Unanswered Questions
86
votes
2answers
3k views
Story where the number 3 is the monster?
I remember as a child reading a story where the narrator was a little boy and how he was scared only twice a day – when the clock read 3:33. The 3's would be powerful enough (there were three of them ...
58
votes
1answer
1k views
Story where scientist communicates with cities directly
In the story, a scientist discovers that cities have more or less a gestalt consciousness, and that they communicate with each other indirectly through people. He decodes this communication, and ...
31
votes
0answers
775 views
Short story about Neurosurgeon uses nanobots to cure patients, 'reprograms' ex-wife to fall back in love with him
I read this story sometime between 1989 and 1991 in a SF&F magazine (Asimov's Science Fiction? The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction? Amazing Stories?) and
I've looked for it for years, in ...
24
votes
0answers
608 views
Time Travel story where an imprisoned psychopath kills people from his past?
I read a story some years ago (probably about 35) in an monthly sci-fi anthology...
It's set in a prison. The main character is a psychopath who has sessions with a psychiatrist - in these sessions ...
20
votes
0answers
262 views
Does the number 31 hold special meaning in Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers?
First, there's the 31 ways to get kicked out:
About the only thing we noticed, if we noticed anything, was what we called "the thirty-one ways to crash land." ... The "crash landings" were a ...
15
votes
2answers
677 views
Title of a time travel movie involving a boy in alien armour and a girl?
So years ago I saw this move with time travel but I didn't watch it from the very beginning.
I really would appreciate finding out the title of this movie.
Some random facts from this movie (I'm not ...
15
votes
0answers
355 views
Short story identification about a stained glass window?
There's a science fiction story in which a character is using a probability algorithm to restore a smashed stained glass window. As the story progresses, he begins to leave more and more of the pieces ...
13
votes
0answers
379 views
Has Iain M. Banks ever cited his inspirations for the backstory of Cheradine Zakalwe? (possible spoilers)
Specifically, I recently heard the story of Ed Gein, and how it influenced the movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I'm wondering if either inspired the story of the Chairmaker. Are there any ...
12
votes
0answers
220 views
What is the significance of the reversed colours of imperial and rebellion lasers compared to lightsabres?
Why were the colours of lasers inverted in Star Wars? (Out-of-universe!)
Lightsabres
In A New Hope (ANH) and The Empire Strikes Back (ESB)
We know why the colours of lightsabres were chosen as blue ...
12
votes
0answers
231 views
FDR's Buck Rogers Appearance?
What issue or date did Roosevelt appear in the Buck Rogers comic strip?
From the In Roosevelt History blog:
FDR: SPACE RANGER
In March 1944, the publishers of the
Buck Rogers in the 25th ...
12
votes
0answers
376 views
Differences between versions of “Nerves” by Lester del Rey
In 1942, Lester del Rey published "Nerves", a novella about an accident at an atomic plant; in 1956 he published a new version of it, expanded to a novel. I read those two. According to the ISFDb, ...
12
votes
1answer
302 views
Identifying a Book From the 70s: Battle/Balance between Light/Sun and Moon/Dark ?
I've had this story rolling around in my head for years, and every so often I Google what I remember...which is what brought me here. :-)
I remember reading it in the 70s, so it could be a YA ...
11
votes
1answer
184 views
Book about two factions of races using humans as hosts
I'm looking to identify a book which is a recent (2010+) paperback of which I've only read the first pages.
It presents the history of earth as the constant struggle of two factions of one alien race ...
11
votes
0answers
493 views
1980s TV show where a man wakes from cryogenic suspension and discovers he is just a head?
I'm trying to identify a science fiction TV show I saw in the early-to-mid 1980s or late 1970s. This story was a self-contained episode, so it was probably part of a Twilight Zone-like anthology ...
11
votes
0answers
209 views
Looking for a story told by intelligent nuclear bombs about the war they had with humanity
I'm looking for a short sci-fi story I read in a magazine about 20 years ago, with a very similar premise to Dark Star. The story was narrated by an artificial intelligent nuclear bomb, telling about ...
