Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn
By Isaac Asimov.
A part of the book involves a legal dispute over the rights to establish a colony on Saturn’s moons. The people from Sirius want to establish one, to spy on Earth, and Earth doesn’t want them to.
You might be thinking of “Farmer in the Sky” by Robert Heinlein
I very well might. I see I got Saturn wrong. But quite frankly, I’m not sure if that’s it, because nothing at the Wiki page rang a bell. But that doesn’t mean you didn’t nail it. What the hell, thanks, I’m gonna try SF again with it. I’ve read that Heinlein is very good.
Farmer in the Sky is not his best. If you want to start with one of Heinlein’s juveniles, try Citizen of the Galaxy or Have Space Suit, Will Travel.
I thought that tailed out badly, but as a 12yr old kid, the opening was brilliant. He’s just an ordinary kid (like me), and he’s got an old space suit (that smells like used socks), and then …
Premise: It’s discovered that plants are sentient when a new device picks up sound frequencies in which plants “vocalize.” The sound that grass made as it was being cut was said to be bloodcurdling.
This was a short story in a textbook-like anthology that I think had alternating chapters about “science fact” and “science fiction.” (I’m hoping it was the latter.) I read it in school in the early 1980s.
"The Sound Machine” by Roald Dahl
Holy cow, TroutMan, that must be the one! Hats off to you!
It was collected in something called “Science Fact/Science Fiction” so that might be where you saw it
Publication: Science Fact/Fiction
That’s the one! Thanks, Andy_L!
No problem!
I remember the Tales of the unexpected TV adaptation. I must have been about 9 years old and wanted to watch it as the story was by Dahl. I didn’t sleep for weeks!
I remember reading the story from the same fact/fiction book as Chad_Sudan, but I never saw this episode. I’m sure I would have been traumatized as a kid too.
I have another population crisis one, so probably written in the 1970s. In the future, to control the population, the government sponsors amusement parks which are free to attend, but every event, meal, ride, etc is paid for by accepting a small risk of death. The twist is that the main character and his family have a great time but then
his wife and daughter go to a pay toilet and are killed
“Spending the Day at the Lottery Fair” by Fred Pohl
The premise is similar to “The Carnival” by Michael Fedo, although the odds are a bit worse at this fair.
Another challenge. I woke up thinking about this one for no apparent reason. It sounds like something by Guy Gavriel Kay, but if it is, I could not find it in my collection.
Alternate history, medieval or earlier. Protagonist is a woman fleeing to avoid an arranged marriage. She has various adventures in her flight. The society features city-states trying to take over other cities, mostly using hired mercenary troops, each of whom have their own agenda. One of her main adventures involves a horse–or maybe chariot–race that she somehow gets into and wins, although women are not supposed to race, but she is really sympatico with horses. Eventually she gets to the town where her true love lives and I forget what happens there.
Conversation between two people in a European cafe or biergarten. One is a (now) famous scientist or political figure. The other may be a time traveler. Oh, and their waiter is Hitler. (It is not “Catch that Zeppelin” or “Shiva”. Reading the latter story is what brought to mind the one I’m looking for.)
I have that story, in multiple different collections. There are three diners, Einstein, H. G. Wells, and the time traveler. Let me see if I can find it…
Looking forward to hearing what this is.