# 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:** 43
**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:** [July 5, 2021, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/841 "2021-07-05T14:42:52Z")
For those interested in chess-related SF, I recommend “Pawn to Infinity”. > **[Pawn to Infinity](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/617220.Pawn_to_Infinity)** > > Stories tell of game-playing machines, a champion chess… ---
**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:** [July 9, 2021, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/842 "2021-07-09T21:50:02Z")
I reread Buying Time - the stuff with Eric was interesting (and I was more or less correct - immortality via computer wasn’t very popular, since a much better alternative was available). I enjoyed going back to it, but thought the same about the ending as I did before the heroes suddenly get superpowers, the limits on immortality become much less stringent, and the method that gives the heroes superpowers only work for “good guys” so that’s okay too. ---
**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:** [July 10, 2021, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/843 "2021-07-10T18:56:21Z")
Thanks, **Andy**. I’d forgotten a lot of that, but remembered just enough to still know that the ending sucked. Allow me to recommend three Haldeman books that _don’t_ have sucky endings: _The Forever War, Tool of the Trade_ and _The Hemingway Hoax_. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/844 "2021-07-10T19:30:20Z")
I’ll give you _The Hemingway Hoax_. And throw in _Forever Peace_ for good measure. But _The Forever War_ has a pretty grim ending for the human race as a whole, even if hero-protagonist gets the girl. And _Tool of the Trade_ ends with the secret to mind control about to be given to the son of its discoverer. Unless, of course, the CIA agent who has seen it used in action was debriefed about it and spilled the beans. Or the president on whom it was used got word to someone about his insights before he got his memory erased. ---
**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:** [July 10, 2021, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/845 "2021-07-10T22:53:29Z")
A happy ending can be bad ending for a book, and a grim ending can be a satisfying one (Buying Time has a happy ending - just a non-satisfying one, in my opinion, because it makes things too easy for the protagonists). ---
**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:** [July 11, 2021, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/846 "2021-07-11T00:04:30Z")
I didn’t say they were happy endings, **SunUp**. But they are good and _satisfying_ endings for those books, I think. I’d even go so far as to say that the last few paragraphs of _Tool of the Trade_ make for one of the best endings Haldeman has ever written - especially the very last sentence. And definitely agreed, **Andy**. ---
**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:** [July 11, 2021, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/847 "2021-07-11T14:30:14Z")
Haldeman is on my buy-on-sight list. He’s what I call a solid B writer. Occasionally brilliant, but always a good read. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/848 "2021-07-11T23:05:15Z")
Good point on the distinction between happy and satisfying endings. There is one Haldeman trope for about half his novel endings: they end with humanity’s first contact with a being or race transcendently separate from the protagonists. In such cases, the story doesn’t end so much as just stops, though it can be a satisfying stop. ---
**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:** [July 14, 2021, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/849 "2021-07-14T19:26:39Z")
Agreed on all points, **E-DUB** and **SunUp**. ---
**Author:** ![raspberry\_hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@raspberry\_hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raspberry_hunter)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2021, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/850 "2021-08-02T19:14:04Z")
I have another question! I read a story in… probably the 90’s, maybe the 00’s, about a planet of people who are extremely mentally stable. Sort of boring, but very mentally and emotionally stable. A visitor to this society inquires about this and is told that it’s because all of them have a switch (in their necks, I think?) that will immediately kill them if they decide to press it. After a few generations, this has weeded out all of the emotionally/mentally unstable people. The visitor is appalled by this because (iirc) he has a family member (a daughter, I think?) who would use such a switch, and he tells them that, well, that may have worked, but they’re now super boring people without initiative. At this the person he’s talking to laughs and says that they’ll remove the switch soon and then they will take over the universe (or something to that effect). ---
**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:** [August 2, 2021, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/851 "2021-08-02T19:27:20Z")
Common Denominator by John D McDonald [The Project Gutenberg eBook of Common Denominator, by John D. Macdonald.](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/51148/51148-h/51148-h.htm) ---
**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:** [August 2, 2021, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/852 "2021-08-02T19:30:08Z")
John D. MacDonald-“Common Denominator”. Beat by two minutes! ---
**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:** [August 2, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/853 "2021-08-02T20:31:32Z")
I’m really glad I checked my email while waiting for my wife to finish shopping for something! ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2021, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/854 "2021-08-02T21:05:38Z")
Here’s mine; I read it around 1990 so I’m sure I have some details wrong: the Nazis have won WW II and taken over most of the world. A secret American project aims to send a submarine (?) back in time to foil the Nazis; I don’t remember how. The Many Worlds quantum interpretation figures somehow in a plot twist and resolution. I thought for sure the name of the book was _The Prometheus Project_ but my searches turn up other books so I appear to be wrong on that. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2021, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/855 "2021-08-02T21:12:58Z")
_The Proteus Operation_, James P. Hogan. Basically, the world besieged by Nazis sends back several people to give impetus to what eventually became the Manhattan Project, as well as sabotaging the future people who didn’t like the world where World War II didn’t happen. In the end, the world as we know it is the world that results from the time travelers’ efforts. ---
**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:** [August 2, 2021, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/856 "2021-08-02T21:17:06Z")
Yep, that’s the one I came in to suggest. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2021, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/857 "2021-08-02T22:46:18Z")
Zombie short story I read in the early 00’s in a compilation book Basically it’s a typical “undead take over the world” plot but it’s got a seriously downer ending. The last humans on Earth are scientists in various bunkers trying to devise a way to “defeat” the virus only to not realize that in the outside world literally EVERYTHING is zombifiying, from individual blades of grass to microscopic bacteria, so the moment they would open their bunker doors basically literally everything could zombifie them. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/858 "2021-08-03T04:29:09Z")
Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![raspberry\_hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@raspberry\_hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raspberry_hunter)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/859 "2021-08-03T15:57:57Z")
Haha, awesome, thank you both! (…how do I reply to two people in this newfangled forum?) ---
**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:** [October 24, 2021, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/860 "2021-10-24T18:40:00Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Zombie short story I read in the early 00’s in a compilation book > > Basically it’s a typical “undead take over the world” plot but it’s got a seriously downer ending. The last humans on Earth are scientists in various bunkers trying to devise a way to “defeat” the virus only to not realize that in the outside world literally EVERYTHING is zombifiying, from individual blades of grass to microscopic bacteria, so the moment they would open their bunker doors basically literally everything could zombifie them. Somewhat similar to Asimov’s story [Green Patches](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Patches). aka Misbegotten Missionary. It’s actually a spaceship that lands on an alien planet, not a bunker on Earth. And it’s not zombies, but a hive-mind that links all life-forms on the planet. But the part about all life on the planet infected including plants and bacteria is a good match. And there is the threat that they will be assimilated into the hive-mind, and then take the infection back to Earth. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417.md?page=42) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417.md?page=44)