Book Quiz 3

Name the character, book title, and author for each of the following clues:

1. My first name is John. I am a navigator on a World War II bomber. Every time I get close to completing enough missions to go home, my colonel raises the number of missions required. Meanwhile, I seem to lose friends on every bombing run. I've come to the conclusion that the colonel is trying to kill me, and I have to fight against authority in order to survive.

2. My first name is Paul. I am a duke's son, trained in the arts of combat. When my father is assassinated, my mother and I flee into the desert and join a tribe of nomads who need my help throwing off the rule of a corrupt empire. Meanwhile, high doses of a drug that the nomads produce unleash my powers as a sort of futuristic Messiah.

3. My first name is Elijah. I am a cop in a future world where the whole planet is one huge, industrialized city. Together with my partner, who happens to be a robot, I investigate the challenging case of a man who appears to have been murdered by a robot...even though, under the Laws of Robotics, this should not be possible! Take a bonus point for naming my partner.

4. My first name is Charles. I am a good man, but I have been arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death by a government tribunal. It so happens that another man looks a lot like me, and both of us love the same woman. That man can save my life, but only by sacrificing his own. Take an extra point for naming the other man.

5. My name is Addie. My poor, southern-U.S. family has lots of problems, ranging from mental illness to invincible stupidity. All of these problems come together to tragic effect when I die and they have to carry my coffin, and my decaying body, back to my home town for burial.

6. My name is Rose. I am the spinster sister of a missionary to the Belgian Congo in the early days of World War I. After my brother dies of malaria, I join an engineer from a nearby gold mine in a desperate attempt to sabotage a German military vessel. Take an extra point for naming my partner.

7. My name is a palindrome, not counting the Roman numeral "IV" at the end. My family has had a string of bad luck ever since by no-good, pig-stealing, great-great-grandfather ran away from the old country and broke a bargain with a gypsy woman. For example, I get convicted of a crime I didn't commit and sent to a prison camp for boys, where the warden sets us to hard labor in a dried-up lakebed.

8. My first name is Jonathan. As a young, inexperienced lawyer, I travel to Transylvania to help a reclusive count arrange to move to England. The count turns out to be a fiend from hell, and by the end of the story I am part of the group that hunts him down and destroys him.

9. My stepmother is a nudist model named Topaz. My whole family lives in a ruined castle, rent-free. Things get interesting when a pair of American brothers inherit the castle. When our new landlords come to look at their property, my sister and I try to get them to fall in love with us...but it all ends up a terrible mess! Take a bonus point for naming the brother I end up in love with.

10. My first name is Jason. My summer camp for brainy students turns out to be a training ground for children with magical talent. And boy, do I need training! I keep having terrifying nightmares, twinges of pain where a wolfjackal bit me, and dangerous encounters with the forces of evil. If I don't figure things out soon, the bad guys will suck all the magic out of the world. Take an extra point for naming the camp.

ANSWERS: Highlight between the arrows.

-->1. John Yossarian in Catch-22 by Joseph Heller; 2. Paul Atreides in Dune by Frank Herbert; 3. Elijah Bailey in The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov; 4. Charles Darnay in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens; 5. Addie Bundren in As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner; 6. Rose Sayer in The African Queen by C. S. Forester; 7. Stanley Yelnats in Holes by Louis Sachar; 8. Jonathan Harker in Dracula by Bram Stoker; 9. Cassandra Mortmain in I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith; 10. Jason Adrian in The Magickers by Emily Drake. Bonus Answers: R. Daneel Olivaw; Sidney Carton; Charlie Allnutt; Simon Cotton; Camp Ravenwyng.<--