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arioch posted:Could be this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temeraire_%28series%29 Yep, fairly certain that's it! Thanks! (Is it worth reading?)
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Jul 30, 2010 04:40
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So I have a pretty vague description of a science fiction series I read quite a while back. I remember almost nothing about it--the author was female, it took place on another planet, and I believe there were cities that many characters lived in, but there were also the equivalent of peasants. I can't even remember what the plots were at this point, I just remember enjoying them.
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Aug 2, 2010 04:53
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Not A Hydroxyl Ion posted:So I have a pretty vague description of a science fiction series I read quite a while back. I remember almost nothing about it--the author was female, it took place on another planet, and I believe there were cities that many characters lived in, but there were also the equivalent of peasants. I can't even remember what the plots were at this point, I just remember enjoying them. Long-shot: The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold?
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Aug 2, 2010 04:55
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Not A Hydroxyl Ion posted:So I have a pretty vague description of a science fiction series I read quite a while back. I remember almost nothing about it--the author was female, it took place on another planet, and I believe there were cities that many characters lived in, but there were also the equivalent of peasants. I can't even remember what the plots were at this point, I just remember enjoying them. The Keltiad series, by Patricia Kennealy-Morrison (The Copper Crown, The Throne of Scone, The Silver Branch, etc.)? It takes places on some distant planets where Celtic people settled after leaving Earth on a spaceship. There are cities. I don't specifically remember peasants, but the books are this mix of sci-fi and fantasy, so I suppose that could have been an element.
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Aug 3, 2010 18:05
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Neither of those are correct, but I appreciate the effort. I should clarify--it really isn't fantasy in the least, despite the presence of "peasants". I can't believe I don't remember more about this series.
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Aug 3, 2010 19:56
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well fellow goons, I hope you can assist me on this one: Years ago I was catching glimpses of a short story read by someone else while taking public transportation. The details I remember are sparse: Humanity discovers that people actually do go to heaven when they die and that this heaven is in fact on Venus. People start committing suicide, governments are handing out suicide kits and the whole population of Earth is preparing to migrate to Venus completely. This is all I remember.  any ideas? thanks!
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Aug 4, 2010 00:09
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well dressed hobo posted:
Not an exact match, but there's a Ray Bradbury short story called Mars is Heaven! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_is_Heaven!
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Aug 4, 2010 02:16
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well dressed hobo posted:well fellow goons, I hope you can assist me on this one: This was also, as i recall, the story "Obsolete" in Chuck Palahniuks weird collection "Haunted" RandomEffects fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Aug 5, 2010 |
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Aug 5, 2010 20:30
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bengraven posted:Mine might be hard: Sounds like The Badlands of Hark and its follow-up The Invaders of Hark. I loved them in elementary school and was disappointed the series didn't continue.
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Aug 13, 2010 03:17
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Some short story by Orson Scott Card Two brothers are hitchhiking and are picked up by a women. The older brother trys to rape her but she manages to turn the tables and they are both left stranded and naked.
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Aug 13, 2010 06:12
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Gobeachfrog posted:Some short story by Orson Scott Card
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Aug 13, 2010 11:40
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I think this may have been a Stephen King book but I'm not sure. I belive the setting was in the south but the main character was this young girl who was scared of sticking her hands under a some sort of building (they lived on a farm) because of some manevolent creature there. It killed alot of the chickens in their chicken coop The writing made it sound like the creature was there one moment and gone the next not tied to any sort of reality. The girl sticks her arm under and it comes out bloodied and the next moment she's fine. It scared me as a kid and I'd like to find out what it was.
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Aug 13, 2010 12:11
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If you guys can help me find this book, I don't know what I'll do. I have been trying to remember it for years now. In middle school I read this pretty thick book. It was science fiction based and centered around three orphans. One was a guy who was taller and more beefy than the other two, and I believe the other two were a boy and girl (the story centered around the girl). There were some sexual themes in the book, as racy as it gets for middle schoolers. I remember they were on this book long quest looking for something and sometimes got into fights but usually ran. One scene I definitely remember was this part where they were in the sewers. I also remember there was a scene where they were in the snow. The cover had all three of them on it (at least this hardbook one did) and it was black. There was also a storyline that played on the female's eyes because they were so unique. I am 99% sure this was a single book and not part of a series. Yeah, pretty sketchy but that is all I can really remember besides lame stuff like my friend had checked out Blood and Chocolate at the same time I got this one. I checked it out twice and loved it both times and eventually I moved on to The Seventh Tower series which I also loved.
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Aug 14, 2010 17:41
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Pandanaut posted:In middle school I read this pretty thick book. It was science fiction based and centered around three orphans. One was a guy who was taller and more beefy than the other two, and I believe the other two were a boy and girl (the story centered around the girl). There were some sexual themes in the book, as racy as it gets for middle schoolers. I remember they were on this book long quest looking for something and sometimes got into fights but usually ran. One scene I definitely remember was this part where they were in the sewers. I also remember there was a scene where they were in the snow. The cover had all three of them on it (at least this hardbook one did) and it was black. There was also a storyline that played on the female's eyes because they were so unique. I am 99% sure this was a single book and not part of a series. Could it be "The Ear, The Eye and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer?
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Aug 15, 2010 22:56
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What sucks about this one is it's a book I know I own, I just don't remember which it is... Written in the '60s, about a mid future point (3-400 years I think?) Only thing I remember is that the protagonist is hidden at some point in a giant underground 'vat' of processed protein. It was a mutant chicken hundreds of feet in diameter that the city used for it's food supply. Every day they'd carve off a few tons of it for food and it'd grow back. I think a female character had a flute or something that she'd play and the 'chicken' would move a bit to get to a hiding spot under it's bulk. I think it may be Immortality Inc. But not sure...
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Aug 16, 2010 15:04
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Hughlander posted:What sucks about this one is it's a book I know I own, I just don't remember which it is... It's 'The Space Merchants' by Pohl and Kornbluth.
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Aug 16, 2010 15:33
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Unkempt posted:It's 'The Space Merchants' by Pohl and Kornbluth. Thanks, I'll have to grab it from my bookshelf, just checked it's wiki page and saw: 'wiki posted:As with many significant works of science fiction, it was lexically inventive. The novel is cited by the Oxford English Dictionary as the first recorded source for a number of new words, including "soyaburger", "moon suit", "tri-di" for "three-dimensional", "R and D" for "research and development", "sucker-trap" for a shop aimed at gullible tourists, and one of the first uses of "muzak" as a generic term. It is also cited as the first incidence of "survey" as a verb meaning to carry out a poll. Amusing that I can't remember a thing about the actual plot...
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Aug 16, 2010 15:40
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Hughlander posted:What sucks about this one is it's a book I know I own, I just don't remember which it is... This is Pohl & Kornbluth's The Space Merchants, or (more likely from what I remember) its sequel, The Merchants' War - I forget exactly which one has that scene. It's a satire of consumerism, with advertising incredibly rampant and has the protagonist being physically addicted to a brand of cola at one point. The hiding place under the chicken is something to do with a resistance movement or secret society.
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Aug 16, 2010 15:47
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Munkie posted:Could it be "The Ear, The Eye and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer? Unfortunately it's not. But that book looks very interesting and I may have to pick it up (at the least, I put it on my Amazon wishlist!).
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Aug 17, 2010 02:06
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My wife is trying to find a book she read at her public library in the early 90's. It's actually a graphic novel about a teenage girl growing up in the 60's. She's fuzzy on a lot of the story line and names, but remembers this girl had a crush on her older male cousin and was pretty awkward in general. Any ideas?
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Aug 17, 2010 08:46
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General plot revolves around a civilization that exists inside a Dyson Sphere, and uses airships to get around from, I don't exactly remember if they are planets or not. The outer shell of the sphere itself is covered in ice. I also recall the book containing another character who mentioned that he/she was from outside the sphere doing anthropological research, because the outside world had become extraordinarily advanced that there is no other point in doing any sort of science, or something along these lines. Thanks in advance. E: I found it. It's called "Sun of Suns" by Karl Schroeder. OWLS! fucked around with this message at 20:10 on Sep 2, 2010 |
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Aug 31, 2010 07:09
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I'm looking for a SF short story I read in 2006 or 2007, though the story was probably published a good 10 years previous. Humans colonize Earth (or maybe just evolve there) and it's a hot jungle atmosphere. The climate begins to change and the people get this disease where their skin starts changing (may start out as a 'rash' kind of thing). Some of the population leaves (or the colonizers) to find the cure. Many years (thousands perhaps) and they send a radio transmission back saying that they have found the cure. The transmission is something along the lines of "If you are still white, we can cure that." I don't think the author was Vonnegut, though it did remind me of a number of his stories.
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Aug 31, 2010 20:32
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Four Seat posted:The transmission is something along the lines of "If you are still white, we can cure that." Google suggests Clarke's "Reunion".
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Sep 1, 2010 01:06
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fritz posted:Google suggests Clarke's "Reunion". Thank you. It is indeed "Reunion." The name didn't ring a bell, but the discription did.
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Sep 1, 2010 22:05
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I read this one as a kid - I think it was from a collection of short stories edited by Bruce Coville. It's a real brief piece, and it starts with a line about knowing the secret to immortality. The narrator talks about receiving a phone call, and the man on the other end of the line asked for a few minutes of his time. The guy says OK, and he feels just a small part of himself die. I'm explaining this poorly (and it's jumbled in my head from so many years ago), but basically the thrust of the story is that the guy on the other end of the line is stealing little bits of people's lives to keep himself from aging. It was an odd concept that warped my little brain.
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Sep 2, 2010 05:04
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When I was little, I had this terrifying book (or maybe just a story). It had to do with this fat man, who wasn't really a person, he was something else. He'd abduct people, like pizza delivery kids, and suck the skin off them or eat them or something and replace the bodies with puppets intended to mimic them. I think the main character was a kid who snuck into his house and found out about it. I specifically remember a scene where he's in the fat things house and there's hundreds of pizza boxes and the like laying around. edit: here's number two. A book I read where some guy found these metallic buglike or crablike things in his basement that his grandfather knew about. They were intelligent and began constructing some kind of machine or clock down there. Rough Lobster fucked around with this message at 06:36 on Sep 2, 2010 |
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Sep 2, 2010 05:40
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Rough Lobster posted:When I was little, I had this terrifying book (or maybe just a story). Was it a biography of George Ronald Reuel Martin, more commonly known to fans as GEORGE R. R. MARTIN?
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Sep 2, 2010 05:53
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In middle school (1989-1991) I read a series of books that were similar to the Hardy Boys, but set in the future; well, the near future at that time. The stories revolved around two teenage boys that used technology to solve crimes, but the only story I remember involved a video game they were playing often, that involved roller coasters with weapons on them. I think there was a bit about Internet use as well, and maybe reprogramming robots in a story.
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Sep 2, 2010 17:31
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This was a story, probably intended for young adults, about people made of cloth. There's a family of them, and they live together secretly in our world, possibly in London. They were made by an old lady who dies before the story starts, and she developed better stitching techniques as she went along. I don't remember much about the plot except that the daughter of the family is frustrated by the secrecy and goes out into the world, meeting humans and getting a job. I also remember that there's a half-finished cloth person who comes to life gradually over the course of the story. I have a vague sense that the title of the book was something along the lines of "The Mennipins," except that the Minnipins are the characters from The Gammage Cup so that can't be right. Pandanaut: The Ear, The Eye, and The Arm is rad and I hope you enjoy it! Edit: Much more Googling got me my answer: "The Mennyms," by Sylvia Waugh. Helena Handbasket fucked around with this message at 04:24 on Sep 5, 2010 |
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Sep 5, 2010 03:52
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I've been looking forever for this sci-fi trilogy about a commoner who gets caught stealing, then loses an arm for it. Then through some weird circumstances he becomes a high up lord guy, he goes to really fancy logic school, and defeats bad guys. The surface of their planet is barrenish, and there are giant floating terraformer sphere things, one of the bad guys has a base there. This one armed guy is also a climber. The plot has something or another to do with people telling the future. Edit: through some magic keywords and luck I figured out it's The Nulapeiron Sequence by John Meany. Battle Bott fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Sep 9, 2010 |
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Sep 9, 2010 19:50
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SUBFRIES posted:In middle school (1989-1991) I read a series of books that were similar to the Hardy Boys, but set in the future; well, the near future at that time. I'm pretty sure this is the Chip Mitchell series, by Fred D'Ignazio, which was like an 80s future Encyclopedia Brown -- every story would have some puzzle to solve at the end. I can't find much info online about it, but I remember some details, if they ring any bells: - Chip lived with his aunt and a lot of animals. He was really tall and did kneebends in the shower - One story was about programming a computer to find a simulated submarine - One involved a map printed on some microchips - The roller coaster game was one the two boys programmed which got stolen by some mean tomboy girl called Kate (who later helped them solve a bank robbery)
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Sep 9, 2010 22:54
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I read a short story a while back that was recommended by a friend and I can't recall the title. It's about this world where the actual world is gone and there's only the "digital world" and you can do anything you want and you can't die. The main character is this woman that's a death junkie or something like that. She basically looks for people that make little programs that she can boot up that will kill her in interesting ways. One was where she was tied to a chair in a pit with a rabid dog and she slowly died of rabies. I don't know if that's enough information or not. Cheers to whomever can figure out the title/author!
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Sep 10, 2010 03:22
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le capitan posted:I read a short story a while back that was recommended by a friend and I can't recall the title. The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect, by Roger Williams.
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Sep 10, 2010 04:36
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rollick posted:I'm pretty sure this is the Chip Mitchell series, by Fred D'Ignazio, which was like an 80s future Encyclopedia Brown -- every story would have some puzzle to solve at the end. Thanks rollick! That all seems to be inline with the stories I was trying to remember.
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Sep 11, 2010 00:43
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Two short stories I can't remember the name of. First one was by Kurt Vonnegut. I read it in high school, so I might not remember details well, but it was basically about a family and a radio signal or something that when people hear it it kinda gets them high or makes them wig out. I think a lot of time passes without them realizing it. Second one I heard on NPR. It was about someone who finds a hole in the backyard of a house, and inside they meet the incarnations of all the excuses they've created. There was a non-existent uncle who had cancer and all sorts of horrible ailments that the protagonist had dreamt up to get out of work.
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Sep 12, 2010 07:33
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Dr. Video Games 0135 posted:First one was by Kurt Vonnegut. I read it in high school, so I might not remember details well, but it was basically about a family and a radio signal or something that when people hear it it kinda gets them high or makes them wig out. I think a lot of time passes without them realizing it. The Euphio Question
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Sep 12, 2010 07:37
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greatZebu posted:The Euphio Question That sounds about right, thanks!
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Sep 12, 2010 09:06
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I'm trying to ID a SF short story I read years ago in a big collection. It was relatively near-future, and was a noir-ish conspiracy story. SETI had discovered 3 alien civilisations, and Earth was trading information with them at light speed. In order to circumvent trade restrictions, one corporation was trying to fake a seperate civilisation on the moon Europa to the aliens. It was in a year's best collection, or something of the sort. Ed: Ok, I found it after a couple of hours of googling. The story was Creative Destruction by Edward Lerner, in Year's Best SF 7. Hannibal Rex fucked around with this message at 11:04 on Sep 13, 2010 |
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Sep 12, 2010 16:43
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Pop Science book about genetics (not microbe hunters) from the early-mid 00's. Almost a philosophical discussion about genes and how they control us. I remember one of the themes was about how the X gene is the real controller of us. I had a trade PB and I think I remember a dark blue color with ?yellow/orange letters and maybe a helix in the background.
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Sep 13, 2010 05:09
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Looking for a small format paperback that had quotes from Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire combined with photos of various historical figures from the 20th century. The only two photos I specifically remember were of Muhammad Ali and Joseph McCarthy, but the general point of the book was to match up selected passages from Gibbon with relevant people and events from recent history. I saw the book in the late 90s (if anyone was at Amherst College in the mid-90s, the copy I saw was on a coffee table outside of, I believe, Norton Starr's office), but it was definitely something that had been published quite a bit earlier -- in the 70s or 80s, I would guess.
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Sep 13, 2010 18:23
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