Another reader writes in with a story description looking for a title.
Do any of our readers out there know the title of this story?
Can you name this story?
The story line was about a man who lost his son to freeway violence, in a future where people armored their cars into rolling weapons, and took license plates as trophys. He's out for revenge and working on the Bonneville-which may have had a female nickname.
I am sure I read it sometime between 1980 and 1985.- Renee C.
Comments (13)
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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 14, 2009 at 12:15 AM
© 2009 SF Signal
Dunno what story it is, but if I'd written it, it sure as hell would have been called "KILLDOZER!" with the exclamation point mandatory.
Posted by Pete on Thursday May 14, 2009 at 12:46 AM
(actually, no, it's not. Grrrrr. Now I'm thinking David Gerrold or Alan Dean Foster)
Posted by Ray Radlein on Thursday May 14, 2009 at 12:49 AM
It's called Why Johnny Can’t Speed by Alan Dean Foster. It is available as an audiobook as part of Isaac Asimov Presents Volume 7. You can find it here...
http://www.sffaudio.com/?p=2566
Posted by Jesse Willis on Thursday May 14, 2009 at 12:50 AM
From question to answer in half an hour. Holy crap, you lot know everything.
Posted by Pete on Thursday May 14, 2009 at 12:55 AM
Aha! Got it on second try: "Why Johnny Can't Speed," by Alan Dean Foster. First published in Galaxy in 1971; later collected in With Friends Like These... in 1977.
Posted by Ray Radlein on Thursday May 14, 2009 at 12:55 AM
I thought it was "X Marks the Pedwalk" by Harlan Ellison, I was wrong; someone already got it right -- "Why Johnny Can't Speed" by Alan Dean Foster.
Posted by Thomas Roche on Thursday May 14, 2009 at 1:02 AM
I don't have the books in front of me to check, but it sounds like "Why Johnny Can't Speed" by Alan Dean Foster (as others mentioned), or "Along the Senic Route" by Harlan Ellison. I remember both of these as being very similar.
Posted by crashmstr on Thursday May 14, 2009 at 6:53 AM
You folks are AMAZING!
Now to track it down. Thank you, and happy reading!
Renee
Posted by Renee on Thursday May 14, 2009 at 10:02 AM
Yes, "Why Johnny Can't Speed," which was one of Steve Jackson's fictional inspirations for Car Wars. "X Marks the Pedwalk" was another one, but that's by Fritz Leiber, not Harlan Ellison.
Posted by Lawrence Person on Thursday May 14, 2009 at 11:36 AM
I remembered "Why Johnny Can't Speed" but not Alan Dean Foster. This is a great group for remembering these things. I think the buzzword is crowdsourcing.
I recall reading this in a science ficntion collection called Future Cars or something like that. It's a classic.
Posted by Richard on Thursday May 14, 2009 at 3:31 PM
The Locus Index shows this bibliography for the story;
"Why Johnny Can't Speed"
- (ss) Galaxy Sep 1971
- Top Science Fiction, ed. Josh Pachter, Dent 1984
- Isaac Asimov’s Wonderful Worlds of Science Fiction # 2: The Science Fictional Olympics, ed. Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg & Charles G. Waugh, Signet 1984
Posted by John D. on Thursday May 14, 2009 at 3:45 PM
Copies of TOP SCIENCE FICTION -- containing Alan Dean Foster's "Why Johnny Can't Speed" and 24 other terrific stories, selected and introduced by the authors themselves -- are available via my website.
Posted by Josh Pachter on Thursday June 11, 2009 at 10:14 PM