Classic Characters in Science Fiction and Fantasy Quiz

Answer: Harry Harrison

James Bolivar "Slippery Jim" DiGriz first appeared in 1957, and has stolen, spied and fought his way through many books since then. From the blurb by the original publisher: "Now that society is all ferrocrete and stainless steel there are fewer gaps in the joints. It takes a very smart rat indeed to find these openings. Only a stainless steel rat can be at home in this environment..."

Answer: Ursula K. Le Guin

Genly Ai, in "The Left Hand of Darkness", represents the Ekumen, which is attempting to take the world of Gethen (otherwise known as Winter) into its interstellar society. He forms a relationship with Therem Harth rem ir Estraven, one of the greatest (and most unusual) friendships in science fiction history.

Answer: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Billy Pilgrim, in "Slaughterhouse-Five" survives the firebombing of Dresden, is kidnapped by aliens from Tralfamadore, and has a child with porn actress Montana Wildhack. The book was nominated for a Hugo and a Nebula when it came out, but lost both to "The Left Hand of Darkness".

Answer: Isaac Asimov

'Raven' Seldon is the creator of 'psychohistory', a science which allows its practitioners to predict the future, given large enough societies. He appears in the "Foundation" books by Mr. Asimov, and is the character most responsible for saving the human species from a ten-thousand-year Dark Age.

Answer: Frank Herbert

"Dune" has been called the greatest science fiction novel ever written, and has inspired movies, miniseries and, possibly most importantly, the environmentalist movement. Herbert's was one of the first novels to treat an ecology as a vital, complex thing that must be maintained, nurtured and respected.

Answer: Robert A. Heinlein

Valentine Michael Smith stars in "Stranger in a Strange Land", a novel which has never been out of print. Much of its popularity is due to its resonance with the counterculture--its themes include sexual freedom and individualism, and its "Church of All Worlds", which preaches transformation and freedom from suffering.

The novel also gave us the word 'grok', which means to completely understand through empathy.

Answer: Alfred Bester

Gulliver Foyle appears in "The Stars My Destination", a novel Neil Gaiman calls "the perfect cyberpunk novel". Stephen King likes the book as well--in "Lisey's Story", it is described as Scott Landon's favorite novel. And Samuel R. Delany says it may be the "greatest single SF novel".

Answer: Orson Scott Card

Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin is the child prodigy who saves the Earth from the Buggers in "Ender's Game". He also appears in several sequels to the Nebula and Hugo Award-winning classic. In 1999, Card retold the story of Ender's war but from his co-warrior Bean's point of view.

Answer: William Gibson

Case is the ex-hacker in Chiba City who gets caught up in a chaotic plot involving the Turing Police, AIs and people like Lady 3Jane in "Neuromancer". The first line of the novel is "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

Answer: Douglas Adams

Arthur Dent is one of the few beings (including some mice and dolphins) who survive the Vogons' destruction of Earth in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". There will be another book in the series--author Eoin Colfer has been hired to write "And Another Thing" and continue Douglas Adams' much-beloved universe.

Answer: Richard Matheson

Robert Neville is the last man alive on a world overrun by vampires in Matheson's "I Am Legend". The last line of the novella is, fittingly, "I am legend." The first two film adaptations were called "The Last Man on Earth" and "The Omega Man". Matheson also wrote "The Shrinking Man" and "A Stir of Echoes".

Answer: Ray Bradbury

Mr. Dark, of 'Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show', appears in "Something Wicked This Way Comes" Each of his myriad tattoos represents the soul of a human he's pressed into service of the carnival. Bradbury also wrote "Fahrenheit 451" and "The Martian Chronicles".

Answer: George Orwell

Winston Smith is the everyman civil servant in Orwell's "1984", who ends up loving Big Brother. He's been played by Peter Cushing and John Hurt on the big screen, and David Niven provided his voice in a 1949 radio adaptation. "1984" is perhaps the most famous example of a dystopian novel, in which the human condition is one of suffering, misery and totalitarianism.

The book also gave us many terms that have entered the vernacular--Big Brother, the Thought Police, Room 101, doublethink and NewSpeak.

Answer: Anthony Burgess

Alex is the leader of a gang of droogs in Burgess' dystopian "A Clockwork Orange". He is also 'Your humble narrator'. Malcolm McDowell brought him to chilling life in Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film.

Answer: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The first science fiction novel, according to many experts, is Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus". There is an actual Castle Frankenstein in Germany, built previous to 1250, and there is evidence that Shelley had visited it before penning her masterpiece.