Noreascon 4 Trivia Contest Answers
Address inquiries to
Noreascon Four
P.O. Box 1010
Framingham, MA 01701
617-776-3243 (fax)
info@noreascon.org
Traditionally, Worldcons hold at-con trivia contests, sometimes between competing teams, sometimes between competing individuals. Noreascon took the at-con trivia contest a step further by posting a trivia contest here on its website.
The questions were more difficult than those asked at an at-con trivia contest since anyone who chose to participate was able to spend time looking up the answers.
The Rules:
- Entries may be completed by either individuals or teams.
- Prize(s) will be awarded per entrant. If a team enters, it will be up to them to determine how to divide their prize(s).
- The winner will be the entrant with the most correct answers. In case of a tie, the winner will be selected by random drawing.
- Entries must be received at the Info Desk in the ConCourse no later than 6:00 PM on Saturday, September 4.
- All official entrants must be members (attending or supporting) of Noreascon 4.
Confirmed Prizes:
- Gordon van Gelder: A Two Year Subscription to the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
- John O'Neill: One year subscription to Black Gate Magazine
- Plus a membership from Interaction, the 2005 Worldcon, and other prizes from Off World Designs and the Secret Empire.
The Winners:
- First Place (tie): Leo Doroschenko and Katherine Wolf (30/34)
- Second Place (tie): Laura & Robert Nigg and Todd Dashoff (28/34)
- Third Place: Kevin Hewitt (27/34)
The Questions (and Their Answers)
How can you be sure your copy of Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Empire is a true first?
Answer: A true first edition of Foundation and Empire will have red boards with black lettering. The Gnome Press imprint on the spine will measure 2.2 cm.
Which film or television series includes a recreation of Georges Méliès's 1902 film Le voyage dans la lune?
Answer: From the Earth to the Moon, episode 12 [HBO, 1998].
Which magazine's first published fiction began with the line,
Sergeant Hank Smiley of the Bunco squad was a large young man, built somewhat on the scale of a Norse hammer-thrower, and he did not like appearing in public in his stocking feet.Answer: The Magazine of Fantasy, 1949.
Which novel is framed by a letter from Robert Walton to his sister, Margaret Saville?
Answer: Frankenstein.
On what date were long distance phone call charges abolished?
Answer: 31 December 2000 (from Arthur C. Clarke's 2061: Odyssey Three [1987, Dey Ray]).
In what year did Chewbacca receive a medal which matched those given to Luke Skywalker and Han Solo at the end of Star Wars: A New Hope?
Answer: 1997 (at the MTV Movie Awards).
What is the connection between Gollum in The Return of the King and Rukh in The Last Unicorn?
Answer: Both were voiced by Brother Theodore in the Bass Rankin animated films.
What is the home planet to the only alien race in Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe?
Answer: Cepheus 18.
In an alphabetical list of all cities to host a worldcon, which city appears at number ten?
Answer: Detroit.
Which science fiction author was born in Lexington, Missouri?
Answer: Randall Garrett.
Which science fiction author held patents for tracer ammunition?
Answer: Capt. S.P. Meek.
What issue of which magazine has an author line-up of E.E. "Doc" Smith, Vic Phillips, Colin Keith, Robert Arthur, Webster Craig, and Malcolm Jameson?
Answer: Astounding, 12/41.
Who promises Any Place in Space—in 5 Minutes?
Answer: Moonbeam Rockets (from Tex Avery's The Cat That Hated People [1948]).
Besides their profession, what do Karol Bobko, Anthony England, Manley L. Carter, Jr., James S. Voss, Kathryn C. Thornton, and Kent V. Rominger have in common?
Answer: All flew missions with Story Musgrave (scientist/astronaut).
Who received his first Hugo Award at a Windycon?
Answer: George R. R. Martin for the novella "Song for Lya" [1974]. The 1975 Worldcon was held in Australia.
Who was once known as 8XK40367?
Answer: Thorby (from Robert Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy [1957]).
What was Delbert Guyne, Ph.D., D.D., proprietor of?
Answer: The Heechee Hut (from Frederik Pohl's Heechee Saga).
By what title is Hogan Zimri Marek Gwernach better known?
Answer: The Marluk (Katherine Kurtz's Deryni Rising [1970]).
Where did the dirigible Arrowhead fly?
Answer: Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars [1993]).
In what country would a person find Fuddlecumjig, View Halloo, Swing City, and Ruby Imp's Cavern?
Answer: Quadling Country, Oz.
Which craft had the registry number T-1339?
Answer: The Vorga (Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination [1956]).
On what date was Victoria Luczak's funeral?
Answer: July 26, 1977 (Dan Simmons, Song of Kali [1985]).
Who wrote about the detective David Silver?
Answer: Lynn S. Hightower (Alien Blues [1991], etc.)
Whose first published story features Professor Barry Pennywither?
Answer: Ursula K. Le Guin.* ("April in Paris" in Fantastic [1962]).
* Note: It has been pointed out that although this was Le Guin's first professional story, she had previously published "An die Musik" in The Western Humanities Review, Vol. XV, No. 3, Summer 1961. "April in Paris" was the first story for which Le Guin was paid.
Name the books/stories from which these lines come:
Memory dived down and perched on the rock which had once been the Giant Ingolf. "It's a long story," he said.
Answer: Expecting Someone Taller, Tom Holt.
The legend of Jacurutu contained no story of the cistern poisoned, but it might have been.
Answer: Children of Dune, Frank Herbert.
When he had drained the cup he was drinking, Golias looked at Beowulf. "Think it's time to make our beds?"
Answer: Silverlock, John Myers Myers.
But one thing is certain. Man himself, at the very least, is music, a brave theme that makes music also of its vast accompaniment, its matrix of storms and stars. Man himself in his degree is eternally a beauty in the eternal form of things. It is very good to have been man. And so we may go forward together with laughter in our hearts, and peace, thankful for the past, and for our own courage. For we shall make after all a fair conclusion to this brief music that is man.
Answer: Last and First Men, Olaf Stapledon.
In those days, far south in Calormen on a little creek of the sea, there lived a poor fisherman called Arsheeh, and with him there lived a boy who called him Father.
Answer: The Horse and His Boy, C.S. Lewis.
About forty years ago a French scientist and philosopher named Jacques Monod wrote, "Man knows at last that he is alone in the indifferent immensity of the universe, whence he has emerged by chance."
Answer: The Stochastic Man, Robert Silverberg.
Every Sunday ministers and priests took to their pulpits to proclaim that Jesus was the only Messiah, and every Sunday there were a few less people in their congregations. A thousand authors and biographers tackled the enigma of Jeremiah, and came up with a thousand different conclusions.
Answer: The Branch, Mike Resnick.
Three years here, and he had accomplished what? A book, appropriated by Sabul; five or six unpublished papers; and a funeral oration for a wasted life.
Answer: The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin.
"His is the House of Pain.
His is the Hand that makes.
His is the Hand that wounds
His is the Hand that heals."Answer: The Island of Dr. Moreau, H.G. Wells.
Two more people died on the twenty-eighth, both of them primaries who had been at the dance in Headington, and Latimer had a stroke.
Answer: Doomsday Book, Connie Willis.