(Note: I was going to ask "Is Empire Star simplex, complex, or multiplex?" but thought better of it.) After what must be the single most transportative hook in all of Science Fiction, Samuel R. Delaney's short novel Empire Star initially develops like a garden-variety bildungsroman: Comet Jo aban...

The Nightmare Before Christmas characters pretty consistently follow a pattern where their traits are related to the kind of monster they are. For example: Jack can pull his ribs out to play fetch with his dog because he's a skeleton The vampires carry umbrellas during the day because vampires c...

Time: Early 2000's or maybe earlier Genre: Sci-fi/Comedy/Dark Narrative work: A novelette or a story book Language: Might be in another language than English Plot: There is a hungry, funny looking alien from another dimension who keeps eating things and gaining power. The more power he gains,...

I want to know more about Radch history, especially how and why it started to expand.

I am asking for examples of really impressive architecture and interior decoration set on various worlds in our solar system. The Grand Apartment of the King at Versailles had seven rooms or salons named after seven major Roman planetary gods. Diana (Moon), Mars, Mercury, Apollo (Sun), Jupiter, S...

I can try to go into detail but it's been long time since I've read it. There are two blonde twins that hold the most power in the castle (being princes or dukes, I can't remember), but the older brother doesn't like his younger brother. So he assassinated his younger brothers lover or got rid of...

Twilight personality in the Friendship is Magic show has always being shown as quite insecure. She constantly overthinks things and one of her biggest fears seems to be to disappoint others (see: Lesson Zero for a prime example). While this could just be her "personal flaw", many fans tried to ra...

Long predating production of Straczynski’s Babylon 5 television series, he was the lead writer on Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future,” a weekly television show based on Mattel’s toys of the same name which originally aired in syndication from September 1, 1987 – March 27, 1988. One of t...

I remember seeing a website a couple years ago that explored user submitted stories where aliens find humans op, strange, insane etc. etc. I can't find it anywhere, anyone know what I'm referring to? I remember one story being about how humans are just talking meat.

Could Batman safely wear lead lining in his batsuit, so as to prevent Kryptonians from seeing through it, keeping kryptonite in it, etc; or would he get lead poisoning? The batsuit is primarily kevlar, ceramic plates, etc; any lead would be inside some other material. My question is, is this safe...

Reference this question, and Batman’s Batsuit wiki for context. In seeking answer to that question, Batman’s wiki notes that Batman has used lead in his costume to foil superpowers, and mentions this in specific reference to Tommy Monaghan (DC’s Hitman): However, because some superpowered indivi...

What 50s/60s sci fi movie ends with aliens/martians taking a child in their spaceship and destroying earth?

Can a dementor kiss the soul out of another dementor, if they even have souls at all? It would be nice to have a canon answer (such as Pottermore or interviews with JKR). Related: Can a dementor kiss a ghost (or affect it in any way)?

I am curious as to why Sauron went to the trouble of raising a large army to conquer Middle-earth when he could have used the Nazgûl to kill all his enemies in Middle-earth such as all the armies of men, elves, and dwarves. Nobody could kill them and this included the Istari and Galadriel. All th...

In Dan Simmons novel Olympos, a character called Moira is also referred to as 'Moneta' (chapter 56). Is this a throwaway line, a reference to the character of the same name in the Hyperion series, or is there a classical link that I'm overlooking?