Yeah–it’s “Those Who Walk Away From Omelas”, by Ursula K. LeGuin.
Sounds a little like Vonda McIntyre, though the blob isn’t furry and she wears it as a space-sailing aid.
How about this one, probably a Heinlein juvenile and painfully easy:
Boys are dropped into some sort of survival test/rite of passage, but their pick-up doesn’t arrive at the end of the exercise and they must survive as best they can?
That one is indeed Heinlein - it’s “Tunnel in the Sky” (beware of stobor!).
Thanks. I had an urge to re-read it after reading a different rite of passage story and hadn’t quite reconciled myself to pulling all that Heinlein off the shelf to find it.
As to my ID, I retract Vonda and suggest Varley, “Equinoctial” from Picnic on Nearside.
That could be - isn’t that one about the human-alien composite beings that live in space (in vacuum), near Saturn?
I looked up some MacIntyre too - “Metaphase” http://www.amazon.com/Metaphase-Vonda-Mcintyre/dp/0553292234/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221010745&sr=1-4 might fit the original description better.
Somehow or other a primordial black hole is dropped about 100 feet above the ground and then orbits through the center of the Earth. As the globe turns it keeps popping up in different places. About the only other thing I remember is it regularly pokes through various people, buildings etc. And finally something real bad happens.
It’s not Lucifer’s Hammer and I know it would be impossible.
Sounds like “Thrice Upon a Time” by James Hogan - if you remember backwards communication through time and a highly infectious plague, it’s definitely this one.
Or it could be David Brin’s “Earth” - if you remember global environmental problems, that’s probably the one.
Book: The Creatures of Man by Howard L. Myers
Story in book: The Other Way Around
You can get the book free in electronic format.
http://www.baen.com/library/
The book has a number of great stories in it.
I’m very pleased at all the people joining in to identify the works that I’ve drawn a blank on.
Possibly The Doomsday Effect, by Thomas Wren.
Agreed. Couldn’t find a copy to check.
The one that has bugged me for years isn’t a single story, but an anthology. It looked like it was printed in the 70s. I remember it having:
“First Law”, by Isaac Asimov
“A Pail of Air”, by Fritz Leiber
“Blood”, by Fredric Brown. This one was accompanied by a black and white photo of a turnip, with facial features and a goatee.
There was a fourth story, and the only thing I remember about that is that it’s British, uses the word “quid” (first time I ever heard of the word), and *might * have something to do with a school.
I’ve compared lists of books that have these stories, and still haven’t found it. It is my ultimate (okay, current) book quest.
I think it’s either “Earth” or “The Doomsday Effect”. pinkfreud, Amazon didn’t have any reviews on the TDE. Do you remember if it’s any good? If so I’ll probably buy them both.
I don’t remember the black hole in “Earth” actually coming out through the surface of the Earth, but I don’t think I ever finished that one. I think it mostly orbitted around under the surface and caused earthquakes and such.
I think it’s a short story by Larry Niven, though I could be wrong.
I came within a gnat’s eyelasy of posting The Forgotten Door but I did not remember anything about a golden dagger. But you are right, he did have a special knife. (not golden) Did not do anything spectacular and was not a major plot device, so I dismissed it as a possibility, dammit!
It’s not great, but it’s certainly readable and entertaining. The Doomsday Effect was the first novel written by SF author Thomas T. Thomas. I’ve heard that he used the pseudonym “Thomas Wren” because the publisher thought that “Thomas T. Thomas” sounded a bit comical, even though it’s the guy’s real name. The middle initial does not stand for yet another “Thomas.” His middle name is “Thurston.”
I thought of one that’s bugged me on and off for years. I think it was a novel. In it the Earth moves out of some sort of galactic field that depresses brain function, and everyone suddenly gains a hundred or so IQ points. Most people become super geniuses, of course, but now all of the mentally disabled people find themselves with what we’d consider normal intelligence. I think it was told from the perspective of one of those people.
Any ideas?
Risha, that’s Brain Wave by Poul Anderson:
Niven has a short story about a black hole released into Mars (The Hole Man), and in another story (Wrong Way Street) the main character accidentally (!) destroys the Moon, but I don’t think he’s every dropped a black hole on the Earth (Asteroids, yes; black holes, no)