EXCOMMUNICATE!! EXCOMMUNICATE!!

I used to work at the zoo and one time a gorilla died of old age.

The problem was it was the only gorilla in the zoo because the zoo wasn't very profitable. The gorilla was by far the most popular attraction and they couldn't afford to go a single day without it being there.

So the zoo owner came up to me and said, “listen, for an extra hundred bucks, do you want to just put on this gorilla costume until we can afford a new gorilla?”

“Of course,” I said, “go on then.”

Pretty quickly, I became the biggest hit in the zoo. Everyone wanted to see this human-like gorilla. After about a month, the craze started to die down, but they kept pressuring me to get people's attention again. So in a desperate attempt, I climbed over to where the lions were and started hanging off the net. Suddenly a massive crowd gathered and everyone looked terrified. I could feel my grip slipping, I couldn't hold any longer. I started screaming, “help, help.” Then I fell.

The lion rushed towards me and just as I thought it was over, he leaned over and whispered, “shut the fuck up before we both get fired.”

#whatsthetitle
#whatsthatbook
#storyidentification
#bookstodon
I read this sci fi series in the 2000s or early teens. Humans set off to explore another world. They discover the other world has been deliberately technologically inhibited by killer satellites in orbit. The native aliens on this planet communicate through some means that either injures one of the characters or damages their equipment. Maybe energy or radio waves. 1/?

I am trying to remember the title of a scifi story.

While traveling FTL, passengers would see an optical illusion of a row composed of multiple images of themselves in an orderly straight line extending off into the horizon.

There were similar lines to the rear, the left, and the right.
Disturbingly some of the images were different. Different clothing, haircuts, etc. And some images were missing, leaving gaps.

Images are from branching timelines. Gaps are time lines where you died

When the humans return to Earth, they find the same killer satellites in orbit so they set off elsewhere. At some point, the protagonist speaks unpleasant truths and annoys the ship's senior crew so much they have him put in suspended animation against his will. But he escapes to tell everyone, who turn against the seniors.

Then we jump to the next book in the series, with the protagonist's son or grandson. But I didn't like that book and didn't finish it.

Not Alastair Reynolds or Vernor Vinge. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

End.

#whatsthetitle
#whatsthatbook
#storyidentification
#bookstodon
I read this sci fi series in the 2000s or early teens. Humans set off to explore another world. They discover the other world has been deliberately technologically inhibited by killer satellites in orbit. The native aliens on this planet communicate through some means that either injures one of the characters or damages their equipment. Maybe energy or radio waves. 1/?

#Bookstodon

Trying to identify a novel or novella!

This is probably a very long shot.

I remember reading a book (I think it was in English class) when I was about 12 years old (which would be 1979-ish so it's older than that).

Setting was far northern #Australia, main characters were children. I think they were stranded, and I think the book ended with scenes of all of them walking along the beach, then later walking on the beach but there was one less, and so on, with the implication being that they gradually died.

I've heard of the #ArnhemLand novels by Ann E Wells and I wonder if it's one of those, but can't find any copies or even synopses to test my theory.

All ideas welcome!

#WhatsTheTitle #WhatsThatBook #FindABook #BookIdentification #StoryIdentification #BookFinder

Hive Mind: Looking for a sci-fi book read in the mid-'60s. Takes place in a moon colony run by a large corporation. Murders are happening & no one can find the murderer. A detective is brought up from Earth to assist. He is blind & has a "birth defect" that allows him to see people as strange, colorful geometric objects, which leads to the answer. Need author & title.

#SciFi
#Books
#Reading
#FindABook
#ScienceFiction

*Please Boost*

Here’s all my current small Works In Progress for WIP Wednesday… maybe you want to get in early on one? 😊🙏

Please boost and share! Your help is necessary and greatly appreciated! 😃👍

#ArtForSale #MastoArt #FediGiftShop #space #scifi #abstractart #geometricart #geometricabstraction #homedecor

In order to go viral on Mastodon, your post should include at least one cat and some criticism of AI. So here is Binah disliking large language models.

@RJB_Mallacore Just because I like a lot of your stuff. I'm going to be travelling overseas without social media for a month. Should be back on by June. Keep up the good work while I'm gone. :)

Name That Short Story!

#ScienceFiction short story wherein artists aren't allowed to reference (or even experience) anyone else's work. If they are, the relevant sense is disabled, & they are set to watch over upcoming, naive artists.

I'd had it mentally placed in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, (or maybe Dangerous Visions?) but I'm not finding a likely candidate in either anthology. <1975?

Edit: Found! >

#whatsthetitle
#whatsthatbook
#storyidentification
#bookstodon

h/t @cptbutton

EVERYONE STOP!

There's a #RedDwarf #TTRPG, it's from 2004, it's not a d20 OGL game, and it's on the Internet Archive RIGHT NOW!

https://archive.org/details/189170041reddwarftherpg

my best buds you guys, do not do anything if someone says your account is suspicious and they are from mastodon security team, just report and block. do not click on their link.

PSA for adobe users, boosts appreciated

Got an email from Adobe saying that they were nearly doubling the cost of my creative cloud subscriptions and adding a bunch of Gen AI dogshit I didn't ask for!
If you don't want to get charged you have to log in and downgrade to a "standard" plan that's just the fuckin apps

https://bskye.app/profile/pizzasuplex.bsky.social/post/3mirbowaask27

you don't need me to tell you to please avoid snarky "haha gimp>photoshop" replies

Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969)

https://vod.newellijay.tv/videos/watch/1bad9ac4-8521-461d-9b76-5b64f4f7f10a

@cstross might know some, and has a much larger audience.

I'm going to be in Europe soon, and I'm looking for good SF/F books that might not have reached Australia. What do you have?
#books #bookstodon

There is a little-known far-right political party registered in Scotland, with politics similar to Reform. It doesn’t really operate as a party. It seeks no publicity, delivers no leaflets, does no canvassing. It lies low and does zero campaigning, avoiding attention, hoping not to be noticed … until polling day.
Its plan is that on polling day, voters quickly scanning down the list of parties will put their cross against one that superficially looks like the Greens. (1/4)

The only one I have a clear idea for, a cross between LOTR, Ennio Morricone, and a few bagpipes.

For the curious, I wanted to write a fantasy with guns. When did guns get too good? WW1. What was right before? The wild west. I have no idea why it took a turn for the Scottish.