Old sci-fi stories I half remember...

[Androsphinx]

... and would greatly appreciate if anyone could help me out.

1/ Had two inter-cutting plots. One involved an empirically-verified cosmology with nihilistic implications which created massive social upheaval; the other involved transferring human minds to whales. In the end they manage tell the whales the cosmology, and they all commit suicide

2/ A bad rip-off of Tau Zero, where a young girl is left stranded on a ship which has been captured and stripped by aliens, and for plot reasons accelerated to very near c

3/ A steampunk short story where the south pole's antimatter reserves were mined by the British Empire to enable their world domination, and where the first mission to Jupiter is sabotaged by Franco-American subversive-types

All help appreciated, more to follow

[Lord of the Abyss]

3/ A steampunk short story where the south pole's antimatter reserves were mined by the British Empire to enable their world domination, and where the first mission to Jupiter is sabotaged by Franco-American subversive-types

That sounds like the novel Anti-Ice. There might have been a short story version.

[cosmicalstorm]

A story about a plague that kills everything on the entire planet except for a group of survivors in an underground bunker, but eventually they start fighting each other inside the bunker, and just as the story was getting the most interesting a printing error caused the book to suddenly restart on page one

Also a book about a society where two suns make sure there is never any night, but the main characther figures out that once every couple of thousand years there is a solareclipse that turns the entire planet dark for a couple of days, every time this has happened the entire society has collapsed due to people going crazy, and everytime it has been forgotten...

Anyone know the name of any of these?

[The Grim Squeaker]

A short story about a group of people living ina post-apocalyptic wasteland who get their supplies and the materials needed to build an escape rocket from an old woman who time travels or space travels (From the USA circa 1950's).
At the end they build the rocket, but she alters probability so that it crashes.

It was in an "Inspired by Asimov" collection audiobook. I have the feeling it was Philip K Dick, but I don't have the audiobook and didn't read Dick at the time

[Bounty]

Also a book about a society where two suns make sure there is never any night, but the main characther figures out that once every couple of thousand years there is a solareclipse that turns the entire planet dark for a couple of days, every time this has happened the entire society has collapsed due to people going crazy, and everytime it has been forgotten...

Sounds like Asimov's Nightfall.

[Kristoff]

1/ Had two inter-cutting plots. One involved an empirically-verified cosmology with nihilistic implications which created massive social upheaval; the other involved transferring human minds to whales. In the end they manage tell the whales the cosmology, and they all commit suicide

Jean-Pierre Hubert "Le champ du rêveur"?

[Androsphinx]

1/ Had two inter-cutting plots. One involved an empirically-verified cosmology with nihilistic implications which created massive social upheaval; the other involved transferring human minds to whales. In the end they manage tell the whales the cosmology, and they all commit suicide

Jean-Pierre Hubert "Le champ du rêveur"?

That is a great story, but not the one I was thinking of.

That sounds like the novel Anti-Ice. There might have been a short story version.

Probably - I have a whole batch of Baxter's stuff gathering dust in storage. Thanks!

[cosmicalstorm]

Also a book about a society where two suns make sure there is never any night, but the main characther figures out that once every couple of thousand years there is a solareclipse that turns the entire planet dark for a couple of days, every time this has happened the entire society has collapsed due to people going crazy, and everytime it has been forgotten...

Sounds like Asimov's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightfall_ ... ort_story)

Yeah thats it, thanks.

[Shadowtraveler]

Speaking of half-forgotten sci-fi, about once a year I remember watching some animated miniseries that aired on WB years ago.

It was about some kid with unusual powers and the big bads are attacking Earth with mass-drivers on the moon.

Anyone have a clue what I'm talking about?

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Also a book about a society where two suns make sure there is never any night, but the main characther figures out that once every couple of thousand years there is a solareclipse that turns the entire planet dark for a couple of days, every time this has happened the entire society has collapsed due to people going crazy, and everytime it has been forgotten...

Anyone know the name of any of these?

That one is Nightfall by Isaac Asimov. The short story was so good that Silverberg later rewrote it as a collaborative novel with Asimov.

[Lord of the Abyss]

Speaking of half-forgotten sci-fi, about once a year I remember watching some animated miniseries that aired on WB years ago.

It was about some kid with unusual powers and the big bads are attacking Earth with mass-drivers on the moon.

Anyone have a clue what I'm talking about?

Sounds like Invasion America

[Broomstick]

Also a book about a society where two suns make sure there is never any night, but the main characther figures out that once every couple of thousand years there is a solareclipse that turns the entire planet dark for a couple of days, every time this has happened the entire society has collapsed due to people going crazy, and everytime it has been forgotten...

"Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov, later turned into a novel.

And it was six suns, not two.

[LadyTevar]

Also a book about a society where two suns make sure there is never any night, but the main characther figures out that once every couple of thousand years there is a solareclipse that turns the entire planet dark for a couple of days, every time this has happened the entire society has collapsed due to people going crazy, and everytime it has been forgotten...

"Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov, later turned into a novel.

And it was six suns, not two.

They made a movie of it. With Roddy McDowell

[JediToren]

Here's one. When I was a kid I used to watch some animated movie. Looking back I think it was anime style.

#1: Weird anime about a wooden string puppet come to life who turns people to stone and builds walls with them
The main villain was a wooden string puppet that had somehow been animated. The ending was very dark (visually). I think he had built massive walls or fortresses or something by turning people to stylized stone statues and using them as bricks. As I recall, the hero struck a fatal blow to the villain which resulted in a horizontal glowing slash going from a shoulder down to the hip. This resulted in the death of the bad guy. The walls of stone people fell and fell (several different shots depicting various people walls falling). I think the last shot is the original wooden puppet falling on the ground, having reverted to its original form.

I've tried for years to figure out just what the hell that movie was. Any idears?

#2: Live-action malevolent toy dolls
No, this is not any entry in the Child's Play series, and it isn't Dolly Dearest with Rip Torn and Denise Crosby about dolls that come to life when they excavate the Devil's sons grave. This is about what I think is a Howdy-Doody style dolls that kill. I only remember what shot from the movie. There is an old abandoned basement with lots of cob webs, etc. In the foreground of the shot is an evil doll in a box facing the camera. Approx. 20-30 feet behind him (it is out of focus) the door opens to daylight. This disturbs the puppet who slowly turns his head to his left and opens his eyes. That is all I remember.

#3: SF Novel by Ursula K. Leguine involving H.I.L.F.'s There are black people and white people in this novel. I'm not sure if they are supposed to be humans and aliens or euphemisms for racial issues (I read it when I was 12) but there was some racial/tribal issues between the two groups, and I think one group was referred to as humans but the other was referred to as HILF's which stood for Highly Intelligent Life Forms. I'm dead certain that it is by Ursula K. LeGuine but despite all I know Google hasn't been much help.

[Cosmic Average]

A story about a plague that kills everything on the entire planet except for a group of survivors in an underground bunker, but eventually they start fighting each other inside the bunker, and just as the story was getting the most interesting a printing error caused the book to suddenly restart on page one

It kinda sounds like Orson Scott Card's I Put My Blue Genes On. It's no longer in print, but you can read it here legally and free.

[Argosh]

Read it years ago, the only thing I remember is there were Martians spying on Earth. They were just like humans, only with 3 eyes.

[Temjin]

#2: Live-action malevolent toy dolls
No, this is not any entry in the Child's Play series, and it isn't Dolly Dearest with Rip Torn and Denise Crosby about dolls that come to life when they excavate the Devil's sons grave. This is about what I think is a Howdy-Doody style dolls that kill. I only remember what shot from the movie. There is an old abandoned basement with lots of cob webs, etc. In the foreground of the shot is an evil doll in a box facing the camera. Approx. 20-30 feet behind him (it is out of focus) the door opens to daylight. This disturbs the puppet who slowly turns his head to his left and opens his eyes. That is all I remember.

This could be one of the movies in the Puppet Master series, but I'm not sure. I think I last saw the movies when I was twelve, 11 years ago.

[Zim]

This one is a movie where there are two aliens who look like kids arrive on earth. They have psychic powers and thus draw the attention of some shadowy bad guys.

A group of kids adopt the two aliens into their circle and try to protect them from said baddies. In the end, there was a car chase where the kids got into a taxi and the aliens used their psychic powers to get away, in the process inadvertently destroying the taxi. They explained the phenomenon away to the taxi driver with some molecular techno-babble. Surprisingly, the driver bought it.

I also think there was a sequel made to this movie.

[Lord of the Abyss]

This one is a movie where there are two aliens who look like kids arrive on earth. They have psychic powers and thus draw the attention of some shadowy bad guys.

A group of kids adopt the two aliens into their circle and try to protect them from said baddies. In the end, there was a car chase where the kids got into a taxi and the aliens used their psychic powers to get away, in the process inadvertently destroying the taxi. They explained the phenomenon away to the taxi driver with some molecular techno-babble. Surprisingly, the driver bought it.

I also think there was a sequel made to this movie.

Escape to Witch Mountain, and Return from Witch Mountain ?

[Omeros]

1/ Had two inter-cutting plots. One involved an empirically-verified cosmology with nihilistic implications which created massive social upheaval; the other involved transferring human minds to whales. In the end they manage tell the whales the cosmology, and they all commit suicide

This is Ian Watson's novel The Jonah Kit. The whales committing suicide was very typical of his pessimistic outlook. I was a big fan of his back in the day.

I remember reading a short story by Cordwainer Smith which I think was called War 81-Q. It was supposed to be the first Instrumentality story he ever wrote. Can anyone confirm its existence, general plot, etc?

[Gullible Jones]

It's in a collection on my bookshelf. And it's not an Instrumentality story.

[Broomstick]

Wasn't War 81-Q when they used Australia as sort of a playing field where they held wars to settle disputes? Gosh, haven't read Cordwainer Smith in ages.

[Mayabird]

I remember reading a short story by Cordwainer Smith which I think was called War 81-Q. It was supposed to be the first Instrumentality story he ever wrote. Can anyone confirm its existence, general plot, etc?

Actually, "War No. 81-Q" is set in the same universe as the Instrumentality stories, but long in the past (which is still the future for us) before the dark ages that started the Instrumentality.

And it wasn't Australia, but Kergulen where the little automated airships shot each other up for their play wars to settle disputes.


Ooh, while I'm here, a story of my own that I'm trying to track down. It started with a colonization ship that crashed on this planet where there weren't any lifeforms larger than a couple centimeters, and they all lived in little pools of water. The colonization ship was supposed to alter humans to fit whatever environment they happened to find, and so they created teeny-tiny humans to live in these little pools and made little metal tablets to instruct the teeny humans before they died.

The next part of the story was about the teeny humans and how they create a ship that can travel from one pool to another. They go to the next pool over and conclude that they must have traveled across space just as the ancients did.

I think I saw the story in the Baen free library somewhere but I'm not sure.

[Broomstick]

Ooh, while I'm here, a story of my own that I'm trying to track down. It started with a colonization ship that crashed on this planet where there weren't any lifeforms larger than a couple centimeters, and they all lived in little pools of water. The colonization ship was supposed to alter humans to fit whatever environment they happened to find, and so they created teeny-tiny humans to live in these little pools and made little metal tablets to instruct the teeny humans before they died.

The next part of the story was about the teeny humans and how they create a ship that can travel from one pool to another. They go to the next pool over and conclude that they must have traveled across space just as the ancients did.

I think I saw the story in the Baen free library somewhere but I'm not sure.

That's "Surface Tension" by James Blish. It was later collected with other tales of modified humans in The Seedling Stars

[Broomstick]

Here's my Very Obscure Story I can't find again, whose plot I only vaguely remember because its been so long:

A man is stranded on some sort of airless moon or moon with a non-oxygen providing atmosphere. Somehow, he's out on the surface when his air supply runs out, and he trips and falls face-first into a flower which supplies him with oxygen and keeps him alive. Somehow, this flower causes him to grow and air storage sack on one side of his face, which disfigures him but keeps him alive so he can store up oxygen and go wondering about the moon/planetoid. By the time rescue shows up, he's enjoying his abode and way of life. The rescuers express horror/disgust at what's happened to his face, but because for him the change is beneficial he like the third lung hanging off his cheek.

Yeah, weird. Can't remember name, author, or where I read it.