The Gollancz SF Masterwork Quiz – Answers and Winners!
Last week, in honour of University Challenge asking a series of questions based on the covers of some of the SF Masterworks series, I set a little test. 30 questions about the Masterworks line, ranging from easy to quite hard. Three people got 30 out of 30, which makes me suspect the dread hand of google, but that’s what happens when you put a quiz on the internet!
So the winners have been notified, and many thanks for all of the submissions. Without further ado, here are the answers:
Missing Words.
1) The Moon is a Harsh MISTRESS
2) More than HUMAN
3) Earth ABIDES (this is two words, for clarification)
4) INVERTED World (this is two words, for clarification)
5) The FOOD of the Gods
Missing Authors.
1) Eon, by GREG BEAR
2) Cat’s Cradle, by KURT VONNEGUT
3) Arslan, by M J ENGH
4) The Stars My Destination, by ALFRED BESTER
5) The Penultimate Truth, by PHILIP K. DICK
First Lines – name the book.
1) The man with the Binoculars squirmed forward on his stomach through the sun-warmed brown grass. HELLSTROM’S HIVE, BY FRANK HERBERT
2) It was St Crispin’s Eve on Sad al Bari IV when Captain John Truck, impelled by something he was forced to describe to himself as ’sentiment’, decided to visit The Spacer’s Rave, on the corner of Proton Alley and Circuit (that chilly junction where the higher class of port lady goes to find her customers). THE CENTAURI DEVICE, BY M. JOHN HARRISON
3) ‘Tonight we’re going to show you eight silent ways to kill a man’. THE FOREVER WAR, BY JOE HALDEMAN
4) Marghe’s suit was still open at neck and wrist, and the helmet rested in the crook of her left arm. AMMONITE, BY NICOLA GRIFFITH
5) Composite image, optically encoded by escort-craft of the trans-Channel airship Lord Brunel: aerial view of suburban Cherbourg, 14 October 1905. THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE, BY WILLIAM GIBSON & BRUCE STERLING
Name the Director of the film version of these books:
1) Dune DAVID LYNCH
2) The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy GARTH JENNINGS
3) The Prestige CHRISTOPHER NOLAN
4) A Scanner Darkly RICHARD LINKLATER
5) The Bodysnatchers (filmed as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956 version) DON SEIGEL
These books were filmed under different titles – what was the film version called?
1) Roadside Picnic STALKER
2) The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe DEATHWATCH
3) I am Legend THE LAST MAN ON EARTH OR THE OMEGA MAN
4) Flowers for Algernon CHARLY
5) Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? BLADE RUNNER
Award Winners – here’s the year and prize, which book won (all for best novel, where appropriate)? Please note one of these is a trick question.
1) The Nebula, in 1967 JOINT WINNERS – BABEL-17 & FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON
2) The John W. Campbell , in 1978 GATEWAY
3) The Arthur C. Clarke, in 1989 UNQUENCHABLE FIRE
4) The Hugo, in 1953 THE DEMOLISHED MAN
5) The World Fantasy Award, 1996 THE PRESTIGE
And the tie-breaker – how many authors have been published on the SF Masterwork list, in all of its incarnations. Nearest answer wins. WE MAKE IT 67, ALTHOUGH THERE IS A QUESTION ABOUT DANGEROUS VISIONS, WHICH CONTAINS MANY AUTHORS. IF YOU THINK WE’RE WRONG, PLEASE LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS!