# 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:** 95
**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 25, 2025, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1881 "2025-11-25T00:45:25Z")
Hmm. Does not ring an immediate bell for me. What authors didcyou read around then (might trigger a memory fir me or you) ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2025, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1882 "2025-11-25T01:15:14Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > What authors didcyou read around then Uh…too many to name: I was single and had disposable income for books, alas. I did avoid fantasy in general, but other than that I don’t think I had a genre, I’m afraid! ---
**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:** [November 25, 2025, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1883 "2025-11-25T01:15:55Z")
Rings a bell for me… Were the “female staff” aliens who resembled young human women? Called “sylphs”, IIRC? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2025, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1884 "2025-11-25T01:26:01Z")
I thought maybe that was “The Last Castle” by Jack Vance, but in that story the alien quasi-women were “phanes”. Plus the rest of the story doesn’t match @phs3’s description. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2025, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1885 "2025-11-25T01:42:59Z")
I’ve got one that I read when I was a teenager. It was the middle part of a trilogy that I never found the first and third installments of, and I don’t recall the title or author. The setting is, I believe, a colony world in the distant future. Metal is scarse on the planet and so they do a lot of stuff with extremely intricate glasswork instead. The tech level is roughly late 19th century - there are radios and printing presses, but no guns or cars. People use horse-drawn carriages in cities, and the main form of intercity travel is hot air balloons tethered to a rail on the ground. The country where the story takes place is ruled by an absolute dictator whose identity is completely unknown to the people and communicates his orders via broadcasts and in press releases. Everyone is required to wear an explosive collar around their neck, and the ruler can detonate anyone’s collar at any time in order to keep the people in line. This system has existed for longer than anyone can remember and nobody knows how power is transferred from one ruler to the next. There’s a war going on with some kind of red-skinned foreigners who might be genetically engineered aliens and fight with scimitars. The main character is some kind of traveling scoundrel who overthrows the ruler, installs himself as the new ruler, and sets about creating a new army to fight back against the invaders by promising to remove their collars if they’re successful in battle. This ring a bell to anyone? ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2025, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1886 "2025-11-25T01:43:32Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Were the “female staff” aliens who resembled young human women? Called “sylphs”, IIRC? Possibly but that doesn’t give me an “Aha!” moment ---
**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:** [November 25, 2025, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1887 "2025-11-25T02:45:32Z")
The Last Castle was definitely the one I was thinking of, but I’m not sure if that’s what @phs3 was thinking of or not (not much to go on, there). ---
**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:** [November 25, 2025, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1888 "2025-11-25T13:06:46Z")
The Anome ([The Anome - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anome)) by Jack Vance? ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2025, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1889 "2025-11-25T13:15:53Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > It was the middle part of a trilogy that I never found the first and third installments of, and I don’t recall the title or author. > [@Frodo](#): > > The Anome ([The Anome - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anome)) by Jack Vance? The middle part of that series would be **The Brave Free Men** , according to Wikipedia. > **[Durdane series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durdane_series)** > > The Durdane series is a trilogy of science fiction books written by Jack Vance between 1971 and 1973, and detail the adventures of Gastel Etzwane on the world Durdane. The trilogy, as a whole, portrays his rise from common boy to the autocrat The Anome, and finally, as a saviour of his world against the alien Asutra of the third book. > The three books in the trilogy are, in reading and publication order: > The land of Shant on the planet Durdane is ruled by a purposely anonymous dictator called th... ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2025, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1890 "2025-11-25T15:48:18Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > “The Last Castle” by Jack Vance That’s not it, alas. Now I’m starting to wonder if I imagined the whole thing! ---
**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:** [November 25, 2025, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1891 "2025-11-25T21:02:03Z")
Maybe “Shiva Descending” by Gregory Benford and William Rotser. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2025, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1892 "2025-11-26T03:32:32Z")
Apocalypse book from the 70s/80s I think First half I think was an American scientist finding out a government conspiracy for a horrifying secret, most of the wheat/grain supply had been killed by an unknown disease and the United States (as well as the rest of the world) only has enough food for six more months. Wild rumors start entering society but most people don’t believe it as the Government engineers a massive cover-up, including interviewing a local farmer to assure the food supply was safe. However in the middle of the live broadcast the farmer breaks down in tears and admits that all of his crops as well as the crops of everybody he knows has been dead all year, and this is the moment that immediately causes all hell to break loose globally. From here on it becomes a more standard apocalypse novel as all society breaks down literally within the month. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2025, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1893 "2025-11-26T05:18:16Z")
The Death of Grass, by John Christopher? Sounds similar although it’s earlier than you suggest. > **[The Death of Grass](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Grass)** > > The Death of Grass (US title No Blade of Grass) is a 1956 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel written by the English author Sam Youd under the pen name John Christopher. The plot concerns a virus that kills off grass species, including rice and wheat. The Death of Grass was the first of several post-apocalyptic novels written by Youd. The novel was written in a matter of weeks and liberated him from his day job. > It was published in the United States both in book form and serialized in The S... ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2025, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1894 "2025-11-26T07:28:15Z")
Yeah, looks like that’s it. I’ll have to track down some copies now. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2025, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1895 "2025-11-26T07:52:47Z")
My dad described an SF short story to me when I was a teenager, and I’ve never been able to find it. In this story: A super-rich guy wanted to ensure it rained at his funeral. So in his will, he had created a fleet of space ships designed to fly into the sun’s photosphere and move the sunspots around, so as to make it rain back on Earth. To survive the tremendous heat, these “sun boats” were each covered in a half-mile-thick shell of graphite, which took about 20 minutes for the photosphere’s heat to completely boil away. Of course, these space ships were manned, and while they were on the sun their crews liked to open this teeny tiny slat in their graphite encasement, so that the roaring sound from the sun’s photosphere could be heard. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2025, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1896 "2025-11-26T08:00:55Z")
I’m pretty sure that’s _The Weather Man_ by Theodore Thomas, although some details aren’t quite right (eg. it was snow, not rain, and it fell while he was dying, not at his funeral). ---
**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:** [November 26, 2025, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1897 "2025-11-26T21:14:05Z")
That reminds me of another short story (by Heinlein or Clarke, maybe?) in which there’s a weather control legislature for all of Earth, and one sentimental member arranges for it to snow, out of season, for and on the dying man who invented the weather-control process and who wanted to feel snow just one last time. I read the story in the late Seventies, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2025, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1898 "2025-11-26T22:16:59Z")
They could have just flown to the sun at night when it’s not so hot. 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2025, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1899 "2025-11-26T23:03:31Z")
That is the same story that tracer asked about, _The Weather Man_, although your description of it is more accurate than tracer’s. It was published in _Time Probe_, a 1966 anthology edited by Arthur C. Clarke, which may be why you are associating it with Clarke. BTW I just re-read the story and there are a few inaccuracies in tracer’s description: > **Summary** > > The guy who wanted to see snow was not super-rich; he had indeed invented a key component of the weather control sun boats, but hadn’t been credited properly and was dying as a pauper. He made a request to the all-powerful Weather Council to see snow one last time, in southern California in July, which made his request challenging. The graphite protecting the boats from the sun’s heat was not a half mile thick; it was a “thin film” of carbon that the boats rode on “the way a drop of water rides a layer of vaporized water on a red-hot plate”. There was indeed a guy who liked to listen to the roar of the Sun while in his boat. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2025, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417/1900 "2025-11-26T23:10:20Z")
I remember that one! The pilot on the weather boat liked to hear the Sun roar, so he’d retract some of the protective plates next to his seat. He thought he was the only one who did this, and the narrator said the pilot never wondered why some of those plates were retractable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417.md?page=94) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417.md?page=96)