Questions tagged [soft-sci-fi]
Soft science fiction is a term for works in the science fiction genre which do not apply a rigourous scientific model for the universe. It can also be used to describe work where the science fiction aspect is incidental to the story (the same story could be told without the science fiction elements).
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1answer
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Book about "new man" or "new men" antagonist
Started a book long time ago about "new man" or "new men" attacking regular human settlements far from Earth but can't remember the title and didn't finish the book. The main ...
17
votes
1answer
1k views
Story identification - Childrens' Sci-Fi circa 1980s
Trying to identify a futuristic sci-fi with last remains of humanity (a boy?) lives in the wilderness hunting etc. allied with some mutant bear (maybe red?) called Baer. Some sort of control is ...
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Mid/late '80s paperback about a boy on a space station who steals a shuttle to visit a devastated Earth
Humans are living on a space station orbiting Earth (or possibly a colony on the Moon). They are forbidden to go down to the planet because there had been some kind of cataclysm (war, plague, or what ...
14
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1answer
758 views
Story identification - Desert planet with "Makers"
I recall reading a sci-fi novel that was set on a desert planet where the main character was part of the technologically backwards inhabitants of the planet, however there were some (at least two, but ...
6
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2answers
227 views
Old black & white movie with an ostrich-like monster
I am trying to find the name of a movie I saw many years ago. Should be from the '50s or '60s, since I remember it was black & white.
The creatures looked like "ostriches", but had some &...
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187 views
Identifying a near future Sci-fi novel where Rainforests are now a global treasure, with wars launched to take them over
I am looking for this book that I am trying to identify from memory:
It is a sci-fi novel taking place in the near-future
It was definitely printed before 2005, as I remembered borrowing it from my ...
12
votes
1answer
844 views
Scholastic sci-fi anthology book containing a short story about a planet with crystal monsters
During the late 1970's and early 1980's Scholastic would publish and sell books at elementary schools and I picked one up which had 8-10 stories inside which were all fantasy or sci-fi in nature. The ...
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0answers
84 views
Book about the 'aliens abduct humans to be soldiers' trope. It was comedic in style, involved blue skinned aliens
Quite a common trope I know but remember some details. I must have read it about... five or so years ago?
It was a pulp book I read on Kindle. It may have been a self-published eBook-only thing like ...
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0answers
84 views
Short Sci Fi about a young boy who grows up to be a famous musician
The story's protagonist was a young boy with epilepsy who is taken by his mother to some place with water, but not the ocean. There are shards of glass or pottery. It turns out that they are being ...
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134 views
Old sci-fi short story about bombs sent back through time and space by aliens to destroy earth [duplicate]
The story I remember and am trying to find: Humans had expanded out into the galaxy. Another race of aliens saw humans making their way towards their sector of space and feared us. That race was not a ...
10
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1answer
722 views
Old radio show or book about a group of marooned men on a planet with only one creature which they eat and then cocoon and change into that creature
Old radio show originally.
Only one type of creature on the planet, it had different types of “meat” which was eaten by the crew.
Some men went missing but were found to have cocooned and changed into ...
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0answers
85 views
1980s sci-fi British schools TV show with noseless aliens [duplicate]
When I was a kid, more than 30 years ago, I remember watching a TV show at school in the UK. Would have been mid-to-late '80s. I think it was probably part of an English language thing, where they'd ...
5
votes
0answers
136 views
Aliens invading Earth who control adults and are afraid of wood
Here's all I can remember :-
It was a sci-fi story but had a horror-taste to it.
It was about aliens from some other planet, who tried to invade Earth.
The aliens could not (or probably would not) ...
4
votes
1answer
111 views
Movie or miniseries about people shipwrecked on an island with an abandoned military facility and Aborigines
It was about some shipwrecked survivors. They get onto an island and one man is attacked in the water by something you can't see. Later at night he begins to mutate and goes to the sea. Then the other ...
10
votes
1answer
2k views
Early 2000s movie about robot that invades the world
I watched this movie when I was a little kid so my memory of it is not so good. I remember there being robots that kind of look like the Iron Giant invading a city and they had these antenna things ...
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0answers
42 views
Book where kids get powers and the girl goes crazy and gets electrocuted
I got this book from my middle school library in like 7-8th grade so it’s probably for younger kids.
The plotline was that a group of kids gain powers (I don’t remember how); I think the powers have ...
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4answers
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Novel: Sentient lifeform enslaves all life on planet — colonises other planets by making copies of itself?
I'm trying to find the name of this book I read in the past couple of years.
The book was about a sentient lifeform (I can't recall what kind, something that normally isn't sentient — the planet ...
5
votes
1answer
208 views
Classic Sci-fi Movie depicting human slaves on a foreign planet wearing metal (dog like) collars that prevent them from leaving [closed]
Looking for a classic sci-fi movie (B/W?) depicting human slaves (a male and female) on a foreign planet wearing metal (dog like) collars that prevent them from leaving.
10
votes
1answer
505 views
Sci-fi about boy captured by an alien trying to find intelligent life on Earth
I found the (short) story about a boy (or a man, probably, can't remember) in a collection of short sci-fi stories. I can describe the story a little, if that helps:-
The story starts out somewhere ...
4
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0answers
71 views
Book where an undercover chess grandmaster is sent to an alien planet so that he can facilitate contact or avoid the forthcoming war [duplicate]
I last read the book in the early 90's, so it would have been written before then.
The main plot is about an Earth person being sent on an undercover mission to an alien planet of extraordinarily ...
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0answers
111 views
1980's (maybe 70's) Scifi book series about other planets which were colonized one by native Americans, one by Mennonites, one by Mormons etc [duplicate]
I'm trying to remember the name of a book I read in high school (about 1984) that was about other planets which were colonized one by native Americans, one by Mennonites, one by Mormons etc. Very ...
18
votes
1answer
2k views
Story with a 3-layered world [duplicate]
I read this story in the 1990s or early 2000s, I believe.
It was about a world with three layers or zones, and in order to travel from one zone to the next, travellers could only do so naked, ...
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0answers
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Help me identify this science fiction graphic novel involving spacefaring mice/rats that I read in 2013
I have been looking for the name of this sci-fi graphic novel that I read in 2013. I do not remember the name of the novel, only a brief summary of the story.
Here it goes:
The story is set on board ...
11
votes
2answers
334 views
bad military sci-fi; from fending off Zerg-like hive to fighting the reified multiverse/sum of history
Every once in a while I recall reading this series, which was mostly notable for the number of trope and genre mashups it crammed in, and for diverging into silly fantasy territory at the end. I ...
10
votes
2answers
2k views
Sci-fi novel or novella where "Eliza Tertia" was one of the main characters
There's a book I borrowed from my grade 8 teacher's lending shelf (in Ontario, Canada) that I've been trying to identify for years.
The main character was a man in a futuristic setting who... I think.....
3
votes
1answer
164 views
sci-fi book where everyone older than 18 was dead
This was a sci-fi book where everyone older than 18 was dead. The eldest was some boy who's 17, I think, and I believe that they all had superpowers, if not all then some of them. The book started ...
13
votes
1answer
2k views
Story about a world of magic where science has been forbidden [duplicate]
I am looking for a book that I read in the 80s where magic is used to help with tasks and science is forbidden.
What I recall is that the protagonist (I think a boy) has to move a something heavy like ...
0
votes
1answer
175 views
50/60’s sci fi movie using Pi to communicate to aliens
What 50/60’s sci fi movie uses Pi to communicate with aliens?
2
votes
1answer
185 views
Title of science fiction novel from the '80s or early '90s with small furry aliens [duplicate]
There was another alien species that was invading Earth, and the little furry aliens helped us out. I think they liked having sex all the time and ended up having sex with the humans as well.
6
votes
1answer
214 views
Book series about pairs of clones, Pratwa, that were mentally linked [duplicate]
There was a great sci-fi book series that I read about experiments with clones (Pratwa?). The lab produced sets of 2 clones that were linked mentally. When they meditated and merged consciousnesses ...
9
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0answers
255 views
Movie about two kids who find an astronaut in the desert
The setting is an Earth-like desert. A brother and sister find an astronaut they believe to be an alien, although he's entirely human in appearance (as are they). I don't remember much about the plot, ...
15
votes
2answers
245 views
Looking for a book about talking dragons with no humans
When I was a kid I remember going to a relative's house and reading the beginning of a book about warring factions of Dragons. I was not able to finish before the weekend visit was over. I've never ...
3
votes
1answer
115 views
Short Story "Slow Topiary"
Short Story: Woman suffering from terminal cancer meets weird guy who has a topiary in his isolated home that is the size of a large oa
7
votes
1answer
380 views
Sci-fi TV series about medicine/virology/pathogen/germ warfare investigation
Unfortunately, the only details I am really sure of are the specific scenes I mention below. The rest I am quite hazy on.
IIRC it aired sometime in the mid to late 90s (maybe even early 2000s?) and it ...
12
votes
1answer
146 views
Book where the world is divided into seven parts where each part only lives for one day of the week and is in suspended animation for the rest [duplicate]
There was a book I read quite a while ago where due to population problems the population of the world was divided into seven parts. Each part actively lived one day a week and were in suspended ...
6
votes
0answers
230 views
Pre-1990's sci-fi novel about a man who becomes a legionnaire in a Roman/Romanesque Empire
I remember reading it in the late 1980's or early 1990's. If I recall correctly, it was:
set in the future
based on the Roman model of civilization and empire
about a guy who was training to become a ...
2
votes
0answers
88 views
Children's book about a long neck blue alien wearing a turtle neck sweater
I read a book in the 1980s that I am looking for title and publish date.
Book Type: children's picture book
Plot:
A long necked blue alien visits earth and disguises themselves by wearing a turtleneck ...
9
votes
0answers
103 views
Looking for an old sci-fi book/series about kids crashed on a planet
Ok, so it might be a long-shot, as I was around 12 when I read this book (or books?) — which was 30 years ago.
I'm not sure if it was a series of books, or just one book which I never finished.
The ...
3
votes
0answers
78 views
looking for science fiction short story about boy and friends who jump through planet gates to watch star explosions
This story is relatively new. It's short probably from one of the most known sci/fi magazines (Asimov, Analog, The magazine of fantasy and science fiction, Clarkesworld) I just read it earlier this ...
9
votes
1answer
498 views
Short Story - Robert Silverberg. The Story is about a solitary Pilot or Engineer of a pilgrim or colonization ship and his spiritual stowaway
I recall reading this story in the early 2000's in an old (90's) Silverberg anthology. The spiritual stowaway, a young girl desperate to escape her boring life in this story has somehow stolen the ...
10
votes
1answer
266 views
Funny, Jewish sci-fi novel
I read it mid 80's and found it a few years ago, but with the publication of a new Jewish sci-fi novel, it's harder to find it again.
The story is about an investigator working for a government ...
3
votes
0answers
142 views
Old cartoon/movie with tiny character driving a toy red Chevy Bel air
I watched this Disney-style cartoon on tv between 1997-98 but it was probably much older than that since the car in question appears to be, if memory serves me right, a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air ...
5
votes
1answer
499 views
80s/90s Scifi movie where an alien family is stuck on Earth [duplicate]
When I was younger I remember watching a copied VHS that had a partial sci-fi movie on it. From what I remember a humanoid alien family somehow gets stuck on earth.
There were 2 sisters whose hair ...
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vote
1answer
172 views
Alien doomsday movie where a good and bad alien fight whilst two kids look for a doomsday device
There are two kids and two aliens in this alien doomsday movie, one good and one bad. I believe the "good" alien is Dwayne Johnson or Vin Diesel. The "bad" alien is of size and shape of the ones in ...
7
votes
1answer
244 views
TV show / Film where a space ship breaks apart in a supernatural way near the end
I am having a super difficult time remembering this. I believe it was a TV show but it might have been a film (about 95% sure it was a TV show). I believe the premise was that some planet had an area ...
4
votes
1answer
217 views
90s-00s novel about a boy with a dimension hopping device
Trying to find a book that I read 10-15 years ago.
The novel is about a boy which one day gets visited by himself. His other self has a device with which someone can jump from one dimension to ...
20
votes
1answer
3k views
Late 90s movie about people disappearing (down drains, I believe)
I only remember the trailer and vaguely at that. It began with a statistic about how many people go missing every year and are not found. There was an "at first they thought people were being abducted ...
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votes
0answers
100 views
Prince Rupert's Drops [duplicate]
Does anyone remember a short story involving "Prince Rupert's Drops"? Story character finds these beautiful iridescent golden glass-like objects on the beach at one of the Great Lakes, and thinks it's ...
4
votes
1answer
251 views
Short story with an astronaut in space wearing a semi-sentient suit
Some astronaut is in space, and his spaceship is destroyed. For some reason, this dude is wearing a semi-sentient suit that keeps him alive indefinitely, and he's just floating through space for ...
8
votes
1answer
173 views
Short story where the labour class lives in another timeline to the privileged class
A short story was mentioned to me and we are trying to figure out the name of it.
It was apparently written years ago and was hoping to find it.
It was apparently a short story based around divided ...
