In 1988 I read a short story about a science fiction author who wrote a new novel and turned it in to his publisher. His publisher turned it down, saying they could not print plagiarized books. The author is confused, knowing it took him a long time to write it. The publisher tells him this book was written a long time ago by another author, and he goes and checks it out, finding to his astonishment that his book, word for word, already exists.  He starts work on another book and when it is finished, his publisher turns it down, too, telling him to stop passing off another guy's work as his own. They give him the title of the "original" novel and he looks it up to find that this book, too, exists word for word.  Since he is a sci fi author, it occurs to him that a time traveler may be stealing his work, so he writes a new book and pretends to go to sleep, catching a guy who sneaks into his house at night to steal the manuscript.  Turns out, the guy is a time traveler who is going to the future, stealing his books, returning to the past and publishing the manuscripts as his own.  We had to read this in high school for science fiction class and take a test on it, but I haven't been able to remember the title or author.
20217
I can't remember the name of the story, and couldn't find anything on Google searches either.  The story is about a science fiction writer whose story gets rejected by the publisher because it's word-by-word identical to another story published years ago. The writer then writes another story only to find out that the same author also published this story around the same time as the other one.  Our writer then writes a story about a man who uses a time machine to read other people's work in the future and then publishes it in his time. Only to find out that this story was also published by the same guy years ago.  The story I'm trying to find out was in the form of letter correspondence between the writer and the publisher.  So, does anyone know its title?
31042
Trying to find a story I read a couple of years ago in an anthology, not sure when the story dates from but likely to be recent - the last decade or so.   The story has passengers travelling between stars via a series of jumps. The calibration of the drive is affected by a special metal, any of which has to be stored in a shielded compartment (I think the jumps were measured in 'degrees'). One of the passengers unwittingly takes some of this metal on board, which throws off the calculations for the jumps, and they jump into an alternative universe where there are no signs of any humans ever existing. They start to try to reverse their steps to get back to the known universe, but the reverse calculation seems impossible.  That's as much as I read of the story before I lost the book. After many dreams (feverish nightmares!) re-living this story, I need to know how it ends. I know it's not much to go on. The story name, author, or the anthology it appears in would be fantastic.
14416
This is a short story from the 50s or 60s.  A scientist or inventor has invented either teleportation or a space drive and has disappeared - leaving no documentation or clues except his extensive home library.  The government gathers all types of scientists to attempt to duplicate his research.  Several months later, as they are about to launch the first space drive space ship, the officer in charge reveals that there was no 'disappeared inventor'.  The greatest step toward a new impossible concept is knowing that it has already been done.
33217
It was written in English and likely a young adult series. I believe it was a hardcover book and possibly from an Australian author, though I could easily be wrong. I have a feeling it was a series, but I'm not sure if I'm confusing it with other books from the author (see below). I believe it has been out for at least 10 years, probably longer, because I read it in middle school.  The book begins with a school boy seemingly hallucinating seeing a futuristic, armed girl. I think she might have been on the cover of the book, but again I could easily be wrong. The boy is later pulled into the space ship she is on (the school scenes were not real, I believe).  As I remember there was no real adults on the ship, although it might have been because they had all been killed off previously. I realise this seem similar to . Later in the book, or perhaps it was a later book in the series, other children joined the crew.  At the end of the book/series, it is revealed that Earth had been ecologically devastated (possibly by industrial pollution). The cloned (I think) children were on a return trip in space, so that by the time they get back to Earth, the planet is ready for human habitation again.  I recall reading in the afterwords that the author was writing some books set in the same universe, but about early space colonisation of the solar system.  I think it was set before the above scheme to recolonise Earth was enacted. The author said we'll see "familiar names", presumably because the characters were later cloned for the recolonisation mission.   I read a couple of these "prequels" (or at least other books from the same author) but don't recall seeing such names. One of the books mentioned the Earth's oceans had turned toxic, though.
20000
As I remember the being from a multi dimensional universe seemed to change form as different parts of it interacted with our 3 dimensional universe.  I read it in the 1963 paperback edition of The Best of Science Fiction edited by Groff Conklin.  is a list of the contents.  The  has stories that are not in the 1963 edition.  Anyone familiar with either edition should be able to identify the story.
27840
I'm trying to find a short story. Here is what I remember about the plot:   Shapeshifting aliens try to invade planet Earth. They have tried multiple times in the past, but every single time they lost contact with the attack team immediately after it landed on Earth The story is told from the point of view of one such alien, part of a later invasion force He lands on Earth, and notices the extreme biodiversity of the planet (compared to his own) He soon figures out that the previous teams were not dead. They just found a niche in the ecosystem in which they could be an animal (or a plant, or anything really) that had the kind of life they always wished to have However, this particular alien is a pilot. He loves flying. There is nothing in our ecosystem (or so he thinks) that could help him with this The story ends with the Earth army storming the hiding place of the alien. They find nothing, other than a large bird (a goose?) slowly flying away. It looks like there was a niche for our particular alien, after all...   I read this story a long time ago (more than 10 years), but it is probably older than that. I have no idea about the original publication date.  Most likely, I read it in one of Asimov's anthologies, but I don't know if he was the author or just the publisher.
7876
In about 1966 or so, a stand-in teacher at our primary school spent the afternoon reading short stories to us. There was a wide genre, but I was particularly fond a one which was science fiction/mystery.  It involved a group of people who were talking about mysteries, and another man from outside the group bet the he could tell a story, and one of them would disappear and the others would not notice. The final line was something like "he kicked over the stool and walked from the room".
108350
This is a young adult novel I read within the last 5 years, but I can't say it was new at the time.    (what I remember) Near future.  The main character is a high-school boy.  There is a new computer game.  But you cannot buy it.  Someone gives you a disk with the game copied onto it.  But you have to agree to conditions: you will play only in private; you will not reveal outside the game anything that happens inside the game... After you play a while, the game starts to ask you do perform some seemingly meaningless tasks in the real world.  Most of the time we, the readers, are trying to figure out what is going on: is there something sinister behind this game?    Obviously I remember this book.  But I do not remember the title.  What is it?
80394
I read a story some years ago (probably about 35) in an monthly sci-fi anthology...  It's set in a prison.  The main character is a psychopath who has sessions with a psychiatrist - in these sessions he always blames a person in his earlier life for his condition: uncle, father, mother, sibling... each time returning to his cell - time travelling to his earlier life and killing that person...   Example: He blames his father for leading him into bad ways - goes back in time and kills his father. Next session he blames his mother (and the fact that he grew up with no father in his life) - goes back in time and kills his mother.  Next session he blames a carer (and the fact that he grew up an orphan) etc...  The story had a very clever dénouement, which is hidden in a spoiler section below.  I would love to read this again - any ideas?    Edited to add: I hope I have explained the format sufficiently - the point is, the psychiatrist helps him to identify where he began to go off the rails and who in his life was responsible. Later when he is alone in his cell he goes back in time (the mechanism for this is not explained - it's as if he can will himself to go to that time) and kills the person identified as responsible.  When he attends his next session: his reality, his history, is different so another person has to be identified as the cause of his problems... the story has a Groundhog Day feel to it...  The final paragraph, the end of the story, has him       sitting once again in front of the Psychiatrist and as if it is suddenly dawning on him he looks up slowly, 'realising' that all his problems started when he first came to see this psychiatrist!  Thus leaving the reader in no doubt who will die when he later travels back in time to just before his first session with the psychiatrist...
34006
I remember having read a short story in which the main character, thanks to a series of happenings also involving time travel, grew up, changed sex, made sex with himself and had a son... who of course was himself. The story ended with the main character saying something like "I know where I come from: but what about you?"  As you may guess, I don't have enough data to search for the title, so I am asking knowledgeable people :-)
43543
So, this guy has made . Making books of SE stuff is okay, but two rules need to be followed:   Attribution License the work under CC-BY-SA as well   This  claims that the books do attribute properly. I find it unlikely that he has properly licensed the books under CC-BY-SA though, given that he's selling them as eBooks. It's possible, but it's dubious (why do people buy them if they can get them for free?)  Could someone investigate. CC-BY-SA is important, it what keeps things open.  Again, I'm fine with him selling books, but not violating creative commons.  (P.S. The other problem I have with it is the covers are really bad.)
9424
I'm looking for a book of science fiction short stories. One of the stories describes the experiences of a man who finds himself in a corridor with a dead body. The corridor turns out to be a Möbius strip. I must have read that late 1970s.
86750
I'm trying to figure out the name of a sci-fi short story I read a while back. Hours of Googling were no help. Can anyone figure this out?  The punchline of the story is that all of humanity was created for the purpose of providing a missing tool which is required to fix a broken alien spaceship was stranded somewhere in the solar system (Jupiter?). In the end, a child with a toy, which turns out to be the requisite tool, stumbles into a spaceship launched to that planet, and it all turns out to have been designed by the aliens to get them their missing tool, so that they can fly back home.
90838
Many decades ago, I read a short story about a time traveler who asks an archaeologist for help.  He convinces the archaeologist that he can time travel by bringing him back a freshly killed dinosaur (small one.)  The time traveler needs help because when traveling back in time to the age of the dinosaurs he met a girl and wants to transport her back to the present.  However only one person can travel in time at a time so he needs the archaeologist at the other end to wait for the girl.  The archaeologist agrees to help.  Unfortunately after the traveler goes back he and the girl find themselves in the middle of a battle between aliens on Earth.  They are chased by a dinosaur and never make it back to the present.  The archaeologist meanwhile is digging for evidence that the traveler went back in time and the story or my recollection of it ends with that.
4376
I read a book from the late 80's when I was 13 or 14 about a boy who travels through time using a calculator. I don't remember too much detail...but I do know that he was on the run from a bad guy who was chasing him and trying to take the calculator. The bad guy might have had a time traveling calculator as well because I remember him chasing him through time.  He got the calculator from a scientist and he was friends with the scientist's daughter. I know that both kids were teenagers, but I don't remember too much more than that.  I never got to finish the book...and for some odd reason, I really want to.
29603
I read a collection of Sci-Fi short stories back in the 1970's or early 80's that had one about a couple in love who kept losing each other. The book was my dad's so the story itself could be much older than that. I am very fuzzy on the details as I was young when I read it and it was so long ago. I believe the woman/girlfriend was "taken" (by some bad guy aliens??) while she was sleeping. I think it involved time travel and the man had to search through time to find her. After he found her, when he was asleep one time, he somehow was then "taken" and I think transported through time and had to fight his way back to her again. He may have been some sort of police officer. I just remember in the end, at night when they went to bed, the couple always wore handcuffs so they were never separated when they went to sleep ever again. Does this ring a bell with anyone?  (There is a possibility it is in a short story collection that also contained " The Twonky " by Lewis Padgett (1942), as I remember reading that story around the same time)
112707
Original Post:  I recently attended a lecture with highly technical content.  One of the middle slides in the deck had a particular phrase that reminded me of something that I had read several years before.  It took me a few minutes, but I found the original source (another slide deck) and am shocked to find that the professor lifted 35 slides verbatim from the original source.  The University holds students accountable for plagiarism and strictly defines plagiarism such that this clearly fits.  The slides were used verbatim and no credit or reference was provided.  Further, logos were added and color schemes were changed to make make them look slightly more like original content.  What should I do?  This professor has a professional full time job and I can imagine this getting swept under the rug, but this is clearly plagiarism and is spelled out very clearly in the student conduct code.  Is this an overreaction or should I pursue this?  This is confounded by the fact that I am very disappointed by the rigor of the course and feel like the professor lacks adequate technical background to teach the course (I guess my suspicions came true).  I'm really busy at work so don't want to deal with a big todo, but believe this really discredits the academic integrity of the course.  Additional content in response to comments:  The University defines plagiarism as "Using another writer's words without proper citation."  There is no proper citation given here, and these are not educational materials.  This is 35 slides from someone else's tutorial presentation.  I do not believe that the professor and the author of the original content have a relationship.  I have emailed the author to enquire about any permissions or relationship.  Still, even with permission, this is still plagiarism as defined be most people and as defined by the University.  All original works in the US are implicitly copyright protected, so there is also a copyright issue, but this is not currently my concern, though it could be of interest to the original author.  I have emailed him, so this is up to him.  This is a US institution and is a top tier highly respected school.  I am also not a lay student, but a Ph.D. with a degree from a top tier university who has served as a faculty member at two top tier universities (including this one).  I have also taught undergraduate courses in the past.  I have never engaged in this type of plagiarism, have never known colleagues to do so, and am shocked that so many people suggest this is par for the course in teaching.  My doctorate is from a school that prides itself on its honor code and takes honor code violations very seriously and I have served on the honor council and deliberated on a case of plagiarism in the past.  I really am shocked by this incident.  Response from Original Author of the Slides:  I have received a response from the author of the slides and he states that the work is his original work, that there are no additional authors of the work, that no one has been given permission to present the work, and that he believes his copyright on the work has been infringed upon.  He has requested additional information to assert his claim on the copyright.