# Ask the guy who is pretty good at SF Story Identification **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [September 7, 2008, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417 "2008-09-07T00:08:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/201 "2008-10-05T12:55:59Z")
I remember a story (actually I think it was part of a series of stories) about time travelers whose mission was to stop the _Challenger_ disaster…but not our _Challenger_ disaster, but the one where the passenger compartment crashed into a school, killing hundreds of children and completely shutting down the American space program. I think part of the plot also involved one of te time travelers being sent back too far - to 1963, just in time to try to prevent JFK’s assassination. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/202 "2008-10-05T17:31:43Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > I remember a story (actually I think it was part of a series of stories) about time travelers whose mission was to stop the _Challenger_ disaster…but not our _Challenger_ disaster, but the one where the passenger compartment crashed into a school, killing hundreds of children and completely shutting down the American space program. I think part of the plot also involved one of te time travelers being sent back too far - to 1963, just in time to try to prevent JFK’s assassination. I know this one - it’s a series of stories by Paul Levinson “Late Lessons” is one of them - [http://www.sff.net/people/paullevinson/books.html](http://www.sff.net/people/paullevinson/books.html) ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/203 "2008-10-05T20:41:23Z")
Thanks! **SmartAleq** ’s story reminded me of it, but unfortunately all my back copies of Analog and Asimov’s are still packed up. At first I thought it might have been the same story he was thinking of, but the more I thought about it there seemed to be too many differences. I notice in your link that there’s a concluding story to the series coming out entitled “Last Calls”. As I remember it, the third story, “Late Lessons”, pretty much closed up the story line. Now I’m wondering what I might have missed. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/204 "2008-12-25T01:22:51Z")
> [@Ponderoid](#): > > That sounds like Robert Silverberg’s _World’s Fair 1992_ but I don’t remember the name of the ship in that novel. The first half of the novel concerned the teenager working at the World’s Fair Space Station, and then he gets assigned to the Pluto trip because he wrote an insightful essay about what life on Pluto might be like. > > \*\*\* Ponder Finally got the book through Amazon and read it, and you’re right. The ship isn’t named _Lodestar_, but otherwise I’m 95% sure this is the book I was thinking of. Not a bad read at all, with some interesting debate on xenoanthropological ethics. ---
**Author:** ![DiggitCamara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@DiggitCamara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiggitCamara)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/205 "2009-09-09T19:39:51Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > Unfortunately, my friend remembers very little detail other than what I provided. He stated that he read it back in college, so around 1990, and that the story included a description of a moped from the point of view of the main character (an Aztec or Incan boy), so that the story had to be relatively recent. He doesn’t remember if it was a stand-alone piece, or a part of a compilation of Latin American writers, or something else. > > **Peter Morris** , I will ask. Thank you, and thanks to anybody else who can provide suggestions! Resurrecting zombies here is valid, ain’t it? Anyhow, if I remember it correctly, it’s a short story by Cortázar. Though it might be one of Borges’s (they tend to run together in my mind). ---
**Author:** ![PaulLev](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e56c9b/32.png) [@PaulLev](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulLev)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/206 "2009-09-09T23:00:41Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > I know this one - it’s a series of stories by Paul Levinson “Late Lessons” is one of them - [http://www.sff.net/people/paullevinson/books.html](http://www.sff.net/people/paullevinson/books.html) Just popping in here to say the story trilogy is “Loose Ends,” “Little Differences,” “Late Lessons.” ---
**Author:** ![PaulLev](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e56c9b/32.png) [@PaulLev](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulLev)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/207 "2009-09-09T23:03:02Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > Thanks! **SmartAleq** ’s story reminded me of it, but unfortunately all my back copies of Analog and Asimov’s are still packed up. At first I thought it might have been the same story he was thinking of, but the more I thought about it there seemed to be too many differences. > > I notice in your link that there’s a concluding story to the series coming out entitled “Last Calls”. As I remember it, the third story, “Late Lessons”, pretty much closed up the story line. Now I’m wondering what I might have missed. You can get them all on [fictionwise.com](http://fictionwise.com) - just search on my name (Paul Levinson). And, yes, there will be a fourth and concluding story, “Last Calls,” which should blow everything wide open … 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/208 "2009-09-09T23:47:13Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > You left out “Bottommos” for the low-slung 3rd moon of Mars. I’ll have to confess that I have read and reread that story for years, trying to figure out whatinhell the pun is. Anybody help me out?? I also have been trying to find a story for years. I thought it was Bradbury, but I’ve not found it in any of his collections. The story opens in a pub in a small village in Ireland, where the locals are having a pint or six. A tour bus pulls up, and a flamboyantly gay tour group disembarks, remarking about how quaint the town is, etc. The locals make various remarks about the newcomers, until one of them points out that they gays are not so unlike the locals - they both drink, are fond of singing, and don’t have much to do with women (after all, the locals are all drinking in the pub rather than going home to their wives). So the two groups spend the afternoon drinking, telling stories, and listening to one of the tour singing “Danny Boy” and other tunes in a fine, high tenor. A good time is had by all. When the gays get back on the bus and head back to Dublin, the locals wave goodbye, invite them to come back soon, etc. As the story ends, one of the locals remarks that, just for a day, “the fairies came back to Olde Ireland”. It sounds offensive as all hell, but it’s handled with a fair degree of sensitivity, especially for it’s day (it must be at least 30 years old if not more). Any ideas?? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/209 "2009-09-09T23:49:06Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > I’ll have to confess that I have read and reread that story for years, trying to figure out whatinhell the pun is. Anybody help me out?? Bottomos = “Bottom-most” ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/210 "2009-09-09T23:57:48Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Bottomos = “Bottom-most” Hmm… not much of a pun, and not really funny. Big overture, little show. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/211 "2009-09-10T00:05:48Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > I’ll have to confess that I have read and reread that story for years, trying to figure out whatinhell the pun is. Anybody help me out?? > > I also have been trying to find a story for years. I thought it was Bradbury, but I’ve not found it in any of his collections. > > The story opens in a pub in a small village in Ireland, where the locals are having a pint or six. A tour bus pulls up, and a flamboyantly gay tour group disembarks, remarking about how quaint the town is, etc. The locals make various remarks about the newcomers, until one of them points out that they gays are not so unlike the locals - they both drink, are fond of singing, and don’t have much to do with women (after all, the locals are all drinking in the pub rather than going home to their wives). So the two groups spend the afternoon drinking, telling stories, and listening to one of the tour singing “Danny Boy” and other tunes in a fine, high tenor. A good time is had by all. > > When the gays get back on the bus and head back to Dublin, the locals wave goodbye, invite them to come back soon, etc. As the story ends, one of the locals remarks that, just for a day, “the fairies came back to Olde Ireland”. > > It sounds offensive as all hell, but it’s handled with a fair degree of sensitivity, especially for it’s day (it must be at least 30 years old if not more). > > Any ideas?? This is Bradbury’s “The Cold Wind and the Warm”, in the collection “I sing the Body Electric” I think. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/212 "2009-09-10T00:16:21Z")
> [@DiggitCamara](#): > > > [@Kolga](#): > > > > A friend of mine and I are in the middle of an IM conversation about SF, and he just sent me a synopsis of a novella he read in college but can’t remember the name or author. > > > > The main character is this Aztec kid, running from the scene of a battle. He gets captured, and he’s going to be sacrificed. When he sleeps, he has a dream of a huge city, men riding on contraptions that sound like giant insects, or inside self-propelled carriages. In the dream, he gets hit by a car and wakes up as his Aztec self. The story goes back and forth as the hour of his execution approaches, > > asleep in one world and is awake in the other and vice versa. > > > > Any help would be greatly appreciated! > > Resurrecting zombies here is valid, ain’t it? Anyhow, if I remember it correctly, it’s a short story by Cortázar. Though it might be one of Borges’s (they tend to run together in my mind). **DiggitCamara** is correct. It’s a short story called “La noche boca arriba” or “The Night Face Up” by Julio Cortázar. Great story, by the way. It’s pretty much standard in most college Spanish courses. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/213 "2009-09-10T12:34:40Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > This is Bradbury’s “The Cold Wind and the Warm”, in the collection “I sing the Body Electric” I think. If you are right (I’m off to the library) thank you! ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/214 "2009-09-10T12:41:25Z")
Yep, that’s the one! Thanks, **Andy L**! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/215 "2009-09-10T13:45:47Z")
How about these: \*\*[Another Game of "Name the Predecessor" - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=531362) \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/216 "2009-09-10T23:35:27Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > Yep, that’s the one! Thanks, **Andy L**! No problem. Say I have a book identification for the SDMB mass mind to help me find. It’s a young adult novel that I read in 1978 or 1979 - about two high school students (who didn’t particularly get along at first, partially because one boy was a science type and one was into writing poetry and such), who are transported to a fantasy realm, where magic works. They work together using their skills together to come up with spells that work (spells have to be poems, but figuring out how to make them work requires science). Two features I remember in particular are a bit of doggerel from the poet “The Mathematics of the Heart adds together what’s apart” and the fact that the fantasy realm has a school system that uses the term “low school” (in contrast to “high school”). Anyone remember it? ---
**Author:** ![Weedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/weedy/32/301_2.png) [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/217 "2009-09-11T01:53:48Z")
I wonder if it is worth posting in this thread or if it is just going to get locked. This is a fantasy story, not sci-fi, but maybe someone will know it. I’m pretty sure it’s a short story. The retired head of the Assassins guild takes in a young orphan(?) boy and trains him as an assassin. Well, it is kind of more about preventing assassinations in some ways. He uses small stones to show if there was a trap or poison in something, so if you find a stone, you’re dead. Like maybe you are drinking tea, and look in the teapot and there is a stone there - the tea was poisoned. The story is told from the point of view of the boy, and is mostly about how the training goes, and how totally paranoid the boy becomes. At the end, he goes to the big city with his teacher and they visit the Assassin’s Guild. The boy straight away finds some of the more obvious traps (indicated by these small stones) and then tears the place apart looking for more. I seem to remember him searching through the hot coals in the fireplace, and something about a bath. I would love to know who the author was. I think it was male. ---
**Author:** ![De\_La\_Rue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@De\_La\_Rue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/De_La_Rue)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/218 "2009-09-11T02:46:58Z")
Here’s a reverse question: I swear, somewhere, that I saw this title of a short story (or maybe novella): “I Polyglot, Who You?” Despite it having an uncommon word, I can’t find it mentioned anywhere online. It’s both memorable and suggestive, and I’d like to know what the story was. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/219 "2009-09-11T03:33:44Z")
I’ve heard of that story. The title is “I \_\_\_\_, Who You?”. The blank is a nonsense word that’s vaguely like “polyglot,” but it’s something else. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/220 "2009-09-11T03:38:20Z")
I found it using the proper search on the Internet Speculative Fiction Database: [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?756765](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?756765) As you can see, it’s “I Plinglot - Who You?” by Frederik Pohl. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417.md?page=12)