Skip to main content

story identification - 80s-90s Sci Fi book about a transformed Earth invaded by aliens


Looking for a book from the 80-90s. Earth has been infected by alien life forms, sort of seeded. The planet has been transformed, and a group of humans are fighting it, I believe they were a military hold over.


There was a lot of sexual innuendo, with the characters having to traverse through a giant "sphincter" to get to the heart of the invasion to attack, and humanity has shifted to more of an androgynous/bisexual side.


The main character, however, is a man's man, not interested in that lifestyle, and actually has an interest in one of the lead females, part of the team.



Answer



This is The War against the Chtorr series, by David Gerrold.


The Earth has been seeded, by means unknown, and there are several Chtorran infestation all over it. Not enough to completely alienform the planet, but enough that the military saw the writing on the wall, while far from the "front lines", life goes on more or less as usual, while soldiers fight and die to drive the aliens back.



This sense of impending doom has indeed driven society towards a more hedonistic and sexually dishinibited outlook - "drink, sing and be merry, for tomorrow the Chtorr might eat us".


enter image description here


There are several sphincters throughout the novels - the larger Chtorr's eyes, mouth and, well, the rest are all designed that way apparently. The Chtorr are similar to Dune sandworms, but way smaller, and definitely hungrier. Eating jokes are sprinkled through the series (I half-remember one or two about Chtorr and lawyers).



When it was closed, it looked like a sphincter; but when it was open, it was hideous-it was a maw, a grinding hole, a pit. Nothing godly was responsible for this beast.



The scene you describe is somewhere in book 3 when the main character manages to get inside a Chtorran "nest".


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...

game of thrones - Is Syrio Forel dead?

In the episode 'The Pointy End' (Season 1 Episode 8) when Arya runs from the Lannister guards you hear the sound of a sword being dropped (around 4:56): [embedded content] After that neither Syrio or Ser Meryn Trant is never mentioned or seen in the show again, except when Arya mentions to the Hound that Ser Meryn Trant killed Syrio. Is there any mention in the books that Syrio actually dies?

tolkiens legendarium - Difference between elves and dwarves blacksmithing in the Lord of the Rings

Both the elves and the dwarves were famous for their metal work in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but what is the difference between what they made, and which one had the better skill of making amours and swords? Answer James Christopher's answer sums up the second part of your question well, but as to the difference in what they made, a little more detail is needed. Once the Elves learned to forge with steel, the shape of the sword changed, now being able to take on the form of a great broadsword or a light and agile curved sword. Additionally, they took great pride in decorating their swords. As we see in the Lord of the Rings , some swords like Sting had magical properties such as glowing blue when orcs are near. As far as the use of Mithril, lotr.wikia has two contradictory passages: Thus, Elven blades became renowned as great weapons, capable of performing deeds beyond the skill of their handlers and were even more glorious when the use of Mithril was allowed to the Elves. ...