Sleeping Sun Trivia Quiz

Answer: King Solomon's Mines

While all of these titles were written by the prolific H. Rider Haggard, only "King Solomon's Mines" featured Allan Quatermain. It tells the story of a group of adventurers searching in an unexplored region of Africa for the missing brother of one of the band, and their discovery of the legendary mines of King Solomon.

It is usually considered to be the first of the "Lost World" genre of fiction, and set many of the parameters used by later authors, including Edgar Rice Burroughs ("The Land That Time Forgot"), Arthur Conan Doyle ("The Lost World"), Rudyard Kipling ("The Man Who Would Be King") and H.P. Lovecraft ("At the Mountains of Madness".

Answer: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

"A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" shows how Hank is able to use his advanced 19th century technological awareness to impress the 'simple' citizens of an earlier time, gaining significant social and political power, before it all goes pear-shaped.

The book satirizes both Twain's contemporary society and the romanticized ideas of chivalry that were common in 19th century literature, especially the work of Sir Walter Scott. It is sometimes referred to as the foundational work in the time travel subgenre of science fiction, but there were several important earlier works involving time travel, such as H.G. Wells's story "The Chronic Argonauts" (1888), which was a precursor to "The Time Machine"(1895), and Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward" (1888).

Answer: Christopher Columbus

While the others were famed explorers, it was Columbus who was stranded in Jamaica in 1504, on his fourth voyage. While some men paddled a canoe to get help from the settlement in Hispaniola, Columbus intimidated the natives by correctly predicting a lunar eclipse for February 29, and subsequently organized them into provisioning his men.

"Pharaoh" (1895) is set in Egypt between 1087 and 1085 BCE, when the young Ramses is learning how to rule a country which is experiencing internal and external stresses that will eventually lead to the fall of the Twentieth Dynasty. Despite some anachronisms, it provides a compelling vision of life at many levels of Egyptian society, and has been translated into at least 20 languages.

Answer: Nightfall

The collection "Nightfall and Other Stories" (1969) included all of these, but this is the plot of "Nightfall", originally published in the September 1941 issue of "Astounding Science Fiction", edited by the redoubtable John W. Campbell, Jr. It has been anthologized dozens of times, and in 1968 was voted the best science fiction short story written prior to the establishment of the Nebula Awards (in 1965) by the Science Fiction Writers of America.

In 1990, Asimov collaborated with Robert Silverberg to produce a novel-length revision of the story.

Answer: being sacrificed to the Sun

Enid Blyton wrote several series of adventure stories featuring children as the protagonists, including "The Famous Five" (one of whom was a dog), "The Secret Seven" and the series of "Secret" titles of which "The Secret Mountain" is the third. Captain and Mrs. Arnold seem to be extraordinarily accident-prone, as the first in the series, "The Secret Island", also involved their apparent loss, in a plane crash.

This time, their plane is found after a crash landing, but they have been kidnapped by the Folk of the Secret Mountain, and the children set out to rescue them. All except Jack are captured, but Jack finds a secret entry to the mountain, and rescues them along with the missing parents; they get captured again; Paul is about to be sacrificed to the Sun; the final events include an eclipse, and everyone lives happily ever after.

Answer: Gerald's Game

The central characters of "Gerald's Game" and "Dolores Claiborne" (1992) have a telepathic connection at times, including during Jessie's childhood abuse and her later traumatized ponderings while handcuffed to the bed in a remote cabin, with her dead husband on the floor being eaten by a stray dog.

Then there's "The Space Cowboy", who turns out to be a serial killer on the run. This synopsis has skipped over some of the more hard-to-stomach details, such as how she escapes from the handcuffs!

Answer: 100

"Sunwing" (1999) is the second book in Oppel's "Silverwing" series. A Mayan king is told of a prophecy: if 100 hearts are offered to the god Camazotz during an eclipse, the eclipse will last forever, and Zotz will rule the world. This is opposed by Nocturna, Zotz's twin sister, who is worshiped by the northern bats, including our hero Shade.

In the novel's climax, the destruction of the pyramid in which a major battle is occurring is delayed by Shade's use of sound waves to keep a destructive disc in the air until the end of the eclipse, meaning that the eclipse does not become permanent. Exhausted, he lets it drop and the pyramid is destroyed, along with all those inside it.

But the world has been saved.

Answer: Dragonslayer

Only "Dragonslayer", of these movie novelizations, saw Galen defeating a dragon with the aid of an amulet through which he was able to channel the powers of the sorcerer Ulrich. Galen had to crush the amulet, and lose the powers it bestowed, in order to make Ulrich explode and destroy the dragon.

The villages credit the newly-arrived Christian God with the victory over the dragon, while the king claims it as his own. Galen and his true love ride off into the sunset.

Answer: Cats

In this series, we follow the adventures of the three cats Jaypaw, Hollypaw and Lionpaw, grandchildren of the ThunderClan leader Firestar. The book shows them coming to terms with their powers, and dealing with the prophecy that they will someday be more powerful than the StarClan. During a climactic battle, the sun is eclipsed, causing all the Clans to panic and retreat into their own territory.

Answer: Central Park

Only Central Park is in Manhattan; Shea Stadium was in Queens on Long Island, the Statue of Liberty is on Liberty Island, and the Bronx Zoo is in the Bronx on the mainland.

"The Strain" (2009) is planned as the first in a trilogy of vampire stories which combine traditional vampire myths with modern science. It is co-authored by Guillermo del Tor and Chick Hogan. Vampirism is shown as a mutation caused by a virus, which can be treated by both traditional methods (garlic, for example) and modern medical tactics. What comes next? We will have to wait for the next two parts of the trilogy to see whether the liberally-sprinkled clues lead in the directions that are suggested here.