark and Deep Dystopia

Answer: Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World' was published in 1932. It was set in the year 2540 CE, but within the novel, it was known as AF 632. 'AF' stood for 'after Ford', as in Henry Ford and his assembly line. That year marked the beginning of a new era of technology, science, and productivity. It led to a society of artificially created embryos and clones, a caste system, and control by hypnosis and drug use.

From Quiz Science Fiction Literature - An Orbital Survey

Answer: The Food of the Gods

The new growth agent results in an uncontrollable spread of horrors. Giant chickens, rats, and insects run amok. Abnormal mental powers in humans result in increased hatred and intolerance between ordinary humans and mental giants. Wells, a forward-looking, perhaps even prophetic social critic, touches on an area that still gives GMO (genetically modified organism) critics nightmares. The 1904 work is only 200 pages and still poses some questions that we have yet to answer.

From Quiz It Still Hasn't Happened Yet

Answer: Buck Rogers

In the novella, the given name of "Buck" Rogers is Anthony. "Armageddon 2419 AD" was written by Philip Francis Nolan (1888-1940). In the novella, Buck, a veteran of World War One, is working for a gas company in 1927 when exposure to radioactive gas leaves him in a state of suspended animation for 492 years before awakening to a world where the United States has been taken over by invaders from China. Buck Rogers has appeared in several other media including: a long-running comic strip (1929-1983), a radio program (1932-1947), a 1939 movie serial that starred Buster Crabbe (who also portrayed Flash Gordon), a 1950-1951 television series, and a 1979-1981 television series starring Gil Gerard and Erin Grey. Flash Gordon was created by Alex Raymond in 1934 for the comic strip of the same name. Buzz Lightyear is an astronaut character from the "Toy Story" series of films. John Carter is a character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1912 for his series of books set on Mars.

From Quiz Smoke Rings

Answer: Saga of the Pliocene Exile

There are four novels to this saga published during the 1980s. In the twenty-first century a gateway appears on Earth that will transport people back millions of years to the Pliocene Epoch. There's only one small catch - it only works one way. The volunteers that do venture through this portal are in for more than they bargained for. When the volunteers arrive, they're confronted by an alien race that had crash landed here previously. The aliens possess extraordinary mental powers that are amplified by rings that they wear around their necks and they use these to enslave the humans. The other books in the series are "The Golden Torc" (1982), "The Non Born King" (9183) and "The Adversary" (1984).

From Quiz Hugo Award Winners for Best Novel

Answer: Stranger in a Strange Land

"Stranger in a Strange Land" is about Valentine Michael Smith, a human born on Mars and raised by Martians. "Grok" is a Martian word that Smith introduces to Earth.

From Quiz Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Answer: Connecticut

Written in 1889, "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" ably skewers chivalry and romanticism, while getting in a few jabs at late-nineteenth-century trends as well. Hank Morgan was an engineer whose technological abilities soon propelled him to the top of King Arthur's court - after his knowledge of astronomy saved him from execution, that is. His efforts to remake medieval technology and industry were tremendously successful, but he had a much greater challenge with the social structure, and a jealous Merlin caused him all manner of problems. In addition to pioneering the idea of a technologically advanced person traveling back in time and modernizing a historical nation, "Connecticut Yankee" is a darned good read.

From Quiz Apocalypse When?

Answer: Mary Shelley

Published eight years after "Frankenstein", Mary Shelley's "The Last Man" is often claimed to be the first "post-apocalyptic" novel. It is set at the end of the twenty-first century, in a world devastated by a plague that is slowly killing off the whole population. At the time of its publication, critics were disturbed by its pessimistic tone and it was not well reviewed.

From Quiz Atomic Brain

Answer: H.G. Wells

Wells had a certain amount of knowledge regarding the physics of atoms, based on studies by Ramsay, Rutherford and Soddy. His proposed solution to the perceived future problem was a form of "world government" - quite a concept to think of during the initial stages of WWI.

From Quiz Once Upon a Time

Answer: A Christmas Carol

This story is often cited as an early example of time travel literature, since the main character, the miserly businessman Ebenezer Scrooge, was not merely presented with visions of the past and future by visiting ghosts, but was described as travelling with the spectres to and within the periods in question. Even though Scrooge was only able to observe events in those distant times and could not make any form of interaction, his journeys through time were pivotal in making him see the error of his miserly and misanthropic ways.

From Quiz Another Day Breaks

Answer: Children of the Dust

Written by Louise Lawrence and published in 1985, the book opens with a nuclear strike on an English town. It then follows three generations of the survivors as they cope with radiation, a nuclear winter, mutation and all the other horrors of nuclear war.

From Quiz Going Off-Road

Answer: Chris, Morrey, Serge, and Tony

Chris Godfrey, Morrey Kant, Serge Smyslov and Tony Hale have various exciting adventures, near death narrow escapes, and are always happy to get back to Earth after one of their pioneering space voyages. There are fourteen books in the series, including "Journey to Jupiter" (1965), "Mission to Mercury" (1965) and "Passage to Pluto (1973).

From Quiz Master of Your Domain

Answer: The Long Walk

"The Long Walk" by Stephen King was written in 1979, and originally published under the name Richard Bachman. In 2009 it was published as a single volume under his own name. Each year, 100 teenage boys must begin to walk, at not less than four miles an hour. Each time they slow down, they are warned every thirty seconds. Thirty seconds after the third warning, if they are not back up to speed, they are shot. The last one left alive is the winner.

From Quiz Short (but Sweet) Science Fiction Stories

Answer: Allamagoosa

This remarkable comic short story won the Hugo for British writer Eric Frank Russell back in 1955, before I was born. It was funny when I read it as a child, and you know what - it's still funny! Some things, especially military bureaucracies, just don't change. The "Allamagoosa" of the title may have been coined by the author, and means "thingamagig".

From Quiz Classic Sci-Fi Series

Answer: Orson Scott Card

"Ender's Game" started life as a short story, but was expanded into a novel in 1984. It won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, as did the sequel "Speaker for the Dead".

From Quiz Hugo Runners-up

Answer: Have Space Suit, Will Travel

Kidnapping by aliens, a singing "Mother Thing" and finally an intergalactic tribunal deciding the fate of the human race - like most juvenile novels by Robert A Heinlein, this one is a page turner. "Have Space Suit, Will Travel" was beaten out on the 1959 Hugo by James Blish's "A Case of Conscience". "Who?" by Algis Budrys and "We Have Fed Our Sea" (also known as "The Enemy Stars") by Poul Anderson were also runners-up.

From Quiz Judging an SF Book by its Cover

Answer: Foundation

The man in the cylinder is Hari Seldon, the psychohistorian responsible for establishing the "Foundation" of the title. It's all about the fall of galactic civilisation, and his plan to shorten the barbaric interregnum that would inevitably follow. "Foundation" is among the most famous of Isaac Asimov's works - though it didn't earn him one of his (many) awards. It's been through many editions - my personal copy has a writhing red mass against a black background (what were they thinking of?).

From Quiz The World of Sci-Fi

Answer: H. G. Wells and Jules Verne

Jules Verne and H.G. Wells are credited as the "Fathers of Science-Fiction." Wells wrote "The War of the Worlds", "The Time Machine", and "The Invisible Man." Verne wrote "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", "A Journey to the Center of the Earth," and "Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon." H.G. Wells wrote from the late 1800s to his death in 1946. Jules Verne wrote mostly in the 1800s. Ray Bradbury wrote from the late 1940s all the way up to the new millennium. Arthur C. Clarke wrote stories and novels from the late 1930s all the way up to his death in 2008.

From Quiz 'Doctor Who' Novelisations - 'The Five Doctors'

Answer: 1983

The first 'Doctor Who' serial, 'An Unearthly Child' was shown in 1963, so, adding twenty years...

From Quiz The Rockets Ride Into Sci-Fi Literature!

Answer: a robot

Norby is a second-hand robot. Norby appears in over a dozen books by Isaac Asimov and his wife Janet Asimov. The books run from 1983 with "Norby, the Mixed up Robot" to 1991 with "Norby and the Court Jester". The adventures of Norby is a series of delightful science fiction books for children. (Source: Fantastic Fiction) (Contributed by: funnytrivianna)

From Quiz Science Fiction First Lines

Answer: Earth Abides

"Earth Abides" by George R Stewart was first published in 1949. It tells the story of Isherwood Williams and a small band of survivors, left alone in San Fransisco after a plague wipes out the vast majority of humanity.

From Quiz Science Fiction For The Heirs of Eisenhower

Answer: Ghanima and Leto III

"Children of Dune" was the second sequel in the "Dune" raft of novels, which became kind of a cottage industry while its author, Frank Herbert, was still alive. "Children" dealt with the remnants of the empire Paul Atreides, (known as "Usul" or "Muau'Dib" to his Fremen allies,) had left to his sister Alia to run after he abandoned the throne of Arrakis. He does this after being blinded in the previous novel, "Dune Messiah". He, in fact, actually preaches against his own empire, against the cult of him_self_, as Muau'Dib, who has become a myth _and_ a curse after his jihad spread throughout the known Universe. The first three books of the "Dune" series are fascinating reads, if a little verbose. They pretty much define the word "epic" as they tell the story of the ill-fated, but highly respected and admired House of Atreides, as their fortunes rise and fall over the course of history 8000 years into the future. The first three books are great, but avoid the fourth one, "God Emperor of Dune", or just skim over it. It was apparent Herbert was running out of juice by this time, since the action is completely static and the dialogue circuitous and pretentious.

From Quiz Dystopias in Literature

Answer: Brave New World

One of the common tactics of dystopian authors is to focus on a trend they see as undesirable in the society of their time and take it to its illogical conclusion in their future society. In 1931 (when Huxley wrote "Brave New World"), the dominant company on the American business scene was Ford Motors, with its assembly-line production that put every person precisely in their place. In "Brave New World", this compartmentalization is extended to every aspect of a person's life, from birth (where they are classified as 'Alphas', 'Betas', etc.) until death. In homage to Ford, the dates in this novel are given as years A.F., or After Ford.

From Quiz Speculative Fiction

Answer: Smeagol

Before the Ring came into his possession, Gollum was a hobbit of the tribe of the Stoors. His actual name was Smeagol, a translation of his Westron name, which means "burrow-deep".

From Quiz Classic and Iconic Science Fiction quiz

Answer: Stranger in a Strange Land

All of the other answers are also Robert Heinlein Novels. 'Grok' seems to have become widely coined because of its association with the murderer Charles Manson.

From Quiz More Sci-Fi in Literature

Answer: Isaac Asimov

Initially appearing in Asimov's story 'Runaround' in 'Astounding Science Fiction', March 1942.

From Quiz Time is Running Out

Answer: BlyssPluss

Crake was a whiz at bioengineering. While working at the RejoovenEsense compound, he created a whole new race of people known as the Crakers. He also created a deadly illness contained within a wonder-drug called BlyssPluss. Across the world, people hungrily consumed the drug, only realising that it was contaminated when it was too late. The only survivors were a man called Snowman (who was immune), people locked in air-tight facilities, and the new race of Crakers.

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Last Updated Dec 14 2024 5:44 AM

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