# 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:** 18
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/341 "2019-01-15T03:32:45Z")
Okay, this one is bugging me now. From another thread: > [@Arkcon](#): > > There is one that I recall, but its much later than right after Gemini. It was written by somebody famous whose name I’ve forgotten, but I didn’t read the whole thing. > > Basically, an astronaut comes back from deep space. He’s being “reintroduced” to contemporary world culture. Basically a woman asks him, “Do you want to undress? Or have me undress? Shall we have sex?” He quickly realizes the point of her offers – after what is decades of Earth time due to his near relativistic travel over a few years for him, there’s no way he can be taught everything that happened. He has to learn to simply not call attention to himself when he encounters what’s weird to him. > > He does not succeed. He calls attention to himself while using his flying suit, and not responding quickly enough to young blonde girls asking him for sex – the story goes that he is a mix of darker skinned races – and deliberate miscegenation is required by world governments just prior to his leaving for space exploration. > > It seems that Earth culture also hates space exploration, as it is very energy intensive, and Earth is energy-poor, even though leisure is pretty much the only thing Earth humans preoccupy themselves with. And once she and the other teens find out he’s one of those space explorers, they decide to attack him, begrudgingly by the teen who solicited him. > [@Darren Garrison](#): > > No, it is a more recent book, from the late 1980s-early 1990s. Another scene takes place on a beach where a group of 15 (IIRC) year-old girls proposition the astronaut to have public group sex with them. He wonders what the age of consent is, and the answer is if you are old enough to want it, you are old enough. The world is overpopulated and the worst slur is “proccing” (not sure about spelling), derived from “procreate.” I’ve read the book too, but also don’t remember the title. My Google-fu has failed me. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/342 "2019-01-15T03:56:37Z")
_Ghost_, by Piers Anthony. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/343 "2019-01-15T05:07:42Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > _Ghost_, by Piers Anthony. Yep, that’s it. Holy _crap_, that’s bad writing! (You can find the full text online if you google a distinctive sentence or two.) > [@](#): > > But young; what was the minimum age limit now? To “sex” her, as she put it-would that be tantamount to betrothal? Opposite races were under strong pressure to marry. She evidently thought he was a regular native, a dashing blimpedaler. Better to beg off, politely. “I would like to sex you all,” he said gallantly to the group of girls. “But in my present state I lack the capacity.” One of the brown nymphs laughed, her breasts jiggling. “Well spoke, bach!” To be a bachelor was now a mark of respectability, for it was assumed that he wasn’t reproducing. “But we could make it a groupie affair,” another girl said brightly, running her left hand down the outside of her thigh as she rotated her hips, and sliding it up on the inside. The gesture had a potent effect on him. Oh, didn’t they learn the sexual signals early today! The others exclaimed with merry agreement, jumping and clapping their hands. Young but eager! Joking or serious? Shetland wasn’t sure. He was normally a lusty man, and this group of seemingly willing nymphs barely into their teens was very like some of his space-haul erotic fancies. He was sure now: age had become no barrier. Any individual who desired sex and possessed the physical indications of maturity was entitled to it, provided the proposed partner was amenable and there was no force or pain. I should have guessed Piers Anthony… ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/344 "2019-01-15T06:42:59Z")
Hamners comet? ---
**Author:** ![tripthicket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripthicket/32/297_2.png) [@tripthicket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tripthicket)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/345 "2019-01-15T10:02:25Z")
Here’s a couple that I’m sure I read out of the school library, so no later than the '70s. 1. A group of colonists, led by a guide, go through a portal to their intended planet of colonization. They have wagons and horses, simple stuff as opposed to fancy tech, and the main character (a teenage boy) is starstruck by the ‘wagon master’ (who has a white horse, a big moustache (extra big maybe on this detail), and matching six shooters). Some disaster happens, the guide is taken out of the picture, and somehow the boy winds up, step by step, being the one in charge. When rescue eventually arrives, the boy has a hard time adjusting to just being a child again, after being the leader of this beleaguered group for an extended period and treated as an adult and a VIP. End of the book has him, now grown, acting as a wagon-master for another group, and very much styled like his earlier hero. Hopefully the few details I think I remember aren’t too wrong. 2. Couple of not-quite-teens build a rocket ship (in their back yard?). They’d either been visited by or contacted by aliens on the moon (?), who helped them build their ship. The aliens need sulpher as apparently found in chicken eggs, so the boys end up taking chickens to the moon. I remember being taken with the details of building the ship, the materials needed, etc., but can’t say with any certainty now what those details might have been–I think I’d just be muddying the waters by trying. I now patiently await the historically rapid responses! ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/346 "2019-01-15T11:49:22Z")
> [@tripthicket](#): > > Here’s a couple that I’m sure I read out of the school library, so no later than the '70s. > > 1. A group of colonists, led by a guide, go through a portal to their intended planet of colonization. They have wagons and horses, simple stuff as opposed to fancy tech, and the main character (a teenage boy) is starstruck by the ‘wagon master’ (who has a white horse, a big moustache (extra big maybe on this detail), and matching six shooters). Some disaster happens, the guide is taken out of the picture, and somehow the boy winds up, step by step, being the one in charge. When rescue eventually arrives, the boy has a hard time adjusting to just being a child again, after being the leader of this beleaguered group for an extended period and treated as an adult and a VIP. End of the book has him, now grown, acting as a wagon-master for another group, and very much styled like his earlier hero. Hopefully the few details I think I remember aren’t too wrong. > > 2. Couple of not-quite-teens build a rocket ship (in their back yard?). They’d either been visited by or contacted by aliens on the moon (?), who helped them build their ship. The aliens need sulpher as apparently found in chicken eggs, so the boys end up taking chickens to the moon. I remember being taken with the details of building the ship, the materials needed, etc., but can’t say with any certainty now what those details might have been–I think I’d just be muddying the waters by trying. > > I now patiently await the historically rapid responses! The first is _Tunnel In the Sky_, by R.A. Heinlein, but you have some details wrong. The disastrous trip is the final exam of a class to be a wagon master guy. Not sure about the second one, but it could be another of the RAH “[Juveniles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinlein_juveniles)”. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/347 "2019-01-15T11:50:28Z")
> [@tripthicket](#): > > Here’s a couple that I’m sure I read out of the school library, so no later than the '70s. > > 1. A group of colonists, led by a guide, go through a portal to their intended planet of colonization. They have wagons and horses, simple stuff as opposed to fancy tech, and the main character (a teenage boy) is starstruck by the ‘wagon master’ (who has a white horse, a big moustache (extra big maybe on this detail), and matching six shooters). Some disaster happens, the guide is taken out of the picture, and somehow the boy winds up, step by step, being the one in charge. When rescue eventually arrives, the boy has a hard time adjusting to just being a child again, after being the leader of this beleaguered group for an extended period and treated as an adult and a VIP. End of the book has him, now grown, acting as a wagon-master for another group, and very much styled like his earlier hero. Hopefully the few details I think I remember aren’t too wrong. > > 2. Couple of not-quite-teens build a rocket ship (in their back yard?). They’d either been visited by or contacted by aliens on the moon (?), who helped them build their ship. The aliens need sulpher as apparently found in chicken eggs, so the boys end up taking chickens to the moon. I remember being taken with the details of building the ship, the materials needed, etc., but can’t say with any certainty now what those details might have been–I think I’d just be muddying the waters by trying. > > I now patiently await the historically rapid responses! That second one sounds like The Wonderful Flight To The Mushroom Planet. ---
**Author:** ![tripthicket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripthicket/32/297_2.png) [@tripthicket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tripthicket)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/348 "2019-01-15T12:04:30Z")
**Zakalwe** , you are doubly correct. A quick check indicates this is indeed the book I was trying to remember, and I’m sure as I read I’ll find all of the details I was misremembering. I said white horse, big moustache, twin six shooters. More like pinto, beard and twin knives. :o **The Other Waldo Pepper** , you are also correct, and how delighted I am to discover, after all these decades, that there are multiple books to be read! How funny yet how unsurprising that your two answers should be posted almost in the same minute. Thanks to you both! I love the Dope! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/349 "2019-01-15T14:59:37Z")
Aw, man, I knew both of those, and missed my chance to contribute. ---
**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:** [January 15, 2019, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/350 "2019-01-15T15:03:16Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Aw, man, I knew both of those, and missed my chance to contribute. Me too. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/351 "2019-01-15T15:34:06Z")
Well, yes, **Andy L** , but you know all of these, and are usually the one getting the answers. And more detail on _Mushroom Planet_, the ship the boys built was made out of wood, but the alien they met paints over it with some sort of resin that cures into an ultra-strong and airtight material. IIRC, he had put out an ad in the newspaper asking for help from someone who could build him a rocket. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/352 "2019-01-15T16:05:36Z")
Id this fiendish story! A man is sculpting a giant mushroom into a woman. As the job is finished, either the sculptor or a friend of his sees this beautiful fungoid woman, and throws himself at her, biting into her flesh. . . and promptly dying. Poor guy. . . she was actually a toadstool! ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/353 "2019-01-15T16:44:54Z")
Luana by Gilbert Thomas, © 1965 > **[Merril Ed The Year's Best SF 05 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming :...](https://archive.org/stream/MerrilEdTheYearsBestSF05/Merril_ed%20-%20SF12_djvu.txt)** > > The Year's Best Science Fiction edited by Judith Merril ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/354 "2019-01-15T17:09:58Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Luana by Gilbert Thomas, © 1965 . . . Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![tripthicket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripthicket/32/297_2.png) [@tripthicket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tripthicket)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/355 "2019-01-15T20:54:58Z")
Well, it _was_ quite early in the day. 🙂 Meant for **Chronos** and **Andy L**. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/356 "2019-01-22T23:01:25Z")
There’s a story I remember reading as a kid in the 80s, the plot is about aliens invading and conquering Earth to plunder it. I’m sure the remaining humans were reasonably primitive, there were no resistance fighters toting laser guns. It’s far enough in the future that when they stumble upon some forgotten weaponry, they don’t know what USAF means. Eventually the aliens leave, having had their fill of whatever they took from Earth. The protagonist though, manages to kill one of the alien’s highers up in one on one combat. Two things that stick out. The humans bring down an alien drone of some sort, breaking it apart it appears to be half machine-half living creature. Also, the alien killed by the protagonist has a bit of a chat with him, and a translation machine reveals that the aliens call humans “rats” and they actually translate the word human as rat when the protagonist tries to correct him. ---
**Author:** ![aaebig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@aaebig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaebig)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/357 "2019-01-23T18:07:11Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > There’s a story I remember reading as a kid in the 80s, the plot is about aliens invading and conquering Earth to plunder it. > > I’m sure the remaining humans were reasonably primitive, there were no resistance fighters toting laser guns. It’s far enough in the future that when they stumble upon some forgotten weaponry, they don’t know what USAF means. > > Eventually the aliens leave, having had their fill of whatever they took from Earth. The protagonist though, manages to kill one of the alien’s highers up in one on one combat. > > Two things that stick out. The humans bring down an alien drone of some sort, breaking it apart it appears to be half machine-half living creature. Also, the alien killed by the protagonist has a bit of a chat with him, and a translation machine reveals that the aliens call humans “rats” and they actually translate the word human as rat when the protagonist tries to correct him. Maybe one of the Huntsman Trilogy by Douglas Hill? It sounds a bit like the last book in the series - Alien Citadel. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/358 "2019-01-23T20:27:08Z")
The title I’m looking for is set in the contemporary 1960s. There are tunnel networks under cities, with entrances in basements. There are bad guys called elves living in the tunnels. The protagonist enters the tunnels to rescue a woman. An hallucinogenic fungus grows in the tunnels that the elves eat. I recall someone reading tea leaves. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/359 "2019-02-04T03:00:46Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Here’s one I asked about once before. A guy has telekinetic powers, and at the end of the story he visits the president and makes demands. As he walks out the door, he gets his head bashed in with a hammer. I think it’s really old. Got it! “The Most Powerful Tailor in the World” by Michael Crichton. Appeared in Playboy Sept, 71. If it helps jog your memory that was the same issue that featured the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers game “Feds and Heads”. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2019, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/360 "2019-02-12T18:48:44Z")
> [@aaebig](#): > > Maybe one of the Huntsman Trilogy by Douglas Hill? It sounds a bit like the last book in the series - Alien Citadel. From what I’m reading of it, it sounds like it is, thanks. My local library must have had a lot of his books in stock, I remember reading his legionary series as a kid too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417.md?page=19)