All Questions
74,036
questions
10
votes
1
answer
1k
views
From where in the UK is the word "refs", as used in Rivers of London?
I've heard Peter Grant use the word 'refs' and I assumed it was a London term, but it's used by Dominic in Foxglove Summer who's from Hereford.
I'm from that vague area of the country and I've never ...
- 81.8k
3
votes
0
answers
95
views
What powers do the thirty coins provide?
In Thirty Coins, everyone agrees that the thirty silver coins of Judas are extremely powerful, with dark hints that if Hitler and Napoleon only had a few, someone with all of them would be very bad ...
- 115k
3
votes
1
answer
94
views
Book series about a female detective partnered with a part-human, part-demon, male cop
Read this series around about 2008-2010; thought they were either by Rachel Caine or Kelley Armstrong, but from what I can see I must be mistaken.
From what I can remember of the concept, humans and ...
- 31
8
votes
1
answer
410
views
Where does this thumbnail mentioning the In-Betweener come from (Marvel comics)?
From this blogpost:
He is the separator of actualities.
He is the barrier between dichotomies.
He is the all-powerful In-Betweener.
I tried Bing reverse image search, but no useful information came ...
- 183
5
votes
0
answers
109
views
Is there a robot in Clone Wars or Rebels that fulfuls the 'salesman' aspect of George Lucas' original vision for C3P0?
There is evidence that George Lucas' original vision for C3P0 was that he was to be a sleazy salesman type personality.
Later we see that Lucas chose to use Anthony Daniels' voice (in addition to the ...
- 9,879
3
votes
1
answer
112
views
Sci fi movie with a blind skeletal robot hunting a man in a warehouse
I only saw one scene when I was a kid.
It was about a machine that looked like the skeleton terminator in a warehouse setting I think, and it was passing by a terrified man who didn't make any noise ...
- 39
5
votes
0
answers
60
views
YA Book about a village girl who runs away with 2 friends
hiya this book has been PLAGUING my mind for over 6 years; it’s been so long i am beginning to doubt the little details that i know:/ It is a definitely book for teenagers with the genre of dystopian/...
- 51
1
vote
0
answers
19
views
Was Nurph part of the original Pantheon?
In the Generica Online series of books, it's established pretty early on that a system is in place over the world, creating an RPG interface for everyone living there. In Threadbare: Friends With ...
- 216k
36
votes
1
answer
6k
views
Why would a ship-launching woman need to resemble a champagne bottle?
In "The Light Fantastic", rather early in the book, I was a bit surprised by the phrase
the object of desire did indeed look like a bottle of champagne
to justify claiming that the
...
- 11.4k
7
votes
2
answers
509
views
Sci-fi, mid-grade/YA novel about a girl in a wheelchair beta testing the world's first fully immersive VR program
I read this book when I was nine or ten, so back in the late 90s (no idea if it was new then, but probably based on the subject matter), and I really want to try to find it and recommend it if I can.
...
- 79
1
vote
0
answers
43
views
Cultivation manhua/manhwa in which the main character goes on adventures with his female masters
I remember reading this quite a while ago. The main character is put in his astral form goes on adventures with his female masters (he has more than one female master). He learns different cultivation ...
- 29
4
votes
1
answer
214
views
Manga where the main character has a luck special power. Uses it to get rich
The main character has a skill or power to see the chances of things, like which ticket wins the lottery. He wins and also helps the store clerk sell his house, then a dog almost runs into him but he ...
- 143
2
votes
1
answer
33
views
Mahwa with duplicate main characters - one is weak and other is strong and they both change their world
Manhwa Murim in which blue/dark blue haired student who is weak is bullied by people in front of a girl. He is transferred to another world or past in Murim. His duplicate is transferred to his world, ...
- 21
5
votes
1
answer
824
views
What does "solid four" mean?
In Don't Look Up (2021), Professor Mindy is talking to Mrs Mindy on phone:
Mindy: Hey, how's Evan feeling? Are the new meds working out?
Evan: I'm a solid four.
Mindy: Well, that's better than last ...
- 1,261
2
votes
2
answers
207
views
What is the earliest work to have a species deliberately falsify its level of technology?
I am looking for the earliest example of a work where a species pretends to be at a much lower or higher level of technology than the one it has achieved. An example of this would be the Organians in ...
- 441
2
votes
1
answer
124
views
What does "Crossbone Crunch" mean?
In Scifi-comedy movie Don't Look Up (2021), Kate discovers a moving comet in her observation, and
her team celebrates the discovery:
Kate: This is nuts! This is so crazy!
Woman: I've got a hard cider ...
- 1,261
3
votes
1
answer
138
views
What kind of Romulan warbirds was the Enterprise-C fighting?
In the Star Trek: TNG episode "Yesterday's Enterprise," Captain Garrett tells Captain Picard that the Enterprise-C was attacked by four Romulan warbirds. However, she never specified what ...
- 3,928
0
votes
0
answers
66
views
A manga where a the female lead died by her step sister and is reincarnated a year back
At the start the female lead is caged and is being forced by a masked man and later she is killed by step sister who throws her off a cliff. After this she wakes up yo find herself a year back in time ...
11
votes
1
answer
375
views
Custom-written SF story about the future of portable computing
Around 15–20 years ago I was in touch with someone who had been a member of a UK-based handheld computer society, maybe in connection with HP calculators. Their society had recently had its 25th ...
- 969
5
votes
1
answer
107
views
Late 80s early 90s young adult fiction sci-fi series with teenagers in space stranded on a planet
I read a series of paperbacks in the late 80s or early 90s that I found at my local library. I don't know how many books there were because I never finished the series. I feel like I read 3 to 5 and ...
5
votes
0
answers
55
views
Sci-fi movie where aliens fight to control the Earth [duplicate]
Two group of aliens send their agents to Earth to fight over controlling Earth. These agents are in human form but can identify each other using special glasses. When an agent was killed, the killer ...
4
votes
1
answer
68
views
3D sci-fi animation the team mascot is swallowed by a sky-dwelling monster named Leviathan
A 3D sci-fi animation. A group of friends has a mascot who is swallowed by a sky-dwelling monster named Leviathan. Other people are swallowed too. In the end Leviathan is defeated and the people ...
- 49
6
votes
1
answer
159
views
Does "A Second Chance at Eden" require knowledge of "The Night's Dawn" trilogy or can it be stand-alone?
I am very familiar with The Night's Dawn trilogy but only recently found out about this collection of short stories - one of which was apparently adapted into an episode of "Love, Death & ...
- 253
1
vote
1
answer
44
views
Manhwa where the female lead, a fangirl of the novel, gets reincarnated in it as a side character
Female lead has white hair and gets reincarnated as an ordinary side character. She is a fangirl of second love interest and pays a lot of money to go into balls to see him. He had long white hair and ...
2
votes
0
answers
66
views
Anime about a girl who is a zombie
It is an anime. I can't recall if it was a series of a film. A group of students broke into what I assume was a museum (there was a lot of historical artifacts) but they end up waking up a zombie/...
- 51
5
votes
1
answer
383
views
Which Abednedo are named after Beastie Boys titles?
Some Abednedo have been named after albums or songs by the Beastie Boys, most famously Ello Asty after Hello Nasty. The Abednedo themselves having been named after part of the refrain to "...
- 38.5k
0
votes
0
answers
120
views
TV show about a boy who finds a hidden room
TV show about a boy who finds a hidden room with goblin and finds out what he is and has kid with alien in another dimension or something. Time moves fast in that place and his friends try to get him ...
- 11
6
votes
1
answer
140
views
Book where the protagonists are transported from the past into a futuristic spaceship
I am looking for a book I read on kindle a number of years ago (not an account I have access to now).
The concept was that 2 midshipmen (I think that was their rank) are transported forwards in time ...
- 63
1
vote
0
answers
97
views
Question about identification of story [closed]
I remember reading what may have been a novel, if not a short story, in which one of the keys was that the protagonist somehow was being followed or observed by another character, and when the ...
- 105
4
votes
2
answers
226
views
Story about an adaptive, intelligent parasite "defeated" by humans
Several years ago I read the plot synopsis on Wikipedia (bad form, I know) for a sci-fi story with an intelligent parasite that infected humans. The parasite adapted to all attempts to defeat or drive ...
- 149
7
votes
1
answer
130
views
Science fiction story where all television and radio waves disappear
I remember reading a short story - probably 1960s - where there is some alien intervention - although not the presence of aliens - and suddenly there is no more transmission of radio or television ...
- 105
11
votes
2
answers
2k
views
1960s short story about mentally challenged fellow who builds a disintegration beam caster from junkyard parts
Looking for title & author of 1960s short story about mentally challenged fellow who builds a disintegration beam caster from junkyard parts. Authorities come to investigate, but by the time they ...
19
votes
1
answer
5k
views
Who hugely misunderstood the sentence "Do you feel like breakfast ?"
A scene from an SF book just jumped to my mind. I read it many decades ago. I believe it is a rather famous book, so this question might be a dupe. Still, I have no idea what book it was. But I am ...
- 11.4k
2
votes
0
answers
110
views
Can any one help me with the title and author of Fantasy novel series with wars between good and evil waged by human champions of various gods
So I remember there being wars between good and evil being waged through wars with humans and some humans being the champion of a god and some being chosen by more then one god. Roughly medieval time ...
- 21
1
vote
0
answers
84
views
Searching for a manhwa/novel where the heroine is reincarnated as villain and forced to marry second male lead
The female main character is reincarnated into a Villain family where family members torture her secretly and make her act as a Villainess. They force her to marry the second male lead.
First male ...
Rose Alice
8
votes
0
answers
124
views
Glass submarines, sea serpents and aliens at the bottom of a deep sea trench
Trying to identify a book I read at school back in the early 1980s. It featured small glass submarines, elusive sea serpents, and once the sea serpents were tracked down, aliens hiding under a force ...
- 81
-3
votes
1
answer
158
views
First occurrence of the hero's counter-plan needing the villain's plan to succeed fully
When was the first occurrence of the hero's plan to save the day require the villain's plan to succeed (at first)? The villains plan needs to succeed fully (so no "actually you thought you did it&...
- 2,595
8
votes
0
answers
71
views
Novel where sick children are transported to a world with three types of machines controlled by the villain
I strongly remember reading this book, including large chunks of the plot and setting, except that I can't remember the author or the title. After fruitlessly wrestling with various book searching ...
- 81
17
votes
3
answers
3k
views
70's or 80's movie in which an older gentleman uses a magic paintbrush to paint living children into paintings they can't escape
There was a 70's or 80's movie that I just can't find.
The movie has an older gentleman who would use a magic paintbrush (I seem to remember it was made out of a young girl's hair) to paint living ...
- 179
26
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Alien invasion movie, including the line: "We are the food"
I saw this sci-fi movie once on TV, around the second half of the 90's.
In this movie, a huge UFO was found near the North Pole (or was it the south?) and an expedition is called to go inside.
Inside ...
- 559
1
vote
1
answer
108
views
Manga in which the main character is transported to another world and decides to sell insurance, before meeting the demon lord
Looking for a manga I read a few years ago.
The main character gets transported to another world and decides to sell insurance. He then meets the demon lord, who was also transported into the same ...
- 19
4
votes
1
answer
257
views
Why did the Organians pretend to be human at all?
In TOS: Errand of Mercy the Klingons occupy a planet apparently at around the stage Europe was at in the 1000s or so. (While their appearance was an illusion or at least a disguise, perhaps the ...
- 14.7k
4
votes
0
answers
106
views
Short novel about artificial infertile girls coming from Venus to marry men and eliminate human race
Short novel about artificial infertile girls coming from Venus to marry men and eliminate the human race through infertility.
There was a "happy" ending (quite questionable) - men just ...
- 363
11
votes
0
answers
141
views
Trying to remember an older planetary romance novel
I am trying to remember a book that I read fairly recently, although it was much older (from the 1970s at the latest). I probably found a copy of it online somewhere like the Internet Archive. It ...
- 95.2k
14
votes
1
answer
946
views
Short story identification: misquotation of A Tale of Two Cities ending
I seem to recall having read a short story about 10 years ago where the ending of the story was a misquotation of the famous quote from the end of the book A Tale of Two Cities
"It is a far, far ...
- 309
4
votes
0
answers
59
views
YA SF story : Antéor is the guide to the world of the electron
Well, this one is a long shot.
I read this YA short fiction (novelette size, I think) when I was ...YA, in the mid-sixties. It was in French and certainly the original. Whether it was ever translated ...
- 11.4k
1
vote
1
answer
97
views
Eight clones made by in-vitro fertilization, discovered by a female scientist
The story is about a female scientist starting a relationship with a younger guy after meeting his criminal clone and not knowing. She investigates further to find out that they actually are eight ...
- 19
1
vote
1
answer
478
views
When will copyright on Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson book series expire?
When, in the future will copyright on Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson book series expire?
Note: Rick Riordan is a US-based writer, so US copyright law applies here.
3
votes
1
answer
89
views
Boy from Earth who later finds out he can teleport accused for the murder of the leader of another planet
A boy is arrested for the murder of some important leader of a planet. He is transported to space using multi-dimensional teleportation or something.
I think he might be kidnapped at some point by ...
8
votes
1
answer
2k
views
What happens when Goose, or her species, swallow people?
In The Marvels movie, Goose and
What exactly happens to the humans who are swallowed? Even assuming a stomach that is bigger on the inside, how do they breathe?
- 116k