The Five-Minute Forums  

Go Back   The Five-Minute Forums > FiveMinute.net > Science Fiction

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 03-06-2005, 07:56 AM
May May is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 4
Default Help Needed Locating The Title Of A Book Please!

I am new to the 5MV forums, although I have been reading and enjoying 5MV for several years now. However, I have decided to post today because it is obvious that as a group of very intelligent peole interested in science fiction, you would be able to help me find the title or author of this book.

The book (or actually it could just be a short story, I actually don't know) is about a man who used to be a motorcyclist or was in a motorcycle accident, who was frozen and then reawakened in the future. In true science fiction fashion, the future is of course very different from what he was used to, specifically because a formula has been developed that eradicated all death from the world. The rest of the book is concerned with how the hero and everone else deals with a world without death. For example, people like the elderly have to volunteer for suicide etc.

Please tell me if you have any idea what the title or who the author of this book is. I would really really really appreciate it.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 03-06-2005, 11:08 AM
Captain Proton's Avatar
Captain Proton Captain Proton is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 17
Default

Sounds a bit like Asimov's "Pebble ib the sky".
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 03-06-2005, 10:04 PM
May May is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 4
Default

Nope. I read all of Asimov's Foundation books and the prequels and it's not Pebble in the Sky. THe book I'm looking for, the person wasn't transported but reawaken from a frozen sleep, and the idea of no death in the world is what drives the book. But, thanks for trying Captain Proton.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 03-10-2005, 04:30 PM
PointyHairedJedi's Avatar
PointyHairedJedi PointyHairedJedi is offline
He'd enjoy a third pie
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: The Scotlands
Posts: 4,354
Send a message via ICQ to PointyHairedJedi Send a message via AIM to PointyHairedJedi Send a message via Yahoo to PointyHairedJedi
Default

It sounds almost a little like a short story (or two) by AC Clarke, but that couldn't possibly be what you're thinking of.
__________________
Mason: Luckily we at the Agency use use a high-tech piece of software that will let us spot him instantly via high-res satellite images.
Sergeant: You can? That's amazing!
Mason: Yes. We call it 'Google Earth'.
- Five Minute 24 S1 (it lives, honest!)

"Everybody loves pie!"
- Spongebob Squarepants
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 03-14-2005, 12:52 AM
mudshark's Avatar
mudshark mudshark is offline
Is he ever gonna hit Krazy Kat, or what?
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: UMRK
Posts: 1,738
Default

It also reminds me somewhat of the movie Freejack, which was based on the 1959 Robert Sheckley novel Immortality, Inc. That's probably not it, though; hardly anybody seems to be interested in reading stuff that's more than 20 years old, anymore.
__________________
Methinks Ted Sturgeon was too kind.

'Yes, but I think some people should be offended.'
-- John Cleese (on whether he thought some might be offended by Monty Python)
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 03-14-2005, 01:48 AM
Zeke's Avatar
Zeke Zeke is offline
The lens that flares in the night
Administrator
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Ottawa, ON
Posts: 3,396
Send a message via ICQ to Zeke Send a message via AIM to Zeke Send a message via Yahoo to Zeke
Default

Not while I'm running this place, chum! I love classic sf, especially Ray Bradbury's short stories, and movies like The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Thing. Nor are the other staffers spring chickens sf-wise; for example, IJD's a big enough fan of Philip K. Dick to recognize what was changed for the movie Payback.

That said, I don't recognize the story May's talking about, and my usually-mad Google skills haven't turned anything up. However, I post at a forum where I can almost guarantee someone will have read it. I'll ask about it there.
__________________
FiveMinute.net: because stuff is long and life is short

[03:17] FiveMinZeke: Galactica clearly needs the advanced technology of scissors, which get around the whole "yanking on your follicles" problem.
[03:17] IJD: cylons can hack any blades working in conjunction
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 03-14-2005, 08:28 PM
evay's Avatar
evay evay is offline
But if you put the hammer in an elevator...
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Deck Four, Section Seven
Posts: 522
Default

It actually sounds vaguely like a short story from Read magazine, but in that one the guy was a real jerk (and a funeral director) and had himself frozen to wake up in the future to meet prettier and less-demanding women than the "present" offered, or something. (I read it over 25 years ago, sorry.) The kickers were that not only was society more egalitarian and the races more intermingled (so that the woman who greeted him upon his defrosting was "mannish" and café-au-lait skinned rather than the Swedish bikini team captain he was expecting), but that death was eliminated so he was completely out of a job.

Has anyone on staff has read Frederic Brown's short stories? The Brown books I have, from my parents, are so old that they're mostly held together by the other books on the shelf pressed against them.
__________________
Any truth is better than indefinite doubt. — Sherlock Holmes
"The Adventure of the Yellow Face," Arthur Conan Doyle
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 03-15-2005, 10:34 PM
mudshark's Avatar
mudshark mudshark is offline
Is he ever gonna hit Krazy Kat, or what?
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: UMRK
Posts: 1,738
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeke
Not while I'm running this place, chum! I love classic sf, especially Ray Bradbury's short stories, and movies like The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Thing. Nor are the other staffers spring chickens sf-wise; for example, IJD's a big enough fan of Philip K. Dick to recognize what was changed for the movie Payback.
Of course, that's one of the main reasons I keep coming back here. Unfortunately, with the exception of those here, and of a few people at TBBS who are about the same age as I, most seem to view science fiction as something that began with Star Wars. For them, there's nothing but an impenetrable void prior to 1977.
__________________
Methinks Ted Sturgeon was too kind.

'Yes, but I think some people should be offended.'
-- John Cleese (on whether he thought some might be offended by Monty Python)
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 03-15-2005, 11:29 PM
PointyHairedJedi's Avatar
PointyHairedJedi PointyHairedJedi is offline
He'd enjoy a third pie
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: The Scotlands
Posts: 4,354
Send a message via ICQ to PointyHairedJedi Send a message via AIM to PointyHairedJedi Send a message via Yahoo to PointyHairedJedi
Default

Well, I don't think I can be counted among that particular group.

Incidently today I bought a second-hand hardback volume of John Wyndham novels. Ah, no-one wrote a good apocalypse quite like he did...
__________________
Mason: Luckily we at the Agency use use a high-tech piece of software that will let us spot him instantly via high-res satellite images.
Sergeant: You can? That's amazing!
Mason: Yes. We call it 'Google Earth'.
- Five Minute 24 S1 (it lives, honest!)

"Everybody loves pie!"
- Spongebob Squarepants
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 03-16-2005, 01:10 AM
MaverickZer0's Avatar
MaverickZer0 MaverickZer0 is offline
Suuuuuper genius
Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: On Beach Street, in a Dimensional Area
Posts: 745
Send a message via AIM to MaverickZer0 Send a message via MSN to MaverickZer0 Send a message via Yahoo to MaverickZer0
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by mudshark
It also reminds me somewhat of the movie Freejack, which was based on the 1959 Robert Sheckley novel Immortality, Inc. That's probably not it, though; hardly anybody seems to be interested in reading stuff that's more than 20 years old, anymore.
Ooh, I love that book! Must see the movie some day. Anyone here see it?
__________________
Sig v8.2.2

No, I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm going to go and do it anyway.

*pokes avatar* Made by a good LJ friend. Thanks Ani!

Dark Blues: I'm going to kill you!
Enzan: Not if I kill me first!
Dark Blues: You...are aware my goal is accomplished either way, right?
Enzan: ...Yeah...
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old 03-16-2005, 10:01 AM
Zeke's Avatar
Zeke Zeke is offline
The lens that flares in the night
Administrator
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Ottawa, ON
Posts: 3,396
Send a message via ICQ to Zeke Send a message via AIM to Zeke Send a message via Yahoo to Zeke
Default

Sorry, May, it looks like no one at this other place recognized it either. I'll let you know if that changes, though.

Re: John Wyndham... Word. He writes a mean short story too. Pick up "The Seeds of Time" if you can find it.
__________________
FiveMinute.net: because stuff is long and life is short

[03:17] FiveMinZeke: Galactica clearly needs the advanced technology of scissors, which get around the whole "yanking on your follicles" problem.
[03:17] IJD: cylons can hack any blades working in conjunction
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old 03-16-2005, 12:42 PM
PointyHairedJedi's Avatar
PointyHairedJedi PointyHairedJedi is offline
He'd enjoy a third pie
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: The Scotlands
Posts: 4,354
Send a message via ICQ to PointyHairedJedi Send a message via AIM to PointyHairedJedi Send a message via Yahoo to PointyHairedJedi
Default

Yeah, I've read that one. My absolute favourite book of his (co-authored, so it says on the cover, by a fella called Lucas Parkes, in reality an alias of Wyndham himself) is called The Outward Urge, a series of thematically linked short stories. Space, as they say, is a province of Brazil.
__________________
Mason: Luckily we at the Agency use use a high-tech piece of software that will let us spot him instantly via high-res satellite images.
Sergeant: You can? That's amazing!
Mason: Yes. We call it 'Google Earth'.
- Five Minute 24 S1 (it lives, honest!)

"Everybody loves pie!"
- Spongebob Squarepants
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old 03-18-2005, 07:34 PM
NAHTMMM's Avatar
NAHTMMM NAHTMMM is offline
Noodles And Hot Tofu! MMM
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: St Louis, MO, USA, . . .
Posts: 2,959
Send a message via Yahoo to NAHTMMM
Default Re: Help Needed Locating The Title Of A Book Please!

Quote:
Originally Posted by May
people like the elderly have to volunteer for suicide
*lightbulb goes off in NAHTMMM's head*

Ooo! Ooo! We were talking about a story like that just the other day in utopia class! What was the title...oh, wait...motorcyclist waking up in the future? Hmm, no, I don't think there was anything about a person from the past experiencing the future. Sorry. Will look it up anyway I think...


But welcome to the forums anyway!
__________________
My 5MV webpages My novel fivers list

Yup

“There must have been a point in early human history when it was actually advantageous to, when confronted with a difficult task, drop it altogether and go do something more fun, because I do that way too often for it to be anything but instinct.” -- Isto Combs
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old 03-19-2005, 06:20 PM
Katy Jane's Avatar
Katy Jane Katy Jane is offline
Or is it KJHTMMM now?
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: St. Louis
Posts: 1,139
Send a message via MSN to Katy Jane Send a message via Yahoo to Katy Jane
Default

Likely the story NAH is remembering is one of Kirt Vonnaget Jrs short storys, though i can't remember the name, but like he said, no motercycles or getting frozen people wakeing up in the future.
__________________
Vulcan children are never late with their Sehlat's dinner
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old 03-19-2005, 10:44 PM
mudshark's Avatar
mudshark mudshark is offline
Is he ever gonna hit Krazy Kat, or what?
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: UMRK
Posts: 1,738
Default

Vonnegut? Hmmm, the only stories of his dealing with time travel/shifting that I can think of, off the top of my head, are Slaughterhouse-Five, The Sirens of Titan (chrono-synclastic infundibulum, heh ), and Timequake, all novels. Some re-reading may be in order.
__________________
Methinks Ted Sturgeon was too kind.

'Yes, but I think some people should be offended.'
-- John Cleese (on whether he thought some might be offended by Monty Python)
Reply With Quote
  #16  
Old 03-22-2005, 05:02 AM
May May is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 4
Default

Wow guys!! Thanks for all the suggestions. I am a little surprised that no one knows exactly what the book is, but I think one or two of your suggestions may be right. Since everyone finds the motrocyclist the most problematic maybe I'm wrong about it, so I'll check it out.

Seriously you guys are great with the scifi. I've been checking out each suggestion slowly (very slowly) and found some new titles to read although they do not match what I'm looking for. So thanks for playing, although this isn't so much a game as a nostalgic search.
Reply With Quote
  #17  
Old 03-22-2005, 05:11 AM
May May is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 4
Default

Incidentally NAHTMM, is the book your reading in class PD James Children of Men and are you reading Bellamy's Looking Backward or Gilman's Herland? I too took a utopia class as an undergraduate and these books have some interesting scifi themes you may all be interested in (although I actually read Children of Men for a very strange highschool class).
Reply With Quote
  #18  
Old 03-22-2005, 08:02 PM
PointyHairedJedi's Avatar
PointyHairedJedi PointyHairedJedi is offline
He'd enjoy a third pie
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: The Scotlands
Posts: 4,354
Send a message via ICQ to PointyHairedJedi Send a message via AIM to PointyHairedJedi Send a message via Yahoo to PointyHairedJedi
Default

You know, it has just come to me - there is a short story by J.G. Ballard very like what you are looking for, but I can't remember what it's called at the moment. I'll have a look and see if I can't find the name for you.
__________________
Mason: Luckily we at the Agency use use a high-tech piece of software that will let us spot him instantly via high-res satellite images.
Sergeant: You can? That's amazing!
Mason: Yes. We call it 'Google Earth'.
- Five Minute 24 S1 (it lives, honest!)

"Everybody loves pie!"
- Spongebob Squarepants
Reply With Quote
  #19  
Old 03-23-2005, 02:10 AM
NAHTMMM's Avatar
NAHTMMM NAHTMMM is offline
Noodles And Hot Tofu! MMM
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: St Louis, MO, USA, . . .
Posts: 2,959
Send a message via Yahoo to NAHTMMM
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by May
Incidentally NAHTMM, is the book your reading in class PD James Children of Men and are you reading Bellamy's Looking Backward or Gilman's Herland? I too took a utopia class as an undergraduate and these books have some interesting scifi themes you may all be interested in (although I actually read Children of Men for a very strange highschool class).
Reading Herland, but neither of the other two. It was...interesting, as I recall.


Oh, and the story I was thinking of was not by Vonnegut, Katy.
__________________
My 5MV webpages My novel fivers list

Yup

“There must have been a point in early human history when it was actually advantageous to, when confronted with a difficult task, drop it altogether and go do something more fun, because I do that way too often for it to be anything but instinct.” -- Isto Combs
Reply With Quote
  #20  
Old 03-23-2005, 03:51 AM
Anonymous Anonymous is offline
...and not cowardly
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 1999
Posts: 327
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by mudshark
Vonnegut? Hmmm, the only stories of his dealing with time travel/shifting that I can think of, off the top of my head, are Slaughterhouse-Five, The Sirens of Titan (chrono-synclastic infundibulum, heh ), and Timequake, all novels. Some re-reading may be in order.
it doesn't have any time travel, it takes place in the future and people have to volenteer to commit suisied... still can think of the name.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 08:51 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.2
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.