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The Walls Are Alive! Trivia Quiz

Not only the walls, but spaceships, buildings, and other things usually considered inanimate can come to life in science-fiction novels. How many of these examples can you remember?

A multiple-choice quiz by Rowena8482. Estimated time: 6 mins.

Author
Rowena8482

Time
6 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
329,082

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Tough

Avg Score
6 / 10

Plays
262

Question 1 of 10

1. For John Taylor, tracing a runaway teenager is just another day at work as a Private Investigator. This particular teen however, turns out to have been taken prisoner by a strange alien lifeform masquerading as a street house while it digests her, and the person posing as her mother is not at all what she seems... Where has this "house" set up home? Hint

The Rue Morgue

Erewhon

Over the Hills and Far Away

The Nightside

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Question 2 of 10

2. The aliens in the Xenogenesis trilogy use a spaceship which is grown from a seed, and can be formed internally into any shape they need, as and when they need it. They rescue the last few human survivors of a devastating nuclear war, and repair the Earth for them over the next century or so. What is the "price" they ask for from people, in return? Hint

Anyone who lives to be one hundred

Water

Cancer

First born children

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Question 3 of 10

3. The actual walls may not be alive, but something is scurrying in there... who or what would you find "in the concrete wainscotting of society"? Hint

Fiberglass Muskrat

The Stainless Steel Rat

Shade's Children

Reepicheep Coming Home

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Question 4 of 10

4. In the "Brainship" series, Simeon is a sentient space station. What is the name of Simeon's adoptive daughter? Hint

Michelle

Joat

Liv

Fleur

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Question 5 of 10

5. The Rain River Wilds are the only place in the world where wizardwood grows, to make the sentient Liveships. What must happen before a Liveship 'quickens' or comes to life? Hint

She must be blessed by the High Priestess of Dorotea, Goddess of the Sea

Three generations of her owner's family must die aboard

Her name must be written on her bows in blood

She must sail to the Source, a secret destination known only to a very few Captains

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Question 6 of 10

6. Mr. Spaceship is controlled by the brain of a man, transplanted from his body into the ship. Who is he? Hint

Philip Stevens

Richard Peters

Terry Johns

Michael Thomas

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Question 7 of 10

7. The House of Foryx was built by Hotep-Ra, the very first ExtraOrdinary Wizard. Once you enter it, you may only leave if someone is waiting outside to let you pass through the door. It is reached by a narrow bridge across a chasm; where is it? Hint

At the Back of the North Wind

Where All Times Do Meet

Second on the Left and Straight on 'til Morning

On the Farthest Away Mountain

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Question 8 of 10

8. In "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" we meet Manny the computer repair man and his best friend, the sentient computer who runs the Moon Base. What is his name? Hint

Tink, short for Tincan

Don, short for Don Quixote

Lou, short for Luna Comptroller Series IV Mark V

Mike, short for Mycroft

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Question 9 of 10

9. During a massive thunderstorm, an office building comes to life, and turns on the people inside. Which book by Stephen Laws is this? Hint

Gideon

Ferocity

Somewhere South of Midnight

Darkfall

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Question 10 of 10

10. Some authors, not content with just one sentient 'usually inanimate' object go for several different approaches to the theme. Which author, in his "Polity" novels, gave us a "Brass Man" who is the ultimate killer, a massive spacefaring Dragon, and several AI enhanced spaceships and Government Agents to fight them? Hint

Greg Bear

William Gibson

David Bryn

Neal Asher

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

Answer: The Nightside

The Nightside is sort of in London; it lies behind and beyond the mundane city. It is "always 3 a.m" there, and anything at all can be had if the price is right. John Taylor has tried to leave and live in the normal, everyday London, but he cannot escape his heritage. The incident with the vicious "man eating house" is in the first book of the series, "Something From the Nightside" (2003); the tenth volume in the series, "The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny" was published in 2010. The "Nightside" novels are written by Simon R. Green.

Answer: Cancer

In Octavia E. Butler's trilogy, the Oankali aliens take all the survivors of a massive nuclear war away from Earth and put them in stasis aboard their huge spaceship. They are fascinated by human cancer and think it is one of the most valuable things they have ever found, in all their millennia of wandering the galaxy. Although they do replenish the Earth, and return the people, they also mutate them so that life can never go back how it was before.
The first book of the three, "Dawn", was first published in 1987, and "Adulthood Rites" and "Imago" followed in 1988 and 1989 respectively.

3. The actual walls may not be alive, but something is scurrying in there... who or what would you find "in the concrete wainscotting of society"?

Answer: The Stainless Steel Rat

James Bolivar 'Slippery Jim' di Griz, aka "The Stainless Steel Rat" first appeared in 1961, and a further ten volumes followed between then and 1999. Harry Harrison's fans were delighted when, in 2010, a new adventure, "The Stainless Steel Rat Returns" was published.

4. In the "Brainship" series, Simeon is a sentient space station. What is the name of Simeon's adoptive daughter?

Answer: Joat

Joat actually stands for 'Jack of all trades'. Joat is a 'lost child' who ekes out a living in the network of conduits and pipes behind the scenes of the Spacestation. Simeon knows she is there, as the station is, to all intents and purposes, his body, and determines to help if he can.

He and his 'brawn' (able bodied partner) think Joat is a boy at first, and it is only once they have gained her trust and she has emerged to speak to them face to face that they realise she is in fact a girl. "The City who Fought" is by Anne McCaffrey and S.M. Stirling, and was published in 1993. Joat also features in the sequel "The Ship Avenged", published in 1997.

5. The Rain River Wilds are the only place in the world where wizardwood grows, to make the sentient Liveships. What must happen before a Liveship 'quickens' or comes to life?

Answer: Three generations of her owner's family must die aboard

"The Liveship Traders" books are by Robin Hobb. They are set in the same world as her "Royal Assassin" and "Tawny Man" trilogies, and the first one, "Ship of Magic" was first published in 1998.

6. Mr. Spaceship is controlled by the brain of a man, transplanted from his body into the ship. Who is he?

Answer: Michael Thomas

Professor Michael Thomas is very old and frail when an old student of his puts his name forward for the ship/brain project. The brain controlled ship is needed to further a war between humans and the Yucconae, but once his brain is installed, Professor Thomas has other ideas and "goes on the run" before kidnapping a married couple to found his own new colony world where there will be no war.
"Mr. Spaceship" is a short story written by Philip K. Dick in 1953, and can be read on Project Gutenberg.

Answer: Where All Times Do Meet

The House of Foryx features in "Queste" by Angie Sage, published in 2008. This is the fourth book in the "Septimus Heap" series; the first one, "Magyk", was first published in 2005.

8. In "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" we meet Manny the computer repair man and his best friend, the sentient computer who runs the Moon Base. What is his name?

Answer: Mike, short for Mycroft

Mike is lonely, so he deliberately causes faults in his systems so that Manny is sent for to repair him. They chat and visit regularly, and are friends. Eventually Manny gets caught up in the events leading to a revolution, when the "Loonies" who live on the Moon Base want independence from Earth. With Mike on their side they win and gain independence for Luna. "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" is by Robert A.

Heinlein, and was first published in 1966. It is from this book that the phrase "TANSTAAFL" (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch") is taken, when the Loonies adopt it as the motto for their newly founded Republic.

9. During a massive thunderstorm, an office building comes to life, and turns on the people inside. Which book by Stephen Laws is this?

Answer: Darkfall

"Darkfall" was first published in 1992. The other three books in question are also by Stephen Laws. "Gideon" was published in 1993, "Somewhere South of Midnight" in 1996, and "Ferocity" in 2007.

Answer: Neal Asher

The "Polity" series began with "Gridlinked", first published in 2001, which first introduced us to Agent Cormac. The various books set in the Polity universe are loosely divided into "Agent Cormac", "Polity", and "Spatterjay" novels, all of which interlock sometimes.

Source: Author Rowena8482

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor agony before going online.
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This quiz is part of series Rowena's Sci-fi Quizzes:

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