Q 01/05

Which 1920 Czech play gave the world the word 'robot'?

A) The Insect Play

B) Krakatit

C) The Makropulos Affair

D) R.U.R.

Answer · why

D) R.U.R.

Karel Capek's title stands for Rossum's Universal Robots, and the premiere was in Hradec Kralove in January 1921.

Q 02/05

Who wrote that robot play?

A) Yevgeny Zamyatin

B) Stanislaw Lem

C) Karel Capek

D) Franz Kafka

Answer · why

C) Karel Capek

His brother Josef is usually credited with suggesting the word itself, from the Czech for forced labour.

Q 03/05

Which 1984 novel put the word 'cyberspace' in front of a wide audience?

A) Neuromancer

B) The Difference Engine

C) Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

D) Snow Crash

Answer · why

A) Neuromancer

William Gibson had already used the word in his 1981 short story 'Burning Chrome'.

Q 04/05

Which trio of awards did William Gibson's debut novel win?

A) It sold more than any debut novel

B) It has never once been out of print

C) It won the Hugo, Nebula and Dick awards

D) It was the first novel written on a word processor

Answer · why

C) 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 05/05

William Gibson's 1984 debut opens which sequence of novels?

A) The Mars trilogy

B) The Culture trilogy

C) The Bridge trilogy

D) The Sprawl trilogy

Answer · why

D) The Sprawl trilogy

Count Zero followed in 1986 and Mona Lisa Overdrive in 1988.