Jolly Splendid SF, Fantasy and 'Stuff' Quiz 1

Answer: Darckense Zakalwe

The chair was designed by Elethiomel to destroy the mind of Cheradenine Zakalwe. It was made from the bones of his sister Darckense and completed with a cushion made of her skin. The Staberinde is also a weapon, a landlocked battleship commanded by Elethiomel. Special Circumstance can be regarded as a weapon too, it is the militant subversive part of the Culture's Contact Section. Livueta is a second sister to Zakalwe; no dragons feature in the book, however Livueta is also used as a weapon by the Culture in the final stages of the book where she initiates the final breakdown of Elethiomel.

Answer: City

'City' by Cliford Simak is a rather lovely if disjointed book which charts a future in which Earth is overrun by ants, Dogs rise to intelligence and spread across parallel worlds, and what were once humans live on Jupiter. It won an International Fantasy Award in 1953. 'Earth Abides' by George Stewart won the inaugural award in 1951, 'Fancies and Goodnights' by John Collier won the award in 1952 and Pangbourne's 'A Airror for Observers' won it in 1955.

Answer: Parc Guell

The great Catalan architect Gaudi's Parc Guell in the early morning is a wonderfully evocative and magical place. Gaudi is also responsible for a large part of the design of the Church of the Holy Family (Sagreda Familia). Las Ramblas is a long series of streets: Rambla de Canaletes, Rambla dels Estudis, Rambla de Sant Josep, Rambla dels Caputxins, Rambla de Santa Monica and lastly Rambla de Mar. Lorcas said of Las Ramblas that it was "the only street in the world which I wish would never end". Diagonal is the Barcelona street down which the International Brigades paraded to a hero's farewell before they were dismissed by Dr. Négrin and La Pasionaria in the Plaça de la Gloria towards the close of the Spanish Civil War and the fall of the old Republic.

Answer: Doctor Mirabilis

All of these books are by James Blish. 'A Case of Conscience', 'They Shall Have Stars' and 'Midsummer Century' are all science fiction, but 'Doctor Mirabilis' is an historical novel about the life of Roger Bacon. Bacon was a Franciscan who lived in the 13th Century, something of a polymath who did much to develop the scientific method.

Answer: Rorqual Maru

Roqual Maru is the name of a giant self-aware plankton harvester, the eponymous 'Godwhale' of the novel by T.J. Bass. Iron Trilobite is her servomech. G.I.T.A.R., Olga and Toothpick are also Artificial Intelligences from that book or the related 'Half-past Human'.

Answer: 6 to 11

The Affront are a delightfully unpleasant and beastly alien species that appear in Ian Bank's 'Excession'. Just because they start life with 6 to 11 limbs does not mean they will finish life with that many, as they tend to lose a fair few in accidents and duels.

Answer: Dr. Seuss

Bizarre as it sounds, Sam I am, Dr Seuss wrote the script of this rather charming fantasy film about the evils of piano lessons.

Noam Chomsky is one of the greatest scholars of the twentieth century; his work on grammars in the field of linguistics has had influence far beyond the bounds of the subject. He is also a major figure on the American Left being a member of the IWW in good standing. Harpo Marx was a comedian and member of the Algonquin round table. Christopher Isherwood wrote the Berlin stories on which the play and film 'Cabaret' were based.

Answer: Ken MacLeod

The Sunliner 'But The Sky! My Lady! The Sky!' appears in the first contact novel 'Learning the World' by Ken McLeod.

Harry Martinson is a Swedish Nobel Laureate in Literature (1956) who wrote, among many other works, the science fiction poem 'Aniara'. Stanislaw Lem is a Polish writer who has written a great deal of science fiction, most notably 'Solaris', which has been made into two feature films, one by Tarkovsky, one by Steven Soderbergh. Connie Willis is an American Science Fiction writer who has won, as at Dec. 2007, nine Hugo Awards and six Nebulas.

Answer: Winwood Reade

The quotation is from Winwood Reade's 'The Martyrdom of Man'. The book is a secular history of Western Civilisation; Reade was an atheist and none too keen on religion.

Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin of the Society of Jesus was a scientist and theologian. Olaf Stapledon was an English pre-genre science fiction writer. His greatest work is perhaps 'Last and First Men', which charts the evolution and decline of humanity over great ages. Lev Bronstein is the birth name of Leon Trotsky.

Answer: Johnny Alpha

How the future dates us all; once upon a time 2000 AD was a long way off and held all sorts of exciting futures. Johnny Alpha was a bounty hunter who roamed the universe, and indeed parallel universes, chasing criminals with his partner Wulf Sternhammer and a Gronk.

He was best when he was being drawn by Carlos Ezquerra. He started life in the Starlord comic which was quickly subsumed into 2000 AD comic.

Answer: four: Flora, Deirdre, Fiona and Llewella

The Amber series by Roger Zelazny starts with 'Nine Princes in Amber'. The nine princes are; Random, Julian, Caine, Eric, Benedict, Corwin, Gerard, Bleys and Brand. The Greater Trumps are playing cards with representations of the princes, princesses and places that can be used for communications and instantaneous transportation.

Answer: Brazil

In 'The Outward Urge' by John Wyndham, the northern hemisphere of the Earth is embroiled in a nuclear war and for a time Brazil becomes the dominant power in the world and in space.

Answer: Richard Burton

Richard Francis Burton was a famous scholar and traveller. Amongst other feats he visited Mecca disguised as a pilgrim, translated both the 'Arabian Nights' and the 'Kama Sutra' into English, became British ambassador to Brazil, and with John Hanning Speke led an expedition to find the source of the Nile.

The other three answers are also the names of famous explorers. Jeddediah Smith was one of the legends of the American fur trade. Henry Kelsey was the first European to see the Canadian prairie and was involved in the founding of the HBC. David Livingston was a Christian missionary and explorer of Africa, a contemporary of Burton's. He is most famous for his meeting with Stanley near Lake Tanganyika.

Answer: Sidi Bombay

Sidi Bombay (or Mubarak) was guide to both Richard Burton and Henry Stanley. He is also said to be the first man to have crossed the continent of Africa both North-South and horizontally. Ibn Battuta was an Arab or perhaps Berber explorer of the fourteenth century who visited Africa, Europe, Central Asia and China. Chuma was one of David Livingstone's servants. Umbopa is a character in H. Rider Haggard's 'King Solomon's mines'.

Answer: The Iron Dream

'The Iron dream' is an alternative history by Spinrad based on the fantastic conceit that Adolph Hitler did not become leader of Germany, but instead emigrated to the USA and became a Science Fiction writer. 'The Iron Dream' contains within in it the novel 'Lord of the Swastika', supposedly written by Hitler. 'The Twilight of Terror' is also attributed to Hitler on the inside cover of Spinrad's book, as is 'The Triumph of the Will'. In our reality, the latter is a real Nazi propaganda film of the 1934 party congress in Nuremberg made by Leni Riefenstahl.

Answer: Corfe Castle

In the repeated history 'Pavane' by Keith Roberts, Prince of Peace is Lady Elanore's Long Gun defending Corfe Castle. Persuader and Faith of Rome are the Church's Trebuchets besieging it.

Gormenghast is a fictional castle. Bodiam and Corfe are both real castles in England but they both appear, and fall when in rebellion against the Catholic Church, in 'Pavane'. The Rock of Cashel is a real castle in Ireland.

Answer: Golem 100

The verse of 'The Internationale' rendered in an archaic and painful English is:

'Arise, ye pris'ners of starvation!
Arise, ye wretched of the earth.
For justice thunders condemnation.
A better world's in birth.
No more tradition's chains shall bind us.
Arise, ye slaves, no more in thrall!
The earth shall rise on new foundations.
We have been naught, we shall be all.'

Answer: Jinx

'Known Space' is a future history by Larry Niven. The Bandersnatchi are enormous, intelligent, white slugs and live along the ocean shores of Jinx. Humans hunt Bandersnatchi in tanks, but the hunts are carefully controlled by covenants between the two species. The aliens fight back and kill the humans about 40% of the time.

Answer: To defend her home planet

In the Instrumentality of Mankind envisioned by Cordwainer Smith, Katherine Hitton is the Weapons Mistress of Nostrillia, and the Littul Kittons are her weapon, murderous mad mink whose emotions are amplified and focus telepathically on Nostrillia's enemies.

The immortality drug Stroon is extracted from the giant 'sickly sheep' of Nostrillia. In the story 'Scanners Live in Vain' the Scanners are no longer required to undergo surgical sensory deprivation in order to survive the 'Pain of Space' travel because a new way of travel has been developed. C'Mell is a cat person in Smith's future history; she appears in 'The Ballad of Lost C'Mell'.

Answer: Farren

Mick Farren is a rock musician, journalist, anarchist and science fiction/fantasy writer. He was the organiser of the Phun City rock festival at Worthing in 1970.

A Fandango is a dance. Felix is a cat. A Farmer is a bloke (or wench) wot produces food from the land.

Answer: P. J. Plauger

P.J.Plauger wrote the wonderful short story 'Child of All Ages' and several other short stories in the science fiction genre. He has also written a shed load of books on programming and was involved in the specification of C++. Witting, Brust and Ing are also Science Fiction writers.

Answer: '39

Brian May wrote '39. He is also apparently a PhD is Astrophysics which perhaps explains his interest?

Answer: Silent Running

Trumbull's 'Silent Running' was Science Fiction as eco-warning. Joan Baez sang the theme song 'Rejoice in the Sun' and the title song 'Silent Running'.

Answer: Brennan

Police Lieutenant Anna-Louise Bach is a John Varley character, blind Rhysling sings 'The green hill of Earth' in the Robert Heinlein story of that name and, Bowman is an Arthur Clarke character who appears in the film '2001: A Space Odyssey. Brennan is a character of Niven's, a Belter who becomes a protector stage human.

Answer: Brendan Doyle

Brendan Doyle a time-traveller from far in Ashbless' future who, through a series of strange events, becomes Ashbless. Darrow is a wealthy plutocrat who finances an expedition into the past and Benner once a student of Doyle's is now Darrow's minder. All of these are characters in Tim Powers' 'The Anubis Gate', as is William Ashbless.

Heraclitus provides the quote at the beginning of the book.