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San Francisco, 5:37 AM
Mon Nov 9
12 posts in the last 24 hours

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    You'd Be Surprised How Many Science Fiction Novels Can Fit This Description

    "What is the name of a movie where two boys find a monster in their school toilet?"
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    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of Counterglow Counterglow
    07/11/09

    In reply to You'd Be Surprised How Many Science Fiction Novels Can Fit This Description
    There was a pretty cheesy novel called (I'm pretty sure) Kavan that came out about that time. The cover was mostly white and had a man's bearded face on it. The hero and his mentor travel through the ruins of the US, trying to recover books and technology.



    I'm NOT referring to Anna Kavan, the current-day author, by the way.
     Reply
    Counterglow was starred Counterglow was unstarred
    Image of Laffinboy Laffinboy
    07/11/09

    In reply to You'd Be Surprised How Many Science Fiction Novels Can Fit This Description
    I was immediately put in mind (no pun intended) of Julian May's Saga of the Pliocene Exiles.



    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saga_of_Pliocene_Exile
     Reply
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    Image of joetato joetato
    07/11/09

    In reply to You'd Be Surprised How Many Science Fiction Novels Can Fit This Description
    I prefer to completely vex the technologically impared, by using the, "Got your nose!" gag, only I change it to, "Got your epiglottis!" This REALLY gets 'em!
     Reply
    joetato was starred joetato was unstarred
    Image of Jrsy Devil's Advocate® Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
    07/11/09

    In reply to You'd Be Surprised How Many Science Fiction Novels Can Fit This Description
    The Bible?
     Reply
    Jrsy Devil's Advocate® was starred Jrsy Devil's Advocate® was unstarred
    Image of Adah Adah
    07/11/09

    @Jrsy Devil's Food Cake®: There are laser beams in the Bible? Sunday school totally skimmed over that one.
     Reply
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    Image of EdgarJPublius EdgarJPublius
    07/10/09

    In reply to You'd Be Surprised How Many Science Fiction Novels Can Fit This Description
    when I heard the description, I immediately thought of Heinlein, not Sixth Column though (although that makes a little more sense) but Farnham's Freehold
     Reply
    EdgarJPublius was starred EdgarJPublius was unstarred
    Image of Grey_Area Grey_Area
    07/10/09

    In reply to You'd Be Surprised How Many Science Fiction Novels Can Fit This Description
    I'm going with Gene Wolfe on this one, only for the description of energy weapons as spears and whatnot in a dying Earth type scenario.



    Also...All your nose are belong to us! Yes, they do!
     Reply
    Grey_Area was starred Grey_Area was unstarred
    Image of Lamar Henderson Lamar Henderson
    07/10/09

    In reply to You'd Be Surprised How Many Science Fiction Novels Can Fit This Description
    My first thought was Davy by Edgar Pangborn, but I don't remember anything about technology as magic.
     Reply
    Lamar Henderson was starred Lamar Henderson was unstarred
    Image of GiovannaRockish GiovannaRockish
    07/10/09

    In reply to You'd Be Surprised How Many Science Fiction Novels Can Fit This Description
    I think it might be Viriconium, by M. John Harrison.
     Reply
    GiovannaRockish was starred GiovannaRockish was unstarred
    Image of cletar cletar
    07/10/09

    In reply to You'd Be Surprised How Many Science Fiction Novels Can Fit This Description
    Jewel in the Skull by Moorcock? It was post-pockyclips and sword-y.
     Reply
    cletar was starred cletar was unstarred
    Image of Mathmos Mathmos
    07/10/09

    In reply to You'd Be Surprised How Many Science Fiction Novels Can Fit This Description
    This sounds most like Heinlein's Revolt in 2100, which I think was what Charlie had in mind in mentioning Sixth Column.
     Reply
    Mathmos was starred Mathmos was unstarred
    Image of capnrob capnrob
    07/10/09

    @Mathmos: Nope. The story in _Revolt in 2100_ that you're thinking of ("If This Goes On...") features a 1950's-level-technology with some added fillips running a fundamentalist/possibly-partially-LDS-inspired... theocracy in the US. No swords, no spears, no nuttin' like that. Some psionics, but, really, nothing that heavily affects the plot. _Sixth Column_ is a different work altogether, and features the adventures of the survivors of a secret U.S. base who, with their Just That Moment Discovered superscience, defeat an (apparently mostly conventional) occupation of the US by the Pan-Asians. Again, no swords, no spears, nothing like that. Just a short-novel-length exploration of Clarke's Law, with "Magic" erased and "Miracles" inserted.



    Also, can I just say that I loathe this commenting system? I tend to switch away from comments to check up on details, and every dang time, my entire comment disappears. Pfui.
     Reply
    capnrob was starred capnrob was unstarred
    Image of Mathmos Mathmos
    07/10/09

    @capnrob: oh well, I read those books in the 1960s. I guess I can forgive myself for not recalling them very well.



    So far I very much dislike this commenting system too. It doesn't work in IE8, and I don't like being part of a caste system and sometimes nothing after the first page of comments will appear.
     Reply
    Mathmos was starred Mathmos was unstarred
    Image of capnrob capnrob
    07/10/09

    In reply to You'd Be Surprised How Many Science Fiction Novels Can Fit This Description
    Can't be Heinlein; not post-nuclear holocaust, but, rather an Occupied America with a preserved (if damaged) social order. The Staff of Mota, in addition, was, well, a staff. Leiber's, on the other hand, is ... well, sort of post-apocalyptic, but is presented more as a Highly Repressed Central European Medieval Theocracy kind of thing, and the weapons aren't spears - they're "wrath rods."



    Could this be, I dunno, something along the lines of one of Lin Carter's Burroughsesquades? Or a Buck Rogers kind of thing?



    Hmm. Actually, there's a story I remember from an anthology which pretty much DOES fit this - the obligatory invading army confronting superscience somewhere in ... um, California? I vaguely remember this being more mid-to-late-sixtiesish than the others, with the odd variant of libertarian politics that you started to get then
     Reply
    capnrob was starred capnrob was unstarred
    Image of cletar cletar
    07/10/09

    In reply to You'd Be Surprised How Many Science Fiction Novels Can Fit This Description
    Could be Larry Niven, "The Magic Goes Away."



    Or it's a bad description of "Lord of Light." There are some references in Lord of Light to atomic blasts ("the tall man of smoke who wears a wide hat"), and there are "spears" that are really some kind of energy weapon--the binder thingy, the Bright Spear, etc. That's a lousy description, though.
     Reply
    cletar was starred cletar was unstarred
    Image of capnrob capnrob
    07/10/09

    @cletar: No - "The Magic Goes Away" is really magic, not post-apocalypse, and it's explicitly set back in Way, Way, Long Ago (12,000 BC? Something like that.) Doesn't match the criteria.
     Reply
    capnrob was starred capnrob was unstarred
    Image of cletar cletar
    07/11/09

    @capnrob: Ok then. Cheerfully withdrawn!
     Reply
    cletar was starred cletar was unstarred
    Image of capnrob capnrob
    07/10/09

    In reply to You'd Be Surprised How Many Science Fiction Novels Can Fit This Description
    It can't be Deathworld itself; that's set on another planet, and everybody knows that the technology works and is technology. Deathworld 2 features something of the idea, but it's more of a cargo-cult situation, and features no ray-guns - tribe A knows how to make steam engines, and tribe B knows how to make Leyden jars, and so on. Deathworld 3 is basically our heroes from the last two books fighting the Mongols, and only gunpowder is involved; no rayguns disguised as spears.
     Reply
    capnrob was starred capnrob was unstarred
    Image of Spiral Spiral
    07/10/09

    In reply to You'd Be Surprised How Many Science Fiction Novels Can Fit This Description
    First thing I thought of was the Hawkmoon series by Michael Moorcock. There are "flame lances" and other post-apocalyptic technology, through the setting is generally medieval other than that.
     Reply
    Spiral was starred Spiral was unstarred
    Image of cletar cletar
    07/10/09

    @Spiral: I was thinking Jewel in the Skull. Forgot about Hawkmoon.
     Reply
    cletar was starred cletar was unstarred
    Image of matthewtoney matthewtoney
    07/10/09

    @Spiral: The Dorian Hawkmoon stuff was post-apocalyptic? Wow - been a loooong time since I've read those but I didn't remember that part
     Reply
    matthewtoney was starred matthewtoney was unstarred
    Image of Spiral Spiral
    07/10/09

    @matthewtoney: It's very subtle. If you gloss over the flame lances and ornithopters, you miss it. But its there. Its a very future Europe ("Granbretan" instead of "Great Britain"), but its there if you look deep. I admit that the post holocaust part isn't something really relevant to the plot, just some background stuff rarely touched on.
     Reply
    Spiral was starred Spiral was unstarred
    Image of cletar cletar
    07/11/09

    @cletar: oh, wait. Hawkmoon is Jewel in the Skull. Confused Hawkmoon and some of the other Eternal Champion guys.
     Reply
    cletar was starred cletar was unstarred
    Image of MargaretMoony MargaretMoony
    07/10/09

    In reply to You'd Be Surprised How Many Science Fiction Novels Can Fit This Description
    I feel that this is just a wide sweeping description of ALL Sci-fi or fantasy books from the 70's.
     Reply
    MargaretMoony was starred MargaretMoony was unstarred
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