Science Fiction For The Heirs of Eisenhower Quiz

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.

Answer: Trantor

Trantor was the name of the planet with no apparent greenery visible on its surface in the "Foundation" series...the very first one the hero, Hari Seldon, sees as the story opens and he arrives at a star vessel terminal there. The terminal that he has to walk through to get where he's going is so tall, that clouds actually form in its upper reaches!

Answer: All of these

"Demon With A Glass Hand" was a teleplay of a classic episode of "The Outer Limits", shown in 1964 on ABC. In it, Robert Culp played an android who finds himself transported back in time to this era from the future. He has a cybernetic hand made of glass, with one of the "fingers", or "lobes", missing. I won't spoil the entire premise for you, but suffice it to say that it's definitely one of Ellison's best stories and deserves to be the classic it is.

There is talk about making this episode of "The Outer Limits" into a full length feature film, and it's been going on for the last three years at least. If it gets made right, it ought to be great!

Answer: The Day The Earth Stood Still

Okay....let's get one thing straight! Klaatu was not the robot in the film, _his_ name was "Gort". Klaatu was the imperious humanoid alien, played by Michael Rennie, that came to Earth to warn the major powers not to continue producing atomic weapons, giving them an ultimatum to get rid of them or else! The words above were words that Patricia Neal's character spoke to Gort to keep him from destroying the Earth.

"The Day of the Triffids" was an archetypical late 50s/early 60s horror/sci-fi movie, with gawd-awful special effects, even worse art direction and hammy acting. It was about a meteor that blinded most of the populace of a town that was then ripe for an invasion of animated, predatory vegetation. See? I told you it was gawd-awful! The original story, (which was probably much better conceived,) was written by John Wyndham. "The Day of the Locust" isn't even sci-fi and is a "Hollywood Babylon" exposé in the form of a novel/movie. "The Night of the Lepus" involved a plotline about giant rabbits! This, like "Triffids", was a movie _made_ for MST3K!

Answer: The logistics and construction of an elevator to the moon

This concept, as far-fetched as it is, is actually being considered seriously by somebody in the aerospace community. I hope to high heaven that this is a hoax, and it never reaches fruition, because just the danger of the cables snapping would make it too dangerous to even think of! (Not to mention the fact that rockets kinda make it unnecessary!)

I'm sure Clarke was in a very whimsical frame of mind when he wrote this tale, for even he has to know that the concept is ridiculous! The ending of the novel involves an android angel descending upon Earth and administering to children. This part seems to have nothing to do with the earlier 90% of the book, but Clarke was getting into his dotage at the time, so....

Answer: They had essentially the same plot.

Both "Childhood's End" and "The Midwich Cuckoos" deal with children bred as a "super generation" of perfect kids meant to rule mankind when they reach maturity, under the auspices of supposedly benevolent aliens.

Answer: Jamis

This guy always seems like a desperate, insecure type in my mind whenever I read the first novel. After simply being socked in the jaw because Paul and his mother were taken by surprise by Fremen that they thought were threatening them, (and, in fact, the Fremen that had been stalking them _did_ want to kill them to "take their water",) Jamis decides he wants to fight Paul to the death. Bad idea, Jamis! Seitch Tabr will be drinking your water for years to come!

Answer: Floor cleaners

In the classic story by Ray Bradbury, these things would scurry about living quarters on colonized Mars, cleaning the floors of dust and crumbs. Why did they have to look like mice? You'd think, away from Earth, this is the last thing anybody would want to be reminded of!

Answer: They started fires, rather than put them out, to destroy books

In this story, the firemen actually burn books as an arm of a dystopic government that has banned the use of books. Very "1984"! The hero, Montag, a young neophyte fireman, decides this line of work isn't for him after meeting a girl that is a near double for his feckless wife.

He joins a group of rebels who endeavor to memorize as much literature as they can to preserve it for posterity. Some people actually _become_ their favorite novels!

Answer: Ens. Dorothy "Chops" Taylor

"Chops" was the deft, blind fellow engineer who worked with La Forge to jury-rig a damaged enemy probe bot in this eerie Next Generation novel about the Enterprise-D crew encountering a world that has banned fiction in all its permutations. They encounter this world after searching for the USS Huxley, a Federation vessel that had been missing for 10 years.

"Chops"' light sensors, unlike La Forge's, were on her fingertips, rather than over her eyes. Watching her work was a thing to behold, according to the story. After Dorothy had done an exceptional job deftly handling the circuit re-routing, La Forge commented that the job was "state of the Chops!"

Counselor Troi somehow finds herself in the company of a diverse group of anti-government rebels, and Picard becomes a hostage in this novel, one that would have made an excellent film had anybody had the sense to use it for the basis for a screenplay!

Answer: Computer animation

The creatures "generated" by "Rama", an alien probe that scientists discovered tracking a course right into the sun in our solar system, were essentially corporeal "cartoons", and actually _were_ "computer animation" of a sort! The probe could draw these things out of its inner surfaces like corporeal ghosts to defend itself against internal "invaders".

The mental imagery brings to mind the "grid bugs" from "Tron".

Answer: The Eloi and the Morlocks

The Morlocks and the Eloi lived in a very sick symbiotic relationship where the beautiful, leisurely Eloi were essentially being fattened up and contented so they would make tender meat for the mutated and horrific-looking Morlocks. The awful truth of the thing is: both these races were essentially human!

Answer: True

Yes, the person a lot of people consider to be the great-granddaddy of all post-war science fiction writers got his start writing for pennies a word for pulp magazines in the era surrounding WWII. He was not just a sci-fi writer, but wrote about just about everything: history, humor, Shakespeare and the Bible as well.

He wrote over 400 books, including the "Foundation" trilogy and "The Gods Themselves", and one short story, "The Last Question", which poses an incredible conjecture about the nature of creation.

Answer: Multivac, a computer network that evolves with creation from a certain point in the second millennium.

This has to be, absolutely, the most incredible science fiction short story ever told, and probably cemented Asimov's reputation as a conceptualist and idea man. I remember the Fels Planetarium in Philly actually staging an entire program around the story, which ends with a bang, (literally)!

Asimov was born in 1920. His family emigrated from Russia and moved to NYC in 1923. "The Last Question" was written in 1958.

Answer: 42

Yes, after millennia upon millennia, the final answer to the question to end all questions is "42" as expressed by "Deep Thought", a computer that obviously should have had its transistors checked on a more regular basis. Douglas Adams' zany novel was very reminiscent of Monty Python, as it twisted logic, posed silly questions and situations, and made sly comments about society, all in one fell swoop.

Its main characters were Arthur Dent, an earthling, and Ford Prefect, an alien that posed as an earthling so he could compile facts about the planet for "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". "Don't Panic!"