Aliens will destroy the world in 20 minutes, and you have to save one work of science fiction

[Orrex]

Due to constraints of matter transmission, the work can't be longer than, say, 400 pages. It can be an anthology, a novel, or even a handful of short stories.

But they're charging up their zap-cannons, so you'd better choose quickly.


Let's hear it!

[semillama]

1. Childhood's End seems appropriate in this situation...n/t

[Orrex]

2. No way! (SPOILERS)

Aliens didn't destroy the world in that book--it was those lousy, highly evolved kids!

[wyldwolf]

3. War of the Worlds

[Orrex]

4. I'm distressed that you're not taking this weighty issue seriously.

:rofl:

[Forkboy]

5. One of my favorites.

As a kid I had seen the movie first (the good one, not the remake) and was surprised how totally different the book was. I loved it.

[Forkboy]

6. Your 400 page qualifier kills me.

With that rule I'm just going to grab all my Godzilla movies and screw the books! :)

If I could pick sans qualifier it would easily be The Years Of Rice And Salt by KSR.

[Dr. Strange]

7. God Emperor of Dune

Or the last 400 pages of it anyway.

[Rowdyboy]

8. I think perhaps I'd save Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles".....

It speaks to me on a very basic level.

[Kind of Blue]

9. Foundation Trilogy

Though more than 400 pages, I'd cheat, drop the book and grab the Ipod because it's loaded with audio books. Why the 400-page stipulation :shrug:

edited to make sense, I think.

[Orrex]

10. The 400-page stipulation is to prevent cheaters from including trilogies or series

:evilgrin:

[Forkboy]

11. It worked on me, ya bastid!

:evilgrin:

[Kind of Blue]

12. Yea, treu bastid aktion! Im desqualfied.

[scubadude]

13. "To Serve Man" no text necessary for this tasteless joke!

[Doubting Thomas]

14. "City"

By Clifford Simak.

Read it in high school, 1957.

[kentauros]

15. A.E. van Vogt - Slan

A semi-forgotten author, certainly forgotten by TV and Hollywood or we might have seen some of his works put to the screen...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slan

[Ohio Joe]

16. The Forever War

No question for me, Haldeman's work would have to be saved... and since we have 400 pages, I would try to throw in All My Sins Remembered.

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

26. Right with you boss. My favorite.

[krispos42]

17. The Mote in God's Eye

Good book.

[Orrex]

18. I keep meaning to read that one

Isn't there a sequel? Is it worth reading?

[krispos42]

19. Yes and yes

The sequel is "The Gripping Hand" in the US, but in the UK they named it "The Moat Around Murchenson's Eye", which if you read the first book made this title a cleaver play on words.

When I read it the first time I was 19 or 20 and had great difficulty putting it down... the story was engrossing and the aliens fascinating.

It's like a good detective story. Once you know the secret, you want to re-read it so you can see exactly what clues were given in the story and when.


I also liked it because the how the shielding and stardrive worked in that universe is the one that makes the most sense to me. The most realistic.

[Orsino]

20. I dunno. Maybe Starship Troopers?

Gotta inspire the resistance, if any Earthlings are left alive.

We would soon need Haldeman's Forever War as an antidote.

[Touchdown]

21. Armageddon 2419.

Only Buck Rogers can save us now! The Mongol Hordes must be destroyed!;)

[Orrex]

22. I read that for the first time about eight months ago

I kept waiting for Twiki to show up with Dr. Theophilus.

:shrug:

[and-justice-for-all]

23. Star Wars DVDs....does that count?!

[Orrex]

25. Nope.

Additional limitations of the matter-transmission system forbid electronic media from being sent if they would exceed the equivalent of a standard 400 page novel.


I mean, come on. I put that arbitrary limit in place expressly to limit the field of choices to generally self-contained works of fiction. You might as well say that you'd take your holographic storage system that holds every work of fiction produced in the past 300 years, housed in something the size of a deck of playing cards.

The question isn't "how would you subvert the limits of this hypothetical situation?" The question is "Given the chance to preserve only one work of printed science fiction, which would it be?"

[GodlessBiker]

24. Fahrenheit 451

[drmeow]

27. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Don't Panic!

[Orsino]

28. Heck, I like the one you just wrote.

It would make a good epitaph.