# What Sci Fi story is this? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 29, 2008, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306 "2008-04-29T02:16:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/21 "2008-04-30T22:16:53Z")
My favorite SF story is “Nightwings” by Robert Silverberg (assuming you’ll accept something that’s actually a novella). My mystery story is an alternate history short story that was published in one of the SF digests (probably Analog but maybe Asimov’s or F&SF). It was about Robert E. Lee in the closing days of the Civil War. He receives a visitor to his tent as he’s weighing his options about continuing the war. The visitor reveals himself as a time traveler and offers Lee advanced weaponry from the future. But he also inadvertently reveals how future society will look at slavery and Lee decides it would be better for the South to surrender, so he turns down the offer of the weapons. There are obvious similarities to _The Guns of the South_. For a time, I even thought Harry Turtledove had written an alternate-alternate-history version of the opening chapters of his novel and sold it as a short story. But I ended up having a chance to ask Turtledove himself and he said he never wrote any such story. So does anyone have any idea who the author and title was? ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/22 "2008-04-30T22:40:37Z")
I love Niven’s _There Is A Tide_. It has everything I like most about his early writing: hard sci-fi, trying to relate to a weird alien, humor, and impossible gizmos like translating devices. Emphatically yes. ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/23 "2008-04-30T22:52:12Z")
[QUOTE=Ghanima] [In the Walls of Eryx](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Walls_of_Eryx) by H.P. Lovecraft and Kenneth J. Sterling. Great story. [/QUOTE] :eek: holy cannoli, batman! in less than a half hour?!?!??! you guys are AWESOME. and many thanks to **ghanima**. boy, was i way off on the author! \*\*never \*\* would have pegged lovecraft for that kind of story. :::goes off to track down the tale online::: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/24 "2008-04-30T22:58:49Z")
Did you ever find the story, **Cartooniverse**? I just read it a couple of months ago in one of my anthologies I have around the house - I could find which one it was for you if you still need it. I love me some sci-fi short stories. I have read some stunning ones in my life. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/25 "2008-05-01T00:58:48Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad] It was made into an oft-half-remembered [short film](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QWmahMdeGU), commonly requested. [/QUOTE] Wow, hope I’m not the only one who thought that was the most wasted 30 minutes of my life? I hope the written story was better than that film. It didn’t even make sense. They’d never seen butterflies or flowers before because you “need sun” for those–then the sun comes out and 3 minutes later there are flowers and butterflies? From where?! They had to have already been there–so, what, they can’t see flowers because it’s raining? It didn’t make sense, it was boring, it was badly acted… ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/26 "2008-05-01T01:17:36Z")
[QUOTE=featherlou] Did you ever find the story, **Cartooniverse**? I just read it a couple of months ago in one of my anthologies I have around the house - I could find which one it was for you if you still need it. I love me some sci-fi short stories. I have read some stunning ones in my life. [/QUOTE] I have not found it, and would love to. Must admit, I have not taken time to search online… been a bit swamped. Must find !! ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/27 "2008-05-06T13:35:29Z")
> **[All Summer in a Day](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Summer_in_a_Day)** > > "All Summer in a Day" is a science fiction short story by American writer Ray Bradbury, first published in March 1954 for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. > The story is about a class of students on Venus, which, in this story, is a world of constant rainstorms, where the sun is only visible for one hour every seven years. > One of the children, Margot, moved to Venus from Earth five years earlier and is the only one who remembers the sun, since it shines regularly on Earth. She describes... [http://www.dodea.edu/instruction/curriculum/lars/ela\_lab/PreK-Grade6/Guided%20Reading/AllSummerinaDay.doc](http://www.dodea.edu/instruction/curriculum/lars/ela_lab/PreK-Grade6/Guided%20Reading/AllSummerinaDay.doc) I also really like the stories collected into “Robots Have No Tails” Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, who most of you probably remember from _Star Trek_. > **[Robots Have No Tails](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots_Have_No_Tails)** > > Robots Have No Tails is a 1952 collection of science fiction short stories by Lewis Padgett (pseudonym of American writers Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore). It was first published by Gnome Press in 1952 in an edition of 4,000 copies. The stories all originally appeared in the magazine Astounding Stories. > It has been reprinted in 1973 by Lancer books with an introduction by C.L. Moore; in 1983 in the UK by Hamlyn Books as The Proud Robot with an introduction by Peter Pinto; and lastly in 2009 in th... There’s paperback copies around – the collected stores were also republished as “The Proud Robot” – great stories, funny too. [http://scifipedia.scifi.com/index.php/The\_Proud\_Robot](http://scifipedia.scifi.com/index.php/The_Proud_Robot) Kuttner and Moore have had a little more attention recently, which is good . . . except that the adaptation of their work turned out to be _The Last Mimsy,_ which was bad. > **[Mimsy Were the Borogoves](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimsy_were_the_Borogoves)** > > "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" is a science fiction short story by Lewis Padgett (a pseudonym of American writers Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore), originally published in the February 1943 issue of Astounding Science Fiction Magazine. It was judged by the Science Fiction Writers of America to be among the best science fiction stories written prior to 1965 and included in the anthology The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964. In 2007, it was loosely adapted into a feature-length film Mi... ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/28 "2008-05-06T15:38:22Z")
Probably my favorite is Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.” I’d also include: “Mother Hitton’s Littul Kittons” by Cordwainer Smith. “The Last Question” by Isaac Asimov “5,271,009” by Alfred Bester “Understand” by Ted Chiang “And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill Side” by James Tiptree, Jr. “The Pusher” by John Varley “Stable Strategies for Middle Management” by Eileen Gunn “In the Specimen Jar” by Daniel Gilbert (Gilbert was a psychologist who dabbled in fiction; this is a story about a man who has an alien parasite in his brain that is making him paranoid. The doctors say it has to be removed, but can he trust them . . . .?) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/29 "2008-05-06T17:32:11Z")
[QUOTE=Cartooniverse] What’s your favorite sci fi short story? Cartooniverse [/QUOTE] (Here be spoilers!)[The Third Level](http://homepage.mac.com/cssfan/jackfinney/col501007036_detail.htm) - Jack Finney Came across it in a school textbook, of all places. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/30 "2008-05-06T19:21:17Z")
[QUOTE=Balance] It’s always hard to pick, but Alan Dean Foster’s “With Friends Like These” ranks way up there. [/QUOTE] It’s my favorite. I actually found myself retelling it to a group of co-workers in a bar a few weeks ago. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/31 "2008-05-06T19:49:40Z")
My favorite Sci-Fi short story is still “All You Zombies—” by Robert Heinlein. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/32 "2008-05-07T03:50:56Z")
It’s a good read. I’m quite sorry I watched the film on YouTube first before seeing the links to the written story. There’s a certain quality to that kind of film that just screams early 1970’s… and takes me back. But is fairly horrid. Great story though. And now, I’ve got other stories to hunt down ! ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/33 "2008-05-07T12:16:47Z")
Another favorite by Ray… “I Sing the Body Electric”, also made into an OK Twilight Zone ep (tho it left off the real ending) & a wonderful 1982 TV-movie unfortunately titled “The Electric Grandmother” with Maureen Stapleton. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/34 "2008-05-07T14:43:44Z")
Some of my favorite science fiction short stories ever were compiled in a book of sci-fi from the 1930s. It opened with a classic Lovecraft, but I can’t remember the title! It was a fairly long story, in which the main character gets mind-swapped with some other being from “Earth’s long history” and ends up in the body of this conical thing, in a library deep in the bowels of the earth. Or something. Anyone know the title – or the anthology’s title? There was a classic robot on the cover. I used to have the book but it somehow vanished into the mists of time. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/35 "2008-05-07T15:25:24Z")
What I find mildly creepy is that when I saw the title of this thread, my first thought was of exactly the same story. I remember, quite vividly, sitting on the floor in the library my mother worked in, in the children’s section, reading the collection of short sci-fi in which I found the OP’s story. I seemed to remember it was Bradbury, making it the only Bradbury I’ve read and finished. 😃 Yes, I know I need to read more… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Them](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/898d66/32.png) [@The\_Them](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Them)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/36 "2008-05-07T20:54:34Z")
Well, _favorite_ might not be the word I’d use…_Summer’s Lease_ by Joe Halderman, is brutally sad and very well written. Imagine every possible hope for knowledge of the future or the past just not being there…☹ ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/37 "2008-05-08T05:04:08Z")
You can find the story “All Summer in a Day” in the Bradbury collections _A Medicine for Melancholy_, _Twice 22_, and _The Stories of Ray Bradbury_. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/38 "2008-05-08T13:55:08Z")
[QUOTE=Ellen Cherry] It opened with a classic Lovecraft, but I can’t remember the title! It was a fairly long story, in which the main character gets mind-swapped with some other being from “Earth’s long history” and ends up in the body of this conical thing, in a library deep in the bowels of the earth. [/QUOTE] _[The Shadow Out Of Time](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_Out_of_Time)_ My favourite SF short stories are _Vaster Than Empires And More Slow_ and _The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas_ by Le Guin, and _The Screwfly Solution_ by Tipptree ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/39 "2008-05-09T21:03:22Z")
Thank you, **MrDibble**. I decided at some point today (before checking this thread) that the title was Time Out of Mind, so I’m glad for the clarification. ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2008, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306/40 "2008-05-10T01:46:05Z")
I’ve always been fond of Bob Shaw’s [Light of Other Days](http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/shaw/shaw1.html) – a little gem of a story. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-story-is-this/447306.md?page=1)