# 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:** 35
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2020, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/681 "2020-09-14T16:47:11Z")
> [@John\_Bredin](#): > > This reminds me of a movie, possibly late '70s or '80s… [_Timescape_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timescape_(film)), also called _Grand Tour: Disaster in Time_. It was from 1992, although it certainly sounds more like a 70s movie. The movie was based on “Vintage Season”. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2020, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/682 "2020-09-15T04:50:25Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > This one is “[Vintage Season](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vintage_Season)”, a 1946 story by “Lawrence O’Donnell” (which is one of [several pseudonyms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Padgett) used by the husband-and-wife team of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore). Nailed it. Now to find a copy. ---
**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:** [September 15, 2020, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/683 "2020-09-15T05:18:07Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > Nailed it. Now to find a copy. [How about a radio play of it](https://archive.org/details/Sci-fiRadio/Sci-fiRadio1415-VintageSeasonByHKuttnerC.l.Mooreplay.mp3)? ---
**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 15, 2020, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/684 "2020-09-15T05:41:12Z")
“Vintage Season” has appeared in many anthologies, as can be seen here [Title: Vintage Season](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?59665). You can probably find one of those anthologies in your public library. If you wanted to buy one, I would suggest _Two Handed Engine The Selected Stories of Henry Kuttner and C.L.Moore_, which also contains many other excellent stories. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/685 "2020-09-17T05:52:25Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > “Vintage Season” has appeared in many anthologies, as can be seen here [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?59665](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?59665). You can probably find one of those anthologies in your public library. If you wanted to buy one, I would suggest _Two Handed Engine The Selected Stories of Henry Kuttner and C.L.Moore_ , which also contains many other excellent stories. Thanks, I checked my local library and used book store and came up empty, although to be honest, the used bookstore is a mess, you could spent half the day in there and not be sure. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/686 "2020-09-17T06:20:12Z")
You can read _ **Vintage Season** _ online in this short story collection: > **[No Boundaries - Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore (Ballantine #122) \[1955\] :...](https://archive.org/details/HenryKuttnerC.L.MooreNoBoundariesBallantine1221955/page/n7/mode/2up)** > > CONTENTS:No Boundaries - Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore (Ballantine #122, 1955, 35¢, 149pp, pb)Vintage Season · Henry Kuttner · na Astounding September 1946,... ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/687 "2020-09-17T06:22:50Z")
Ninjaed; here is another link (the Internet Archive has _Astounding Science Fiction_): > **[Astounding%20Science%20Fiction%20v38n01%201946-09%20cape1736%20.pdf](https://ia801408.us.archive.org/8/items/PulpMags/Astounding/Astounding%20Science%20Fiction%20v38n01%201946-09%20cape1736%20.pdf)** > > 5.60 MB ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/688 "2020-10-23T20:24:13Z")
I have two, if that’s okay. They were written before 1990. 1. There is a bizarre prison. It’s a giant wheel buried underground, and cells are the outside of the wheel . There is only one way in or out, so once you are in your cell you have to wait until the wheel makes a complete rotation to get out again. I think the prisoners could pull the a rope attached to the wheel to speed up the time it would take. I don’t remember a story, just that weird setup. 2. Because of overpopulation, if you decide you want to have kids, you have to make a public declaration, and then for some time (maybe 24 hours) people have a right to kill you. I don’t know what they get out of it. The protagonist makes his declaration, and then is stalked and hunted. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/689 "2020-10-23T20:45:51Z")
The first was discussed in this old thread: [Vague short story description, want name](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vague-short-story-description-want-name/63760) It was in one chapter of [Helliconia Winter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helliconia#Helliconia_Winter) by Brian W. Aldiss. It expanded on the concept from his short story _Manuscript Found in a Police State_. ---
**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 23, 2020, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/690 "2020-10-23T20:49:50Z")
Troutman beat me to 1), and 2) doesn’t ring a specific bell (there are a lot of overpopulation stories) ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/691 "2020-10-23T21:14:48Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > 1. Because of overpopulation, if you decide you want to have kids, you have to make a public declaration, and then for some time (maybe 24 hours) people have a right to kill you. I don’t know what they get out of it. The protagonist makes his declaration, and then is stalked and hunted. The second one sounds like it _might_ be “A Criminal Act” by Harry Harrison. In that short story, it isn’t quite that you make a public declaration if you want to have kids; rather, there’s a limit of two (per couple)–because of overpopulation, natch–and if you exceed that limit, a volunteer gets to try to kill you. It’s a fight to the death, so either way, the population limit is enforced. If it’s that story, the question of what the volunteer gets out of it is discussed in story–in between trying to kill each other, the father of the three-child family and the killer manage to have some conversations. Here’s [a review](https://mporcius.blogspot.com/2014/02/two-dystopian-stories-from-oxford-book.html) with some more details. If it rings any bells, at the end of the story the father wins and kills the “volunteer”…but his wife then tells him that she’s pregnant _again_, so he’ll have to do it all over again. The End. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/692 "2020-10-23T21:21:03Z")
Thanks @TroutMan and @Andy_L That is definitely correct. I must have only read the short story, the novel rings no bells at all. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/693 "2020-10-23T21:22:24Z")
Thanks @MEBuchner, I am pretty sure that was it. I read a lot of Harry Harrison back in the day. I don’t remember the twist at the end, though; but that’s on my bad memory. ---
**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:** [October 23, 2020, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/694 "2020-10-23T23:51:23Z")
Not quite the same, but some of Niven’s Known Space stories mention that there are gladiatorial games, where two people fight to the death and the winner earns an extra birthright. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2020, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/695 "2020-10-24T19:44:03Z")
I seem to remember many many years ago a graphic novel or something about a spaceship stealing HMS Victory and taking it to another planet for some reason. Any ideas of what it could be? ---
**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:** [October 24, 2020, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/696 "2020-10-24T19:47:34Z")
May have been _Space Wars: Fact and Fiction._ ---
**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 24, 2020, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/697 "2020-10-24T19:49:12Z")
Think you’re right - see here [story identification - Looking for the name of a scifi comic strip from a book-for-boys book - Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange](https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/64042/looking-for-the-name-of-a-scifi-comic-strip-from-a-book-for-boys-book/64325) ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/698 "2020-10-26T12:56:56Z")
Thanks again. I’ve got just one more. This might be a YA novel rather than a short story. It’s 1990 at the latest. A group of astronauts visits a planet with two continents inhabited by humans (or humanoid aliens, I’m not sure). On one continent the people are calm and rational, one the other violent and crazy. They learn that the two groups of people take turns during the year being rational and crazy, and it may have something to do with birds migrating. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2020, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/699 "2020-10-27T19:57:00Z")
Space Cadet was serialised in the weekly boy’s comic Treasure, or maybe it was Ranger at the time, (and later Look and Learn) in the UK in the early 60s. More famously, The Trigan Empire strip also appeared there. Still got a stack of them! 😉 ---
**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:** [October 28, 2020, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/700 "2020-10-28T15:04:51Z")
Related to my post [here](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-interplanetary-intercourse-and-first-contact/924095/12), I think it is a _different_ story where someone is speculating that the best place to find aliens is a solar eclipse on Earth, and I think maybe it ended with something about a limo with tinted windows (implying an alien inside.) any ideas? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417.md?page=34) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417.md?page=36)