50 free Science Fiction trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
42 free Science fiction trivia questions with answers. Science fiction trivia usually stops at spaceships. This quiz covers the whole genre: the 1818 novel that started it, the Czech play that gave English the word robot, the Nebula and Hugo awards and what the trophy is actually shaped like, and the single novel that has won every major prize at once. Film and television get equal weight - the seven versions of Blade Runner, the short story behind 2001, the pitch that sold Star Trek as a Western, the studio boss who saved it, and the Hong Kong fight choreography that made The Matrix look the way it does. Difficulty runs from easy identification questions to expert-level publishing and production detail, and every answer carries the sourced sentence that establishes it. Built for a genre round at quiz night, a book club, or an argument about who really invented cyberspace.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which 1920 Czech play gave the world the word 'robot'?
R.U.R.
Karel Capek's title stands for Rossum's Universal Robots, and the premiere was in Hradec Kralove in January 1921.
Q 02Who wrote that robot play?
Karel Capek
His brother Josef is usually credited with suggesting the word itself, from the Czech for forced labour.
Q 03Which 1984 novel put the word 'cyberspace' in front of a wide audience?
Neuromancer
William Gibson had already used the word in his 1981 short story 'Burning Chrome'.
Q 04Which trio of awards did William Gibson's debut novel win?
It won the Hugo, Nebula and Dick awards
Neuromancer took the Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick awards, a first for a debut; it was released with no fanfare and spread by word of mouth.
Q 05William Gibson's 1984 debut opens which sequence of novels?
The Sprawl trilogy
Count Zero followed in 1986 and Mona Lisa Overdrive in 1988.
Q 06Science fiction's most famous award is named after whom?
Hugo Gernsback
He founded Amazing Stories and is often called one of the fathers of the genre.
Q 07Which magazine did that award's namesake found?
Amazing Stories
The award trophy, a finned rocket on a wooden base, was modelled on 1950s car hood ornaments.
Q 08In which year were those awards first presented?
1953
They were handed out at the 11th Worldcon in Philadelphia and were originally meant to be a one-off.
Q 09What shape is that award's trophy?
A finned rocket ship
Jack McKnight and Ben Jason based it on the hood ornaments of 1950s cars.
Q 10Which organisation gives out the Nebula Awards?
The SFWA
They were first presented in 1966 and are judged only by professional writers.
Q 11In which year were the Nebula Awards first presented?
1966
There are no written rules on what counts as science fiction; nominators and voters decide.
Q 12Which 1818 Gothic novel is widely treated as an ancestor of the genre?
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley began it at 18, and the first edition was published anonymously in London on 1 January 1818.
Q 13What subtitle did Mary Shelley give that novel?
The Modern Prometheus
A revised edition under Shelley's own name followed in 1831 with a more explicitly moral tone.
Q 21How many different versions of Blade Runner exist?
Seven
The 1992 director's cut came after strong test screenings of a workprint; The Final Cut followed in 2007.
Q 22Who composed the Blade Runner score?
Vangelis
It was nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe, even as the film itself flopped in North America.
Q 23Which Arthur C. Clarke short story mainly inspired 2001: A Space Odyssey?
The Sentinel
Kubrick co-wrote the screenplay with Clarke, drawing on 'Encounter in the Dawn' as well.
Q 24What did Kubrick famously do instead of commissioning an original score?
Q 14Mary Shelley passed close to which building while travelling the Rhine in 1815?
Frankenstein Castle
An alchemist named Johann Konrad Dippel had run experiments there a century earlier.
Q 15In which 1942 short story did Isaac Asimov first list all three Laws of Robotics?
Runaround
It was later collected in I, Robot, and the laws became a safety feature no positronic robot could bypass.
Q 16Which 1950 Asimov collection contains those laws?
I, Robot
Other authors writing in his universe adopted the laws, and references to them turn up well outside the genre.
Q 17Which novel won the very first Nebula Award for Best Novel?
Dune
It also tied with Roger Zelazny's This Immortal for that year's Hugo.
Q 18Where was Dune originally published?
As two serials in Analog
The serials were called Dune World and Prophet of Dune, running in 1963-64 and 1965.
Q 19What is the substance found only on Arrakis called?
Melange
Frank Herbert wrote five sequels before his death in 1986, and his son has since continued the series.
Q 20Blade Runner was adapted from which Philip K. Dick novel?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Ridley Scott's film moved the story to a dystopian Los Angeles of 2019.
Used existing classical works
Dialogue is sparse too, with long sequences carried by music alone.
Q 25How did Gene Roddenberry pitch Star Trek in his first draft?
Wagon Train to the stars
He had written extensively for Westerns, and each episode was to be a self-contained adventure.
Q 26Which production company backed the original Star Trek?
Desilu
Its head, Lucille Ball, was persuaded to keep both Star Trek and Mission: Impossible alive in 1966.
Q 27How many seasons did the original Star Trek run before NBC cancelled it?
Three
Ratings were low throughout; the afterlife in syndication is what built the franchise.
Q 28Which studio head was persuaded to save both Star Trek and Mission: Impossible?
Lucille Ball
Desilu had gone from one half-hour comedy to deficit-financing two expensive hour-long dramas.
Q 29Which H. G. Wells novel describes a Martian invasion of Earth?
The War of the Worlds
The Martians attack because their own older, smaller world has reached the last stage of exhaustion.
Q 30In which English county does the narrator of that invasion novel live?
Surrey
His brother flees to Tillingham in Essex as London and the south are overrun.