Oolite Bulletins

let's get back to basics... a lot of SF is about exploring strange new worlds, meeting new civilizations... and blasting them with ridiculous amounts of fire-power. When that happens to us we call it an alien invasion, and unfortunately in SF alien invasions tend to be a bit repetitive. So let's hav...

Well, since nobody else seems to be commenting... Gateway (1977), The first book of the Heechee series by Frederik Pohl, ends with two ships trying a desperate manoeuvre to escape from a black hole - only one succeeds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_(novel) Black holes are also important in l...

In Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth Universe (umpteen novels and stories) the most common star drive is basically a mini black hole held in front of the ship - the ship accelerates toward it but some sort of force field stops it from falling in.

Cool ship, but I forgot to save before I launched and managed to crash it trying a Planetfall landing! I'll give it another try soon.

OK, all three of the stories I mentioned have planets (usually the Earth) hatching or about to hatch huge creatures, and incidentally killing everyone that lives on them. Jack Williamson's "Born of the Sun" (March 1934 Astounding) – in which the Sun is living, the planets are its eggs, and Earth hat...

OK, I'll give this until tomorrow, then if nobody else comes up with a better answer I'm giving it to Spud, who came closest to a fifth example. I might as well add that with the information I've provided this is fairly easy to find on line.

That looks fun - is it going to be available via the upload manager?

are you thinking about the DrWho episodes where the moon is an egg for some interstellar space dragon? No, that one is smaller than a planet - although we never see what it looks like when it's fully grown - but you're on the right lines. Have a meaningless bonus point for that! The authors of the ...

OK, another clue - think of planets as eggs!

Thought of this answer when you posted the original question but thought it a bit off as his size can be altered by himself to fit the circumstance. The answer is - Galactus, Devourer of Worlds - from the Marvel Universe of either Comics or Cinematic. Though, in my humble opinion, the comics are mu...

Hint - comic book movies have provided at least one example, though it was a little smaller in the actual comics.

Disembodied wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 16, 2020 5:59 pm

The Black Cloud from Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud is, I think, larger than the Earth.

I think it's a couple of AU across so definitely! That's number 3, and have another Meaningless Bonus Point for picking another of the ones I had in mind when I asked the question.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 15, 2020 10:19 am

A most impressive nose.

Would it be Carter's Snout, by any chance?

Disembodied

Location: Carter's Snout Snort

Not actually an answer, I assume...

There are the Janitors, from the Alan Moore Future Shock "They Sweep the Spaceways" in 2000AD . They replace burnt-out suns, plaster over black holes, disinfect any planets they find infested with civilisation, etc. That's number 2, and you get a meaningless bonus point for remembering the first st...