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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. The book you're thinking of is Shade's Children and it is written by Garth Nix. Here's a request of mine. I read this book about four years back, but I never finished it. I know it's part of a series. It's a fantasy book, and it's about this guy who becomes the greatest swordsman in the world. He has some magic power that means he can't be defeated in battle, but the cost of that power is that he has to practice swordsmanship two hours a day, every day, no matter what. There's a group of people with similar powers, although in different domains. The only one I remember is that there's one guy who's a historian, and he never forgets anything except things which aren't true. The cost of his power is that he has to learn something new every day. Any ideas?
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Mar 16, 2011 22:07
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I read a book, probably a young adult one, that had a dystopian future where everyone had awesome computer and internet stuff in their brains, but because of being so reliant on it everyone was incredibly stupid and dependent on looking up info on everything. Also lots of "the corporations run everything and want all of the money" overtones. A few scenes that I can still recall are a bunch of kids looking for viruses to download into their brains, a mentioning that the USA is pretty much kept in solitude by the rest of the world and that clouds (the word and the concept) were trademarked. Really wish I could recall the title of it.
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Mar 16, 2011 22:20
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A British kids book where primary school boys discover that the girls are part of a secret army, and they have guns that fire tranquilliser darts. There's a big organisation called NOSTRO or something similar that one of the sides is part of. The girls' base is below ground level. It turns out the girls are brainwashed I think. There's a pivotal scene towards the end where one of the boys is going to be put on a stage and interrogated or humiliated or something in front the the girls. I distinctly remember several parts where a helicopter flies over the school and all the boys wonder what it is. Anyone know what this is? I loved it as a kid but can't find it now. I could have sworn it was called The Secret Army but Google doesn't agree.
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Mar 17, 2011 01:08
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I read a children's novel when I was in middle school in the early 1990s. It was set at a beach and about a girl who met a mermaid, or possibly just another "girl" that lived in the sea. The mermaid could not speak, she may even have had no tongue. She communicated under the water using bubbles. I seem to remember the cover/illustrations for the book being very delicate, loose line artwork. It also feels like it was a somewhat bleak or depressing story.
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Mar 18, 2011 10:10
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I read this book back in middle school and I only remember about the first 10% of the plot. It was set either in future dystopian Earth or a dystopian planet, most of the people were slaves who lived in tents. These slaves worked in a gigantic mine, mining some sort of crystal (it might have been a fuel source) all day, and had to meet a certain quota or face being worked to death. The protagonist was a girl, who turns 16 in the novel, I specifically remember her having to work at the mine on her birthday, and refusing to fill her quota. She runs away from the village at night. After this, I cant remember what happened. I believe she gained or developed a magic power at some point. The cover had a chick wearing a purple/black robe, and I believe she had blonde hair. I really want to read this again so any help will be greatly appreciated! 
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Mar 20, 2011 06:27
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angelofdeath0430 posted:I read this book back in middle school and I only remember about the first 10% of the plot. Winter of Fire, by Sheryl Jordan?
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Mar 20, 2011 09:51
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Jin Wicked posted:I read a children's novel when I was in middle school in the early 1990s.
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Mar 20, 2011 14:28
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wheatpuppy posted:Winter of Fire, by Sheryl Jordan? Thank you so much, thats it! 
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Mar 20, 2011 19:08
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pandabear posted:The Mermaid's Three Wisdoms, by Jane Yolen. Thank you so much!
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Mar 20, 2011 20:13
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Looking for a sci-fi book of some sort- found it in my library's new paperbacks section sometime between 2000 and 2004 I think (though I could be wrong). It was about a guy with a suit of armor of some sort that was a possibly-intelligent symbiotic thing. There may have been some psychological issues involved, and I think the armor may have needed to feed off the guy in some way in order to keep living/working properly.
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Mar 20, 2011 22:00
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Zeth posted:Looking for a sci-fi book of some sort- found it in my library's new paperbacks section sometime between 2000 and 2004 I think (though I could be wrong). It was about a guy with a suit of armor of some sort that was a possibly-intelligent symbiotic thing. There may have been some psychological issues involved, and I think the armor may have needed to feed off the guy in some way in order to keep living/working properly. Was it a situation where the main character had deliberate self-inflicted amnesia & had locked away his memories in a "lockbox" sorta thing, which he could choose to break if he wanted, but Bad Stuff might happen? If so, could've been the Golden Age series by John C. Wright -- Golden Age , The Phoenix Exultant, The Golden Transcendence. They date to about 2002-2004.
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Mar 20, 2011 22:46
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No, it wasn't. I also almost want to say that the armor symbiote creature was a character in its own right but I'm really not sure.
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Mar 20, 2011 22:59
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Zeth posted:Looking for a sci-fi book of some sort- found it in my library's new paperbacks section sometime between 2000 and 2004 I think (though I could be wrong). It was about a guy with a suit of armor of some sort that was a possibly-intelligent symbiotic thing. There may have been some psychological issues involved, and I think the armor may have needed to feed off the guy in some way in order to keep living/working properly. Was it armor by John Steakley (spelling? ) it has those things but only in a metaphorical sense.
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Mar 20, 2011 23:12
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No. That book being mentioned in the Fantasy Book Cover Art thread in GBS is actually what reminded me of it- I thought that might be it, but it turned out to be something different.
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Mar 20, 2011 23:23
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I have two books I remember vague plot details of but not the names. First one I think is relatively well-known (but I remember less of it), the second one is most likely incredibly obscure. 1) At one point the protagonists travel through some forest and one of them gets infested by a sentient fungus of some sort. It helps him at first but eventually they start fighting for control. 2) I swear this was a legit scifi book I read as a kid and not some strange fetish fantasy. (I didn't have Internet back then!) It's about insectoid aliens and has very explicit descriptions of how they reproduce. One part has the protagonist alien looking as his genitals, which are on his back, and probably masturbating, and it's mentioned this is very taboo in alien spiderland. He gets crushed by something later on and that's pretty vividly described too.
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Mar 21, 2011 02:10
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Zeth posted:No, it wasn't. I also almost want to say that the armor symbiote creature was a character in its own right but I'm really not sure. Probably this thing. Warning: terrible.
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Mar 21, 2011 02:42
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Yeah, that's it, I recognize the author now. Thanks. I don't remember it being especially awful (or especially good either, really) but then I have low standards when it comes to crummy sci-fi/fantasy novel tolerability.
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Mar 21, 2011 03:12
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Thoughtless posted:
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Mar 21, 2011 08:24
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Thoughtless posted:I have two books I remember vague plot details of but not the names. First one I think is relatively well-known (but I remember less of it), the second one is most likely incredibly obscure. It's set on an Earth that's stopped rotating; the sun-side's covered with a gigantic banyan tree and small green descendants of humans live in the treetops. The Moon's drifted out to an Earth-Sun Trojan point and is connected to the Earth by giant space spiderwebs spun by traversers. The hero gets landed on by a sentient morel fungus which basically uses him as a carrier (in both senses...). It's insane and awesome.
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Mar 21, 2011 12:47
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Thoughtless posted:I have two books I remember vague plot details of but not the names. First one I think is relatively well-known (but I remember less of it), the second one is most likely incredibly obscure. Could Be "A Deepness in the Sky" by Vernor Vinge
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Mar 21, 2011 13:55
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Looking for a book I read as a kid, it was an anthology/collection of scary short stories for kids but it WASN'T that Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark series that goons are obsessed with. Particular ones I remember were: • A girl is alone in her house at night and maybe there's a power outage or something but basically she can't see anything and she starts to think there's a snake in her bed. • A kid is obsessed with some wooden thing, it was like a bannister decoration or a hat stand or something, but anyway they can't stop looking at it and thinking that it seems like a man, kind of anthropomorphic, with the knob on top being its head. Anyway they wake up one night and look out of their room to see the wooden thing climbing the stairs, slowly... It was loving scary when I was young.
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Mar 21, 2011 15:23
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wheatpuppy posted:For some reason this makes me think of Alan Dean Foster. His Commonwealth series has an insectoid species called Thranx. Phylogenesis is the "first contact" novel so it has a lot of detail about thranx society etc. I'm pretty sure the main character is described as a pervert for some reason, and he dies at the end. It came out in about 2000 so it's maybe possible depending when you were a kid. Sorry I don't remember anything about thranx genitalia. This does seem like it might be it, though 2000 would be very late. I'll read it and see. Engelbrecht posted:Could be Brian Aldiss' Hothouse (it's got another name in the US, I think, maybe Long Afternoon of Earth?) This is definitely the mushroom one, however! Thanks!
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Mar 21, 2011 16:44
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Hedrigall posted:• A kid is obsessed with some wooden thing, it was like a bannister decoration or a hat stand or something, but anyway they can't stop looking at it and thinking that it seems like a man, kind of anthropomorphic, with the knob on top being its head. Anyway they wake up one night and look out of their room to see the wooden thing climbing the stairs, slowly... It was loving scary when I was young. The snake story doesn't ring any bells and I'm a bit of a Mark nut, so it's probably not by the same author. I'll check out which of her collections it's in when I get home anyway, just in case. Thoughtless posted:This is definitely the mushroom one, however! Thanks!
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Mar 21, 2011 17:38
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Engelbrecht posted:That's definitely Nule by Jan Mark - it's in these anthologies for starters. Yes yes yes! I had in my head that it was called something like "Noel" but googling that left me blank. Thanks!! edit: and this is definitely the book my library had: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nothing-be-Afraid-Puffin-Books/dp/0140313923 So the snake story must have been in some other book I read around the same time. Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 00:40 on Mar 22, 2011 |
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Mar 22, 2011 00:38
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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. SO nobody has any idea on these ? =(
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Mar 22, 2011 00:45
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Last week I saw a book in Barnes & Noble about a black, former boxer, who is now a detective (in NYC I believe). The author is a black, friendly looking fellow. I have not the slightest idea what the title was or the author's name. It was on a "new titles for $6.99 and under" display and I didn't buy it... today I returned and it wasn't there and I've been kicking myself in the rear end since. The entire display was the same, except the book I was going to buy wasn't there.  Does anyone know what book I'm talking looking for?
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Mar 22, 2011 01:58
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Wildtortilla posted:Last week I saw a book in Barnes & Noble about a black, former boxer, who is now a detective (in NYC I believe). The author is a black, friendly looking fellow. I have not the slightest idea what the title was or the author's name. It was on a "new titles for $6.99 and under" display and I didn't buy it... today I returned and it wasn't there and I've been kicking myself in the rear end since. The entire display was the same, except the book I was going to buy wasn't there. While I don't know the story or author myself, have you tried asking one of the employees? They should have the necessary data to tell you, or at least remember the guy's name.
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Mar 22, 2011 13:05
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Wildtortilla posted:Last week I saw a book in Barnes & Noble about a black, former boxer, who is now a detective (in NYC I believe). The author is a black, friendly looking fellow. I have not the slightest idea what the title was or the author's name. It was on a "new titles for $6.99 and under" display and I didn't buy it... today I returned and it wasn't there and I've been kicking myself in the rear end since. The entire display was the same, except the book I was going to buy wasn't there. Fiction? Sounds like it could be Walter Mosley.
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Mar 22, 2011 16:16
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When I was in the seventh/eighth grade in school ('92-'93) we read a short story about the last Super Bowl. Basically in the future, futuristic TVs could simulate football so people lost interest in the real thing. The guy who scored the winning touchdown cried because no one cared. I believe the story was called "The Last Super Bowl" but search engines aren't helping me. I would like to read it again now that we have a strike season and Madden games.
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Mar 22, 2011 17:37
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Eliza posted:While I don't know the story or author myself, have you tried asking one of the employees? They should have the necessary data to tell you, or at least remember the guy's name. The store was busy when I was there and I only had a few minutes, not long enough to wait around for someone to free up or I would have taken this approach. Ballsworthy posted:Fiction? Sounds like it could be Walter Mosley. Yes! That's him! Thanks a ton! The book I was looking at was The Long Fall. Wildtortilla fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Mar 22, 2011 |
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Mar 22, 2011 23:38
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Hedrigall posted:Yes yes yes! I had in my head that it was called something like "Noel" but googling that left me blank. Thanks!!
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Mar 23, 2011 00:27
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Well I just found out my uni's library has it so I'm going t go grab it today! 
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Mar 23, 2011 02:48
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I feel like I've posted something about this in this thread before, but I never got an answer so I'll try again. Basically, it's a book/story I read when I was younger about a kid who used to walk by a timid classmate's house every day on the way to school. One day the timid kit's house catches on fire because he left the toaster oven plugged in. I'm pretty sure that the main kid goes back in time at some point during the novel, because at the end of the book he's returned to the present on the morning of the fire and warns the timid kid that he's left the toaster oven plugged in, so the house ends up not burning down. I can't find anything about this online, but I'm sure that it's just because I'm not searching for the right thing. This has been driving me insane lately...can anybody help?
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Mar 23, 2011 22:35
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There's two books I read back in elementary (1999 or so), probably published in the late 90's 1) A story about aliens who abduct people to put on elaborate acrobatic shows. They make them super risky cause they basically feed off of the people's deaths. The protagonist was a girl who wasn't very athletic, who went along with her super athletic siblings and met the other abducted people in the circus who all spoke some weird hybrid-english. Thinking about it now, it wasn't so much abduction as it was some dude approaching them and being all 'Hey wanna come join this super cool show? We want you cause you guys have awesome potential!' and only bringing along the protagonist cause her siblings insisted. 2) This is vague as gently caress, especially with all the young fantasy novels out there, but anyway... a girl who secretly hatches 3 dragons, 2 boys and a girl I believe?? I THINK she then goes on the run to protect them, and makes friends with a boy who ends up betraying her and getting her girl dragon killed. I only remember this because I was so loving bummed the baby dragon died If anyone can answer these I'd be eternally grateful. The first one is way more important to me, as I've been looking for it for years.
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Mar 24, 2011 09:27
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Fuzzy Pipe Wrench posted:I read a book, probably a young adult one, that had a dystopian future where everyone had awesome computer and internet stuff in their brains, but because of being so reliant on it everyone was incredibly stupid and dependent on looking up info on everything. Also lots of "the corporations run everything and want all of the money" overtones. I think this is Feed by M.T. Anderson.
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Mar 24, 2011 14:37
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eumenidy posted:I think this is Feed by M.T. Anderson. YES! Thank you!
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Mar 24, 2011 20:43
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Milli posted:1) A story about aliens who abduct people to put on elaborate acrobatic shows. They make them super risky cause they basically feed off of the people's deaths. The protagonist was a girl who wasn't very athletic, who went along with her super athletic siblings and met the other abducted people in the circus who all spoke some weird hybrid-english. Thinking about it now, it wasn't so much abduction as it was some dude approaching them and being all 'Hey wanna come join this super cool show? We want you cause you guys have awesome potential!' and only bringing along the protagonist cause her siblings insisted. I'm pretty sure this is Gillian Rubinstein's Galax Arena. I believe there was a sequel too, though I never read it.
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Mar 25, 2011 02:37
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Ok, here's one. In high school I borrowed a book from the library. It was a purple paperback. The story was about a girl who is kept in a locked room and sews these shoes (I think) and then she finds out the origins of fairy tales. I remember one as 'Cinder Ella'. The last few pages of the book were missing and I am curious about it now. Thanks
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Mar 25, 2011 23:41
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zedar posted:I'm pretty sure this is Gillian Rubinstein's Galax Arena. I believe there was a sequel too, though I never read it. Holy crap you are awesome, thank you! It seems I did remember some of the details wrong, but I need to go re-read this immediately!
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Mar 26, 2011 00:03
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This was a book I read while in junior high. It was about two brothers who discovered a room/shack with some type of time dilation field. When the door was closed, what seemed like Edit: I am retarded and got it backwards. Edit: Wow, I found it by browsing this thread. I recognized the name of an author someone else posted and sure enough, it is the same guy who wrote this. Thank, goons! Singularity by William Sleator Auriak fucked around with this message at 06:43 on Mar 26, 2011 |
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Mar 26, 2011 06:06
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