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I'm looking for a short story I read as a kid. It was in a book that was a collection of "scary" stories. Some kid finds out that this remote control he has can be used to operate the world. He does a bunch of stuff a kid would do with such a discovery: muting his parents, rewinding so he can eat more dessert (I think it was pudding), etc. The ending is that he presses the power button, and everything disappears. When he tries to turn it back on, the batteries are dead. Does anyone know what this is? I'm sure it would be absolutely retarded to read now, but I loved it back then.
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Aug 28, 2009 01:39
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Kazanski posted:I'm looking for a short story I read as a kid. It was in a book that was a collection of "scary" stories. Some kid finds out that this remote control he has can be used to operate the world. He does a bunch of stuff a kid would do with such a discovery: muting his parents, rewinding so he can eat more dessert (I think it was pudding), etc. The ending is that he presses the power button, and everything disappears. When he tries to turn it back on, the batteries are dead. Does anyone know what this is? I'm sure it would be absolutely retarded to read now, but I loved it back then. I can't find an exact match for this but it sounds like it belongs in Paul Jennings' "Un__________!" series.
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Aug 28, 2009 02:09
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Kazanski posted:I'm looking for a short story I read as a kid. It was in a book that was a collection of "scary" stories. Some kid finds out that this remote control he has can be used to operate the world. He does a bunch of stuff a kid would do with such a discovery: muting his parents, rewinding so he can eat more dessert (I think it was pudding), etc. The ending is that he presses the power button, and everything disappears. When he tries to turn it back on, the batteries are dead. Does anyone know what this is? I'm sure it would be absolutely retarded to read now, but I loved it back then. Oh poo poo, I remember that, and now I want to know what it is too!
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Aug 28, 2009 06:22
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For the life of me I cannot seem to find the author or title of a sci-fi story I read some years back: The premise is based around a Hive of insectile creatures inhabiting a large asteroid near human space. Several humans - male and female lead characters - are sent as ambassadors and researches to study the seemingly-neutral creatures. A great amount of detail is spent by the author describing the many different sub-species of the hive, everything from workers, to soldiers, scavengers, hunters, large tunnel-boring insects, 'queens' that colonize nearby asteroids, etc. Eventually the two humans discover that there is something more to the hive than a symbiotic and neutral 'society', that in fact the hive itself consists of outside species which have been assimilated into the collective under those differing roles. They also uncover a plot by the 'hive mind' (if you will) to do the same with any humans that threaten the Hive in the future. Some of the details are fuzzy - There were more than just the two humans involved, as I remember distinctly at one point the Hive Mind assimilates one of the lesser characters (brain sucking Starship Trooper's style, pretty much) and then uses the puppeted body to communicate with the lead pair (this is towards the end of the story). Either way - I've been recently trying to hunt down some older favourite stories, and this is one I haven't a clue about. I believe it was part of a story collection of some kind of another, probably mixed authors. Edit: Yes, I'm still trying to google/wikipedia anything and everything related to 'Hive' and the like, and am yielding no results.
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Aug 31, 2009 10:31
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DarkDobe posted:The premise is based around a Hive of insectile creatures inhabiting a large asteroid near human space. Several humans - male and female lead characters - are sent as ambassadors and researches to study the seemingly-neutral creatures. "Swarm" by Bruce Sterling.
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Aug 31, 2009 16:54
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I have a vague recollection of a scifi book I read a few years ago. The few things I can remember: - It's based on some kind of moon or asteroid or other rock construct with some whacking great engines attached to it. - There is an alien that is some kind of huge space gas cloud that they decide to fly through for some reason. Fuel limitations, I think. - The alien decides that it wants to get into the rock, and decides the best way to do this is with a saw/drill made from miniature black holes. I can't even recall if I liked it or not, but black hole circular saw hell yeah. edit: ive even asked the library I borrowed it from years ago if they still had my records around, unfortunately not. arsegrit fucked around with this message at 07:53 on Sep 10, 2009 |
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Sep 3, 2009 10:35
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i read a scifi book maybe 15 years ago that was about an expidition from earth out to study a neutron star (or maybe a brown dwarf or something like that). when they got their they found that the star was inhabited by some kind of hyper-evolving flatworm type organism. the story is told from both the viewpoint of the humans and the organisms. i thought it was really interesting because when the humans first show up the worm things were in kind of a tribal society and by the end they'd evolved and developed technologically to the point where they could sneak aboard the orbiting spacecraft. i can't remember what the author or title were, but i'd like to read this again now that i'm not in middle school. i picked it from my dad's scifi shelf so i'm pretty sure it was written for adults not juveniles. my dad now claims not to have ever owned such a book. help me! edit: before any of you ask, no i did not spend the last 15 years in middle school. i just meant i want to see how the book holds up to my taste in books these days 
Inspector 34 fucked around with this message at 22:09 on Sep 3, 2009 |
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Sep 3, 2009 22:06
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JLightning posted:i read a scifi book maybe 15 years ago that was about an expidition from earth out to study a neutron star (or maybe a brown dwarf or something like that). when they got their they found that the star was inhabited by some kind of hyper-evolving flatworm type organism. Probably Robert L. Forward's Dragon's Egg, or its sequel Starquake.
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Sep 3, 2009 22:23
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Dragon's Egg! that's it! thanks
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Sep 4, 2009 02:05
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Trying to remember the name of a sci-fi short story I read 5 or 6 years ago. Humans vs. Aliens in space, but the only creatures with reflexes fast enough to compete with the aliens are cats, so cats are the pilots of our fighter ships. I think they were evolved to be more intelligent. One of the cats was named Captain Wow, which both my wife and I agreed was probably the best ever name for a cat. Would like to read through it again, but google has failed me thus far. [edit] Of course, immediately after posting I get lucky with my umpteenth search variation. The Game of Rat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith regulargonzalez fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Sep 4, 2009 |
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Sep 4, 2009 02:50
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I was given this information about a story, and the person asking is sure that is was by Harlan Ellison, though I can't identify it. i think it starts with a funeral and it talks about how the person, some guy, was a great citizen, but they have a name for whatever place in society he had i dont remember what it was he had a number they talked about bin numbers i think in italics they took him from his parents when he was young and all the kids like him went to a school or something where they learn to control something like something happens in the air or the sky or something and they think it is other worlds opening into theirs but i dont remember why and then one time he is at a party and he realizes it is going to happen Anyone?
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Sep 10, 2009 03:33
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This one's a movie. The only thing I can remember is that one of the characters had a job in Virginia for a while, and as a result of his crushing boredom there, he learned to draw all the counties in Virginia from memory. I haven't seen Melvin Goes to Dinner in a while, was it that? If not, what was it?
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Sep 10, 2009 20:49
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I remember reading this book as a kid about this smart little dude trying to find his father and they talk about 4th dimensions and poo poo, but I can't remember the name.
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Sep 11, 2009 04:15
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Kazanski posted:I'm looking for a short story I read as a kid. It was in a book that was a collection of "scary" stories. Some kid finds out that this remote control he has can be used to operate the world. He does a bunch of stuff a kid would do with such a discovery: muting his parents, rewinding so he can eat more dessert (I think it was pudding), etc. The ending is that he presses the power button, and everything disappears. When he tries to turn it back on, the batteries are dead. Does anyone know what this is? I'm sure it would be absolutely retarded to read now, but I loved it back then. IIRC, this was in one of the Bruce Coville's Book Of ______ books, the anthology of different creepy kids' stories. I also want to say it got made into an episode of Are You Afraid Of The Dark or some program like it. Edit: it was a 3rd season episode of the Goosebumps TV series (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0591336/), and it was based on an R.L. Stine story called "Click" (like the lovely Adam Sandler movie.) Popular Human fucked around with this message at 17:09 on Sep 11, 2009 |
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Sep 11, 2009 05:42
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Cityinthesea posted:I remember reading this book as a kid about this smart little dude trying to find his father and they talk about 4th dimensions and poo poo, but I can't remember the name. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L'Engel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Wrinkle_in_Time
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Sep 11, 2009 06:24
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Nurulwai posted:rock spaceship, giant alien, black hole saw I found it. Went to the library and went through all the books there til I found one matching what I remembered. It is 'The Well of Stars' by Robert Reed.
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Sep 11, 2009 17:06
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OK, I just got this decription as a text and it's killing me that I can't figure it out: Scientists develop the technology to look back in time. They decide to check out Isaac Newton who then becomes totally paranoid that someone is watching him. Newton stops his research and the story ends with time/history all hosed up (maybe?). My boyfriend says he read it a long time ago and it was probably part of a sci-fi for kids anthology, a comic adaptation of sci-fi short stories, or maybe the Bank St. Book of Sci-Fi for Kids. I looked up the Bank St. Sci-fi book and the only title that looks promising is "The Biography Project" by H.L. Gold, but I can't find a synopsis. Any ideas?
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Sep 16, 2009 23:13
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ImJasonH posted:This one's a movie. The only thing I can remember is that one of the characters had a job in Virginia for a while, and as a result of his crushing boredom there, he learned to draw all the counties in Virginia from memory. There is a whole thread in Cinema Discusso for this. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2177344
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Sep 16, 2009 23:47
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therattle posted:There is a whole thread in Cinema Discusso for this. Oh, my bad. Posted there, thanks for the tip!
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Sep 17, 2009 03:52
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I was talking to a friend this weekend and for whatever reason we were talking about the Home Shopping Network. It reminded him of a book about this woman who was supposed to have been this big HSN star, who just exuded sincerity and anytime she was on the sales just surged through the roof, and her life was just as blessed and sugary sweet as her onscreen demeanor, until everything in her life collapses and she goes through a nasty divorce and looses the house, and how it causes her to say and do all kinds of funny and weird stuff on the air. He couldn’t remember what it was called, who wrote it, or anything else about it, but said it was fun to read, and he really recommended it. Has anyone heard of anything like this book?
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Sep 17, 2009 19:30
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Zeta Taskforce posted:I was talking to a friend this weekend and for whatever reason we were talking about the Home Shopping Network. It reminded him of a book about this woman who was supposed to have been this big HSN star, who just exuded sincerity and anytime she was on the sales just surged through the roof, and her life was just as blessed and sugary sweet as her onscreen demeanor, until everything in her life collapses and she goes through a nasty divorce and looses the house, and how it causes her to say and do all kinds of funny and weird stuff on the air. He couldn’t remember what it was called, who wrote it, or anything else about it, but said it was fun to read, and he really recommended it. Are you sure your friend wasn't thinking of Sellevision by Augusten Burroughs? It's the only book I can think of that is similar to what you've described. http://www.amazon.com/Sellevision-Novel-Augusten-Burroughs/dp/031226772X http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellevision
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Sep 18, 2009 05:11
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I remembered part of a book randomly today, and I think it might be from the Golden Compass series, but I'm not sure. All I remember is that there were angels carrying a bottle with a small creature in it, and some people that were probably the protagonists did something that made the angels disappear or die or whatever and they opened the bottle and the creature was scared, so they took it out and it turned to dust, and it turned out that it was god.
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Sep 18, 2009 06:33
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Cortel posted:I remembered part of a book randomly today, and I think it might be from the Golden Compass series, but I'm not sure. All I remember is that there were angels carrying a bottle with a small creature in it, and some people that were probably the protagonists did something that made the angels disappear or die or whatever and they opened the bottle and the creature was scared, so they took it out and it turned to dust, and it turned out that it was god. I'm pretty sure that's the last book in the Golden Compass. And yes, the previous sounds like Sellevision to me as well. It is a pretty good book. A fun read.
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Sep 18, 2009 09:17
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Puddins posted:Are you sure your friend wasn't thinking of Sellevision by Augusten Burroughs? It's the only book I can think of that is similar to what you've described. I’m pretty sure he was thinking of this. Thanks!
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Sep 18, 2009 14:29
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Cortel posted:I remembered part of a book randomly today, and I think it might be from the Golden Compass series, but I'm not sure. All I remember is that there were angels carrying a bottle with a small creature in it, and some people that were probably the protagonists did something that made the angels disappear or die or whatever and they opened the bottle and the creature was scared, so they took it out and it turned to dust, and it turned out that it was god. Could also be a slightly misremembered bit from the Rose of the Prophet series by everyone's favorite junior high-level fantasy authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
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Sep 18, 2009 21:12
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Sorry if this has already been mentioned, I just found this thread. When I was in school one of my teachers gave us a section of a book to read in class. IIRC, it was about a house that was very Jetson-like, with robots cleaning and cooking, however there seemed to be bleak/depressing undertone to the narration. I think the robots eventually took control of the house. I do remember that there wasn't any conversation in the story, but this may have been just the section we were given. I'm almost positive it wasn't the HAL9000 book. I understand how this may be too vague to decipher. Thanks for the help though!
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Sep 19, 2009 02:35
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Death By SnuSnu posted:Sorry if this has already been mentioned, I just found this thread. Could be an Isaac Asimov univac/robot stories, unless you're sure it was a book. Although I can't remember the name of the story, I recall one that had robots (due to their 'First Law of Robotics') not allowing people to do anything, in order to keep them safe, and it was pretty bleak; and several that had Multivac (a worldwide computer) watching everyone and everything all the time.
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Sep 19, 2009 03:03
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Death By SnuSnu posted:Sorry if this has already been mentioned, I just found this thread. "There Will Come Soft Rains", from The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.
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Sep 19, 2009 03:06
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Was thinking about this book the other night and couldn't put a name to it. It's about a bunch of poor Vietnamese or Chinese people who jumped on a boat and headed off somewhere. One of them was called Dong. I read it in school and it seems like the kind of thing I'd like to read now.
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Sep 21, 2009 12:30
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haveblue posted:"There Will Come Soft Rains", from The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. Thanks! I think this is it! I'll have to read it again to be sure, but it sounds right. It seems it's very similar to the Isaac Asimov stories. I'll check those out too!
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Sep 22, 2009 00:05
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I read a story when I was 8 or 9 that I took from my uncle's massive sci-fi collection. I don't remember if it was a brief novel or a short story. It's about a group of people who are preserved as brains in jars, with little carts they can move about, and with a semblance of artificial senses. They live in a laboratory maybe? I don't remember any specifics of the plot, but one of the characters/brains had a recurring nightmare that his brain jar was opened up, and his brain was presented on a platter and eaten at a feast. I seem to recall a line about bread being used to sop up salty brain jar juice too. Any ideas? (it may have been written in German and translated into English)
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Sep 22, 2009 09:05
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Monkey Trouble posted:The other one, I can't remember as much about it...it was in some kind of garden and I think the character might have been shrunk down somehow because everying seemed to be giant. They used some kind of flower as a plate and used a pencil sharpener to get shavings off a huge nut to eat. I think he was attacked by a giant bird as well. Is that The Borrowers Afield by Mary Norton?
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Sep 22, 2009 11:07
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Real longshot here. I'm trying to remember the name of a sci-fi shot story I read maybe 20 years ago. I'm guessing it was written in the 80s or 70s. It was told from the point of view of a leader of a team involved in wargames vs. other teams. These teams were comprised of famous people from the past that had been resurrected with technology. There was some kind of limit, like you couldn't resurrect anyone who'd been dead less than 100 years or something. Each team competes for the rights to resurrect (maybe clone would be a better word) famous generals, scientists, thinkers from the past. And people didn't always come out as you'd expect -- there was a lot of excitement when a team won the rights to resurrect Einstein, but after resurrection all he wanted to do was play chess. Anyway, it goes on for a bit, I think the narrator's team had maybe just won a major victory in these war games. As the story ends, there is a very strong implication that the narrator is Hitler. Any chance someone might know this story?
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Sep 22, 2009 21:13
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There's a short story I read on the internet once about a movie of an angel being tortured or something similar and everyone who has seen it has killed themselves. The protagonist is looking for a reel of the film and he meets someone who saw a frame of it and stabbed their eyes out.
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Sep 22, 2009 22:50
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so it goes posted:There's a short story I read on the internet once about a movie of an angel being tortured or something similar and everyone who has seen it has killed themselves. The protagonist is looking for a reel of the film and he meets someone who saw a frame of it and stabbed their eyes out. I don't know about a short story, but that sounds exactly like John Carpenter's "Cigarette Burns", from the Masters of Horror TV series.
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Sep 23, 2009 14:57
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sintaxi posted:I don't know about a short story, but that sounds exactly like John Carpenter's "Cigarette Burns", from the Masters of Horror TV series. Hahaha I must have read the wikipedia summery and misremembered. Thanks a bunch!
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Sep 23, 2009 23:42
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regulargonzalez posted:Real longshot here. I'm trying to remember the name of a sci-fi shot story I read maybe 20 years ago. I'm guessing it was written in the 80s or 70s. It was told from the point of view of a leader of a team involved in wargames vs. other teams. These teams were comprised of famous people from the past that had been resurrected with technology. There was some kind of limit, like you couldn't resurrect anyone who'd been dead less than 100 years or something. Each team competes for the rights to resurrect (maybe clone would be a better word) famous generals, scientists, thinkers from the past. And people didn't always come out as you'd expect -- there was a lot of excitement when a team won the rights to resurrect Einstein, but after resurrection all he wanted to do was play chess. Anyway, it goes on for a bit, I think the narrator's team had maybe just won a major victory in these war games. It might just be a similar story, but it sounds like Charles Sheffield's short story "Out of Copyright" from his collection Dancing with Myself. Hope that helps.
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Sep 23, 2009 23:58
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farraday posted:It might just be a similar story, but it sounds like Charles Sheffield's short story "Out of Copyright" from his collection Dancing with Myself. Wow, sounds exactly like it, and according to this page http://authors.wizards.pro/books/titles/48210/out-of-copyright it was in one of those year-end "Best Sci Fi" anthologies, which I used to read regularly. Thanks!
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Sep 24, 2009 04:10
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Mountain Lightning posted:There is a book that I think is being made into a movie sometime soon that the idea behind it is dropping your life for months and going out to this retreat and finishing a book. I can't remember the name of the book and it's been bugging me because the concept sounds cool but if it sucks lemme know so I can try and borrow it from the library rather than buy it. Thanks!
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Sep 24, 2009 11:27
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DirtyRobot posted:It sounds like Haunted, by Chuck Palahniuk. Which I thought sucked as a cohesive whole, but the individual short stories within were pretty fantastic.
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Sep 24, 2009 17:18
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