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About three years ago I read a book which was being highly recommended on Amazon, etc. It was science fiction, about a gang of 'pranksters' who had to get together to pull off one last heist type deal. I think they were trying to get the better of a guy who ruled the city from the top of a skyscraper? Mostly I remember it had a really long title about something like 'the last adventures of the end of the world gang' or something similar.
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Sep 9, 2012 08:14
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hooah posted:I'm trying to remember a book that my sisters and I read as kids. It had an old lady who was nearly blind, and a crow. The crow started out on her nightstand, and might have stolen her glasses. Because she couldn't see very well, she just called the crow a "big smut," which has caught on in my immediate family. I tried Googling for old lady crow big smut, but, well, I'd rather not talk about that. Maybe I'll try again?
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Sep 9, 2012 08:16
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Was Taters posted:About three years ago I read a book which was being highly recommended on Amazon, etc. It was science fiction, about a gang of 'pranksters' who had to get together to pull off one last heist type deal. I think they were trying to get the better of a guy who ruled the city from the top of a skyscraper? Mostly I remember it had a really long title about something like 'the last adventures of the end of the world gang' or something similar. The title seems similar to a Larry Niven short story, "The Last Days of the Permanent Floating Riot Club". I don't remember much about the story, other than it involving "flash crowd" effects due to teleportation technology, so I can't tell you if the plot fits. But it's definitely a short, not a whole novel, so it may not be what you're looking for.
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Sep 9, 2012 16:30
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Hobnob posted:The title seems similar to a Larry Niven short story, "The Last Days of the Permanent Floating Riot Club". I don't remember much about the story, other than it involving "flash crowd" effects due to teleportation technology, so I can't tell you if the plot fits. But it's definitely a short, not a whole novel, so it may not be what you're looking for. Turns out it is "Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six After the Collapse of the United States of America" by Brian Francis Slattery - and it's really good. Recommending it!
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Sep 9, 2012 19:59
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hooah posted:Maybe I'll try again? Searching Google Books for "'big smut' crow" gives this one result: Crow and Mrs. Gaddy by Wilson Gade. Is this it?
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Sep 10, 2012 02:46
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This book was read at a train station in either Germany or England in the 1970s, I believe it is in English. Here's the story; A little boy goes out in his front yard to play and a man walks up an talks to him for a second. The boy's mother, worried, asks the little boy who he was talking to, he replies himself. The net day the same thing happens, and the little boy once again replies himself, and the infuriated mother tells the little boy to never talk to that man again. As it turns out it was himself the little boy was talking to, just a future himself. And the man had traveled back in time to teach a younger him how to time travel sooner to take better advantage of the skill. Eventually the time travel man gets bored/lonely(?) and thinks there has to be other people with this ability to time travel so he picks a well known point in history and goes there to see if there is anyone like him. He picks Jesus carrying the cross. And instead of watching Jesus, he is looking through at the other side of the crowd trying to see if there is anyone looking as he is.
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Sep 14, 2012 23:43
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BlueFlowerRedSky posted:Searching Google Books for "'big smut' crow" gives this one result: Crow and Mrs. Gaddy by Wilson Gade. Is this it? Yes, that was indeed it. Thank you!
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Sep 14, 2012 23:48
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I read a lot of short stories and so I have a bunch of interesting ideas that I remember, but can't put a title to. Here's one: a couple of aliens (male and female. I think there might have been some sexual tension) are on a mining mission where they fall asleep for long periods of time and wake up when the ship they're on picks a planet. The story revolves around accidentally them making contact with Earth, and them explaining to the humans that they aren't really interested in uplifting them or making contact, just that they chose an inhabited planet to potentially mine, which is all their corporate bosses are concerned about. The story finishes with the humans being upset, and promising to develop and expand and come find the aliens, and the aliens are suitably worried. Any ideas? I can't remember if this was in a book or on the net (maybe on the Tor website?)
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Sep 15, 2012 06:09
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Mi goreng posted:This book was read at a train station in either Germany or England in the 1970s, I believe it is in English. Here's the story; Is it There Will Be Time by Poul Anderson? If not, the idea of time travellers at the Crucifixion has been done more than once...
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Sep 17, 2012 13:52
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shadok posted:Is it There Will Be Time by Poul Anderson? Definitely 'There will be Time' I just read it recently after it coming up in this thread.
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Sep 17, 2012 15:08
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Some time ago I remember reading a short sci-fi story about an alternative way of being sentient. It involved the main character performing brain surgery on himself and finding out that his brain was essentially a mechanical computer, with the thoughts formed by a network of valves, with air rushing through them. I think it was implied that their race was dying out for some reason. Can't really remember much more than that, does this sound familiar to anyone?
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Sep 19, 2012 18:30
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multivac posted:Some time ago I remember reading a short sci-fi story about an alternative way of being sentient. 'Exhalation' by Ted Chiang. An excellent short story by an amazing writer.
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Sep 20, 2012 10:01
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I recently (in the last six months!) read a book and have now completely forgotten the title and the author. Elements include:
I really hope I am not conflating two or more books, I have read a lot lately.
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Sep 21, 2012 17:20
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boneration posted:I recently (in the last six months!) read a book and have now completely forgotten the title and the author. Elements include: 'Prince of Thorns', I think. http://www.amazon.com/Prince-Thorns-The-Broken-Empire/dp/0441020321
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Sep 21, 2012 17:26
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boneration posted:I recently (in the last six months!) read a book and have now completely forgotten the title and the author. Elements include: Sounds to me like Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. edit: Gah, beaten.
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Sep 21, 2012 17:27
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Unkempt posted:'Prince of Thorns', I think. Polka_Rapper posted:Sounds to me like Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. Yesss, that was it. And I see there is a sequel! Thanks folks.
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Sep 21, 2012 17:54
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I think I have a 100% strikeout rate with getting stories identified, in here, but I'm feeling optimistic, this time (I'm lying, these are probably pretty obscure.) I would have read both of these in the mid-to-late 80s, and I believe they were significantly older than that, but I am not 100% sure. There is also a chance they were in the same book, whose name seems to be hovering just out of reach at the edge of my brain. One: The story describes a man's journey to work on the train. I don't remember details, but I think there's a sort of oppressive atmosphere, and you feel something is wrong with this guy or his job. Anyway, he gets to work at a newspaper, TV station, or other media outlet (I think newspaper), goes to his office, and just sits there seeing all kinds of terrible visions in his head. It turns out, his job is to predict fatalities for specific periods of time, like holiday weekends. He fudges the numbers a little, passes them on, and the media outlets run with them. The story contains a sentence along the lines of, "Haven't you always wondered how they are able to predict so accurately..." Two: I think this is set in an office building. Some guy is shooting up the place, just slaughtering folks. Eventually, he corners some woman (or man), and they have a creepy conversation, with the man saying that he was murdering people for being liars, he hates liars, but he also hates when people say things that make him angry or some poo poo like that. Anyway, the story ends with the guy offering to let his hostage go if she just answers one question honestly, and also without pissing him off. The question is: "Do you think I'm crazy?"
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Sep 22, 2012 22:57
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Centripetal Horse posted:I think I have a 100% strikeout rate with getting stories identified, in here, but I'm feeling optimistic, this time (I'm lying, these are probably pretty obscure.) I have absolutely no idea about these, but I looked at your earlier request, and that one I might be able to help you track down. First, can you please Google Ace Doubles and look at some of the book images and tell me if the cover style looks familiar? Also, can you tell me a little bit more about the stories? I have quite a few of the Ace Doubles and have re-read nearly all of them fairly recently because I was in the mood for some Golden Age pulpy goodness and maybe the one you're looking for was one of them. I also found a web page where there's a pretty comprehensive list of all the tęte-bęche novels the dude could track down, that's here. Wikipedia also has a list of Ace Doubles, perhaps looking at the titles would ring a bell.
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Sep 23, 2012 19:29
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A long shot, since I can only give an incredibly vague and questionably accurate description: There is some sort of building, on a hill I think, in the middle of an area that is empty/poor. I'm imagining a desert-like area, and I think there are people that live at the bottom of the hill, but they are poor/"normal" in some way, but near the end of the book/story you see them. I don't remember their significance—I think they were the "real" people, whatever that means. The building itself is I think some sort of spectacular place, like a palace. There are very few people, only one or maybe two, in the building for much of the story (or maybe that person/people plus a servant?). I imagine it rather empty in general. There is time travel involved. The main room I guess has a machine that is involved with time travel somehow... I don't know if the person can control it or is hiding from someone else who can also use time travel. This is a pretty big part of the story (the main part I believe). At some point another person comes through the time machine, and this creates some sort of tension. A second, equally vague description: This one is definitely a short story, and is a "fantasy" story, but the only fantastical element was a talking tiger. The main character was a young girl. That's all I've got.
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Sep 23, 2012 22:19
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Wibbleman posted:I have been trying to find this for a while. This was a few months ago, but it's the Jaran series by Kate Elliott. Four books, actually, but I think the trilogy is fairly complete in itself and then the 4th book goes off in a (pretty cool, IIRC) new direction.
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Sep 23, 2012 22:24
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Zola posted:I have absolutely no idea about these, but I looked at your earlier request, and that one I might be able to help you track down. Thanks for the links, they were great, but I went all up-and-through them, and I don't see the stories I am looking for. If they are anywhere on those lists, they are under a genre I don't expect, or published way outside the time period I think these were published. Here's a little more about the stories, from my rusty memory: I remember the book being tęte-bęche, as opposed to dos-a-dos or other two-in-one formats. I can't swear to that, but that's how I remember it. I do not recall the covers being particularly fancy, or in that Ace style. I don't remember much at all in the way of artwork, although there may have been something like a spiderweb on one side and maybe a guy in a hooded cowl on the other. I might also be making that up from what I remember of the stories. I would not call either of the stories science fiction; I would say they were more pulp/action. The story with the jogger who gets drafted into the secret agency is almost certainly fairly modern (like, 80s) from what I recall. It was too early for cell phones, but everything else seemed up-to-date. I don't recall much in the way of computers, but weapons and automobiles seemed reasonably modern. Because of that, I suspect the other story was also not too old at the time. The other story, which I think was about some type of assassin, probably an assassin's guild, since I remember him being #13 or something like that. I remember it being steeped in mysticism and ritual, and I remember something about a dead body that maybe wasn't dead, or a decoy. I really can't think of much else about the stories that would be useful in identifying them.
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Sep 24, 2012 00:46
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Centripetal Horse posted:Thanks for the links, they were great, but I went all up-and-through them, and I don't see the stories I am looking for. If they are anywhere on those lists, they are under a genre I don't expect, or published way outside the time period I think these were published. Found it Here's the Wikipedia article
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Sep 24, 2012 04:31
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I have quite a difficult book to find. I'm looking for a softcover children's illustrated Bible that I once had growing up. I recently grabbed a copy of The Children's Bible (or The Golden Children's Bible)from Amazon thinking that I had found it, but it wasnt the one, although the one I had was very similar in terms of art style (realistic, not overly stylized paintings). Details: I had this in the early-mid 1980s, but it may have been published anytime between the 1960s and early 1980s; I'm thinking it was later than 60s because of the art though. I think it had a greyish colored softcover. I am not 100% sure, but the cover or one of the intro pages may have depicted Moses holding the 10 commandments, and it was a duplicate of one of the later illustrations in the book. The first (or possibly the last, I'm not exactly sure) dozen or so pages was maybe some sort of glossary and it had ancient Egyptian art-style borders on the top and bottom that depicted farmers, animals, and fields. It was an inch or less thick. It was in narrative form rather than classic Bible verse, I think. It was not "dumbed down" to a kid level, even though it was for kids. Artwork details that I remember: Goliath had a helmet with multi-colored tassles coming out of the top. Ancient Egyptian with a red and white colored hat whipping a slave who was on the ground. David climbimg up a wall with a rope. Saul throwing a spear at David was a two page spread. Satan, tempting Jesus, wore a green robe with a hood or cowl and you could make out his horns. It showed pretty graphic images such as John the Baptist's decapitated head on a plate and Cain smashing Abel in the head with a rock. Again, the illustrations are very similar to the 1965 Children's Bible http://books.google.com/books?id=PvEMwkhxEcsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+golden+children's+bible&source=bl&ots=TsfPA9Aycy&sig=ssc9sfUYkvHUGOhmoWOUUegQpYg&hl=en&src=bmrr&sa=X&ei=sURiUKuYGsriqgGqsYGgAQ&ved=0CDQQuwUwAA#v=onepage&q=the%20golden%20children's%20bible&f=false but I'm certain that this isn't it. I'm not religious, but I'd love to see this book again for the art, which I remembered was very good. I know it's a longshot, but if anyone can help me find this thing, I'd certainly appreciate it in the form of an account upgrade. VoodooChild1968 fucked around with this message at 01:29 on Sep 26, 2012 |
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Sep 26, 2012 01:10
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HOLY poo poo! You are amazing! My Google-fu is STRONG, and I couldn't sniff out this one. I only vaguely recall the cover art, and I thought it was tęte-bęche, but that is definitely it. Aargh, I had TOR in my brain while I was looking for it, but it's TSR. I am shocked to see that Agent 13 is part of a series, and well known enough to have been optioned for a movie. Web of Danger is still pretty much nonexistent, though, it doesn't even show up on the author's Wikipedia page. Did you have to muck through those entire huge lists of books to figure out which one it was? I only found a couple with "web" in the title, and none of them were the right one. Did you find another list, somewhere? Please, detail the steps you took to figure out which book I was looking for, I am curious. I feel like I've managed to scratch an itch right in the center of my back. If you want a forums upgrade or something for your help, let me know.
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Sep 26, 2012 21:33
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Centripetal Horse posted:HOLY poo poo! You are amazing! My Google-fu is STRONG, and I couldn't sniff out this one. I only vaguely recall the cover art, and I thought it was tęte-bęche, but that is definitely it. Aargh, I had TOR in my brain while I was looking for it, but it's TSR. Well, if you want to send me a no-ads upgrade, that would be nice but it really isn't necessary--it's fun to be able to successfully answer someone's search. It wasn't so much insane google-fu as knowing what the results I was seeing meant, if that makes any sense. I had looked at some lists of books with titles beginning "Web of" like you did, and then I said "well, let me try the Agent 13 thing" and the first thing I saw on the search result was "Agent 13: The Midnight Avenger, The main character of an eponymous spy fiction series published by TSR from 1986-1988" So I happened to know that TSR started getting active as a publisher in the late 80's and I also knew that they published books targeted at gamers (which at that time was young men 13-24, give or take a few years), and I was betting you fell into that age group. And I knew that TSR books could have really elaborate religious systems, having played D&D since (shudders) 1980, so even though "The Midnight Avenger" seemed more like a comic book title than what you were looking for, knowing those things about TSR got me to click on the Wikipedia entry, and there it was. I'm really pleased it was the right book.
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Sep 26, 2012 22:42
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Zola posted:Well, if you want to send me a no-ads upgrade, that would be nice but it really isn't necessary--it's fun to be able to successfully answer someone's search. I just tried to send you a no-ads upgrade, but I need your email address. The Agent 13 thing is a real kick in the teeth. I was so uncertain about the whole "13" aspect that I basically never tried using it as a search term. I had this sneaking suspicion that thirteen couldn't be the right number because it was too cliche. This is not the first time I've been taught a lesson about making assumptions like that, perhaps one day it will stick. I am also glad it was the right book. I've helped a couple of people in this thread, and it's been really frustrating not being able to get any help on the stories I've been trying to track down. When poo poo like this gets in my head, it drives me nuts, and this particular one has been rattling around in my noodle for years. Are you really a "freelance web programmer?" That was pretty much my job description (for quite a while) until a little over a year ago. I'd actually like to talk with someone who is still freelancing in today's market. I'm brushing up some of my skills in preparation for a ship jump, and I wouldn't mind a second opinion or two.
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Sep 26, 2012 22:52
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Centripetal Horse posted:I just tried to send you a no-ads upgrade, but I need your email address. I'll PM you the information, and thank you!
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Sep 26, 2012 23:40
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A young detective hears about the murder of an exotic aristocrat who was known for gambling, getting involved in illicit affairs and possibly even espionage. He's all pumped up for an exciting murder investigation, but the case goes to the stodgy old detective who is about to retire and who completely lacks imagination. He tosses aside every exotic theory the young detective comes up with and goes about things with the same method he would use to solve any mundane murder - who benefits? Did the diseased leave an inheritance? Were any of his servants in debt? If they are elderly and steady, do they have any young and troublesome relatives? He finds that the aristocrat was murdered by his housemaid's alcoholic nephew for the meager contents of his wallet. Cue the author speaking through the character about inspector Lestarde style characters in typical detective stories who can't figure out the exotic circumstances of the murder.
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Sep 29, 2012 20:19
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There's a book I read a summary of a while ago on Amazon that I think was published as a kindle book through their self-publishing thing, but it had a fair amount of good reviews. It was about this guy who could bring people back to life, but with no memory of their death. He falls in love with his neighbor who is married, but every night she has a recurring dream of being murdered by this guy. Anyone read it or know what I'm talking about?
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Sep 29, 2012 22:47
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saltwaterfairy posted:A long shot, since I can only give an incredibly vague and questionably accurate description: The first one kinda sounds like By His Bootstraps by Heinlein. For the second one, I have no idea.
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Oct 1, 2012 18:07
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Trying to remember the name of a sci fi novel I read about ten years ago, and pretty much the only thing I remember about it is the setting, but it's a pretty unique setting. The spacefaring characters accidentally landed on/in/were absorbed by a massive donut-shaped space station filled with a verdant artificial environment. Because of the station's shape, the horizon curved up away from them and there were huge sheer cliffs leading up to the ceiling on either side. Other than that... I know the main character was female 
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Oct 1, 2012 19:48
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Muscle Tracer posted:Trying to remember the name of a sci fi novel I read about ten years ago, and pretty much the only thing I remember about it is the setting, but it's a pretty unique setting. The spacefaring characters accidentally landed on/in/were absorbed by a massive donut-shaped space station filled with a verdant artificial environment. Because of the station's shape, the horizon curved up away from them and there were huge sheer cliffs leading up to the ceiling on either side. The setting sounds like Larry Niven's "Ringworld", although I can't remember if the main character was female.
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Oct 1, 2012 19:52
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Muscle Tracer posted:Trying to remember the name of a sci fi novel I read about ten years ago, and pretty much the only thing I remember about it is the setting, but it's a pretty unique setting. The spacefaring characters accidentally landed on/in/were absorbed by a massive donut-shaped space station filled with a verdant artificial environment. Because of the station's shape, the horizon curved up away from them and there were huge sheer cliffs leading up to the ceiling on either side.
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Oct 1, 2012 20:00
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Runcible Cat posted:John Varley's Gaea trilogy: Titan, Wizard and Demon. The main character is Captain Cirocco Jones, and the inhabitants of Gaea - the living space-station creature that absorbs her and her crew and dumps them inside itself - include the multicoloured centaur-like Titanides, and the Angels that live in the spokes. Sound familiar? Yes, that's it! I'd only read "Gaea," and will be looking up the two sequels. (and Ringworld, the wiki article for that is pretty intriguing) Thanks!
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Oct 1, 2012 20:03
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Muscle Tracer posted:Yes, that's it! I'd only read "Gaea," and will be looking up the two sequels. (and Ringworld, the wiki article for that is pretty intriguing)
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Oct 1, 2012 20:41
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Ok, I've got two books here that I read as a kid and can't remember the names of. I'll probably never read them again, but they were pretty memorable at the time and it's been gradually driving me crazy not being able to remember what they actually were. I read them in elementary school, so this would have been sometime in the 90s, no later than 1998. In the first, the protagonist is hating school when she discovers the programming course and that she loves it. Then she gets into poo poo when someone else hacks the school grade computer and frames her for it (by obviously editing her grades, eg, replacing her D- in gym with an A). Eventually she tracks down the real perpetrator and everything turns out alright in the end. The book included source for some simple QBASIC programs, which I thought was pretty cool. In the second, the protagonist is a young boy who gets hit by a car. He wakes up trapped in a cat's body and most of the book involves him learning (with the assistance of an older, wiser cat) how to live as a feral cat in the big city. I remember a thing being "whisker telepathy", a form of nonverbal communication using whisker vibrations. In the end, he wakes up in the hospital back in his real body, and it's left ambiguous whether he was just hallucinating or whether his consciousness was actually transplanted into the body of a cat while his body was in a coma. I think that the title was a single word, a name starting with "J", and the cover art was just a close-up of a tabby's face, staring at you - but don't quote me on either of those.
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Oct 2, 2012 00:50
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ToxicFrog posted:Ok, I've got two books here that I read as a kid and can't remember the names of. I'll probably never read them again, but they were pretty memorable at the time and it's been gradually driving me crazy not being able to remember what they actually were. I'm not positive, but could the second one be Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams?
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Oct 2, 2012 01:07
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AreYouStillThere posted:I'm not positive, but could the second one be Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams? It's not, although that looks similar; the one I'm thinking of was definitely a human-trapped-in-a-cat's-body story, rather than a story about cats as cats.
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Oct 2, 2012 01:13
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ToxicFrog posted:Ok, I've got two books here that I read as a kid and can't remember the names of. I'll probably never read them again, but they were pretty memorable at the time and it's been gradually driving me crazy not being able to remember what they actually were. Jennie Still working on the other.
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Oct 2, 2012 02:42
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multivac posted:The first one kinda sounds like By His Bootstraps by Heinlein. That's the one! I remember it now. I'm very impressed; when I read a description of that story I knew it was what I had been thinking about, but it sounded nothing like my description. Thanks so much! Also, props to you for your username.
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Oct 2, 2012 03:59
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