# Help identifying sci-fi short story or novella? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 28, 2018, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-sci-fi-short-story-or-novella/809772 "2018-02-28T20:03:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2018, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-sci-fi-short-story-or-novella/809772/1 "2018-02-28T20:03:37Z")
I’ll try to list everything I remember about it, although I’ve had no luck searching on the terms involved. It was either a short story or novella, in that kind of quasi-cyberpunk subgenre that had a lot of computer/internet/vr stuff without having the whole corporate-hegemony worldview. The principal characters were elderly men and women who were children and teenagers in the 80s/90s and still used the language and pop culture from that era, even though it was something like 2060 or so. They were in assisted living and still pretty much rocking 90s skater clothing and such. Their generation had fought some kind of actual hot war with Switzerland over their banking system and the privacy it guarded that was being used to keep the rest of the world subjugated. I don’t, unfortunately, remember anything of the actual plot of the piece in question. It was probably in an anthology from the mid-to-late-90s of some kind. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t an actual book in itself. Sound familiar at all? ---
**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:** [February 28, 2018, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-sci-fi-short-story-or-novella/809772/2 "2018-02-28T20:09:10Z")
David Brin’s “Earth” had the war against Switzerland. It’s possible you read an excerpt of Earth, since such an excerpt was published in something called “Spectra” [Title: Earth (excerpt)](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1381816) in 1991. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2018, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-sci-fi-short-story-or-novella/809772/3 "2018-02-28T20:22:52Z")
I think you’ve got it. I did a search using “Earth Brin Switzerland War” and got an actual quote from one of the geriatric skater-kids about the Helvetian War that sounds just like the parts I remember. Thank you! ---
**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:** [February 28, 2018, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-sci-fi-short-story-or-novella/809772/4 "2018-02-28T20:39:40Z")
Glad to help. You should read the whole book sometime - it’s good. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2018, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-sci-fi-short-story-or-novella/809772/5 "2018-02-28T21:43:46Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I an actual quote from one of the geriatric skater-kids about the Helvetian War Some people clearly take their fonts WAY too seriously. ---
**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:** [February 28, 2018, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-sci-fi-short-story-or-novella/809772/6 "2018-02-28T21:51:48Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > Some people clearly take their fonts WAY too seriously. {Brick Heck}too seriously{\Brick Heck}