Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Carthag Tuek
Oct 15, 2005

Tider skal komme,
tider skal henrulle,
slægt skal følge slægters gang



Hughlander posted:

I thought this was in All Systems Red but it wasn’t. Maybe one of the sequels.

Main character party is hyper capitalist hellhole negotiates help with opposing team/company but the opposing side is even more capitalist hellhole then they realized and chastises hero for bad negotiations as they’ll become slaves/lose their gear/land. But they turn it around.

If it’s not all systems red it feels like it could be The Lost Fleet?

ken macleod's fall revolution series?

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

BattyKiara
Mar 17, 2009
Time travel novel made me remember a terrible novel I read in the early 1990s.

Setting: Stone age level village. There are some metal tools, but very few, and mostly used for special occasions.

The phrase "Beware! Beware the bright circles!" is used a greeting/warning/start of religious rituals.

Circular items are taboo, especially small circles. Even perfectly round stones are immediately smashed so they are no longer circular.

There is a nasty, several pages long, extremely detailed coming of age ritual. Teenage girls are held down, and copper knife is used to cut a centimeter deep gash is cut from inside her belly button to her pubic bone. This results in a wide scar once healed, as there is no sewing up or bandaging done. Once fully healed, the girls is seen as adult and sexually mature.
While in healing the girl is kept secluded, given first pick of food at all meals, exempt from all work, and those who want to be her future lovers leave gifts at her hut. She must accept all gift, but it is up to her if she wants to repay the men. It is hinted that the better the gifts, the better the chance she will choose the man later.

The bright circles are coins. Or the memory of money. It is a warning to not reinvent capitalism

The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

BattyKiara posted:

The bright circles are coins. Or the memory of money. It is a warning to not reinvent capitalism

That is terrible.

Stupid_Sexy_Flander
Mar 14, 2007

Is a man not entitled to the haw of his maw?
Grimey Drawer

Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:

What was that book that had the mage who got made fun of because he cried and ran away from a wedding to a princess because the barbarian hero showed up to rescue her, but it turns out the dude was like 8 and had no clue what the gently caress was going on? I think his dad was the big bad necromancer of the book.

Comedic fantasy, just drawing a blank on the title.

Orconomics.

Stupid_Sexy_Flander
Mar 14, 2007

Is a man not entitled to the haw of his maw?
Grimey Drawer
I'd also like to add I used chatgpt to help me figure this out, and after a few false starts it nailed it. Might be worth a try if you are stumped on a book.

Gin_Rummy
Aug 4, 2007
Drawing blanks from both Google AND chatGPT (who keeps repeating my synopses with other random, completely unrelated book titles and saying “Is this it?”) on these two books:

I read both of these probably in the late 90s, or early 00s at the latest. They are most likely YA of some variety.

One book was about a couple of dudes who have to go back in time to find some Professor/mentor friend. Other than that, my memory of the details are extremely hazy, aside from one. Throughout the story, they have this handheld device that basically looks like one of those four-pronged sink handles. They have no idea what said device does, until they make a miraculous escape by holding the device aloft, and then it basically acts as a mini helicopter that they use to fly away with.

The second book was about a boy or teenage boy who lives an isolated lifestyle with his father somewhere. I want to say it was a rocky, canyonous sort of place and possibly even on another planet, but I can’t say for certain. The father’s job was to live at this outpost and keep a watch on it. It was expected that once a year or so, friendly aliens would come to visit and part of his job was welcoming and interacting with them. Previously, the boy had never personally met the aliens, though he had heard stories and knew all about them. Something happens to the father, and now it’s the boy’s job to take his place as the aliens are expected very soon. They arrive, and everything goes as it should, until somehow the boy learns that the aliens he has met aren’t the ones they’ve been expecting at all. They’re imposters, and there is some nefarious plot they are working through.

Fork of Unknown Origins
Oct 21, 2005
Gotta Herd On?
Ok I cannot for the life of me find this via google.

There is a book that apparently my 1st and 2nd graders both read (or had read to them) at school, where a cat goes and lives in the forest for a while and then when it returns it’s kind of mangled up and refuses to go back inside its house. Apparently in the end it does go back inside the house. It is not Into the Wild. I have no idea what book these kids are describing to me.

yaffle
Sep 15, 2002

Flapdoodle

Fork of Unknown Origins posted:

Ok I cannot for the life of me find this via google.

There is a book that apparently my 1st and 2nd graders both read (or had read to them) at school, where a cat goes and lives in the forest for a while and then when it returns it’s kind of mangled up and refuses to go back inside its house. Apparently in the end it does go back inside the house. It is not Into the Wild. I have no idea what book these kids are describing to me.

One of the Erin Hunter books maybe? They are all about gangs of cats that go and live in the wild, but there are about 100 of them so it could be any of them.

Hughlander
May 11, 2005

With 3 body problem coming out soon was thinking of a book series i read the start of then I think I threw across the room.

It was a big series and had recently been re-edited and had a new prequel at the start which is mostly what I remember.

Chinese government realizes that western capitalism is going to win in the end so they launch a cyber attack on the entire world including China knowing that in the post-apocalypse recovery they'll emerge stronger.

Rest of series was hundreds to a thousand or so years later, and something about super powerful building materials making city sized buildings or something? The prequel story annoyed me that I didn't get to the actual story and just remember reading a wikipedia page about it instead.

UnbearablyBlight
Nov 4, 2009

hello i am your heart how nice to meet you

Fork of Unknown Origins posted:

Ok I cannot for the life of me find this via google.

There is a book that apparently my 1st and 2nd graders both read (or had read to them) at school, where a cat goes and lives in the forest for a while and then when it returns it’s kind of mangled up and refuses to go back inside its house. Apparently in the end it does go back inside the house. It is not Into the Wild. I have no idea what book these kids are describing to me.

This is a really long shot but is it Cat, You Better Come Home?

wizzardstaff
Apr 6, 2018

Zorch! Splat! Pow!

Hughlander posted:

With 3 body problem coming out soon was thinking of a book series i read the start of then I think I threw across the room.

It was a big series and had recently been re-edited and had a new prequel at the start which is mostly what I remember.

Chinese government realizes that western capitalism is going to win in the end so they launch a cyber attack on the entire world including China knowing that in the post-apocalypse recovery they'll emerge stronger.

Rest of series was hundreds to a thousand or so years later, and something about super powerful building materials making city sized buildings or something? The prequel story annoyed me that I didn't get to the actual story and just remember reading a wikipedia page about it instead.

I haven't read it myself but the summary for the Chung Kuo series by David Wingrove sounds very much like it fits.

Hughlander
May 11, 2005

wizzardstaff posted:

I haven't read it myself but the summary for the Chung Kuo series by David Wingrove sounds very much like it fits.

Yep that's the one thanks!

silvergoose
Mar 18, 2006

IT IS SAID THE TEARS OF THE BWEENIX CAN HEAL ALL WOUNDS




Fork of Unknown Origins posted:

Ok I cannot for the life of me find this via google.

There is a book that apparently my 1st and 2nd graders both read (or had read to them) at school, where a cat goes and lives in the forest for a while and then when it returns it’s kind of mangled up and refuses to go back inside its house. Apparently in the end it does go back inside the house. It is not Into the Wild. I have no idea what book these kids are describing to me.

My 3rd grader who has read basically all of those warriors books says yes, it's definitely one of them, he can't remember which one but definitely.

So start looking through the plot summaries I guess!!

yaffle posted:

One of the Erin Hunter books maybe? They are all about gangs of cats that go and live in the wild, but there are about 100 of them so it could be any of them.

branedotorg
Jun 19, 2009

Hughlander posted:

With 3 body problem coming out soon was thinking of a book series i read the start of then I think I threw across the room.

It was a big series and had recently been re-edited and had a new prequel at the start which is mostly what I remember.

Chinese government realizes that western capitalism is going to win in the end so they launch a cyber attack on the entire world including China knowing that in the post-apocalypse recovery they'll emerge stronger.

Rest of series was hundreds to a thousand or so years later, and something about super powerful building materials making city sized buildings or something? The prequel story annoyed me that I didn't get to the actual story and just remember reading a wikipedia page about it instead.

david wingrove, first few were ok, gets progressively more detailed and the quality dips to the point he has self published the rest, i think they're still going.

i think i stopped at book four but it was about 20 years ago.

Diesel_Doc
Sep 25, 2010

He is real Super Sand
I've been looking for a book I was given as a kid that was a collection of myths from various cultures. I have tried googling things I remember but haven't had any luck.

From what I recall:

It contained the stories of Beowulf fighting the dragon, Hercules killing the hydra, a tale about a woman saving her husband(?) from a curse by embracing him for a whole night in the woods while he changed into various things, etc...

I'm pretty sure it had something about Gilgamesh in there too.

wizzardstaff
Apr 6, 2018

Zorch! Splat! Pow!
I dunno the book but in case it helps you search, the story with the woman holding her husband is a Scottish ballad about Tam Lin.

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound

Diesel_Doc posted:

I've been looking for a book I was given as a kid that was a collection of myths from various cultures. I have tried googling things I remember but haven't had any luck.

From what I recall:

It contained the stories of Beowulf fighting the dragon, Hercules killing the hydra, a tale about a woman saving her husband(?) from a curse by embracing him for a whole night in the woods while he changed into various things, etc...

I'm pretty sure it had something about Gilgamesh in there too.

I'm not sure if it was the book you want (in fact checking I don't see Gilgamesh or Beowulf) but the best book of that nature I know of is this one

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Loved-Folktales-Anchor-Folktale-Library/dp/0385189494

Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 03:06 on Mar 12, 2024

fez_machine
Nov 27, 2004

Diesel_Doc posted:

I've been looking for a book I was given as a kid that was a collection of myths from various cultures. I have tried googling things I remember but haven't had any luck.

From what I recall:

It contained the stories of Beowulf fighting the dragon, Hercules killing the hydra, a tale about a woman saving her husband(?) from a curse by embracing him for a whole night in the woods while he changed into various things, etc...

I'm pretty sure it had something about Gilgamesh in there too.

The Great Deeds of Superheroes?
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?346616

ScienceSeagull
May 17, 2021

Figure 1 Smart birds.
A fantasy story featuring some kind of ancient clockwork/steampunk machine sunken in a swamp, speculated to be the work of a civilization long vanished. I don't think it was ever really explained; it was just part of the world. This might have been part of an online series presented as a traveler's diary?

Metaline
Aug 20, 2003


Hieronymous Alloy posted:

I'm not sure if it was the book you want (in fact checking I don't see Gilgamesh or Beowulf) but the best book of that nature I know of is this one

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Loved-Folktales-Anchor-Folktale-Library/dp/0385189494

Oh poo poo, I had this and totally forgot it existed! Thanks for the reminder!

Narzack
Sep 15, 2008
Very very long shot, but it was a short story in one of our 6th grade English(Reading) textbooks, so mid-nineties. It was a story about a guy stuck on a planet by himself being stalked by some hideous monster, and at the end he sees himself reflected in a puddle of water and you realize that he's the monster. All scraggly hair and wild eyes and junk.

Stupid_Sexy_Flander
Mar 14, 2007

Is a man not entitled to the haw of his maw?
Grimey Drawer
If he'd have turned on his monitor he could have avoided the whole issue.

Ignoranus
Jun 3, 2006

HAPPY MORNING

Narzack posted:

Very very long shot, but it was a short story in one of our 6th grade English(Reading) textbooks, so mid-nineties. It was a story about a guy stuck on a planet by himself being stalked by some hideous monster, and at the end he sees himself reflected in a puddle of water and you realize that he's the monster. All scraggly hair and wild eyes and junk.

This sounds like HP Lovecraft's "The Outsider" to me.

Narzack
Sep 15, 2008
Similar themes, looks like, but the one I remember was sci Fi, and the dude was a stranded astronaut.

Narzack
Sep 15, 2008

Tragic Wagon posted:

Was it Rocco (or A Time of Darkness in the USA) by Sheryl Jordan? Published in 1990, so around the right time. I can't find too much about it online, but I read it in school too, and it fits the high schooler travelling in time. I don't remember any armpit-related romance, but I do remember the ending implying that it's not actually the distant past, it's the near future after some sort of terrible disaster.



By the way, this was correct. Thanks, brah!

Brawnfire
Jul 13, 2004

🎧Listen to Cylindricule!🎵
https://linktr.ee/Cylindricule

Narzack posted:

Very very long shot, but it was a short story in one of our 6th grade English(Reading) textbooks, so mid-nineties. It was a story about a guy stuck on a planet by himself being stalked by some hideous monster, and at the end he sees himself reflected in a puddle of water and you realize that he's the monster. All scraggly hair and wild eyes and junk.

I love Grover!

Narzack
Sep 15, 2008

Brawnfire posted:

I love Grover!

Hahaha, oh poo poo, i didn't make that connection at all. I should have, too, because my son loves both of those.

DeimosRising
Oct 17, 2005

¡Hola SEA!


Brawnfire posted:

I love Grover!

lol

Hughlander
May 11, 2005

Short story, people's homes are in parallel earth where mankind never evolved. In the US each person get's their own earth, in the Soviet Union they put a few thousand to a million on the same earth. Someone calls tech support / repair person because aliens are outside their house.

Feel it's either Roger Zelazny or Phillip K Dick but I don't know who or what it's called.

Inverigo
Apr 24, 2010
Sounds like Asimov's "Living Space":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_Space

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Hughlander
May 11, 2005

Inverigo posted:

Sounds like Asimov's "Living Space":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_Space

That’s the one! Thanks

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply