# 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:** 68
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1341 "2023-10-11T13:56:22Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > The book ends with the Iraqi Army fighting the aliens as an American scientist humorously muses that the Iraqis have a number of years left before the aliens overwhelm them and by then maybe they’d figure out how exactly to deal with the alien masters. > [@Andy\_L](#): > > John Ringo - Into the Looking Glass That John Ringo is such a great human being… (I had to stop reading him, I have a somewhat high tolerance to racism and sheer assholery in my authors but he exceeded them) ---
**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 11, 2023, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1342 "2023-10-11T15:30:13Z")
Yeah. That’s the one and only Ringo I’ve read. See also “Oh no John Ringo No!” > **[books to make my flist's heads explode: John Ringo](https://hradzka.livejournal.com/194753.html)** > > Lately, some folks on my f-list have been looking at Lord King Bad profic. brown\_betty gave us LEOPARD LORD , and cereta reviewed THE SHEIK , and burger\_eater pointed me to Smart Bitches, Trashy Books's take on Shayla Black's DECADENT . These books,... ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1343 "2023-10-11T17:05:56Z")
Another alien invasion novel Earth is getting invaded by a massive alien force. World breaks down into three major factions, the American lead one which wants to fight the aliens at all costs (obviously), the European lead one which wants to negotiate with the aliens and live alongside them (obviously) despite the fact the aliens are clearly terra forming the Earth completely, and the Russian/Chinese faction which refuses to go alongside either faction and instead is just hunkering down defensively to see what happens. The European faction is almost immediately destroyed when their peace delegation made up of its top leaders is immediately eaten by the aliens. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2023, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1344 "2023-10-25T11:56:24Z")
I’ve got one for you… Short novel, I think. Had to have been written before 1975, because that’s when I came across it. Opens with a Jewish colony (on the moon?) - they get all their kosher supplies from Earth. There’s been a problem with the last shipment, though - it has passed through the remnants of a meteor, and some of the fine dust was large enough to put holes in the cans of food. This is the last shipment before Passover, so if the cans are no longer kosher, the colony is screwed for Seders. If a hair can pass through the hole in the can, it’s no good. If the hole is too small for a hair, it’ll be okay. A young rabbi tried one of the cans with a hair from a teenager, and the hair went through the hole, so he consults with the old rabbi. In front of the congregation, the rabbi consults the Torah, after which he chooses an old woman with incredibly coarse hair. (She might be the oldest one there; the hair is the important detail.) He tries three times, and the coarse hair won’t go through the hole in the can. Passover is saved! But the author comments on how the really clever thing the old rabbi did was to consult the Torah first. That’s the first 10 pages or so - then, I lost the book, and I’ve never been able to figure out what it might have been. Wasn’t ‘Canticle for Leibowitz’. There aren’t a lot of SF books that present religions in a positive light, which is why I’m particularly interested in tracking it down and finishing it after 45 years. ---
**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 25, 2023, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1345 "2023-10-25T12:11:10Z")
“On Venus Have We Got a Rabbi!” By William Tenn [On Venus, Have We Got a Rabbi! - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Venus,_Have_We_Got_a_Rabbi!#:~:text=On%20Venus%2C%20Have%20We%20Got%20a%20Rabbi!%20is%20a%201974,the%20Great%20Rabbi%20of%20Venus). ---
**Author:** ![Bashorian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bashorian/32/3546_2.png) [@Bashorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bashorian)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2023, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1346 "2023-10-25T13:01:44Z")
> [@Bashorian](#): > > A large ship, very large I think, that travels through time linearly from the far past to the far future. I read it around 1993 - 1997, so was written before then. I thought it was Frederik Pohl but looking through his bibliography I don’t see it. > [@Bashorian](#): > > _The Boat of a Million Years_ by Anderson. I read this last week, and it was, indeed, what I was looking for. My description was off – there wasn’t a literal boat or ship – however; I must have been remembering the title more than the actual content. I found it entertaining enough, though, to appreciate how it would stick in my memory 30-odd years later. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2023, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1347 "2023-10-25T13:49:28Z")
Hot spit! Thank you very much, @Andy_L! It’s on order from the library as of five minutes ago! ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2023, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1348 "2023-10-25T14:05:34Z")
Library, schmibrary! Here’s the full text, plus a reading of the story by the author! (One hour, eleven minutes.) [https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/on-venus-have-we-got-a-rabbi](https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/on-venus-have-we-got-a-rabbi) ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2023, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1349 "2023-10-25T14:32:13Z")
I met Philip Klass/William Tenn once – I’ve got a relative in that same English department, and he came to a party of theirs that I went to, I think one of their kids’ bar/bat mitzvahs. Seemed like a really nice guy. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2023, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1350 "2023-10-25T15:11:05Z")
Cool - I like instant gratification! (Even though I’m swamped until after Saturday’s launch party!) But - I’m really interested in checking out " Immodest proposals : the complete science fiction of William Tenn. Volume I" from the Merrill Collection. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2023, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1351 "2023-10-25T15:33:33Z")
> [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](#): > > But - I’m really interested in checking out " Immodest proposals : the complete science fiction of William Tenn. Volume I" from the Merrill Collection. Good choice. I got gifted this and “Here Comes Civilization” by a friend with good (or perhaps similar) taste ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2023, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1352 "2023-10-25T15:37:04Z")
TIL there were two relatively well-known Philip Klasses: the one we’ve been speaking about, aka William Tenn, and the UFO researcher, [Philip J. Klass](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_J._Klass). I had never heard of William Tenn, so when I first saw the reference above, I assumed the UFO guy also wrote sci-fi (makes sense, right?). But when I saw no reference to sci-fi in PJK’s Wikipedia entry, I realized there were two. ---
**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 25, 2023, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1353 "2023-10-25T23:52:00Z")
Glad to help ---
**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 25, 2023, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1354 "2023-10-25T23:53:32Z")
I got both volumes for myself at Worldcon in Philly in 2001 (at the NESFA table). There’s now a third volume with Tenn/Klass’s non-fiction, by the way ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2023, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1355 "2023-10-27T21:41:34Z")
I just came in to say I haven’t seen your posts in quite a while, maybe we don’t go to the same forums. Recently I was telling someone about the short short story contests you used to moderate, and the ones I wrote. One of them had, at the end, the first person teller of the tale comtemplating murder. ---
**Author:** ![gre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d78d45/32.png) [@gre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gre)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1356 "2023-11-09T22:24:49Z")
I read something like that not too long ago. Viewpoint character was male. At his ex-wife’s place, there was a prehistoric man in a tree in the orchard, and there was a younger man involved who may have been a linguist… ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2023, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1357 "2023-11-17T03:11:57Z")
Ok, I’m watching the original movie _The Blob_, on TCM, The way the Blob grows reminds me of a story I read probably at least thirty years ago. It was more fantasy than sci fi, but what the heck. A culture honors this blob like entity. It’s almost a religious thing. Devotees travel around with begging bowls and a hunk of the blob on their backs. Others are honored to provide them food the travelers seem so happy. Eventually the blob gets big enough on them that they go back to the “mother blob” and their portion blends into it and gradually absorbs the carrier. There doesn’t seem to be any pain, and at one point all that’s left of one guy is his head sticking out, and it seems to be smiling and alive. I don’t remember more plot or how it ended. Any help here? ---
**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:** [November 17, 2023, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1358 "2023-11-17T10:39:12Z")
Might that be a Rudy Rucker book? It reminds me of Rucker’s “Master of Space and Time” a bit - and he also had a story called “Big Jelly” ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2023, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1359 "2023-11-17T18:34:38Z")
I will look that up. The author doesn’t ring a bell, but I’ve read so much that unless I kept a work titles and authors slip out of memory. ---
**Author:** ![colinfred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colinfred/32/21338_2.png) [@colinfred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colinfred)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2023, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1360 "2023-12-18T01:48:28Z")
There’s a portal to another Earth, but you can’t take tools or clothing with you, you have to go through naked and you can only go one person at a time. I’m not sure why the powers that be consider this useful, but whatever. A group sent through the portal has gone rogue, although they are small in number they’ve taken advantage of the fact that everybody comes through weaponless ad alone and set up a perfect ambush for everyone coming through. They’ve taken hostages and they have demands. The protagonists of the story are the group who are trying to find a way to get through the portal and defeat the belligerents. I don’t recall how it ends. I think this was a short story but it may have been a live action episode of an anthology show. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417.md?page=67) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417.md?page=69)