Science Fiction Midterm 1

memorizing titles and author names

Shambleau

C. L. Moore 

Passengers

Robert Silverberg

A Martian Odyssey

Stanley G. Weinbaum

The Sentinel

Arthur C. Clark

Specialist

Robert Sheckley

Think Like A Dinosaur

James Patrick Kelly

Out of All Them Bright Stars

Nancy Kress

Useful Phrases

Gene Wolfe

The Conquest of Gola

Leslie F. Stone

When it Changed

Joanna Russ

Day Million

Frederick Pohl

Closer

Greg Egan

“Aye, and Gomorrah…”

Samuel R. Delaney

The Heat Death of the Universe

Pamela Zoline

And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill’s Side

James Tiptree Jr. / Alice B. Sheldon

All You Zombies

Robert A. Heinlein

The Seventh Voyage

Stanislaw Lem

Air Raid

John Varley

Invaders

John Kessel

Medusa-like alien that seduces Northwest Smith and has mind-melding sex on a western frontier-like Mars

Shambleau by C. L. Moore

Aliens that take over your body to have sex with strangers and erase parts of your memory afterwards. This is a part of everyday life and the main character is middle-aged man named Charles

Passengers by Robert Silverberg

Team of Scientists recount an encounter that Dick Jarvis had with an alien named Tweel and their adventures to make it back to the crew.

A Martian Odyssey by Stanley G. Weinbaum

Jaded geologist on the moon spots a pyramid on a mountain left by an ancient civilization, then humanity breaks it with an atomic bomb

The Sentinel by Arthur C. Clark

crew that has different roles on the space ship lose their human “pusher” in a photon storm and are adrift in space until they find another plant of pushers and convince one to join them and the Cooperation

Specialist by Robert Sheckley

From the PoV of a human that works for old, practical life forms, and his interaction with a woman named Kamala Shastri and they reminisce about death related secrets before a duplicate of her is sent into space, and something goes wrong and he has to kill her after her duplicate was sent to space

Think Like a Dinosaur by James Patrick Kelly

Waitress shows sympathy for a blue alien that wants a salad and her mean prejudiced boss treats him poorly and the alien’s kindness makes her realize that there’s something wrong with how humans treat others

Out of All Them Bright Stars by Nancy Kress

Old-fashioned librarian finds a book with phrases from an alien language and becomes obsessed with learning it. He ends up finding trouble and what happens to him at the end is ambiguous

Useful Phrases by Gene Wolfe

Intellectualist life forms on a woman-ruled planet are invaded by Dexatals which resemble earth men, look down on them and end up being tricked by them and mostly destroyed.

The Conquest of Gola by Leslie F. Stone

Lesbians on a distant planet left alone when men died of plague, men from earth come to rescue them, but they are reluctant because they are at peace with this new way of life

When It Changed by Joanna Russ

Trans woman with fur and that lives underwater falls in love with space man cyborg (body modifications based on aptitude) and they download each other and part ways forever

Day Million by Frederick Pohl

Man in a couple is troubled by the thought that he will never know what it’s like to be someone else, so him and his partner that is hungry for novel experiences do a series of mind and body swaps with their jewels and ultimately merge consciousness and then break up

Closer by Greg Egan

Neuter spacers create a new gender, they are on a break from work and encounter frelks in different countries which are attracted to this new gender. later they meet up for drinks. Necrophilia and pedophilia undertones and life defined by sex

Aye, and Gomorrah… by Samuel R. Delaney

Day in the life of a housewife in California, cleaning up after kids, buying all cleaning products at a grocery store, feeding a turtle who dies, child’s birthday party, who ends up breaking down and reversing entropy with eggs in the air

The Heat Death of the Universe by Pamela Zoline

Journalist interviews a man that works at a space station as he recounts his addiction with alien sex. He tells humanity to be satisfied and not pursue exogamy too much

And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill’s Side by James Tiptree Jr. / Alice B. Sheldon

bartender convinces unmarried single mother to go back in time and confront the person that got him pregnant but the baby, the person that stole the baby, the mother, father, and bartender are all the same person.

All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein

Spaceman on a ship by himself goes through different vortexes that cause him to meet himself from different points in time but they are unable to cooperate and fix this broken thing outside the ship that requires two people and as they argue and fight each other, the kid versions of himself fit into a spacesuit together and fix the ship themselves.

The Seventh Voyage by Stanislaw Lem

rotting humans plagued with disease from the future go through a portal to collect people doomed to die in a plane crash so they can infuse themselves with their nutrient-rich blood and smoke their cigarettes

Air Raid by John Varley

Three stories at once about the Incas being plundered by the Spanish, aliens that come to earth to crash the European economy and buy art and cocaine, and the author’s commentary about addiction to science fiction

Invaders by John Kessel