Another Name That Story challenge for our readers: Do any of you out there know the title to this story?

The story is a report from a World Science Fiction convention in the early 21st(?) century. A nuclear war has set technology back to the 19th century levels (sailing ships and carriages are mentioned) and so it takes weeks if not months for SF fans and readers to get together. The story talks about various works being written by authors, and their misadventures in getting to the convention. A mention of pirates capturing or killing a prominent female science fiction author is mentioned.

The main thrust of the story is that the nuclear war and regression of civilization has inadvertently rejuvenated science fiction, making it the literature of the times for everyone, the repository of hopes and dreams and imagination.

Can you name this story?

Another Name That Story challenge for our readers: Do any of you out there know the title to this story?

I read book years ago about a pianist who due to multiple seizures at a young age had his brain split in half.

As an adult each part of his brain had its own name and personality and the pianist half of his brain had to negotiate with the other side to perform.

Ends up that the other half of the pianist brain is a secret agent, and at times would take over the body.

Story ends with the guy winning the girl of his dreams, but the girl was in love with the secret agent side and not the pianist side.

So far Google hasn’t been much help since I can’t remember the title or author.

Every time I see your story challenge it reminds me of the the story so I decided to see if you or your readers can help.

Thanks,
- Jon

Can you name this story?

Another Name That Story challenge for our readers: Do any of you out there know the title to this story?

I’m looking for the title (or author) for a story that’s been bugging my mind for awhile. It’s a great story and I’ll be as detailed as I can without spoiling it if you haven’t read it.

It centers around an archaeological survey of an alien base on the moon. The base is deserted and the team can’t figure out who built it or what happened to them. The main character discovers a device which is a carving tool about the size of a large pen. He uses it to carve something but it falls to the floor and drills a hole down through the floor. There’s also a time travel element in there…

- Aaron

Can you name this story?

Another Name That Story challenge for our readers: Do any of you out there know the title to this story?

I have been searching here and there for the title of a science fiction book that I read as a child back in the 1960′s.

The plot is that scientists split an atom in a laboratory and control the explosion with super magnets that will not allow the explosion to expand very much. The explosion starts a small universe. They are able to use high power telescopes to peer into this universe as it unfolds. Eventually life begins on various planets. They focus on one.

The book is about life on this planet as it unfolds and beings evolve into a sophisticated society that travels around the universe in space ships. The story ends when the civilization becomes so advanced they build a spaceship that breaks out of the small universe into our universe.

I love this story. It’s so well written. Does it ring any bells?

Bernie

Can you name this story?

Another Name That Story challenge for our readers: Do any of you out there know the title to this story?

I have been searching for a science fiction story that I read in the 1980′s or early 1990′s. I posted the search on the UK Science Fiction & Fantasy chronicles network quite a while ago, but no one has identified it. So if you happen to recognize this story, I would be quite happy:

A detective pursues a Moriarty-like kidnapper (except that later you find out that the woman who was kidnapped was cooperating with the evil criminal). The “proper” detective is confronted with loosened morals and groundlessness. The abyss in space that he is eventually marooned in becomes a metaphor for the contemporary postmodern world in which there is nothing certain. Computer-generated 3D simulacra on the ship start to fade at the end of the story. They are without substance, presumably a representation of the protagonist’s loss of any sense of substance.

Cheers — David

Can you name this story?

Jonathan C. has a challenge for our readers with 2 story descriptions looking for titles.

Do any of you out there know the title to these stories?

Both are short stories I read as a teenager back in the early 1970s so the stories must be older than that.

Story 1 – A man lives his life in a disjointed way (a little bit like _Slaughter House 5_ or _The Time Travelers Wife_) but what he can do is to keep a diary, and so as the story progresses he changes his future. He then meets a woman who he discovers also lives her life in a jumbled time-line way. Together they manipulate their own timelines. The final lines of the story have the two as newly born babies in cots next to each other and both reach out to each other.

Story 2 – A man boards a metro underground railway train to find the end of the rail line. The journey goes on and on, and on, and then he finds he is approaching the stop from where he left but coming from the other direction. (The implication being that the world is one big city.)

Can you name these stories?

Our own Fred Kiesche is relaying a challenge from Nyrath concerning a story description looking for a title.

Do any of you out there know the title to this story?

I’m looking for a SF short story, geared torward adolescents, where the plot entailed a controlling society where a boy goes out of his way to systematically act anti-social. The two major plot devices are that males and females are chemically tied together for mating/marriage (society picks appropriate matches), and the fact that each individual is given their “lifelong earnings” at age 18. The reason the boy goes anti-social is so that he can get out of the chemical mate-matching so that he can marry the girl he loves and gives up his money to do so. Which by this point in this society is unheard of.”

Can you name this story?

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?

Back in the 80′s I remember reading in Analog or Asimov a series of short stories about a world with plant based wormholes, known as syntei or synthei. This completely reshaped the world in terms of evolution. There were carnivorous plants that had their roots and guts safely underground while their mobile predators stalked the world. Add to this a lost human colony that settled the world hundreds or thousands of years ago, and rediscovery by an expedition from the greater universe that promptly underestimates the locals and gets in trouble. One of the stories involved the local equivalent to the circus, the other a great escape from slavery enforced by the use of little wormholes.

Can anyone help me identify the stories and their author?

Thanks in advance.

- Trey

Can you name this story?

Our own Andrew Liptak has a challenge for our readers with story description looking for a title.

Do any of you out there know the title to this story?

It was published in the mid-90s, and is a science fiction YA novel about virtual reality and a game that two kids are playing. If I remember correctly, they’re stuck in the game until they finish it. There’s a castle, as well as wolves that attack them at one point. I can’t remember the title or author, but I have a vague recollection of the cover: it’s got a person with VR goggles looking down from the right, (there might be a castle on it) and there’s some yellows, greens and reds for some of the color – maybe purple.

Ring a bell?

Can you name this story?

SF Signal readers, your sf story knowledge is legendary to the point where we get specific request for you to name stories with remembered plots but forgotten titles. Like this one from Ian Watson via Marty Halpern…

Do any of you out there know the title to this story?

I’m trying to find the title and author of a story, but I only have a few details: the story is possibly from 30-plus years ago, possibly written by a woman. In the story lots of people all have the same wonderful dream, so they write it down as fiction and mail it to a magazine, which suddenly receives all these wonderful, moving, beautiful, and identical tales.

Anything come to mind?

Can you name this story?

Rocky writes in to challenge our readers with story description looking for a title.

Do any of you out there know the title to this story?

The book uses a “flashback” theme, going from present to distant past and back several times. It starts out with divers searching an under sea mountain ridge and finding something I would call a vault or bunker. No one has seen anything like it before so they decided to break into it to see what’s inside. Flashback. About 10,000 years before, aliens had invaded the earth just about when civilization was starting. The aliens had the ability to control humans by mentally inflicting pain on them to get them to do their bidding. They basically enslaved all the humans to keep the aliens alive and well treated. The aliens then discover a great tectonic plate movement (or something similar) was about to destroy where they lived so they built this vault for protection. Unfortunately, only one of the aliens made it to the vault before disaster struck. The area where they lived sank into the sea killing everything except this one alien in the vault. The vault was set up to put the alien into stasis so it could survive for millennium.

Flash forward again. The divers break into the vault but unknown to them is the alien is immediately brought back to life if the vault is opened. The alien senses the divers and takes control of them forcing them to bring it to their ship. The alien analyzes the situation and realizes much time has passed since he entered the vault and that he is alone on the planet. To survive, he has to get off. Through this pain control method he learns from the people on the boat that humans are going into space now. So he forces them to head for Cape Canaveral. Along the way they see a passenger ship (cruise ships didn’t exist when the book was written) and as he needs more humans to make his plan work, the alien then takes over the passenger ship.

I wasn’t able to finish the book so I don’t know if the alien made it off the planet. The book was a paperback with a picture of the aliens controlling humans. The alien was a rather large leathery looking thing weighing about a ton to me. The alien was being carried by humans walking over other humans forced to lay down to make a bridge over a gully.

Any information you can find or supply about this old book would be greatly appreciated. I sure would like to read it once more before I leave this ball.

Can you name this story?

Sam writes to challenge our readers with story description looking for a title.

Do any of you out there know the title to this story?

I read a book when younger about a post apocalyptic world were different groups had survived only because of their genetically engineered changes.

The protagonist is of a group that have gills (if I recall, he also had some mystical training that let him walk a road of some kind that resulted in teleportation), and their enemies were a group lead by a red lizard man.

I think there may have been a sequel written, but I read this book nearly 20 years ago, and I have no clue what the title was (I think the cover had a red lizard headed humanoid in a desert setting).

Can you name this story?

John Klima writes in with another story description looking for a title.

Do any of our readers out there know the title of this story?

I need help finding the title and author of a science fiction story. The basic plot goes like this: A guy finds a graffiti-covered box (looks like a telephone box or a power box) in the woods and realizes it is a puzzle. He opens layer after layer of the box to find harder puzzles that involve high math and even chemistry. He eventually is stymied and gives up. Turns out the box is an alien test to see if we are ready for first contact.

Can you name this story?

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? Warm up your memories…this is a tough one with few details:

I’m nearly 60 years old, so the SF I’m talking about is pretty old. In any case, here goes: Many, many years ago, I read a book where a traveler to another planet wrote “2 + 2 = 4″ in the sand, and the sane shifted until the inscription read “2 + 2 ~ 4.” Any idea of the book I’m looking for?

- Steve O.

Can you name this story?

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?

The story involves an alien race invading Earth. Another alien race, at war with the invaders, helps Earth out by giving us some sort of inertia-less drives. And, because Apollo landers suck in a fight, the drives get bolted into anything they can make air-tight, from submarines to battleships to tanks.

The coolest scene is when the battleship fires a shell at the invader ship (the cannon is wrapped with inertialess coils). The invaders are smug, knowing their shields will save them. Until the shell passes through the energy-weapon-defensive shields like air and blow up the ship. The invaders energy weapons can’t burn through the six inches of steel hull on the USA battleship in space. Meanwhile, a squadron of F14s fly by. In Space.

I really hope somebody recognizes this one.

- Chris F.

Can you name this story?

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?

[A] Musician plays in bars, he plays an electronic instrument that creates holograms rather than (or in addition to) sound. He was recruited to be part of a crew on a ship that went to sample the sun’s corona. During the dip into the corona, the crew shut down the ports but he opened a port and looked into the sun. It blinded him, but it also impacted his music.

- Bill B.

Can you name this story?

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?

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.

Can you name this story?

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?

I’m not sure how old this is or when I even read it (it has to have been at least 15 years ago) but the story revolves around the main character either creating or working with the people who created a method of reading everyone’s mind at once. I think there were these boxes that the character put together and when you were in the box you could search out the thoughts and memories of anyone you wanted.

At the same time the main character’s daughter was going to a psychologist and through hypnosis “discovered” that she may have been molested by her father. I don’t want to spoil the ending of the book but the memory device plays a big part in resolving everything.

Jen R.

Can you name this story?

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?

Theme: Bard saves the earth

HELP – I’m looking for Title and Author of 1950′s short story…

Story-line: – Earth is finally dying after colonizing the stars; polluted water, exhausted air, and diminishing resources spell Earth’s death. Earth’s Supreme Council sends VIP ambassadors to every colony with massive amounts of data and detailed plans to beg, plead for resources/money to [rejuvenate] earth. With only one ship left to send and no more VIPs, earth’s council as an afterthought sends a Bard as a “Forelorn Hope” All VIPs return empty handed having utterly failed with all their diagrams plans etc to convince anyone that the home planet is worth saving. The Bard also returns apparently empty handed and when the council asks him what he did he simply replies. “I didn’t bother trying to convince anyone, I just sang the old songs, told the old stories and myths and reminded them about the green hills of earth”. The council, furious with his wasted effort, is about to disband in [despair] when in rushes a messenger saying that

thousands upon thousands of space ships are earthbound to [rejuvenate] the home planet – because they heard the old songs and stories and were reminded of home.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Niela M.

How about it, dear SF Signal reader…can you name this story?

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?

I am looking for an old SF spy book, which is likely out of publication. I can’t remember the title, though.

The story, however, is about a “sleeper agent” sent to infiltrate organizations on other planets. He is put through a kind of brainwashing and his body is heavily modified, so he will fit the role of whoever he is . . . impostering. His own consciousness kind of takes a back seat while he carries out the programmed mission. When a life threatening situation occurs, his mental conditioning is allowed to go “offline”, causing his own consciousness to resurface.

I think the story goes through something like 3 missions, each on different planets. Between each mission, we get a look into the main character’s true thoughts. There is an invented religious faith in the story, something like “catholic zen buddhist”, and the main character is a member of this faith. I think they are pacifists, which raises some internal conflict with the character and his chosen career. The first mission, he replaces an overweight research scientist. The third mission, I believe he replaces some well trained guy on a planet where fencing is common. In that mission, the long-haired love interest is captured and tortured. I seem to remember the hero was captured as well, causing his own consciousness to resurface “too early”. This compromised his ability to copy the behavior of the person he replaced.

Anyway, I think the story ends with him being disposed of by the organization he works for, as they see his thoughts between missions becoming too conflicting. I recall one amusing line in the story, where the hero is getting seriously pounded, and he recalls that the tooth he just lost was his last actual tooth.

Recently reading about the upcoming Eliza Dushku series, Dollhouse, reminded me of the story.

Mike

Can you name this story?