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I just read Neuromancer for the first time, and it reminded me of a somewhat similar book that I can remember only some stuff about: That book had a character pursued by someone using James Bond disguise. In the course of the book, the main character is forced to undergo implantation that allows different card to be slotted into him. Up to that point he was one of the few unaugmented people in the book. This makes him able to do various things like speak languages and whatnot. In the end he uses a plugin cart to defeat his pursuer. This cart makes him into a something like a cannibal. Anyone got any ideas what book I am talking about?
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Jun 29, 2010 04:37
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EVERYTHING I SAY ABOUT JAPAN OR LIVING IN JAPAN IS COMPLETELY WRONG, BUT YOU BETTER BELIEVE I'LL 
ABOUT IT.
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kapalama posted:I just read Neuromancer for the first time, and it reminded me of a somewhat similar book that I can remember only some stuff about : Sounds like it could be When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger.
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Jun 29, 2010 05:55
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marshmallard posted:I have two that I've posted quite a few times before, but no-one's ever been able to help with Could this have been Supercomputer, a Choose Your Own Adventure book by Edward Packard? I remember the computer would say "hi" when booting up by displaying a green screen, and the protagonist asked the computer about that. Eventually somebody attached some arms and legs to the computer so it could walk around. I don't remember much else, you can read a strange review at the Amazon page though: http://www.amazon.com/Supercomputer-Choose-Your-Own-Adventure/dp/055324678X
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Jun 29, 2010 05:58
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Captain Equinox posted:Sounds like it could be When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger. You are my personal hero. Thanks very much. That is the one!
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Jun 29, 2010 06:40
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Gary2863 posted:Could this have been Supercomputer, a Choose Your Own Adventure book by Edward Packard? I remember the computer would say "hi" when booting up by displaying a green screen, and the protagonist asked the computer about that. Eventually somebody attached some arms and legs to the computer so it could walk around. I don't remember much else, you can read a strange review at the Amazon page though: I really wish this was it but it doesn't look like it from that review. Thanks so much for the suggestion though 
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Jun 29, 2010 10:40
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Read about ten years ago Scottish or english book , comiclike illustrations interspersed in the text Genre : Comedy It was about a boy growing up in a poor english (or scottish maybe?) family. Some main things I remember happening were him being caught with his hands down his pants while sleeping , his brother climbing into the cupboard and not coming down for years , him constantly stealing money from his mothers purse and buying sweets with it (he would go to school early to eat them) and the father or grandfather standing on the table while wearing a kilt. Thanks in advance.
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Jun 29, 2010 12:34
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Admiral Goodenough posted:This might be a futile attempt, since I'm pretty sure the author of this book was Norwegian and it may not have been published in English, but I'll try anyway. Could this be: Secrets of the Shopping Mall by Richard Peck
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Jun 29, 2010 12:52
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This might be hopeless, but... I've had half a piece of dialogue stuck in my head all day and it's driving me up a wall. The context is that there's been some kind of change in government, but I can't remember whether it's an after-the-end type of reestablishment or a revolution. The new government was supposed to be interim/temporary (like usual), but it became clear that they were just going to take over. The specific moment I'm thinking of has the hero/heroes stopped by police or military, asking whether they think it's in the spirit of what the provisional government claims, and being told "it's now the (new permanent name of the government)." Sorry for being so horribly vague, but I can't remember anything else about it.
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Jul 1, 2010 01:28
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I periodically try to remember the titles of some short children books I used to read when I was around junior high school age (I'm 25 now). It was a trilogy of novellas that were pseudo-fantasy/magical realism. In one, the main character, a young boy, visits his uncle who has some ring that turns him into a big snake. I think he also had a doll house of sorts that he could shrink down and go into. In another the boy is staring at a scene in the wallpaper and ends up going into it. And I think in the other book he's outside playing, ends up drawing some railroad tracks and then a train comes and takes him somewhere. Any ideas?
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Jul 1, 2010 02:19
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Looking for: Sci-fi short story or book Date of Pub: prior to 1970 Setting/Plot: Earth, post-apocalypse. Main character is the Wanderer or traveler with a walking stick (staff?) known as the companion which is linked with the "world information system". Story is based on travels. There is a search of/for a medical facility where cells regenerated. * * * "Var the Stick" by Piers Anthony has been ruled out. Any ideas?
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Jul 1, 2010 17:53
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I recall reading a sci-fi book when I was younger, at least ten years ago. I can't be sure of when it was published, but when I think back to it, it gave me the impression of something from the 50s through to possibly the 70s. I can remember a few parts of it, but not much. The basic plot is about a regular guy who is drafted into the military to fight in an intergalactic war of some kind. Specific things I can remember: 1) The main character was hypnotized into enlisting in the army by an officer of some sort, and he is forced to leave his mother behind on his planet, where (later communications reveal) she falls into poverty due to not having him around. 2) The means of quickly travelling through space in this universe is a sort of drive which makes the ship grow to an immense size in the direction of their destination, then shrink itself again, ending up at where the front of the ship had been when it was at its maximum size. Like if you hold a rubber band in your left hand, then stretch it between both your hands, and let the left side go. The band is small when it's hanging from your left hand, and small when it's hanging from your right hand, but it's huge when you stretch it between the two. 3) I believe that, at one point, the main character goes to visit the ship's chaplain, who also moonlights as the ship's laundry officer (or something else demeaning like that). During their whole time together, he alternates between being a soft-spoken multi-denominational priest to a foulmouthed, rough and tumble officer, depending on the job he's doing. Beware that I MAY be mixing this scene up with another book I read, but I'm 95% sure it was from the same story. 4) At one point, the main character ends up on a planet with a massive city on it (or the whole planet is city, I don't know). He goes down into the abandoned depths of the city for some reason and gets lost for a relatively long time (it may have even been days or weeks, I don't recall), which causes him to miss his flight off the planet. When he gets back to the surface, he is accused of lying, because the computer records say he left on the ship he was supposed to be on (it's not an error, it's just meant to show the downsides of rigid bureaucracy). I remember one specific scene where the main character reaches a dead-end deep below the city, and he reflects on how it feels to know that he's so far down, with an entire massive city effectively weighing down on him. That's all I can really recall. Does this jump out at anyone? I've wondered about it for quite a while now, but it only just occurred to me that I should ask here.
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Jul 1, 2010 23:57
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Panzerfaust posted:2) The means of quickly travelling through space in this universe is a sort of drive which makes the ship grow to an immense size in the direction of their destination, then shrink itself again, ending up at where the front of the ship had been when it was at its maximum size. Like if you hold a rubber band in your left hand, then stretch it between both your hands, and let the left side go. The band is small when it's hanging from your left hand, and small when it's hanging from your right hand, but it's huge when you stretch it between the two. I've never actually read the novel so I can't tell if your other points match, but that sounds like the "Bloater Drive" of Harry Harrison's Bill, The Galactic Hero.
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Jul 2, 2010 01:56
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Hobnob posted:I've never actually read the novel so I can't tell if your other points match, but that sounds like the "Bloater Drive" of Harry Harrison's Bill, The Galactic Hero.
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Jul 2, 2010 04:30
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There was a short horror story I read in a book a while ago, and I'd like to find it again. It was about some reporter who went to some European country to investigate rumours of vampires and interview some Count or other titled person, and ended up falling for the guy's sister. It turned out that the Count was a vampire, complete with big-bat wings, as was his wife. And also that their bloodline only turned into vampires when they found a mate, because the transformation into a vampire was so traumatic that they need someone to go through it with them (and to eventually be transformed into a vampire themselves). But the reporter bolted, and so the Count's sister ended up going through the transformation on her own. The story ends with the reporter realizing he'd made a big mistake and that he still loved her. So he opens the windows and waits for her to come for him, though the ending was ambiguous as whether or not she was going to take him back and turn him or just kill him for abandoning her.
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Jul 5, 2010 00:08
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In high school we read a book that took place in a fictional state that existed either between Louisiana and Mississippi, or Mississippi and Alabama. It chronicled a former slave family that was still employed by the white Southern family that had owned their ancestors. I only clearly remember one scene, talking about a daughter in the white family who played tennis and knew the first time she was pregnant because her period was regular down to the hour. (Strange story detail to remember, I know.) Any idea what book this was?
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Jul 5, 2010 17:22
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Seeking to identify: unusual fantasy novel Date of pub: 80s or older Plot: The shallow aristocratic superior human race is destroyed in a rebellion by a lesser human race. The last survivor is brutally tortured losing a hand and an eye. Then he uses a dimensional travel ability to escape. Eventually (this is what I hope leads to this book getting identified at last), he replaces his hand and eye with those belonging to two long forgotten gods. There is some sort of a creation story that the two gods had a fight which resulted in one of them losing his hand and the other - his eye. They have consequently removed themselves from the affairs of the world, while spending their time in a futile search for their lost parts. Anyway, the eye of Rinn (sp?) allows the protagonist to see the enemies he has killed recently (in the afterlife) and the hand of Kull allows him to summon them as undead to fight for him. The rest is even more insane. I can't remember the author or the title and it has been driving me crazy for years. In fact, I pretty often initiate a google search for various phrases that I hope might bring up this novel, but alas.
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Jul 6, 2010 05:10
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Nesetril posted:... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Swords_Trilogy
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Jul 6, 2010 05:33
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oh my god. thank you!
Nesetril fucked around with this message at 05:43 on Jul 6, 2010 |
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Jul 6, 2010 05:39
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I went to a really redneck elementary school. Up to 6th grade I had never even heard of anything sci-fi, fantasy, punk rock, metal... anything like that. During "free read" time I grabbed a random book out of my teacher's mini-library. It was the first fantasy novel I ever read. I am sure it was total poo poo, but I loved it and it opened up a world of nerdy poo poo to me at the time. Here's everything I can remember: Most of the plot was driven by fighting and revenge. Main character's dad (i think) was murdered by some evil baron/knight/guy. The entire book is this teenager (i think) learning to be a warrior so he can get revenge. He is taught to fight by two former slaves of the baron (i think), one of which is blind. All I remember is they taught him how to use a dagger the "right way." Also, they taught him these weird meditation techniques that involved transferring water from one hand to the other. One (if not both) of his teachers is also killed by the bad guy at some point. Ultimately he kills the guy and that's all I know. Help! edit: I likely read this in like 1996-1997 or so. edit2: Thinking harder I'm almost positive the bad guy had a Spanish sounding evil name like "Muerte" or something. joshtothemaxx fucked around with this message at 19:00 on Jul 8, 2010 |
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Jul 8, 2010 18:52
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It's possible this has come up in 40 pages of thread already - this was a somewhat disturbing and violent SF short story I read online a few years ago, on one website in multiple chapters. I think I found it from a forums link. It was set in a VR world that was being run by a computer program where everyone was immortal and omnipotent in some sense. There was a community of people who got their entertainment by devising gauntlets for eachother where pain and violence were inflicted in creative ways. The main character was a woman who was originally elderly and in a hospital bed before the program took over the world, and I think she was one of the few that had actually been a normal human at some point. There is also a climax that involves some kind of confrontation of the computer program. Can't find it on google.
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Jul 9, 2010 17:31
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Fermat posted:It's possible this has come up in 40 pages of thread already - this was a somewhat disturbing and violent SF short story I read online a few years ago, on one website in multiple chapters. I think I found it from a forums link.
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Jul 9, 2010 21:31
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n/m ^^^ that is indeed it!
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Jul 9, 2010 23:50
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Need help remembering a short story set in the future. In this future, these instant teleportation devices have been invented which have basically replaced planes and what not as the means of long distance travel. Before they were approved for use, however, they were tested on prisoners, and it was learned that, while it's physically instant, for someone traveling through one of these devices, it feels like an eternity. The prisoners were coming out the other side driven insane from the trip, clawing out their eyeballs and so on. That part was basically related as a flashback, if I remember right. So the solution was to sedate all passengers before they are sent on their way, I think with a pill, so they won't be awake inside the portal and therefore won't go nuts. The main part of the story, aside from relating the background of the prisoners testing out the machines, is that a family is getting ready to take a trip somewhere (maybe somewhere across the galaxy?), and it ends with (spoilers for those that want to read it) the family's young daughter pretending to be sedated, because she wants to see what it's like to take the trip awake. On the other side, the parents come to and see that their daughter has gone nuts, her hair is white and she's screaming something like "It's forever in there!" or something to that effect.
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Jul 10, 2010 21:13
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Detective Thompson posted:Need help remembering a short story set in the future. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jaunt
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Jul 10, 2010 21:18
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fritz posted:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jaunt I guess I remembered some details wrong, oh well. Thanks! Edit: Sorry to be a pain, but I remembered one more. It's set in the English countryside, I believe around the turn of the century or so. A man is sent to visit some country manor as he is suffering from a bad case of nerves. He doesn't know anyone there, but he has a letter of introduction from a friend or a doctor, and the people at the manor allow him to stay. I recall the narrator making a point of the fact that the man seems to believe everyone is interested in his problems and goes about telling everyone about them. Anyway, when he first arrives, the only people there are the woman of the house and I think some kids. He introduces himself, gets settled in. Then I think one of the daughters decides to mess with him, and tells him that today, years ago, her dad and brothers, along with their dog(s), were killed in a hunting accident, and that every year they come back like nothing has happened. So the guy gets freaked out, and he happens to look out the window and sees the men coming out of the fog. He loses his poo poo and flees the house. Of course the story was bullshit and the men are alive and well and just coming back from a regular hunting trip. Detective Thompson fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Jul 10, 2010 |
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Jul 10, 2010 21:25
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The Open Window by Hector Hugh Munro http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Open_Window_(Saki)
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Jul 11, 2010 20:31
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rangi posted:The Open Window by Hector Hugh Munro Thanks for that link. That was a five minutes well spent!
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Jul 11, 2010 23:53
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rangi posted:The Open Window by Hector Hugh Munro Thanks for that. I vaguely remembered the author had a pen name, and a short one at that, but all I could think of was O. Henry and of course that wasn't right.
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Jul 12, 2010 02:37
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This was a collection of youth sci-fi short stories. I'd appreciate identifying the collection or any of the stories individually, although I'm not sure if they were ever published separately. I read these in the early 90s, but based on the age of the physical book, the content, the style of writing and the style of the illustrations that appeared at the beginning of each story, I'd guess that this was published in the 1960s or so. 1. A small group of astronauts land on an alien planet and are greeted by its very diminutive humanoid inhabitants, who bring them gifts of native berries. It is eventually discovered that eating the berries makes people shrink, and the visiting astronauts are on their way to becoming midgets themselves. 2. Earth is dying because the atmosphere has for some reason gone away. The last humans on the planet are living in a domed city, but their dome has sprung a leak. They decide to evacuate Earth and go to another planet to join the other humans who had left before. But one adolescent boy decides he doesn't want to leave Earth, and hides as his family leaves on the last space-ship off the planet. The story talks about his days as the last person on Earth as he gradually runs out of oxygen. 3. Earth is again dying, but this time because it is far in the future, and the sun has become a red giant. Because of this, Earth is an intensely hot wasteland. Much like the previous story, most of humanity has evacuated, but there are some humans who have stayed behind. This time, these families are determined to stay on Earth until the end. The story chronicles the last day that these families spend alive from the perspective of an adolescent boy. He and his friends watch a film of some cheesy mid-20th century science fiction, and then go to bed. (I think they sleep during the day because of the heat). The main character wakes up and observes that the sun is "breaking apart" and its violent explosion is imminent. He goes over to the bed where the girl he has a crush on is sleeping, and gives her a kiss. 4. A small group of exploring astronauts lands on a planet with mysterious vines on the ground. Later, it is discovered, to their horror, that one of the astronauts has been consumed by the vines and has been replaced by a "clone" of him that the vine has generated. There were several more stories, but that's all I can remember.
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Jul 16, 2010 13:20
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I had a series(I think) of books as a kid that I'm trying to recall the name of. Here's what I remember: 1. They featured humanoid animals; they wore clothes, walked upright, spoke, etc. 2. The books were focused on a rural setting, a few towns, farms, woods etc. Think kind of like 1930s rural Tennesee or something. 3. I'm pretty sure the main characters were a group of tortoises or turtles. 4. They were hardback and had a map of the county inside the front and back covers. 5. They were not The Get Along Gang, Sweet Pickles, Wind in the Willows, Franklin, or any Richard Scarry books. 6. One book I remember features two tortoises, dressed like farm boys, taking a big trip into town from their farm/rural home, I'm pretty sure one had a knapsack. Does anyone have ANY idea what I'm talking about? We're talking early to mid 80s, maybe even before that.
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Jul 16, 2010 18:45
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I was recommended this thread, so I'll crosspost my question here.Wandering Knitter posted:Speaking of vague Children's Books, I got one. e: Forgot to mention. This was a children's picture book and I'm pretty sure it ended with the couple turning into stars. This would have been around to the mid to late 80's. Wandering Knitter fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Jul 16, 2010 |
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Jul 16, 2010 19:17
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VoodooChild1968 posted:I had a series(I think) of books as a kid that I'm trying to recall the name of. Here's what I remember: Maybe Fern Hollow? Those definitely have the map inside the covers, and one of the books has two kids going away with some tortoises, though I don't think the kids were tortoises. http://www.patience.co.uk/john/animal.shtml
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Jul 16, 2010 23:08
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deety posted:Maybe Fern Hollow? Those definitely have the map inside the covers, and one of the books has two kids going away with some tortoises, though I don't think the kids were tortoises. This is the one thank you!
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Jul 16, 2010 23:33
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I read a short story online years ago about two scientists that invent a acausal computer, and use it to simulate the universe. The point of interest is that the simulation simulates another universe, and an infinite regress occurs - in both directions, so when the scientists spawn a black sphere behind the scientists in simulated universe, one also appears behind them. Anyway has anyone got a link to it because I want to beat the people calling Inception a mindfuck around the head with it.
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Jul 19, 2010 00:42
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coffeetable posted:I read a short story online years ago about two scientists that invent a acausal computer, and use it to simulate the universe. The point of interest is that the simulation simulates another universe, and an infinite regress occurs - in both directions, so when the scientists spawn a black sphere behind the scientists in simulated universe, one also appears behind them. As someone who has fastidiously avoided spoilers about that film but still hasn't seen it, may I just say: fuuuuuuuuuuck youuuuuuuuuuuu
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Jul 19, 2010 01:19
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fahrvergnugen posted:As someone who has fastidiously avoided spoilers about that film but still hasn't seen it, may I just say: Why? Nothing in that post in anyway spoils anything from the movie.
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Jul 19, 2010 01:43
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fahrvergnugen posted:As someone who has fastidiously avoided spoilers about that film but still hasn't seen it, may I just say: no spoilers there dude. you know nothing more of the plot now than before you read it 
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Jul 19, 2010 03:51
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I'm trying to track down a short story. Not sure but it might be by Ray Bradbury, and it involves rain on mars and a young girl (also on mars) getting locked in a closet by bullies. EDIT- Thanks! Lord Krangdar fucked around with this message at 04:33 on Jul 19, 2010 |
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Jul 19, 2010 03:59
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Lord Krangdar posted:I'm trying to track down a short story. Not sure but it might be by Ray Bradbury, and it involves rain on mars and a young girl (also on mars) getting locked in a closet by bullies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Summer_in_a_Day
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Jul 19, 2010 04:13
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I remember another goon talking about a fantasy series that was set on a vertical world, essentially a sheer cliff where a variety of tribes/nations lived. Anyone happen to know what series this was? EDIT: Nevermind, it was Stone and Sky and it was in the very first post of a relatively large thread. Jive One fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Jul 19, 2010 |
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Jul 19, 2010 05:00
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