1. What is the proper name of the “spice planet”?
2. This first novel of a Brian W. Aldiss trilogy is about a planet whose sun eccentrically orbits a much brighter star and thus has a “great year” extending over hundreds of generations. Its societies undergo vast changes, interrupted by periodic plagues, and the relationship between humans and the cold-loving phagors also alters dramatically. Name it.
3. Name the most prominent geographical feature on Mars.
4. What do the short stories, “The Alien Machine”, “The Cosmic Frame” and “The Racer” all have in common?
   A) They were all written by famous authors using pseudonyms.
   B) They all have the same character as their protagonist.
   C) Their storylines all involve artificial intelligence.
   D) They were all made into movies.
   E) They were all published after their authors’ deaths.
5. In The Matrix, what is Neo’s real name?
6. What is the title of the 1980 Gregory Benford novel about an attempt to change history through the transmission of tachyonic messages through time?
7. What classic SF novel begins with the line “Once upon a time when the world was young there was a Martian named Smith”?
8. Which of the following was a published superhero’s companion?
   A) Hoppy the Super Rabbit
   B) Beppo the Super Monkey
   C) Bongo the Super Dog
   D) Asteroid the Super Horse
   E) Sleepy the Super Sloth
9. What author’s Guns of the South (1992) features (in some editions) a cover picture of Robert E. Lee holding an AK-47?
10. What was Hari Seldon’s specialty?

(Answers below the fold)

1. Arrakis
2. Helliconia Spring
3. Olympus Mons– the largest volcano in the solar system–at over 15.5 miles tall and 370 miles in diameter at its base.
4. D) They were all made into movies (This Island Earth, Invasion of the Saucermen, and Death Race 2000, respectively).
5. Thomas A. Anderson
6. Timescape
7. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
8. B) Beppo the Super Monkey. Beppo was sent into space by Jor-El as a test case before he sent out little Kal-El. It’s nice to know that Krypton’s parallel evolution with Earth included all primates.
9. Harry Turtledove
10. PsychoHistory