Old sci-fi stories

[John Q. Mayhem]

Ooooh, I loved Tom Swift and Danny Dunn. Very cool stories.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

3) Book: Explorers explore a huge planet that appears to have been created by an alien race. The interior of the planet is hollow. The catch-phrase at the beginning of the story is, "Life is cheap on two-bit."

"The World Is Round" by Tony Rothman. This has been a favorite of mine ever since I read it, lo these many aeons ago. They travel to the planet that is 50 times larger than any 1-G planet could be because the guy spinning the tale has a sample of Metallic Hydrogen that he found there. On arrival they split up into two shuttles, one of which crashes, the crew of the other is captured. The story then switches between the two as they both try to discover how the planet can even exist, why it has such a bizzare pattern of seasons, where the metallic hydrogen came from, what happened to the original expedition, and of course how to deal with the strange customs and attitudes of the locals.

 

[Mallus]

I'd just like to add that 'Tom Swift Jr. and the Caves of Nuclear Fire' is my favorite SF book title.

'Nuclear Fire'... it sends a chill down my spine. A big part of me feels science fiction should strive to never evolve beyond that point.

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

Thanks, Man.

1) Tripods trilogy by John Christopher
2) Tom Swift series (3rd series of 11 books) by Victor Appleton (pseudonym)
3) The World is Round by Tony Rothman

The fourth book had "death" in the title, possibly. I remember a scene where a man comes to the protagonist with an obvious tumor, and he explains how the man can perform the surgery himself, which is legal (unlike the practice of medicine on others). They also had a stash of old medicines of questionable quality that they had somehow obtained.

Let us try some more:

5) Series of books about a post-apocalyptic world where the local religion is a sham for those who still possess technology. The protagonist crosses a string of volcanoes to a kingdom where technology isn't feared. Then, he creates an army armed with Sten guns and returns as a conquerer.

6) Book where a flying saucer crashes on earth, and aliens pull a scam on humanity in an attempt to steal resources to make repairs. The scam involves a war, and Earth has to send a team to the moon to plant nukes to destroy an alien base.

 

[WmRAllen67]

Yeah TSJr. had a flying laboratory/plane... Lost city of Mongols doesn't ring a bell though.

There's a good chance I'm mixing a couple of books up... it was 25 to 30 years ago, after all...

The only thing that I remember clearly, is the characters were trapped/ imprisoned on a plateau, and the date was July 4th... being patriotic Americans, they started lighting firecrackers, and eventually one was dropped down a guard's back underneath his armor-- which didn't help the characters escape, but did let the author slip the facoid in that the Chinese had invented gunpowder long before the Europeans...

Which was also the explanation as to why the firecrackers didn't awe the Mongols/ Chinese/ whatever this lost city was as much as some of the other Western technology did...

(Looking back, I can see how "politically-incorrect" it all was, but to an twelve-year old, hey, it's an adventure story...)

 

[Joshua Randall]

4) Book: Medicine has been outlawed. Underground physicians perform surgeries and prescribe medicines illegally. The best legal care available is basically hospice care while you're dying. The book focuses on a young man who becomes a black-market doctor.

By any chance does this book feature an emergency tracheotomy using a ball point pen? If so, I also read it. But I don't remember the name. Sorry!

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

I think it actually might have had a pen tracheotomy, now that you mention it.