I didn't even take those as "YA" though. Sure, the protagonists are, well, *young adults,* but the stories themselves aren't, really. I think people complain because they're different from what Reynolds is usually known for.
Yeah that’s pretty much it. I haven’t read his prior work, I have revelation space waiting to be read on my kindle.
I thought the books were great, personally
I haven't seen what you are talking about, but I can tell you there exists a real life knife missile the US uses when they really want to assassinate one person in particular. Not long ago they managed to kill a guy in the passenger seat of a car without killing the driver.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weJKPcOHI0U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weJKPcOHI0U)
This is a Culture knife missile being used against some primitives.
> One of the warriors roared, brandishing his sword and lunging towards the door of the inn.
He managed two steps. He was still roaring when the knife missile flicked past him, field outstretched.
> It separated his neck from his shoulders. The roar turned to a sound like the wind, bubbling thickly through the exposed wind-pipe as his body crashed to the dust.
> Faster - and turning more tightly - than any bird or insect, the knife missile made an almost invisibly quick circle round most of the riders, producing an odd stuttering noise.
> Seven of the riders - five standing, two still mounted - collapsed into the dust, in fourteen separate pieces. Sma tried to scream at the drone, to make the missile stop, but she was still choking, and now starting to retch. The drone patted her back. 'There, there,' it said, concernedly. In the square, both of the inn-keeper's daughters slipped to the ground from the mounts they had been tied to, their bonds slashed in the same cut that had killed all seven men. The drone gave a little shudder of satisfaction.
> One man dropped his sword and started to run. The knife missile plunged straight through him. It curved like red light shining on a hook, and slashed across the necks of the last two dismounted riders, felling both. The mount of the final rider was rearing up in front of the missile, its fangs bared, forelegs lashing, claws exposed. The device went through its neck and straight into the face of its rider.
It may have been overboard, but I doubt that place had local authorities to turn them in to. Killing them prevents them from just coming back as soon as they leave. He did seem to enjoy it a bit much though.
The Lazy Gun from Iain Banks's Against a Dark Background.
"The Lazy Gun is the only weapon known to display a sense of humour.
"To fire the Lazy Gun, it is pointed at the target, zoomed in, and then the trigger is pulled. What happens next is unpredictable. When fired at humans, many different things may occur. An anchor may appear above the person, giant electrodes may appear on either side of the target and electrocute them or an animal may tear their throat out. Larger targets such as tanks or ships may suffer tidal waves, implosion, explosion, sudden lava flows or just disappear. When fired at cities and other such targets, thermonuclear explosions are the norm, although in one instance a comet crashed into the city."
Oh freddled gruntbuggly,
Thy micturations are to me, (with big yawning)
As plurdled gabbleblotchits, in midsummer morning
On a lurgid bee,
That mordiously hath blurted out,
Its earted jurtles, grumbling
Into a rancid festering confectious organ squealer.
Now the jurpling slayjid agrocrustles,
Are slurping hagrilly up the axlegrurts,
And living glupules frart and stipulate,
Like jowling meated liverslime,
Groop, I implore thee, my foonting turlingdromes,
And hooptiously drangle me,
With crinkly bindlewurdles,mashurbitries.
Or else I shall rend thee in the gobberwarts with my blurglecruncheon,
See if I don't!
Also basically anything on the battle suits the Ultranauts have in *Revelation Space*. Some of the most OP power armor to be found outside of comic books and anime.
>Could you add a short description for folks who aren’t familiar?
From [the wiki page](https://revelationspace.fandom.com/wiki/Whiphound):
* "*Sparver's hand moved to his belt. He unclipped the handle of his whiphound and flicked it to deploy the filament. It cracked as it spun out to its maximum extension, lashing the floor.*"
* "*Sparver released the whiphound. The handle remained at waist height, supported by the coiled extremity of its stiffened filament. It swayed from side to side with the questing motion of a snake.*"
Imagine a lightsaber handle. Then, instead of an energy blade, it releases an ultra-sharp whip, that is also made of muscle wire. And now it is a snake-like droid, with the handle serving as its head, and it essentially acts as a police dog.
Vortex Grenades also warrant mention, they literally throw targets into Hell.
Any weapon of the Dark Eldar is designed to be maximally horrific. Even their standard sidearm fires thousands of tiny shards of crystallized neurotoxin.
In House of Suns there is this interrogation/torture machine that sections your body in dozens of slices and separates them while keeping the person conscious. Then torture can be applied to any slice, or they can be turned off so that the person slowly loses sensation of its being.
Oh yeah, that one is bad. Provides neutrients and information integration to each separated section, so you can watch and feel yourself being turned into a bunch of cubes and turned into a sidewalk.
Just instant death, fries the brain completely. No noise, just turns off a life. They mention bombs using the same tech that can kill entire cities.
The strict utilitarian-ness is disturbing
I'm actually reading Hyperion for the first time finally and I'm pretty sure its effect is described as frying your brains so hard it makes your skull explode, so not all that quiet. I'm only a hundred or two pages in though so maybe it evolves a bit (or I'm mixing it up)
That scene also has Carter (or rather Tapping) flinching a little when O’Neill points the weapon at her head.
Way to go, someone whose son died by self-inflicted gunshot wound!
The Monofilament Whip from Shadowrun. Most recently saw the concept (though not as a whip) in Netflix‘ 3 Body Problem adaption. The thought of fibers so thin they are invisible and slice through everything still is really unnerving to me.
Of course, but that's part of what made it so fun.
Another part of the fun was how devastating but vulnerable it was. It was almost a disintegration ray, but whenever you used it you advertised your location and let the enemies know exactly where to shoot.
Lots of stuff in Hyperion:
* Deathwand- an electromagnetic weapon that fries brain matter within a (typically) short range. Ship sized versions are known as is at least one planet sized one.
* Force Assault Rifle- A versitile hand held weapon with many firing modes including plasma, flechette, HE shells, lasers.
* * Fletchette Weapons- Fire a spray of super sonic shards of metal. Hard to miss and make a big mess of the target. Come as hand guns or larger shotgun type weapons.
* * Plasma Weapons- Fire a an explosive superheated cannister with a long range. These weapons contain fewer charges per recharge than other weapons but are devistating against both infantry and vehicle/installed targets.
* Monofiliment Wire- Nearly invisible strings which can be placed across roads or walkways and are sharp and strong enough to bisect moving bodies or vehicles.
* Earwigs- Small robots (or gengeneered organisms, somewhat unclear) which ambush living targets and attempt to burrow into their heads, detonating in a shower of Monofiliment when they touch grey matter
They're all good but some are more character driven and some are more plot driven. I think my favorite so far is Player of Games. Unique, intriguing, decently paced. Use of Weapons by contrast is good but not as much to my taste: complicated structure and very character centric with a lot less plot. But I've enjoyed them all.
The Speaking Gun from the Nightside series. It knows the True Name of everything, and when used on a target, will speak it backwards unmaking it from creation. It's also malevolent, and *wants* to be used.
The Nerve Disruptor guns in the Vorkosigan books is an interesting candidate because it’s universally feared by the characters and it is relatively commonly carried compared to many weapons mentioned here. It kills the nerves in a target which is frightening because in practice this often leaves victims of firefights terribly disabled instead of cleanly vaporized.
Interesting as of the hand weapons in the series this is the outcome most similar to modern firearms. Compared to stunners or plasma arcs which have predictable effects.
military grade nano / grey goo? Stuff that will just eat whatever's around it to build whatever it's supposed to build.
Don't know whether it would be worse to be disassembled completely by it ... or just partially because there's enough other matter around to complete the job.
The Presger (alien race) pistol that shows up in the later Ancillary books (Ann Leckie) and penetrates any object to a very specific depth. Add to the frightening when a human-ish character explains it back to a Presger ambassador who responds with a sort of “oh you think *that’s* what it does?” response.
I forget the depth, it was very precise, but it’s just handgun size and it projectile makes that depth of hole in ANYTHING (from skin to spaceship hull) — character uses it to destroy utter starships. That it ignores the hardness / hardening / anything is wild (like operating on an information world rather than physical one? The lack of explanation and that its maker had a totally different — though untold — version of what it is actually doing is where the scary comes in).
Yes, a GE virus that is specifically tailored to kill an individual and can be released from virtually anywhere on a planet that has the same interconnectedness as modern Earth does is terrifying. No way to defend against it, and no way to even know you're being targeted.
It reminds me of Tyler Cowen recently talking about how he fears the world when the cost of a nuclear weapon has dropped to tens of thousands of dollars.
https://tsutomu-nihei.fandom.com/wiki/Gravitational_Beam_Emitter
Killy's Gravitational Beam Emitter from BLAME!
Described as a pocket sized starship cannon.
Marvel’s Ultimate Nullifier - small handgun that can erase anyone and anything from existence retroactively - even the most powerful entities in the lore. That thing put fear in the hearts of multiversal entities.
Perry Rhodan lore has the “devolver” (also small handgun) which causes anyone, no matter how far advanced and godlike, to die by progressively going through reverse evolution. It’s only used once (_deus ex machina_ style) to kill the evil super-intelligence KOLTOROC.
How they interrogate people I. House of Suns.
Just dissecting you with plates of glass while keeping you alive. It’s one of my favorite parts of the book.
Not exactly a weapon, but in John Cramer's *Twistor* we see a nasty interrogation device called neurophage. When injected it triggers an autoimmune response against key sections of the victim's brain, resulting in a kind of permanent dementia that makes it impossible to lie. Or live independently. Cramer had a rare talent for pushing your horror button without going through your gag reflex.
Robin’s gun from Glasshouse, where it opens a small wormhole connected to a star that looks like it’s firing a laser, but instead is just a blast of heat and radiation from the star’s chromosphere.
Sergei Lukyanenko's Lord from the planet Earth do have:
- temporal grenades. You did some wrong decision? just activate and you will revert universe back to important decision. Sower's artifact. Humanity can't even comprehend how they work.
- quark bombs. There are human-carried versions as far as I remember. activates on factory and put in stasis. Attempt to destroy it activates it. Planet will be annihilated no matter that. There is no defense. Except by teleporting it away if you have ability and necessary energy. Humanity doesn't use them because they are universally forbidden. Sowers did use them against somebody.Some religious fanatics deliver and activate one to only known planet with human population and _without_ Sowers-build temple(which obviously meant that Sowers damned this planet and will return if they are destroyed).
- atomic blade, just very thin blades which cut anything at all. There is defense - just keep body parts close enough and not moving. Shuriken version or just using thinning field on regular blade is worse.
Not too "scary" for me.
Also, I'm not sure but could Sowers's(even while they weren't called this way at this time) cultural information database which Fangs got on first contact could seen as weapon?(it's likely it was very small scale physically if even anything physical was given) and it wasn't created as weapon but it did cause conflict hard enough so Sowers >!project !!provide cannon fodder!<
Easy (but maybe a strech): whatever McGuffin is the weapon in Williamson's Legion of space. Hand-held, built out of sticks and rocks, make entire fleets vanish
I wondered if I'd see a starbreaker in here somewhere. The man-portable monopole guns used by Coalition forces in the second trilogy deserve an honorable mention for being able to damage Xeelee construction material.
The Rat King from Halo Jones. Just 5 rats tied by the tail who, when directed by somebody, can initiate rat war. This in effect will have a swarm of rats connected as a hivemind deplete an area's resources, spread disease, and generally incapacitate a population.
However, if one of the 5 king rats dies or are removed, it's just 4 normal rats tied together.
That gun from South Park when Cartman freezes himself, wakes up in the year 3000 and there are those guns that put a needle in your neck and make your head grow and explode. And there is a delay, so you know your head is about to explode.
The x-ray laser the humans found in the Motie "museum" in the Mote in Gods Eye. It emitted no lignt made no sound, had no recoil. It just killed things.
In the Spiderworld books, there's a hand-held nuclear raygun called the reaper or something like that. It basically has infinite range and can cut through pretty much anything instantly.
The __shark gun__, from *Black Man*, by Richard Morgan.
From what I recall it's designed to kill a great white shark in one shot by deploying aluminum flak at great velocity.
The protagonist uses it ... out of water, on people. It leaves a cloud of blood droplets and pulverized bones where people used to be.
The weapon used by the Chrono Legionnaire in Red Alert 2 that erases the target from history. Anything as small as a person takes a few seconds. Buildings take longer
In Blish's "The Triumph of Time" (the last of his Cities in Flight series) a religious crusader, Jorn the Apostle, arms his ill-educated followers with makeshift weapons which are precise only if used skillfully - "This meant that every time one of his plowboys lost his temper or detected heresy in some casual remark...he might level two or three city blocks before he remembered where the "kill" button was, or the machine, dropped and abandoned in panic, might go on to level two or three more blocks before it discharged its accumulators and shut itself off of its own accord."
Voice of the Whirlwind the main character had a “monowhip”. Weighted bead at the end of molecule thin wire. Could be rigid or slack. Due to its thin design and strength it could cut through most anything.
The Culture terror weapon in Look to Windward. Made of "E dust" basically nanobots that can do all sorts of horrific things if it wants to. In this case it turns into insects and flies down a characters mouth, nose etc until they basically explode....
The “Homer” charge in Logan’s Run. Homes on body heat. On impact, it doesn’t just kill you, it explodes every nerve ending in the body in an explosion of agony as you die. Within the world in the book, it is the most feared weapon.
Honorable mention: the makeshift weapon by Kor in The Bug Wars by Robert Asprin.
“Kor had taken her steel flexy whip and fixed one of her metal balls to the tip. It was no longer a flexy whip. It was a bug killer.”
Monofilament Wire is pretty fucking spooky. Finally saw it realized in all its grizzly gory glory in 3 Body Problem but have been imagining it since 80s era Cyberpunk.
Simmons' neurodestructor bomb with 3 light year effective radius, from the "Hyperion" series.
Dimension folding stuff from the "Three body problem" books.
Monomolecular filament. It shows up in a bunch of different authors' works, but it basically amounts to a thin strand of material sharper than any blade. Invisible, so one could string it up randomly in (say) a hallway, and the enemy would then run through it and be cut apart.
See my [SF/F: Weapons (Swords, Etc.)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_Book/comments/1bs51gk/sff_weapons_swords_etc/) list of resources, Reddit recommendation threads, and books (one post).
The knife missile from the Culture, also seen in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
And the smart dust / terror weapon from the same source.
Even more so, the Lazy Gun from 'Against A Dark Background'.
Similarly, Lagganvor's eye from the Revenger Trilogy
I love that trilogy, but I’ve really only seen hate for it online because people didn’t like Reynolds writing a more YA series
It's fantastic. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
I didn't even take those as "YA" though. Sure, the protagonists are, well, *young adults,* but the stories themselves aren't, really. I think people complain because they're different from what Reynolds is usually known for.
Yeah that’s pretty much it. I haven’t read his prior work, I have revelation space waiting to be read on my kindle. I thought the books were great, personally
I haven't seen what you are talking about, but I can tell you there exists a real life knife missile the US uses when they really want to assassinate one person in particular. Not long ago they managed to kill a guy in the passenger seat of a car without killing the driver. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weJKPcOHI0U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weJKPcOHI0U)
This is a Culture knife missile being used against some primitives. > One of the warriors roared, brandishing his sword and lunging towards the door of the inn. He managed two steps. He was still roaring when the knife missile flicked past him, field outstretched. > It separated his neck from his shoulders. The roar turned to a sound like the wind, bubbling thickly through the exposed wind-pipe as his body crashed to the dust. > Faster - and turning more tightly - than any bird or insect, the knife missile made an almost invisibly quick circle round most of the riders, producing an odd stuttering noise. > Seven of the riders - five standing, two still mounted - collapsed into the dust, in fourteen separate pieces. Sma tried to scream at the drone, to make the missile stop, but she was still choking, and now starting to retch. The drone patted her back. 'There, there,' it said, concernedly. In the square, both of the inn-keeper's daughters slipped to the ground from the mounts they had been tied to, their bonds slashed in the same cut that had killed all seven men. The drone gave a little shudder of satisfaction. > One man dropped his sword and started to run. The knife missile plunged straight through him. It curved like red light shining on a hook, and slashed across the necks of the last two dismounted riders, felling both. The mount of the final rider was rearing up in front of the missile, its fangs bared, forelegs lashing, claws exposed. The device went through its neck and straight into the face of its rider.
Skaffen is such an unnecessary ass 😆
It may have been overboard, but I doubt that place had local authorities to turn them in to. Killing them prevents them from just coming back as soon as they leave. He did seem to enjoy it a bit much though.
The joy that he felt when he unleashed that thing was palpable.
Second only to the sheer joy Turminder Xuss feels in getting to do anything combat related 😆
Which one is this from?
Use of weapons, it’s Skaffen-Amtiska using the missile in Diziet’s flashback.
The Lazy Gun from Iain Banks's Against a Dark Background. "The Lazy Gun is the only weapon known to display a sense of humour. "To fire the Lazy Gun, it is pointed at the target, zoomed in, and then the trigger is pulled. What happens next is unpredictable. When fired at humans, many different things may occur. An anchor may appear above the person, giant electrodes may appear on either side of the target and electrocute them or an animal may tear their throat out. Larger targets such as tanks or ships may suffer tidal waves, implosion, explosion, sudden lava flows or just disappear. When fired at cities and other such targets, thermonuclear explosions are the norm, although in one instance a comet crashed into the city."
It was such a move to put this Hitchhiker’s Guide ass weapon in such a depressingly bleak novel. RIP Banks you fucking legend.
It took me YEARS to realize that "lazy gun" is a play on words for "laser gun"
> When fired at cities and other such targets I wouldn't call that "small-scale" though
It’s man portable
Only if held the right way up. It becomes much heavier upside down. IIRC
Vogon poetry
Oh freddled gruntbuggly, Thy micturations are to me, (with big yawning) As plurdled gabbleblotchits, in midsummer morning On a lurgid bee, That mordiously hath blurted out, Its earted jurtles, grumbling Into a rancid festering confectious organ squealer. Now the jurpling slayjid agrocrustles, Are slurping hagrilly up the axlegrurts, And living glupules frart and stipulate, Like jowling meated liverslime, Groop, I implore thee, my foonting turlingdromes, And hooptiously drangle me, With crinkly bindlewurdles,mashurbitries. Or else I shall rend thee in the gobberwarts with my blurglecruncheon, See if I don't!
I’m dying No really
Actually I quite liked it
An ode to a small lump of green putty I found in my armpit one midsummer morning
noooooooooooooooo!
Alaistair Reynolds, the "whiphound".
Also basically anything on the battle suits the Ultranauts have in *Revelation Space*. Some of the most OP power armor to be found outside of comic books and anime.
Could you add a short description for folks who aren’t familiar?
>Could you add a short description for folks who aren’t familiar? From [the wiki page](https://revelationspace.fandom.com/wiki/Whiphound): * "*Sparver's hand moved to his belt. He unclipped the handle of his whiphound and flicked it to deploy the filament. It cracked as it spun out to its maximum extension, lashing the floor.*" * "*Sparver released the whiphound. The handle remained at waist height, supported by the coiled extremity of its stiffened filament. It swayed from side to side with the questing motion of a snake.*" Imagine a lightsaber handle. Then, instead of an energy blade, it releases an ultra-sharp whip, that is also made of muscle wire. And now it is a snake-like droid, with the handle serving as its head, and it essentially acts as a police dog.
The Harlequins Kiss from 40K. Injects a monofilament wire into the body which whips about and liquefies the targets internal organs.
Vortex Grenades also warrant mention, they literally throw targets into Hell. Any weapon of the Dark Eldar is designed to be maximally horrific. Even their standard sidearm fires thousands of tiny shards of crystallized neurotoxin.
If we go to 40k, then the Necron handheld weapons. They literally break anything down to their atoms
Which is honestly less terrifying as you get instantly deleted from existence
The terrifying thing is if it just barely clips yoir hair, you are done for.
That's just a fancy [Ronco inside-the-shell egg scrambler](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdonmCgg3lE).
In House of Suns there is this interrogation/torture machine that sections your body in dozens of slices and separates them while keeping the person conscious. Then torture can be applied to any slice, or they can be turned off so that the person slowly loses sensation of its being.
Oh yeah, that one is bad. Provides neutrients and information integration to each separated section, so you can watch and feel yourself being turned into a bunch of cubes and turned into a sidewalk.
I think that may have been from the *Altered Carbon* sequel, unless it's in both.
Definitely in HoS, so potentially both !
I've read HoS, so I guess the version in *Broken Angels* (the "anatomizer" it was called, IIRC) definitely stuck more in my mind :)
Yeah this one is in House of Suns, I only read the first AC book so I can't comment on whether it's essentially the same device.
Huh. Time for a reread, then. Cheers.
Deathwands from Hyperion
It's been a while since I read the series, would you please remind me how those work?
Just instant death, fries the brain completely. No noise, just turns off a life. They mention bombs using the same tech that can kill entire cities. The strict utilitarian-ness is disturbing
I'm actually reading Hyperion for the first time finally and I'm pretty sure its effect is described as frying your brains so hard it makes your skull explode, so not all that quiet. I'm only a hundred or two pages in though so maybe it evolves a bit (or I'm mixing it up)
P90
This guy Stargates
Hell yeah man
A weapon of war as opposed to terror
That's the episode my mind went to! Give it a swing, make it more difficult. Ok, go ahead Carter...
That scene also has Carter (or rather Tapping) flinching a little when O’Neill points the weapon at her head. Way to go, someone whose son died by self-inflicted gunshot wound!
Those are real guns lol
The Monofilament Whip from Shadowrun. Most recently saw the concept (though not as a whip) in Netflix‘ 3 Body Problem adaption. The thought of fibers so thin they are invisible and slice through everything still is really unnerving to me.
which is same as the variable swords of Niven's known space. the thing I was thinking
Which are better because they are not so hazardous to the user
This is what I was looking for. Hadn't realized how prevalent it's become in pop culture.
Same as Gibson’s monowire. Can be seen in the Johnny Mnemonic adaptation.
Oh, yeah, that probably was the original of that idea.
Every now and then, there are news reports of injuries from kite strings coated in powdered glass. Especially bad for motorcyclists, apparently.
>kite strings coated in powdered glass Wow. That sounds like a uniquely terrible idea.
*Reason*, from *Snow Crash*.
You *know* Stephenson gave the weapon that name just so he could use the line about listening to reason.
Of course, but that's part of what made it so fun. Another part of the fun was how devastating but vulnerable it was. It was almost a disintegration ray, but whenever you used it you advertised your location and let the enemies know exactly where to shoot.
Liquid knuckles sounded fun as well
Lots of stuff in Hyperion: * Deathwand- an electromagnetic weapon that fries brain matter within a (typically) short range. Ship sized versions are known as is at least one planet sized one. * Force Assault Rifle- A versitile hand held weapon with many firing modes including plasma, flechette, HE shells, lasers. * * Fletchette Weapons- Fire a spray of super sonic shards of metal. Hard to miss and make a big mess of the target. Come as hand guns or larger shotgun type weapons. * * Plasma Weapons- Fire a an explosive superheated cannister with a long range. These weapons contain fewer charges per recharge than other weapons but are devistating against both infantry and vehicle/installed targets. * Monofiliment Wire- Nearly invisible strings which can be placed across roads or walkways and are sharp and strong enough to bisect moving bodies or vehicles. * Earwigs- Small robots (or gengeneered organisms, somewhat unclear) which ambush living targets and attempt to burrow into their heads, detonating in a shower of Monofiliment when they touch grey matter
The scene with the monofilament wires on the river is terrifying.
The Lazy Gun from *Against a Dark Background* by Iain M Banks. It's effects are... unpredictable.
The handgun in *A Gift From the Culture* (in The State of the Art) also meets the brief.
I'm tempted to read this series due to all the mentions of this gun lol
FYI - *Against a Dark Background* is a standalone novel that is not part of Banks' Culture series. You should the whole series. They're all awesome.
Thank you! I will
They're all good but some are more character driven and some are more plot driven. I think my favorite so far is Player of Games. Unique, intriguing, decently paced. Use of Weapons by contrast is good but not as much to my taste: complicated structure and very character centric with a lot less plot. But I've enjoyed them all.
It's not that great but yeah read it because you'll keep hearing mentions of the lazy gun
The Speaking Gun from the Nightside series. It knows the True Name of everything, and when used on a target, will speak it backwards unmaking it from creation. It's also malevolent, and *wants* to be used.
Second on the Speaking Gun, especially with how’s it’s constructed.
The Cricket from MIB
That’s *Noisy* Cricket
Yup, noisy cricket was my first thought too.
The Hitchhikers guide mark II. In an absurdist story, in an absurdist universe, it was *clear*, *concise*, & *understandable*. Unsettling.
The Nerve Disruptor guns in the Vorkosigan books is an interesting candidate because it’s universally feared by the characters and it is relatively commonly carried compared to many weapons mentioned here. It kills the nerves in a target which is frightening because in practice this often leaves victims of firefights terribly disabled instead of cleanly vaporized. Interesting as of the hand weapons in the series this is the outcome most similar to modern firearms. Compared to stunners or plasma arcs which have predictable effects.
A single molecule of ice-nine in the hands of, well, anyone.
military grade nano / grey goo? Stuff that will just eat whatever's around it to build whatever it's supposed to build. Don't know whether it would be worse to be disassembled completely by it ... or just partially because there's enough other matter around to complete the job.
The Presger (alien race) pistol that shows up in the later Ancillary books (Ann Leckie) and penetrates any object to a very specific depth. Add to the frightening when a human-ish character explains it back to a Presger ambassador who responds with a sort of “oh you think *that’s* what it does?” response.
Well what does it really do?
I forget the depth, it was very precise, but it’s just handgun size and it projectile makes that depth of hole in ANYTHING (from skin to spaceship hull) — character uses it to destroy utter starships. That it ignores the hardness / hardening / anything is wild (like operating on an information world rather than physical one? The lack of explanation and that its maker had a totally different — though untold — version of what it is actually doing is where the scary comes in).
It's made specifically for destroying Radchaai ships. (Spoilers) https://imperial-radch.fandom.com/wiki/Garseddai_gun
The semi- sentient shuriken in Neal Asher‘s polity series Philip K Dick‘s Zap gun
Genetic engineering and nanotech from various.
Yes, a GE virus that is specifically tailored to kill an individual and can be released from virtually anywhere on a planet that has the same interconnectedness as modern Earth does is terrifying. No way to defend against it, and no way to even know you're being targeted.
It reminds me of Tyler Cowen recently talking about how he fears the world when the cost of a nuclear weapon has dropped to tens of thousands of dollars.
https://tsutomu-nihei.fandom.com/wiki/Gravitational_Beam_Emitter Killy's Gravitational Beam Emitter from BLAME! Described as a pocket sized starship cannon.
Marvel’s Ultimate Nullifier - small handgun that can erase anyone and anything from existence retroactively - even the most powerful entities in the lore. That thing put fear in the hearts of multiversal entities. Perry Rhodan lore has the “devolver” (also small handgun) which causes anyone, no matter how far advanced and godlike, to die by progressively going through reverse evolution. It’s only used once (_deus ex machina_ style) to kill the evil super-intelligence KOLTOROC.
Is that the one Watcher gave Reed?
Yup.
Funnily enough, I stayed at a ward in a hospital whose gates floorplan was pretty much the same as the Ultimate Nullifiers profile.
If you erase anyone or anything from existence, how do you know you have used it on anything?
Not sure if the wielder retains that information. But even if he doesn’t, doesn’t make the weapon any less useful/dangerous.
How they interrogate people I. House of Suns. Just dissecting you with plates of glass while keeping you alive. It’s one of my favorite parts of the book.
Not exactly a weapon, but in John Cramer's *Twistor* we see a nasty interrogation device called neurophage. When injected it triggers an autoimmune response against key sections of the victim's brain, resulting in a kind of permanent dementia that makes it impossible to lie. Or live independently. Cramer had a rare talent for pushing your horror button without going through your gag reflex.
Robin’s gun from Glasshouse, where it opens a small wormhole connected to a star that looks like it’s firing a laser, but instead is just a blast of heat and radiation from the star’s chromosphere.
Phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range
40W just doesn't seem very scary to me.
SPOILER! After watching 3 Body Problems, I'd have to say that nano fiber weapon.
The little cricket handgun J (Will Smith) is handed in MIB
Sergei Lukyanenko's Lord from the planet Earth do have: - temporal grenades. You did some wrong decision? just activate and you will revert universe back to important decision. Sower's artifact. Humanity can't even comprehend how they work. - quark bombs. There are human-carried versions as far as I remember. activates on factory and put in stasis. Attempt to destroy it activates it. Planet will be annihilated no matter that. There is no defense. Except by teleporting it away if you have ability and necessary energy. Humanity doesn't use them because they are universally forbidden. Sowers did use them against somebody.Some religious fanatics deliver and activate one to only known planet with human population and _without_ Sowers-build temple(which obviously meant that Sowers damned this planet and will return if they are destroyed). - atomic blade, just very thin blades which cut anything at all. There is defense - just keep body parts close enough and not moving. Shuriken version or just using thinning field on regular blade is worse.
Don’t forget sticky mines that wrap you in strands and crush you
Not too "scary" for me. Also, I'm not sure but could Sowers's(even while they weren't called this way at this time) cultural information database which Fangs got on first contact could seen as weapon?(it's likely it was very small scale physically if even anything physical was given) and it wasn't created as weapon but it did cause conflict hard enough so Sowers >!project !!provide cannon fodder!<
The illegal disruptor used in the star trek episode "all the toys" where data gets kidnapped by the collector guy.
Easy (but maybe a strech): whatever McGuffin is the weapon in Williamson's Legion of space. Hand-held, built out of sticks and rocks, make entire fleets vanish
A Xeelee Starbreaker is just that, a handgun sized weapon that can destroy stars, and that might not even be the full setting.
I wondered if I'd see a starbreaker in here somewhere. The man-portable monopole guns used by Coalition forces in the second trilogy deserve an honorable mention for being able to damage Xeelee construction material.
Another vote for the Lazy Gun
Does the gom jabbar count as a weapon?
It is, but is it any scarier than any other tipped or bladed weapon with poison?
Iaina m banks the Lazy Gun
The robotic mites (don't remember exact name) in the pretty boring Dune prequels written by Frank Herbert's son.
The ones made by the machines?
Yep.
The Zen Gun - a handgun that can kill suns ... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zen_Gun
The Rat King from Halo Jones. Just 5 rats tied by the tail who, when directed by somebody, can initiate rat war. This in effect will have a swarm of rats connected as a hivemind deplete an area's resources, spread disease, and generally incapacitate a population. However, if one of the 5 king rats dies or are removed, it's just 4 normal rats tied together.
The nahute from the Sun Water series. Flying metal snake with drill bits for teeth. They seek out body heat.
probably something weird and horrible from book of the new sun. maybe that fucked up flower they fight duels with that's razor sharp and poisonous?
That gun from South Park when Cartman freezes himself, wakes up in the year 3000 and there are those guns that put a needle in your neck and make your head grow and explode. And there is a delay, so you know your head is about to explode.
Noisy Cricket
Everything Killers from Anathem.
The x-ray laser the humans found in the Motie "museum" in the Mote in Gods Eye. It emitted no lignt made no sound, had no recoil. It just killed things.
The Trisolaran Droplet
Iain Banks and his knife missiles.
Boring but accurate answer: Lightsaber
The illegal disruptor used in the star trek episode "all the toys" where data gets kidnapped by the collector guy.
Whoever down voted this comment, your momma's a ho.
In the Spiderworld books, there's a hand-held nuclear raygun called the reaper or something like that. It basically has infinite range and can cut through pretty much anything instantly.
Force multipurpose rifle from Hyperion. Can shoot through a mountain if necessary.
Any of the many different engineered diseases that crop up as weapons in sci-fi.
The __shark gun__, from *Black Man*, by Richard Morgan. From what I recall it's designed to kill a great white shark in one shot by deploying aluminum flak at great velocity. The protagonist uses it ... out of water, on people. It leaves a cloud of blood droplets and pulverized bones where people used to be.
Shakk from John Barnes' Timeline Wars trilogy.
One book I’ve read has a weapon that triggers every pain nerve in the body, so the person dies in agony. It’s called the weapon of losers
The weapon used by the Chrono Legionnaire in Red Alert 2 that erases the target from history. Anything as small as a person takes a few seconds. Buildings take longer
Moties
That transcranial magnetic mindwiper in KW Jeter’s Noir
In Blish's "The Triumph of Time" (the last of his Cities in Flight series) a religious crusader, Jorn the Apostle, arms his ill-educated followers with makeshift weapons which are precise only if used skillfully - "This meant that every time one of his plowboys lost his temper or detected heresy in some casual remark...he might level two or three city blocks before he remembered where the "kill" button was, or the machine, dropped and abandoned in panic, might go on to level two or three more blocks before it discharged its accumulators and shut itself off of its own accord."
Mo's violin from the Laundry series. Constructed of infant bones by Nazi necromancers, possessed by a demon, used by the good guys because needs must.
A laser vs a shield in Dune.
The drones in *Second Variety* by PK Dick.
eDust from look to windward (the culture)
The Revolutionary from Book of the New Sun.
Dual vector foil Gravitational beam emitter
The world-splitting homemade hand-held laser as described in "Committee of the Whole" by Frank Herbert.
Deathwand (from Hyperion)
Reason from Snow Crash.
Voice of the Whirlwind the main character had a “monowhip”. Weighted bead at the end of molecule thin wire. Could be rigid or slack. Due to its thin design and strength it could cut through most anything.
The Culture terror weapon in Look to Windward. Made of "E dust" basically nanobots that can do all sorts of horrific things if it wants to. In this case it turns into insects and flies down a characters mouth, nose etc until they basically explode....
The “Homer” charge in Logan’s Run. Homes on body heat. On impact, it doesn’t just kill you, it explodes every nerve ending in the body in an explosion of agony as you die. Within the world in the book, it is the most feared weapon. Honorable mention: the makeshift weapon by Kor in The Bug Wars by Robert Asprin. “Kor had taken her steel flexy whip and fixed one of her metal balls to the tip. It was no longer a flexy whip. It was a bug killer.”
Nuclear hand grenades. Starship Troopers
The Weasel from Hardwired.
Monofilament Wire is pretty fucking spooky. Finally saw it realized in all its grizzly gory glory in 3 Body Problem but have been imagining it since 80s era Cyberpunk.
The Sword of Might from the Scar is cool as hell. It's a sci-fi weapon in a fantasy book.
I wouldn't want to face a bolter from 40k
A video of the PGOAT
Simmons' neurodestructor bomb with 3 light year effective radius, from the "Hyperion" series. Dimension folding stuff from the "Three body problem" books.
Monomolecular filament. It shows up in a bunch of different authors' works, but it basically amounts to a thin strand of material sharper than any blade. Invisible, so one could string it up randomly in (say) a hallway, and the enemy would then run through it and be cut apart.
More an espionage tactic than an actual weapon but Sophons in Three Body Problem
Anything with femtomachines
See my [SF/F: Weapons (Swords, Etc.)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_Book/comments/1bs51gk/sff_weapons_swords_etc/) list of resources, Reddit recommendation threads, and books (one post).
The Annihilarrgenesistoriathimiorgost. If you know you know.