The identify that story/book thread: Home of the gas pump boy

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The identify that story/book thread: Home of the gas pump boy

dee eight: Dec 18, 2002; The Spirit
of Maynard

Zakalwe posted:

I was rereading Frank Herbert's Destination Void a while ago and parts of the plot suddenly struck me as similar to something I'd read a long time ago.

It's been about 18 years, but here's what I remember

1) Some form of small expedition is sent to Alpha Centauri.
2) The expedition members play the I Ching with pieces made from their own toe bones.
3) They develop some extraordinary technologies on their voyage.
4) They have children. Super smart children bred using aforementioned tech.
5) Their destination doesn't actually exist as promised.
5) They return to earth and gently caress it up a bit in revenge. I think I remember them disabling all of the planet's reactors.

This is a good idea as search is down. Also you need to relax. Read a book or soemthing.

That sounds very much like a short story called 'The Gold at Starbow's End' or something similar. I don't recall the author. Hope this narrows your search a bit.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2008 07:02

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dee eight: Dec 18, 2002; The Spirit
of Maynard

Rocambole posted:

If it's The Gold at the Starbow's End it's by Frederik Pohl, but I thought I'd read that and it doesn't ring any bells. Mind you that was years ago....

It's been decades since I've read it. The I Ching with toe bones was what caught my attention here. Also, I vaguely recall some bit about the expedition members developing a plant that grows hot french fries, though I may be mixing it up with some other story in my mind.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2008 07:30

dee eight: Dec 18, 2002; The Spirit
of Maynard

Adam Bowen posted:

I've been trying to remember the name of a short story I read in high school and I just can't figure it out. I remember that this scientist builds a machine of some sort and points it at some object in the sky which causes the machine to give out this sound or some other emanation that makes people insanely euphoric. So euphoric that they cease eating or doing anything else and basically will just listen to it until they die. Somehow the inventor escapes the machine and goes to congress or some other political body to try to stop the machine from being mass-produced but the person trying to market them turns on the machine and dooms everybody I guess.

That's a Kurt Vonnegut story called The Euphio Question. It's in the Welcome to the Monkey House collection.

dee eight fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Jul 29, 2009

# ¿ Jul 29, 2009 17:55

dee eight: Dec 18, 2002; The Spirit
of Maynard

Autarch_Severian posted:

Hopefully I'm not repeating a request that has already been in the thread. I scanned through it and didn't see any mention of the story I remember.

It's a short story, science fiction, I had to read it around 2002, but I remember it was from possibly the 70's-80's. It's roughly about the future of the cold war, where America and Russia send a squadron of soldiers each every year to fight to the death in some sort of large arena, the last 'team' with a survivor or group of survivors wins resources and bragging rights for a year, and the survivor is allowed to live the rest of their life without having to obey laws.

I know it's probably "the survivor" or "the arena" but there are quite a bit of short stories and stories with those names.

I've read that one. Details I recall include the protagonist wondering if the other team cuts an X in their bullets, Generals never survive, symmetry of the arena and teams, etc.

My first thought was that it's a Vonnegut story, but it really doesn't quite fit his style.

I'll do a little searching since I wouldn't mind reading it again.

edit: Fritz Leiber maybe? I'm trying to find details of a story called "The Reward" with no luck so far.

dee eight fucked around with this message at 09:29 on Feb 15, 2010

# ¿ Feb 15, 2010 09:02

dee eight: Dec 18, 2002; The Spirit
of Maynard

Autarch_Severian posted:

That's it exactly! Though I'm having no luck looking up "The Reward" either. Remember at all where you read it?

Yeah, it's in a collection of short stories I have somewhere in my house. My books are mostly boxed up and scattered hither and yon, so I'm having a hard time finding the exact book.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2010 19:32

dee eight: Dec 18, 2002; The Spirit
of Maynard

answered in another thread:

�Rumfuddle� by Jack Vance

Veni Vidi Ameche! posted:

It actually was Mr. Lupescu. I just had the details wrong after forty years.

Also, I almost never get to answer questions in here, so I want credit for Rumfuddle.

I pictured Mr Lupescu as Michael Caine when I read that story.

dee eight fucked around with this message at 09:26 on Feb 28, 2019

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dee eight: Dec 18, 2002; The Spirit
of Maynard

Veni Vidi Ameche! posted:

I�ll post the question I was going to ask, and see how long it takes Goons to figure it out. Now that I�ve found it, I think Goons would have been able to answer the question, even with my limited details.

This is a story I read a long time ago, at least thirty years. It had kind of a dusty feel to it, like the characters were poor or lived in a poor place. I kind of remember it being maybe in the Soviet Union, or somewhere in that region, but that could be totally wrong. The story is about a kid and (I think) his mother. I don�t remember any plot, but I think the kid made friends with a man that lived in their apartment block or something. I think there was something wrong or scary about this guy, but I don�t remember what. The guy had a name that seemed very strange to me at the time, something like Mr. Lucchessi [now that I know his name, I don�t actually remember what I thought his name was], but not exactly that, and even more odd, because I don�t think I�d ever heard the name, before. Also - and this might be 100% wrong - the guy might have been imaginary.

^^ I think that�s approximately what I was going to ask.

Mr. Lieupshcu or something close to that. It was an elaborate set-up to murder with a child as an eye witness (who would finger his imaginary friend, Mr. Lieupshcu).

# ¿ Feb 26, 2019 06:22

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The identify that story/book thread: Home of the gas pump boy