Forum: Lost Stories

Dead tree - man kidnapped, mind duplicated

StarFleet Carl 🚫

Pretty much what it says in the title. I remember the story, I'm just drawing the blank on the TITLE of the story.

Gist of it - obviously science fiction.

Guy wakes up, thinks he's the survivor of a tragedy, finds out that he's a copied clone, where he was created to help some robbers steal the security information from his original.

I probably (almost certainly) have this story in my library SOMEWHERE. I'm just drawing a blank because, well, half my library is still in storage, so I can't easily read them.

Replies: Finbar_Saunders madnige Ernest Bywater

Finbar_Saunders 🚫

@StarFleet Carl

Not the same story, but a similar premise is "Tunnel Under the World" by Frederick Pohl. Always an interesting plot device

madnige 🚫
Updated:

@StarFleet Carl

I vaguely remember this, or something very like it - could it be a John Varley? Second thoughts, this was the staging scenario for one of his where the MCs gets illegally cloned by robbers who were aiming for the banker/businessman to be the 'tragedy survivor', but picked the wrong sample and got a weather artist instead (Kansas themepark on the Moon, major thunderstorm) - the artist and clone have to make an escape to the outer system as in the inner system, only one body is allowed per geneset. However, JV did reuse scenarios so could have written the businessman/clone, just I can't remember reading that.

ETA: the one I'm thinking of is The Phantom of Kansas from The Persistence of Vision

Replies: StarFleet Carl

StarFleet Carl 🚫

@madnige

Yes, the Kansas themepark on the Moon reminded me, that's EXACTLY the story I was thinking of.

The Phantom of Kansas

Replies: madnige

madnige 🚫

@StarFleet Carl

Thanks for the link, it's been years (decades) since I read it - my dead-tree copy went the way of 'you've not looked at it for years, I'm throwing it out'. Pity there aren't more full-text there, I've a real hankering to reread Goodbye Robinson Crusoe for the South Pacific Themepark on Pluto, falling sky, and memorable quote

The moon was rising, and doing it at breakneck speed

Ernest Bywater 🚫

@StarFleet Carl

I suspect you're looking for the books by A.E. van Vogt. I have the first two in paperback from decades ago:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_of_Null-A

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pawns_of_Null-A

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null-A_Three

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Forum: Lost Stories

Dead tree - man kidnapped, mind duplicated

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