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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The First Duelist by Rutledge Etheridge
A child is sent to a prison mining colony on the belt. There is a general at the prison and promotes the child to admiral. The child and general escape and travel the Sol system as a traveling ...
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90s sci-fi book about humans on a alien reserve; one man escapes and returns to liberate his people
There is a sci-fi book I read in the 90's. It was old back then, so it's possibly been published earlier. It was in English and I suspect the author was either American or British.
From what I can ...
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Book about portal/other worlds and a tribe digging for gold
There was this book I read years ago (2000-2009, possibly even older) about a boy who finds some sort of portal door.
It takes him to this world where a tribe is fighting to survive by digging for ...
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Short Story or Novella About Observing the Future [duplicate]
Trying to identify a story:
I read it in an anthology during the 80's. The anthology may have been older than that.
Narrator is sent by an organization to view the future. He does this on multiple ...
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Science fiction horror novella about yellow smoke that can control people's minds
It was a sci-fi and horror novella (the book contained 3 stories in total). The protagonist was a young kid with asthma. His parents were scientists and had to move to a new town in the middle of ...
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Book about teleportation, female main character, can't teleport off Earth
It is a series about a group of kids who cannot be off-world due to health issues, but they discover that the types of planets that are being searched for are wrong. If they try to teleport to another ...
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1answer
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Sci-Fi book revolving about a male character who traveled between dimensions and recorded his travels in logs he sent to his friends
I've been searching for this series for a while, the story revolved about a group of guardians of sort that travelled between parallel dimensions, through specifically hidden gateways in each ...
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Sci fi show about a boy with powers with rays coming out of a prism [duplicate]
I watched this show when I sass a kid (80-90s) about a boy that has some kind of powers. It’s set in the UK I think, in a cabin/lodge. It has a spooky theme where you see a prism slowly making taking ...
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Novel in which a machine is used to speed up Earth's rotation to achieve weightlessness and things go awry
Years ago, when I was in 6th grade, I picked up a sci-fi novel(-la? Pretty short) that was either translated into Chinese, or written in Chinese, more likely the former. That novel is centered around ...
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Short story read ~25 year ago where changing person's name prevents a war
I believe I read this short story in a collection.
A man's wife goes to a consultant to improve his career. The consultant says include your middle initial (I think).
The story goes though the ...
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Late 80s/early 90s young adult sci-fi book about teenage girl living on the moon after Earth's invasion by aliens
The book is about a teenage girl who lives on the Moon after aliens take over the Earth. I think there was a picture of a blonde girl sitting and the moon in the background on the cover. It was one of ...
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Movie taking place in a fair, including a giant woman in a dress stepping over the eating area
Old movie I watched as a kid around the early 2000’s. Movie looked older. I only remember a scene as follows: there’s a dad and son eating and a giantess wearing a dress/skirt literally walks past ...
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139 views
A book with two twins and a difficult relation, a room where time flows slower than the outside and a mysterious monster coming from a sink
There was this pocket book, back when I was a teenager (20 years ago), with these two twins discovering a room (it was something like a tool shed) where time flowed slower (1 hour inside was equal to ...
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1answer
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80s/90s Sci fi cartoon with artwork similar to Moebius', with a space journey atmosphere and a blue spaceship flying through the desert
I've got memories of a cartoon, I'm pretty sure I saw it on Cartoon Network a few times very early in the morning but I looked on the wiki list of shows and it's not there. I thought it was called ...
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Sci-Fi novel about a man that has the power to make everyone he meets forget him
I have been trying to recall what this book is from almost thirty years, I read it as a teen. I think it was published in the 1980s.
The story takes place in a distant space faring future, where ...
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1answer
127 views
1970 sci-fi story series about a spaceman looking for the group that modified him [duplicate]
A spaceman was modified by a group that threw him out of the program before the final stage. He was a thief and soldier. He needs metal in his diet. When he is near a fully modified man, he gets a ...
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Science fiction story where humanity is so technically advanced that they lack for nothing
Many years ago I read a story (I think it was a full-length novel) set in the far future of Earth where people effectively can have whatever they want whenever they want it. I also believe they had ...
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What is the early 80's sci-fi/horror movie with floating glowing balls, but is NOT Strange Invaders?
Does anyone know the early 80's sci-fi or horror movie about floating glowing alien balls? I remember a scene where an adult was lying down (in some sort of bed or pod) suddenly shrivels up, it's a ...
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207 views
Short story, where humans encounter an alien race, tell them stories; the aliens act out the stories and kill the researchers
Can't remember author or title of the story.
Seem to remember the protagonist is an investigator of some sort trying to find out why previously-peaceful alien race has killed the research or liaison ...
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1answer
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Sci-Fi Novel Earth with space station defense against aliens and a space fleet
I remember reading this novel when I was younger and here are some of the details I remember:
Earth has a space station that is used as a main defense against aliens, however, I believe the Earth ...
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Fantasy or sci-fi book involving cats and their philosophy
I read the book mid to late 90s and it seemed a bit old then so could have been published late 70s or 80s as well as 90s. My guess would be mid to late 80s.
The title was something unusual and not ...
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80s sci fi film with quest to replace lost female droid companion
I vaguely remember watching a science fiction movie with my mother sometime in the 80s (I was born in 84, so I'd be quite young at the time)... The movie was from the 80s, and this is what I remember ...
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1980s sci-fi book with space beetle and someone who thought he was a vampire but wasn't
I don’t remember the title or author or much about the plot. I would have read it sometime in the early 1980s and before 1983. It had a really weird space beetle (genetically engineered) and some guy ...
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Book Where Girl Can Control Meteors and Works for a Circus (YA Novel)
I read a book a couple years ago. It was fairly new, too. In the book, people begin giving birth to children (girls only?) who could control elements. The first child can control fire, the second ...
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448 views
Book about people facing environmental catastrophe who construct huge spaceship
I'm trying to track down a book I read in the 1980s sometime. I think it was set in the far future on an alien world colonised by humans, who had eventually descended into a kind of industrial-feudal ...
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Identifying a short story about digital immortality and the last man to die
Apologies for some of the vagueness, but I recall that this was a short story I read sometime around 2000/2001, though I suspect it was published well before that.
The premise is that whenever ...
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1answer
72 views
Vampire romance series
There's this vampire romance series. In the first book, the male lead (Kaden, I think is his name) kidnaps a human woman and her psychic daughter. The lady also has a sister, Emma, who is in hiding.
...
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3answers
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2000s (?) cartoon/anime in which a girl who had to go inside her PC's world
I've been thinking for a month now about this very old cartoon or even Japanese anime, in which there was a girl who had to go inside a PC to protect someone (the prod of that PC word?).
The story ...
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Finding book: Small space-traveling crew make/sell drug and a creature begin linking people's drug dream together
Unfortunately, I can't recall when I read this story, what timeframe it was authored, or who the author may have been. But I can remember enough key information from the story I think someone familiar ...
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201 views
Sci-fi story about cubes/threads attracted to sentient beings that entangle/kill them
I read this science-fiction story probably about a decade ago. I vaguely remember the cover featuring a pink cube.
Plot points:
There's a sort of environmental threat of weird never-fully-...
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1answer
141 views
Sci Fi series of books about America being cut off from the world with no electricity
This series began with the US being contained by some kind of pulse wall, anyone who attempted to cross it was vaporised. All electricity disappeared inside the wall and society quickly degenerated to ...
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2answers
168 views
Book about a young man with a cat sidekick
The details are very vague in my mind but I'm looking for the name of a book I read probably 7-10 years ago. It is about a young man/teenager that lived in a technologically advanced society where ...
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2answers
3k views
Late 1980's era film about thick white paste controlling people
When I was much younger (1980's), my brother and I recall watching a movie at a sci-fi convention. The premise of the movie is that there's some white paste, resembling marshmallow fluff, that enters ...
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1answer
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Indie movie about alien abduction on popcorn time
A guy wakes up at a place similar to an hospital and begins to run away from there. Seems to be on Earth and he's being chased. At some point he realizes he has super strength, like an orange glow ...
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Book that starts with humanity narrowly escaping the death of the sun consuming the Earth [duplicate]
The book starts with humanity narrowly escaping the death of the sun consuming the Earth. All the humans are only allowed to bring few possessions with them so a little girl brings a notebook and ...
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1answer
174 views
Scifi/Greek mythology graphic novel where the Greek gods were actually a space-faring civilization from a different dimension
I read this scifi/Greek mythology graphic novel I read a few years back ~2013-14. The main premise was that the Greek gods were actually a space-faring civilization from a different dimension, while ...
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Short story about a man getting the wrong phone number (with old-style exchange) and being 'disappeared'
An old science-fiction-y story, at least 1970s, probably earlier. Silly, short, kind of like one of Ray Bradbury's throwaways or one of Phil Dick's goofier renditions.
I think but am not sure that ...
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Rich man sells his brain to “demon” alien
A very rich man summons an alien (who is in his bathtub) to make a deal. The man has figured out that it is not magic. He trades some technology or knowledge for his brain at death. The brain goes ...
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446 views
Short scifi novel based on albums of musician
I read a book a few years back and am trying to find it again. This is a book that is sci-fi/fantasy with some hints of steampunk elements. The society is a dystopian/utopia book and centers around ...
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1answer
138 views
Book about an astronaut who is tasked with investigating the disappearance of a shuttle in the vicinity of a small forest planet
I've been looking for a book for over ten years now on and off that I read and loved as a child but misplaced in a house move.
I'm not 100% sure of the title, but I believe it's called The Wizard of ...
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1answer
199 views
Identify a movie from the 80s: desert, water sirens [duplicate]
I'm looking for a movie that I saw as a child in the 80s. It was a post-apocalyptic world with a group of survivors. They were in a deserted area. Once they entered a tunnel where the floor was ...
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0answers
169 views
Sci-fi b movie about a geek teenager who lives his life according to a fictional book
Shown in the UK on TV in the early 80s about a US geek teenager who is a social outcast and lives his entire life by a (fictional) book called (Corak?). Nothing to do with Tarzan.
This Corak is a ...
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1answer
126 views
Trying to remember a young adult sci-fy fantasy novel about memory
In this book I'm thinking of:
the main character was a young girl
I believe the title showed half of her face and her hair might have looked blackish blue
her parents grew up in this society where ...
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1answer
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Book about training for and surviving on a deadly planet
Looking for a 1960s book about people who think they are first training for and then fortifying on a planet where all the vegetation and other life is deadly and actively trying to kill intruders. ...
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1answer
169 views
Book about people finding out they are on some kind of space 'ark' [duplicate]
Looking for a 1960s book about people who think they are exploring a planet until they find they are on a huge space 'ark' going somewhere that has been travelling for generations.
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1answer
149 views
Book where alien device in city dump causes audio speech to manifest as words in the air like physical speech bubbles
So I've remembered bits and pieces of this over the years, but I know I never read the book.
I know I read an excerpt of it in the back of what I'm fairly certain was an pre-y2k Star Trek novel.
The ...
6
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1answer
124 views
Looking for a YA book series about teenagers who are the only ones to survive hypersleep [duplicate]
I read this series back in the early 2000s - sometime between 2003 and 2010. There were a ton of them, thin paperbacks. Some of them focused on different characters.
The plot that I remember: Earth ...
8
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1answer
297 views
A book using advanced science to act as magic [duplicate]
I'm trying to identify a book I read a long time ago. The premise was that far in the future humans had technology that could accomplish just about anything (teleportation, body manipulation creating ...
9
votes
2answers
473 views
Story about space flubber
I'm trying to remember a book I read when I was young (late 80s) although I am pretty sure the book was already old then. I read it in English.
I only remember one scene clearly, a scientist ...
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1answer
291 views
Novel from the 80s: Brain harvested and forced to fight in a war
For some reason I've been off and on trying to remember for this for some years now.
In short: The protagonist wakes up to discover his body has been replaced by a tank and is being forced to fight ...
