# Name this sci-fi short story **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 25, 2001, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-sci-fi-short-story/89531 "2001-10-25T13:43:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hammos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hammos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammos1)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-sci-fi-short-story/89531/1 "2001-10-25T13:43:36Z")
I think this is a short story by Robert Silverberg, but I could be wrong: Synopsis: the story is set amongst a tribe who live on a _vertical_ cliff face of seemingly infinite height. Despite this precarious situation they have lived on the face for generations and have a developed society, language etc. Anyway, one day, one of them looks over his shoulder and sees in the distance _another_ cliff face, that wasn’t there before. Over the next few days, it becomes apparent that the second cliff face is getting closer and closer. The tribe has to decide what to do: some choose suicide and let go off the cliff, while the others debate the relative merits of going up or going down… That’s all I can remember…can anyone name the story and (bonus marks) an anthology in which it appears? ---
**Author:** ![Spritle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Spritle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spritle)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-sci-fi-short-story/89531/2 "2001-10-25T15:22:34Z")
is it on [this list](http://www.owmyhead.com/silverberg/oldsite/Shorts/silvshort.htm)? ---
**Author:** ![Niobium\_Knight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc8723/32.png) [@Niobium\_Knight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Niobium_Knight)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-sci-fi-short-story/89531/3 "2001-10-25T15:46:10Z")
i have 2 short stories i read when i was a kid but cant remember who wrote them: one is about the moon falling to earth, and about a guy’s last night as the moon is gonna strike the earth. the other is called “The Room” (or Rume)?? and is about a thing called a room which came from space and it is looking for life forms above a certain weight and starts following this guy and it’s chasing him for days and he finally is so tired it catches up with him but he has lost weight over the chase and it ignores him when it finds out his weight. anyone know any info on either of these? ---
**Author:** ![muttrox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a8b319/32.png) [@muttrox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muttrox)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-sci-fi-short-story/89531/4 "2001-10-25T19:09:16Z")
The first one sounds similar to a Larry Niven story about the sun going nova, and someone’s last night. ---
**Author:** ![evilhanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba8739/32.png) [@evilhanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilhanz)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-sci-fi-short-story/89531/5 "2001-10-25T19:19:15Z")
To answer hammos1’s original query, the book is called **On** by [Adam Roberts](http://www.adamroberts.com). From [Adam Roberts’ bibliography](http://www.adamroberts.com/fiction.htm): > [@](#): > > My second novel, On, will be published by Gollancz, July 2001. On is set on a vertical rather than a horizontal world; which is to say, the world of this novel is an enormous cliff stretching away upwards and downwards apparently forever. The people who inhabit this world live on the ledges, crags, crevices and platforms jutting out from this world, eking out a precarious sort of existence, with the danger ever-present that they might simply fall off the world and die. The hero, Tighe, grows up in a small village. His parents vanish, and it is feared they have fallen from the world; Tighe is taken in by his grandfather, a small-minded and cruel old man; in running from his new home Tighe himself falls – but, miraculously, survives – finds himself caught up in the preparations for an enormous war downwall from his village. This is the start of a great adventure, a journey to the mystery of what it is that lies behind the wall. > > On, fairly obviously given its premise, is a novel about precariousness, about the unexpectednesses that manifest themselves in everyday life, in the wobbly uncertainty of other people’s emotions (of love, of anger, of attachment), and how abruptly everything can be taken away. Or so it seems to me. Pulp SF, because of – not despite – its populist, kinetic, adolescent provenance, is a powerful genre for the exploration of this sort of concern. I have written On, hopefully, as part of this tradition: to be an onward-moving narrative of adventure including such props as strange peoples, giant man-eating insects, bizarre weapons of war, slavery, escape, triumph and sharp reversals of fortune. ---
**Author:** ![Cargogal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/48db29/32.png) [@Cargogal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cargogal)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-sci-fi-short-story/89531/6 "2001-10-25T19:29:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by muttrox \* > \*\*The first one sounds similar to a Larry Niven story about the sun going nova, and someone’s last night. \*\* That’s “Inconstant Moon”, and it’s a great story. ---
**Author:** ![Gaspode](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@Gaspode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaspode)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-sci-fi-short-story/89531/7 "2001-10-25T22:06:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Niobium Knight \* > the other is called “The Room” (or Rume)?? and is about a thing called a room which came from space and it is looking for life forms above a certain weight and starts following this guy and it’s chasing him for days and he finally is so tired it catches up with him but he has lost weight over the chase and it ignores him when it finds out his weight. > > anyone know any info on either of these? \*\* ‘The Ruum’, Arthur Porges, 1953. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-sci-fi-short-story/89531/8 "2001-10-25T22:14:54Z")
Off to Cafe Society.