kengr: (Default)
kengr ([personal profile] kengr) wrote2021-07-08 06:49 pm

Interesting bit of SF.

There's obscure SF book that is about an interplanetary race. It's called the Armstrong Classic after the first man to land on the moon.

Nothing strange there, right?

Except the book is copyright 1952, and has Major Armstrong landing on the moon in 1964. and the first Armstrong Classic is in 2000.

The book is Rocket Jockey by Phillip St. John (a pen name of Lester del Rey).
fayanora: qrcode (Default)

[personal profile] fayanora 2021-07-09 04:27 am (UTC)(link)
Oh that's right up there with one I've known about since I was a kid. Apparently there was a book about a ship called the SS Titan, said to be unsinkable, sinking in the north Atlantic after hitting an iceberg. The book is called "Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan" by Morgan Robertson. And it was written 14 years before the Titanic sunk on its maiden voyage! The Titan on the cover of the book even looks just like the Titanic!

https://unrealfacts.com/the-sinking-of-the-titanic-was-predicted-14-years-earlier-book/

I first read about that book in a book called "Welcome to Weirdsville," which was all about strange coincidences, Fortean occurrences, and other weird but true stuff.
siliconshaman: black cat against the moon (Default)

[personal profile] siliconshaman 2021-07-09 12:08 pm (UTC)(link)

Either someone had their crystal ball tuned in just right that day, or Lester del Ray is a time traveller and couldn't resist putting just enough fact in his fiction to weird people out...

siliconshaman: black cat against the moon (Default)

[personal profile] siliconshaman 2021-07-09 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)

Well, IRL Mars could still have some lichen or unicellular plant life under a rock or hiding in the sand.

[personal profile] acelightning73 2021-07-17 03:52 am (UTC)(link)
I met Lester del Rey a couple of times, and it would be perfectly reasonable to think he was a time traveler. He was an extremely weird little man, and one hell of a clever writer.(Nerves made a big impression on my adolescent mind.)
mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)

[personal profile] mdlbear 2021-07-09 01:39 pm (UTC)(link)
I remember reading that book a l o o o o n g time ago.