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rivid posted:In fifth grade I read a fiction book about about a girl who was being held prisoner on a ship and was tried by the captain at a trial-by-sea. Parts of the book were about how bad the conditions at sea were, and hardtack. Pigsfeet on Rye posted:Actually, it's not terrible at all. The book is called "Light on the Sound" by Somtow Sucharitkul, and it was really interesting stuff. If quote:probably a sci-fi anthology short story read fifteen or twenty years ago. The world's been subjugated by nonhumanoid aliens (feathery, tripodish?) that can telepathically detect emotions, meaning that any would-be assassins get zapped by mind rays or whatever before they can attack. A character is able to snipe them by focusing on their beauty, loving them as he pulls the trigger. OG17 fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Feb 25, 2011 |
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Feb 25, 2011 02:17
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rivid posted:In fifth grade I read a fiction book about about a girl who was being held prisoner on a ship and was tried by the captain at a trial-by-sea. Parts of the book were about how bad the conditions at sea were, and hardtack. A long shot, but could it be The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi? Girl is getting passage on a ship and the crew mutiny. Her place as a passenger is threatened so instead she becomes a sailor.
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Feb 25, 2011 02:52
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OG17 posted:If "probably a sci-fi anthology short story read fifteen or twenty years ago. The world's been subjugated by nonhumanoid aliens (feathery, tripodish?) that can telepathically detect emotions, meaning that any would-be assassins get zapped by mind rays or whatever before they can attack. A character is able to snipe them by focusing on their beauty, loving them as he pulls the trigger." is Damon Knight, I haven't had any luck in finding it.
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Feb 25, 2011 12:18
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I'm currently working on rebuilding my collection of Christmas murder mysteries and while overall it's going a fine slow and steady, there is one book that I'm having trouble remembering a title or author to try and find. I remember picking up the paperback around the early to mid 90s, and am pretty sure the author was female. The book was part of this author's series of some sort of investigator/detective type though they weren't an actual cop, and the character was female as well. From what I remember of the story, it takes place in some well off New York neighborhood and the town's all excited in that several of the society matrons have been able to land party catering by this big deal Manhattan catering team. I can't recall the name of the team other than one of them is an avante-garde guy everyone calls Z or Zee. The name of Mrs. *something* and Z or The Z and Mrs. *something* seems to feel kinda right. The catering team's known for their elaborate themes and presentations, and if I recall correctly mostly work out of a converted carriage house. One of the team gets murdered and while the investigator's doing their usual nosing around, they are cut off from their usual cop friend help since her college age daughter comes up as one of the suspects. I do remember one of the catered parties as having an Americana theme and the matron of the house bitching that the rock salt they're using for the hand cranked ice cream machine's ruining her wood floors. *spoilering for end* I'm vaguely remembering the murderer of Z ends up being his partner since he did all the creative end of the business and she did all the business end work and that was suffering because he wasn't paying attention to costs and she was looking to sell the business while he was against it. I mostly found it entertaining for all these rich people getting their knickers in an uproar over having the best holiday party in town when most of us make due with whatever we can on a budget.
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Feb 25, 2011 17:33
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Engelbrecht posted:I thought it was Rule Golden, but that doesn't quite fit - it does have the triped aliens though; could you be mixing up two stories in memory?
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Feb 25, 2011 21:14
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Yes, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle is the name of the book. Thank you very much!
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Feb 26, 2011 05:28
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OG17 posted:Vague memories of what's probably a sci-fi anthology short story read fifteen or twenty years ago. The world's been subjugated by nonhumanoid aliens (feathery, tripodish?) that can telepathically detect emotions, meaning that any would-be assassins get zapped by mind rays or whatever before they can attack. A character is able to snipe them by focusing on their beauty, loving them as he pulls the trigger. Pretty sure that this isn't a large-scale resistance. No idea if this was the entirety of the story or why I'm thinking of it, but any guesses? This is The Alien Years by Robert Silverberg. It's a short story that got expanded into a novel. IMO, it was better unexpanded, but the writing's pretty good anyway if you want to get the full length book.
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Feb 26, 2011 10:21
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Adar posted:This is The Alien Years by Robert Silverberg. It's a short story that got expanded into a novel. IMO, it was better unexpanded, but the writing's pretty good anyway if you want to get the full length book.
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Feb 26, 2011 19:19
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Two sci-fi books I read when I was a kid and then they got ripped up and discarded by some family members due to Family Drama. One was about how Earth was being deliberately kept in a state of political chaos and disorder as a "farming ground" for extra-terrestrial agents of some kind. Like, all the hardship of living on earth was being kept in place to raise a crop of "street tough' agents or something. The characters had been recruited from Earth to be part of this agency and were getting some kind of advanced mental training. The second book was similar, earth was being kept in a state of political chaos and disorder as a virtual playground for alien voyeurs, who were essentially dialing into the viewpoints of various Earthlings so as to experience the horrors of Earthly existence vicariously. They may have been by the same author; I think they were marketed as a pair but I can't clearly remember. Any ideas? This was back in the 80's so my memory's more than fuzzy. I haven't ever run across them since, so they may be a bit esoteric. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 19:58 on Feb 26, 2011 |
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Feb 26, 2011 19:30
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Two sci-fi books I read when I was a kid and then they got ripped up and discarded by some family members due to Family Drama.
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Feb 26, 2011 22:22
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Engelbrecht posted:The first one just might be Jack Chalker's A Jungle of Stars, but I read it so long ago I'm not sure. I don't *think* so, but I could be wrong. I don't think the recruited "agents" actually died on earth, I think they were Missing Person'd. I think they got taught like psychic teleportation and telepathy and how to attack other people with their minds, and earth people were good candidates because all the hardship meant that the earthlings whose minds weren't "broken" had tougher, more resilient minds for that kind of telepathic warfare. There were like training levels and a level 4 was stronger than a level 3 but the training for level 4 broke some people who'd been effective level 3's. Or something like that. Both of them were really hippy dippy trippy, like "THIS is why we all can't just get along! ALIENS!" I think they had sixties-ish / seventies-ish covers, too, with big swirling patterns, though I could be wrong on that point also.
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Feb 26, 2011 23:00
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I read a book in middle school about kids escaping from some weird dystopian world where there were these "overlords" who I want to say were different colors (like one wore red, one green, etc) and they had wars with each other all the time just because. I can't for the life of me remember what it was.
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Feb 26, 2011 23:31
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Nigulus Rex posted:I read a book in middle school about kids escaping from some weird dystopian world where there were these "overlords" who I want to say were different colors (like one wore red, one green, etc) and they had wars with each other all the time just because. I can't for the life of me remember what it was. This probably isn't it, but the plot is similar in some aspects: Split Infinity or one of the several other books in the Apprentice Adept series by Piers Anthony?
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Feb 27, 2011 03:51
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I read a ghost story of sorts a few years ago. I remember the main character had a sex dream about a teen girl that died in the house he and his family had recently moved into. I also remember his girlfriend being really needy and his younger sister being a nosy brat. Something about old letters and photos in a box too. I vaguely remember the ending making no sense.
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Feb 27, 2011 05:06
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Florida Betty posted:The Giver by Lois Lowry Lowry is currently writing a fourth according to her GoodReads blog. http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/965804-february quote:I have just finished the first draft of Part 2 of the fourth book in what was once The Giver trilogy, soon to be, I guess, quartet. It is now at 309 pages so I expect the final first draft will be well over 400, the longest book I've done. And it is taking forever because I interrupt it with other, shorter projects (and also trips, moving, movies, and real life in all its various forms)
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Feb 27, 2011 18:23
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Zubumafoo posted:I've got one I read when I was a young teenager. I can't remember whether it was a short story or a novel. It was sci-fi and I can really only remember one detail about it. This guy took off from earth on a ship that would be traveling at light speed. At first he would recieve messages from his wife once a week or so, but as he increased up to light speed and time got all screwy he would be getting them every second or something like that. That's really all I can remember. Anyone have any ideas? Just reposting this in the hopes someone missed it. It can't be that obscure can it? 
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Mar 1, 2011 16:32
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Hey since my last request was such a success and there seem to be many people here who spent as much of their youth in libraries as me, does anyone recognise this sci-fi novel? It involves humans travelling to another planet - I think to capture samples of wildlife but they eventually discover that there is an intelligent form of life on the planet - and its purely carnivorous. Which they find shocking. I also remember that these creatures had the ability to direct their own evolution or mutate or similar. I vaguely remember the ending which is the spacemen taking off and wondering what will happen when these creatures, which have now been introduced to tool use, develop space travel. And also the creature (which looks like a big cat) contemplates changing some claws into a hand although "not the front two as they were too useful for catching prey". It may have been a short story rather than a novel. Hopefully someone's read it!
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Mar 4, 2011 11:32
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Sri.Theo posted:Hey since my last request was such a success and there seem to be many people here who spent as much of their youth in libraries as me, does anyone recognise this sci-fi novel? It's a really famous short story and I just read it in the last month... http://www.webscription.net/chapters/0743498747/0743498747___5.htm Black Destroyer by A.E. Van Vongt.
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Mar 4, 2011 18:44
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Hughlander posted:It's a really famous short story and I just read it in the last month... He also turned it into the first part of the novel Voyage of the Space Beagle, which is largely cobbled together from earlier shorts, so you may know it by that name instead of Black Destroyer.
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Mar 4, 2011 21:31
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I'm looking for a short story about a society of robots who discover that they are slowly dying due to a loss of air pressure in their underground dome. Their brains worked by air being pushed through a delicate arrangement of tiny gold sheets and the main character worked this out by performing brain surgery on himself. It's a lot more beautiful and poignant than I make it sound, and I think it won an Asmiov a few years back...
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Mar 5, 2011 13:30
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eumenidy posted:I'm looking for a short story about a society of robots who discover that they are slowly dying due to a loss of air pressure in their underground dome. Their brains worked by air being pushed through a delicate arrangement of tiny gold sheets and the main character worked this out by performing brain surgery on himself. It's a lot more beautiful and poignant than I make it sound, and I think it won an Asmiov a few years back... right. Not heard of it but here's the best I can do. The Asimov awards have been renamed the Dell awards, and are made to undergraduates for excellence in SF/Fantasy story writing. This is the only writing award I could find with Asimovs name attached. http://dellaward.com/past-honorees is a list of all the past winners back to 1994, there's no descriptions but there is author-title which should hopefully be enough to help you search
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Mar 6, 2011 02:14
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eumenidy posted:I'm looking for a short story about a society of robots who discover that they are slowly dying due to a loss of air pressure in their underground dome. Their brains worked by air being pushed through a delicate arrangement of tiny gold sheets and the main character worked this out by performing brain surgery on himself. It's a lot more beautiful and poignant than I make it sound, and I think it won an Asmiov a few years back... Don't remember the title offhand, but this is by Ted Chiang. Everything he's ever written is very good.
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Mar 6, 2011 02:25
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eumenidy posted:I'm looking for a short story about a society of robots who discover that they are slowly dying due to a loss of air pressure in their underground dome. Their brains worked by air being pushed through a delicate arrangement of tiny gold sheets and the main character worked this out by performing brain surgery on himself. It's a lot more beautiful and poignant than I make it sound, and I think it won an Asmiov a few years back... Is it Exhalation by Ted Chiang? And seconding that everything he has ever written is terrific.
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Mar 6, 2011 15:47
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Bookish posted:Is it Exhalation by Ted Chiang? And seconding that everything he has ever written is terrific. http://www.nightshadebooks.com/Downloads/Exhalation%20-%20Ted%20Chiang.pdf I've just read it, and it is
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Mar 6, 2011 16:28
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Thanks guys but I don't think that was it. Although very similar themes I think I would have remembered the ancient civilisation stuff. I remember a scene where two spacemen are debating whether the creature was intelligent enough to set a trap. And if it learnt how from them!
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Mar 6, 2011 21:38
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Fatkraken posted:http://www.nightshadebooks.com/Downloads/Exhalation%20-%20Ted%20Chiang.pdf I've just read it, and it is Cheers guys--that's the one!
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Mar 7, 2011 21:33
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When I was in grade school, every once in a while we got these book catalogs we could order from, then they'd arrive to the school directly and we could pick up our orders. I loved horror collections, so I would order whatever scary story collection I could. In one of the many, many short story collections, there was one particular story that I still think about to this day, and really wish I could find again. A friend of mine also read the story around the same time, but doesn't know what the title or collection is, either. I have lost sleep over trying to find this drat thing. It's a story about a group of kids who are both fascinated and terrified by a local hermit living in a small cabin set against a hill in the woods. Every time they wander close to it, he chases them off like his life depends on it. Of course, this makes them want to know why he's so defensive and angry about it. One day, they come to the cabin and find no sign of the hermit. They look around the outside of the cabin and listen for any signs of him, but he doesn't appear. Feeling brave, they decide to break into the cabin. Inside, it seems pretty unremarkable - there's like a cot and a small table with some stale bread or whatever. But then they notice a door in the far end of the cabin. It's bolted shut and made out of heavy wood. They approach it, and after some debate, choose to open it. When they do, they're greeted with what seems like complete nothingness. Total blackness lays beyond the door, and they get the feeling as if they're on the edge of some deep abyss, and they can feel a very slight draft rising from within. I think the story suggests somehow that this horrifying emptiness is what the hermit was so determined to guard. Then some unseen force pulls them all into the nothingness. Help me find this goddamn story. "Scary hermit story" in Google does return a story about a hermit, but it's not this one. I dunno what else I'd search for.
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Mar 8, 2011 00:31
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drat, that rings a bell - might be a Richard Laymon. Or maybe a Bentley Little. I'll see which collections I can dig out.... Ed: sorry, I was thinking of Bentley Little's The Planting in Monteleone's From the Borderlands anthology, and it's not a very close match now I reread it. Runcible Cat fucked around with this message at 13:21 on Mar 8, 2011 |
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Mar 8, 2011 01:44
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I'm looking for a series about the three Abrahamic Religions. I actually know the names of the series, but they're named "Judaism", "Islam", and "Christianity" respectively, so it's hard to find them in Google. I think the cover of the "Judaism" book had the Earth on it, but I'm not terribly sure. Does anyone know the author?
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Mar 8, 2011 02:51
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When I was a kid I strongly recall book about thorn creatures invading this wood. The very beginning involves a Fox going back to her den at night then smelling/sensing something weird in the forest, and then she gets surrounded and killed by these thorn monsters. The rest of the story I think is from the perspective of little tiny people, I suppose fairy's, but I can't really remember anything else.
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Mar 13, 2011 16:29
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I remember a story, probably by Robert Reed, about a Buddhist civilization on Earth peacefully submitting to invading aliens. The problem is, he is very prolific and I can't find which one among the hundreds of his stories is this particular one.
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Mar 13, 2011 19:32
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I'm looking for a book written most likely for young adults, was about one or more teens who could enter a 4th dimension and see our world from that perspective, "much like a 3d person can interact with a 2d world! This man in a box here cannot see beyond the walls of his box, but I can see him from above, here in the third dimension!" Then after some fuckery they start to encounter 4th dimensional beings and all loving hell breaks loose, and that's the only details I've got. Anyone know what I'm talking about?
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Mar 14, 2011 03:18
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The Groper posted:I'm looking for a book written most likely for young adults, was about one or more teens who could enter a 4th dimension and see our world from that perspective, "much like a 3d person can interact with a 2d world! This man in a box here cannot see beyond the walls of his box, but I can see him from above, here in the third dimension!" Then after some fuckery they start to encounter 4th dimensional beings and all loving hell breaks loose, and that's the only details I've got. Anyone know what I'm talking about? "The Universe Between" by Alan Nourse?
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Mar 14, 2011 06:07
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The Groper posted:I'm looking for a book written most likely for young adults, was about one or more teens who could enter a 4th dimension and see our world from that perspective, "much like a 3d person can interact with a 2d world! This man in a box here cannot see beyond the walls of his box, but I can see him from above, here in the third dimension!" Then after some fuckery they start to encounter 4th dimensional beings and all loving hell breaks loose, and that's the only details I've got. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Or perhaps "The Boy Who Reversed Himself", by William Sleator?
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Mar 14, 2011 14:18
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Hey everyone! I'm hoping to get the identity of a book I read as a young child in the late eighties. I don't even remember if it was good; I just remember losing it and it's intermittently (for over two decades, I know, I know) driven me nuts that I can't remember the title. It was a paperback. On the front was a picture of a white guy wearing what I believe was an azure cape. The book was basically an alternate history type novel where the Americas weren't raped and pillaged by Europeans. The story begins as the protagonist is on a ship from somewhere in Europe to what I believe was South or Central America, fleeing the country in disgrace as he knocked up some woman outside of wedlock. He bunks with some natives who teach him how to throw a knife. After he arrives, he ends up playing ullamaliztli or some similar South American native handball game, defeats the other team with the help of his native buddies, and sets off with them on a journey across the Americas. It gets kind of hazy at this point but I remember something about being chased by cannibals, eating salmon, and being shot at by Russians. Much thanks in advance!
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Mar 14, 2011 17:42
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thedaian posted:Or perhaps "The Boy Who Reversed Himself", by William Sleator? Boom, that's it. Thank you.
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Mar 15, 2011 17:05
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Venetir posted:Hey everyone! I'm hoping to get the identity of a book I read as a young child in the late eighties. I don't even remember if it was good; I just remember losing it and it's intermittently (for over two decades, I know, I know) driven me nuts that I can't remember the title.
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Mar 15, 2011 19:05
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Engelbrecht posted:Wild guess: The Crystal Empire by L Neil Smith? Seems to be up on Google Books in its entirety. Nope, doesn't appear so; thanks though, that book looks kind of interesting! My book didn't really have any sci-fi/fantasy elements. I'm pretty sure it would have been set in the late 1800s of this alternate history.
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Mar 15, 2011 19:16
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Venetir posted:Nope, doesn't appear so; thanks though, that book looks kind of interesting! My book didn't really have any sci-fi/fantasy elements. I'm pretty sure it would have been set in the late 1800s of this alternate history. vvv Glad you found it; hope you enjoy it! vvv Runcible Cat fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Mar 15, 2011 |
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Mar 15, 2011 20:26
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Engelbrecht posted:Have a look round http://www.uchronia.net/; see if anything there rings a bell. That did it! It's The Gate of Worlds by Robert Silverberg. The cover I remember is the 1984 Tor edition. Now to see if I had any taste as an 8 year old...
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Mar 15, 2011 21:12
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