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Runcible Cat posted:Kind of a wild guess, but 'The Whispering Mountain' by Joan Aiken? Maybe. I honestly remember very little about it, but it looks like a good read anyway. Will try and dig out a copy! http://www.books4yourkids.com/2008/08/whispering-mountain-by-joan-aiken-304pp.html
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Apr 29, 2012 10:55
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Runcible Cat posted:Genevieve, maybe? If so, could be Sheri Tepper's 'Singer from the Sea', though the scene with her jumping from the cliff with her baby isn't described in quite that way. That's actually probably it. Considering how long ago I read that I'm not surprised if my description was way off. Thanks!
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Apr 29, 2012 11:23
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Gambrinus posted:A boy, about ten years old, who finds a sort of "otherworld" of elves, witches etc. inside a mountain. He may have had a sister. He may have had glasses. I'm sure there was definitely a witch of some kind involved. Alexander Key? I'm thinking perhaps "Escape From Witch Mountain" but it could be one of the others as well.
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Apr 29, 2012 17:34
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A (terrifying) book from my childhood, all I can remember is there was a Jester who skinned people? I'm sorry, I know that's a pretty tiny bit to go on.
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Apr 30, 2012 02:09
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I read a great book once about a woman who was a scientist and fell in love with a black hole, or something. I don't remember exactly. She had a boyfriend but she was studying this phenomenon she discovered that was basically a void, just an empty nothing, and as the book progresses she pulls further away from her boyfriend as she's projected all her feelings into this empty nothingness. It was great. I know the woman who wrote it also wrote other books. I think it had zero in the title, maybe not. Google isn't doing me any good - I keep finding articles about how to make women fall in love with me.
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May 7, 2012 12:52
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Be Depressive posted:I read a great book once about a woman who was a scientist and fell in love with a black hole, or something. I don't remember exactly. She had a boyfriend but she was studying this phenomenon she discovered that was basically a void, just an empty nothing, and as the book progresses she pulls further away from her boyfriend as she's projected all her feelings into this empty nothingness. I know that you maybe remember the author as a woman, but could it perhaps be Johnathan Lethem's book 'As She Climbed Across the Table'?
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May 7, 2012 21:47
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Be Depressive posted:I read a great book once about a woman who was a scientist and fell in love with a black hole, or something. I don't remember exactly. She had a boyfriend but she was studying this phenomenon she discovered that was basically a void, just an empty nothing, and as the book progresses she pulls further away from her boyfriend as she's projected all her feelings into this empty nothingness. Not exactly the same, but there was a story with a psychic scientist who falls in love with a gaseous energy being that gets pulled into a black hole, and she remains in contact with the alien as it's frozen in time at the event horizon. "Kyrie" by Poul Anderson?
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May 8, 2012 00:48
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I read some short story in the last year or two about an inventor who builds robot women meant to resemble his first love, told from the point of view of a business partner or investor or something. At some point the narrator's girlfriend sees the workshop and is really grossed out. It was really, really creepy and I'm trying to find it. I remember it was posted on some blog or short fiction site with sort of arty lo-fi colorful backgrounds... I think. I realize this probably describes a lot of weird sci-fi stories, but perhaps someone else remembers this story? I think the blog might have had rockets in the title, but I haven't had any luck searching for it with google.
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May 9, 2012 08:11
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Elohssa Gib posted:Had a book pop in my head at work today Still wondering about this, only thing I can think to expand on this is the handkerchief metaphor, basically they explain that to travel it's like two points on opposite corners of a hankie where if you had to fly it straight would take way too long and take way too much fuel so some how they are able to fold space so that the points are touching and then they travel just that short distance and then unfold space again and they're at the destination. I really need to find this book again so I can stop wondering about it when I'm trying to work.
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May 9, 2012 09:27
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2012 was a bad year
slow crow fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Nov 10, 2013 |
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May 10, 2012 04:27
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aunaturale posted:There was a novel ridiculed for being overly dark and vulgar. Sewers were involved. Children were too. I'm pretty sure it was in a thread where people defended disliked books. Stephen King's It? It has a particularly notorious scene involving children in sewers, but is otherwise an excellent book.
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May 10, 2012 04:35
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Elohssa Gib posted:Still wondering about this, only thing I can think to expand on this is the handkerchief metaphor, basically they explain that to travel it's like two points on opposite corners of a hankie where if you had to fly it straight would take way too long and take way too much fuel so some how they are able to fold space so that the points are touching and then they travel just that short distance and then unfold space again and they're at the destination. I really need to find this book again so I can stop wondering about it when I'm trying to work. Don't know about the other stuff, but the hankie/travel metaphor is the "wrinkle" in A Wrinkle In Time. EDIT: I think I'm wrong about this -- sorry. AARP LARPer fucked around with this message at 05:21 on May 10, 2012 |
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May 10, 2012 05:15
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Do Not Resuscitate posted:Don't know about the other stuff, but the hankie/travel metaphor is the "wrinkle" in A Wrinkle In Time. They have used it in half a dozen stories about folding space. Most recent example I can think of is actually a fantasy version. Rand and Egwene use it as a description of Traveling in the Wheel of Time series.
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May 10, 2012 06:45
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navyjack posted:They have used it in half a dozen stories about folding space. Most recent example I can think of is actually a fantasy version. Rand and Egwene use it as a description of Traveling in the Wheel of Time series. I was afraid of that, the only other real specific thing I can remember is that the kid in the book goes to a day care or preschool makes a friend and they get this robot duck dictionary thing, I think it's supposed to be educational but they somehow are able to make it translate what the nanobots are saying and get it taken away when they tell someone about a damaged door that was saying it hurt, they may also have used it as a skeleton key to get out of the daycare/school.
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May 10, 2012 20:42
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aunaturale posted:There was a novel ridiculed for being overly dark and vulgar. Sewers were involved. Children were too. I'm pretty sure it was in a thread where people defended disliked books. Fairly sure this is IT - even for a King book, this was pretty dark and ... yeah, gratuitous is a good word. AntiThesis posted:A (terrifying) book from my childhood, all I can remember is there was a Jester who skinned people? I'm sorry, I know that's a pretty tiny bit to go on. To expand on this, I have a feeling they may have been animals so that narrows it down a bit.
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May 10, 2012 21:36
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I, earlier in this thread, posted:I remember checking out a YA or middle grade fantasy novel back when I was in elementary school. (I'm 23, so this would have been in the 90s, although the book wasn't new when I checked it out and could have been written any time before then.) The only thing that I can remember about it was that it involved various transformed characters: so one of the main characters was a girl who had been turned into a whipped hound, and another was a black flying horse that had been turned into a dragon. IIRC, it wasn't even a very good book, but I've been wondering about it for a while now just out of nostalgia. It might have actually been a sequel to something I hadn't read. I'm not sure that anybody cares, but on the off-chance that anyone else had memories of the same novel, I finally found this one by searching Google Books: turns out it's Gaal the Conqueror by John White. It's one book in a series of Narnia-inspired Christian fantasy novels and, sure enough, involves a girl turned into a dog and a flying horse turned into a dragon  Reading the preview, it seems a little bit goofy but not particularly interesting.The weird thing, though, is that I searched WorldCat and my local library catalog for the novel, and no libraries around me seem to carry it (or anything that could be a alternate edition of the book). So um, maybe the local library system had it in my childhood and in the intervening years got rid of their only copy? (I remember the cover being really faded: perhaps the physical condition of the book deteriorated to the point where they had to dispose of it? Also, the library I checked it out from as a child got in a lot of trouble a few years back for just straight-up throwing away old books, soooooo.) Elohssa Gib, I've been searching for your book too, since I love children's (assuming it's a children's book?) sci-fi and fantasy with weird settings. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything  Do you remember any details of the cover, perhaps?
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May 11, 2012 04:06
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BlueFlowerRedSky posted:I'm not sure that anybody cares, but on the off-chance that anyone else had memories of the same novel, I finally found this one by searching Google Books: turns out it's Gaal the Conqueror by John White. It's one book in a series of Narnia-inspired Christian fantasy novels and, sure enough, involves a girl turned into a dog and a flying horse turned into a dragon Amazon has a copy for under $2.
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May 11, 2012 06:25
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Oh, I was mostly just searching for it in the library catalog to be double-certain that it was the right book, not so much because I wanted to read the whole thing again. I thought it was strange that it had seemingly vanished from the catalog record, but I suppose that libraries lose or get rid of books all the time.
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May 11, 2012 06:38
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BlueFlowerRedSky posted:Oh, I was mostly just searching for it in the library catalog to be double-certain that it was the right book, not so much because I wanted to read the whole thing again. I thought it was strange that it had seemingly vanished from the catalog record, but I suppose that libraries lose or get rid of books all the time. Yes, and libraries are constantly deluged with paperback donations and I'd say 99% of this stuff gets turned over to a variant of the local "Friends of the Library" group who sell it off for fundraising. And libraries have to balance shelf space against circulation stats so it's not surprising to hear that it's not in a collection local to you or that it was weeded from the collection. My wife and I are librarians, by the way. I'm glad you rediscovered your book though!
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May 11, 2012 18:12
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BlueFlowerRedSky posted:Elohssa Gib, I've been searching for your book too, since I love children's (assuming it's a children's book?) sci-fi and fantasy with weird settings. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything It wasn't a kids book, unfortunately my copy had no front cover as I got it in the early 90s from the stack of unsold paperbacks to be returned in the back room of a college bookstore when I was around 8 or 9. I think I remember it was kind of a dark story near the end with the doors being controlled by nanobots so when they revolted people were trapped in there rooms and couldn't leave.
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May 11, 2012 18:42
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AntiThesis posted:A (terrifying) book from my childhood, all I can remember is there was a Jester who skinned people? I'm sorry, I know that's a pretty tiny bit to go on. quote:To expand on this, I have a feeling they may have been animals so that narrows it down a bit. The Oaken Throne, Robin Jarvis. Book two of the Deptford Histories. The jester is a weasel who is secretly a high priest of an evil cult which worships a horned rat god called Hobb, skinning sacrifices to make a "bloody bones" of them.
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May 13, 2012 13:48
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I once read an account from a prisoner being taken to his execution. It started with him being assured that there was no way that the execution would ever happen and how he was simply walking to the corner and then something would happen. He turns the corner, sees the (I think) gallows set up and once again asserts that there is no way the execution would ever happen. He is led up the stairs, has the noose placed on his neck, and continues being absolutely sure that there is no way the execution will ever happen. I'm pretty sure it was a vision or a dream in a book and I want to say it was around the time I was reading Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and a few others but googling hasn't led me anywhere.
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May 13, 2012 21:05
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Was it some story based around the unexpected hanging paradox? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unexpected_hanging_paradox
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May 14, 2012 00:07
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I don't think so. For some reason I remember the narrator talking about how far away the corner looked and how surely someone in the crowd would leap out and save him or how once he turned the cornere there was no way for the gallows to actually be there so he had nothing to worry about. After he reaches the corner, he goes through the same thing with how far away the gallows actually are and how long it is going to take to get there and so on and so on.
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May 14, 2012 00:31
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Dead Alice posted:Short story about some dudes in a ye olde Adventurers Club who go to extinguish an eternal flame in a desert. This is from a couple pages back, but I didn't see it answered. This American Life featured a story that sounds like yours in this episode. I think it was the one by Fiona Maazel, but I didn't like it enough to listen to the episode again to be sure, sorry.
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May 14, 2012 04:57
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Down Right Fierce posted:I once read an account from a prisoner being taken to his execution. It started with him being assured that there was no way that the execution would ever happen and how he was simply walking to the corner and then something would happen. He turns the corner, sees the (I think) gallows set up and once again asserts that there is no way the execution would ever happen. He is led up the stairs, has the noose placed on his neck, and continues being absolutely sure that there is no way the execution will ever happen. I doubt this is what you were referring to, but it sounds similar to Invitation to a Beheading, by Vladimir Nabakov.
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May 14, 2012 08:04
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Down Right Fierce posted:I once read an account from a prisoner being taken to his execution. It started with him being assured that there was no way that the execution would ever happen and how he was simply walking to the corner and then something would happen. He turns the corner, sees the (I think) gallows set up and once again asserts that there is no way the execution would ever happen. He is led up the stairs, has the noose placed on his neck, and continues being absolutely sure that there is no way the execution will ever happen. This is part of the prosecutor's speech in the court scene at the end of The Karamazov Brothers (Garnett's translation): I imagine that he felt something like what criminals feel when they are being taken to the scaffold. They have another long, long street to pass down and at walking pace, past thousands of people. Then there will be a turning into another street and only at the end of that street the dread place of execution! I fancy that at the beginning of the journey the condemned man, sitting on his shameful cart, must feel that he has infinite life still before him. The houses recede, the cart moves on—oh, that's nothing, it's still far to the turning into the second street and he still looks boldly to right and to left at those thousands of callously curious people with their eyes fixed on him, and he still fancies that he is just such a man as they. But now the turning comes to the next street. Oh, that's nothing, nothing, there's still a whole street before him, and however many houses have been passed, he will still think there are many left. And so to the very end, to the very scaffold.
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May 14, 2012 16:04
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Ras Het posted:This is part of the prosecutor's speech in the court scene at the end of The Karamazov Brothers (Garnett's translation): YEs! Thank you. I kept thinking it was in Crime and Punishment.
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May 15, 2012 00:37
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Esme posted:This is from a couple pages back, but I didn't see it answered. This American Life featured a story that sounds like yours in this episode. I think it was the one by Fiona Maazel, but I didn't like it enough to listen to the episode again to be sure, sorry. Thank you, I KNEW I recognized this story when I read the post but I couldn't for the life of me remember where I had read it. It is by Fiona Maazel (no title is given for it, not even on her web site) and the full text of it is included in the transcript of that TAL episode.
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May 16, 2012 14:59
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Fatkraken posted:The Oaken Throne, Robin Jarvis. Book two of the Deptford Histories. You beautiful, beautiful person.
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May 18, 2012 06:34
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I'm looking for a children's book. It was a set of short stories from one character's perspective. It was Norwegian, Swedish, or Danish, maybe even Finnish. It wasn't Astrid Lindgren, but the name rings bells for me. The main character of all the stories was a little girl with several siblings. The most solid memory I have is of her walking to the shop to buy bologna. On the way home, she makes up a song about the bologna. I'm sure her grandparents are a big part. Her oldest brother has a proper strong name like Knut or something but I really don't remember. He sits on a roof. It's not by Alf Proysen. The name Birgitte rings bells too, but I don't know if that's relevant. I swear this book must be famous. I really thought it was Astrid Lindgren until I looked her up and couldn't find it. 
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May 19, 2012 00:20
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eating only apples posted:bologna song book This all sounds horribly familiar to me as well... now I have to seek it out. Can you remember anything else?
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May 19, 2012 23:48
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I listened to a series of fantasy or scifi books on tape maybe eight or seven years ago. The protagonist was a white teenager, who I think used to live in the present. His magic teacher/guardian was a green warlock with a name pronounced like Auz, and people used to make fun of his name for sounding like Oz. He had an attractive female companion who was older than him and loved looking attractive in whatever world/dimension she was in, which she could do using magic. She would apply just the right amount of slime on her armpits for some slug world, etc. Can anyone help me out?
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May 21, 2012 18:59
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Kevin DuBrow posted:I listened to a series of fantasy or scifi books on tape maybe eight or seven years ago. The protagonist was a white teenager, who I think used to live in the present. His magic teacher/guardian was a green warlock with a name pronounced like Auz, and people used to make fun of his name for sounding like Oz. He had an attractive female companion who was older than him and loved looking attractive in whatever world/dimension she was in, which she could do using magic. She would apply just the right amount of slime on her armpits for some slug world, etc. Can anyone help me out?
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May 21, 2012 19:31
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This is definitely it, thanks.
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May 21, 2012 22:53
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eating only apples posted:I'm looking for a children's book. It was a set of short stories from one character's perspective. It was Norwegian, Swedish, or Danish, maybe even Finnish. It wasn't Astrid Lindgren, but the name rings bells for me. Could it be by Anne-Cath Vestly, Norway's answer to Astrid Lindgren? I read some of her books as a kid, "Mormor og de åtte ungene" seems to match at least a Grandma and a bunch of siblings, and from what I remember from reading her books, that was a common theme in most of them.
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May 22, 2012 01:26
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I can vaguely remember bits and pieces of this book: Mankind is engaging in new forms of underground drilling and comes across what we think are demons. One of the characters is captured by them and made one of them or something. It was a weird book but for some reason I want to revisit it.
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May 22, 2012 05:55
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The Gunslinger posted:I can vaguely remember bits and pieces of this book:
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May 22, 2012 07:41
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Runcible Cat posted:Maybe Jeff Long's The Descent? (The "demons" are called hadals, if that helps, short for Homo hadalis.) That sounds like it, thanks a ton!
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May 22, 2012 12:23
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usurper75 posted:Could it be by Anne-Cath Vestly, Norway's answer to Astrid Lindgren? I read some of her books as a kid, "Mormor og de åtte ungene" seems to match at least a Grandma and a bunch of siblings, and from what I remember from reading her books, that was a common theme in most of them. This is what a friend suggested, but I don't think it's her. Wikipedia says that the Eight Children series is about kids in an apartment in Oslo, while my stories were about kids in a small village. It's killing me that I can't remember anything else about it  It had a yellow cover. I read it fifteen years ago or so. That's it.   UPDATE I found it. It's The Bullerby Children series by... Astrid Lindgren. I don't know why I discounted her so completely, she wrote a ton of stories. The names of the kids listed on the wiki article confused me at first but I guess they were changed in English because this site makes it all wonderfully familiar. Lars and Pip and Britta and Anna and little Kerstin who got into the boot polish  Bologna! Of the best quality! I'm super happy. Thanks for the help, TBB! eating only apples fucked around with this message at 20:26 on May 22, 2012 |
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May 22, 2012 19:52
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