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Zola posted:Yep, one word beginning with a J. drat! That's exactly it, thanks! For years, I was so certain it was called "Jenny", but after searching with no success I came to believe that my memory was faulty and it was some other J-name. It never occurred to me to try alternate spellings of the name.
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Oct 2, 2012 05:14
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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? I never get enough of posting this: John Varley posted:Titanides come in two sexes, male and female. Both sexes have a rear vagina and uterus, and a large penis in the position where a horse's penis would be. Both sexes also possess humanoid breasts and can thus give birth to and suckle young.
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Oct 2, 2012 12:28
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I think I just set a world record for "Man, I think I will read that, sounds interesting." to "What the holy gently caress...  "
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Oct 2, 2012 12:53
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:I think I just set a world record for "Man, I think I will read that, sounds interesting." to "What the holy gently caress... Halfway through, I became convinced that this either inspired, or was inspired by, Chakats.
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Oct 2, 2012 13:51
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Hedrigall posted:I never get enough of posting this: Is this actually in the book? Or did he just do way too much thinking about how space centaurs do it?
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Oct 2, 2012 14:55
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P.S. STILL COMPLETELY DEVOID OF MERIT
Guesticles posted:
Here's something to make it even better: The latest estimate (that I am aware of) for number of stars in our universe is 300 sextillion, or 300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That's three trillion times one-hundred billion. Even under a pretty pessimistic set of assumptions, it's reasonably likely that there's a creature out there who reproduces exactly like Varley describes.
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Oct 2, 2012 19:25
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Guesticles posted:
Astonishing that no otherkin have taken that up, come to think of it; I'd think it was the perfect combination of sperg, sex and weird aliens.
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Oct 2, 2012 20:29
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Runcible Cat posted:Space centaurs with 3 sets of genitalia apiece. Yep. From the second book, IIRC. I mean, I figured his triple-genitaled space centaurs were in the books, but I mean that infodump is actually in the book? Not in a glossary or some world-building book, but you're reading a long, and then your told that children are produced by loving forewards, then having a wizard lick the resulting egg, then treating the egg like a ben wa ball and then rear loving? After "WHY?", my next question is what happens if one of the male Titanids uses their dorsal penis on a ventral vagina without an egg it? Does the ventral vagina produce an egg?
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Oct 2, 2012 20:43
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Guesticles posted:I mean, I figured his triple-genitaled space centaurs were in the books, but I mean that infodump is actually in the book? Not in a glossary or some world-building book, but you're reading a long, and then your told that children are produced by loving forewards, then having a wizard lick the resulting egg, then treating the egg like a ben wa ball and then rear loving? Why in-story is that Gaea is loving with Cirocco using the excuse of Titanide population control, which is pissing her and the Titanides off and a major cause of the rebellion they're plotting and that Gaea wants (things have got kind of boring for her and she wants her toys to do something interesting. This also explains why Titanide sex is so weird in the first place: Gaea Wanted It That Way). Why out-story; it was the 70s, dude. There wasn't fanfiction full of weird spergy alien sex so people wrote it into books.  And the next answer is no it doesn't.
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Oct 2, 2012 21:07
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Runcible Cat posted:There's a chapter where Cirocco Jones - the Wizard - basically goes round a county fair of Titanides in their mating groups and they have to convince her to lick their egg if they want a kid. Smashmouth lick the eggs. quote:Why in-story is that Gaea is loving with Cirocco using the excuse of Titanide population control, which is pissing her and the Titanides off and a major cause of the rebellion they're plotting and that Gaea wants (things have got kind of boring for her and she wants her toys to do something interesting. This also explains why Titanide sex is so weird in the first place: Gaea Wanted It That Way). That was a rhetorical WHY?, but the infodump was appreciated regardless.
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Oct 2, 2012 21:44
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Guesticles posted:
Despite being disturbed by the alien sex stuff, I did enjoy the trilogy. Varley is one of my favorite sci-fi writers.
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Oct 2, 2012 22:48
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Hedrigall posted:I never get enough of posting this: Oddly enough I don't think that was his most hosed up idea. That would belong to Millennium where one if the main characters had God as a sex toy.
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Oct 4, 2012 17:42
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There was a series I read years ago that my aunt loaned me that I can barely remember anymore, yet I was somehow reminded of them the other day and now it's driving me crazy and Google isn't helping.  They were a girl's suspense/mystery series, might have been aimed at teens, which I'm pretty sure were published somewhere around the 80s or earlier, since they were a bit worn when I got them in the...late 90s or early 00s? Each featured different protagonists and had some romance aspect to them but it wasn't the focus as I recall (if it had been I probably wouldn't have read them). I can only remember snatches of scenes - one had a girl possibly running away on a train, another I think had a mansion/school with a pool? Not very helpful unless someone else happened to have read them - and that the covers were different colors and had keyhole logos on them. Possibly had "secret" in the series title somewhere? Not sure on that, could have been a specific title. They generally followed the trend of the lead heroine getting interested in some guy who turned out to be a kidnapper or otherwise a villain and some other guy she hadn't paid much attention to until then helped rescue her, if she didn't save herself. Or maybe other girls were the usual rescuers. Or...both...? This is going to drive me insane. I doubt my aunt would remember by now either.  Google isn't much use with something this vague, so I mostly hope I might jog someone's memory.(As a side note from trying to find these, all romance covers look exactly the same, and what I want isn't one of them.)
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Oct 6, 2012 05:35
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This is a long shot but I'd feel like an rear end if it turned out to be right and I didn't suggest it: Fear Street?
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Oct 6, 2012 06:00
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Sounds Fear Street-y to me, too. I think I read almost all of them until around the time R.L. Stine made a sort of Fear Street origins trilogy. I don't really recognize the details you gave, though--runaway on a train doesn't ring a bell--but the general series concept matches your description. The only other writers of that kind of thing that I ran into in my youth were Christopher Pike and Caroline B. Cooney (with a few books about vampires, The Stranger, and the The Fog/The Snow/The Fire trilogy). EDIT: Now that I'm reading your post in the stark light of day, I realize there is no supernatural element to the suspense--is that right? Or just no supernatural element in the conclusion? Because that would make me completely useless in helping. I didn't read Sweet Valley High-type stuff. Liebfraumilch fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Oct 6, 2012 |
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Oct 6, 2012 06:15
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Hedrigall posted:I never get enough of posting this: Do you have the chart handy?
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Oct 6, 2012 22:55
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Echo Cian posted:There was a series I read years ago that my aunt loaned me that I can barely remember anymore, yet I was somehow reminded of them the other day and now it's driving me crazy and Google isn't helping. Just to see - try googling V.C. Andrews. She has a whole bunch of stuff in the right time period for this series, and they have different protagonists.
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Oct 6, 2012 23:48
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My sister is having a baby, we had this book when we were kids and she wants to have it for her kid. It's a kid's book, collection of stories about protecting the environment. I will briefly explain what I can remember about some stories so hopefully someone will remember. One story was about a caveman named oog/ogg/ook who didn't like to do manly things, and thought all day, he decided to bury garbage so the animals wouldn't smell it. He invinted the shovel (a giant spoon) for this purpose. Another was a bout a boy who lived in a really messy house and everyone in his class drew pictures of their houses and his would get added more and more to until it was covered in trash. I remember the line towards the end of the story "elliot is landfill" Another involved the native american folklore figure Coyote. The elders had decided there were too many people and they would kill some of them, but just for a little while. So they let some die, and had a ritual hut for their souls to return to, but the door had to stay open I believe. Coyote shut the door, so all the people stayed dead which is why we have death today, and why Coyote looks over his shoulder thinking something is chasing him. I really hope someone remembers it.
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Oct 6, 2012 23:57
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Alright, here's a short short I remember reading probably 10-15 years ago. It took place on the night of a dinner party and right before the guests arrive a little girl's parents send her up to her room. There she meets up with her imaginary friend (who I seem to recall being a fairly serious butler type person) who takes her "behind the walls" to snoop on her parents and their friends. While "outside" the walls are transparent and they're able to move around and look in at will. Anyway, once on the other side the little girl witnesses both what is actually happening at the party, everyone engaging in polite chit-chat and eating cocktails and whatnot, and a monstrous vision of the subtext of their conversations and actions, everyone as gruesome demonic creatures with multiple faces all crying and clawing and biting and loving each other. At the end of the story the imaginary friend asks if the girl wants to return to the real world, and when she says no he escorts her away presumably never to be heard from again. Any ideas?
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Oct 9, 2012 06:05
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Liebfraumilch posted:EDIT: Now that I'm reading your post in the stark light of day, I realize there is no supernatural element to the suspense--is that right? Or just no supernatural element in the conclusion? Because that would make me completely useless in helping. I didn't read Sweet Valley High-type stuff. Yeah, there was nothing supernatural and the covers don't look familiar. Might look for them next time I'm at the library just to see, though. AreYouStillThere posted:Just to see - try googling V.C. Andrews. She has a whole bunch of stuff in the right time period for this series, and they have different protagonists. That's not it. My memory's too foggy to dredge up more detail, and I'm probably remembering them wrong entirely. I'll have a chance to ask my aunt in a few days. Thanks anyway.
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Oct 9, 2012 06:30
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Echo Cian posted:
This is a real long-shot, but... Does the Welcome Inn series by E.L. Flood ring any bells? http://www.amazon.com/E.-L.-Flood/e/B001KMGZEW/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_39?qid=1349833261&sr=1-39 I really don't remember much about them, but the themes and story structure are similar to what you describe. The Secret in the Moonlight is the first book. And they were published in the mid-90s.
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Oct 10, 2012 03:25
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I actually got a chance to talk to my aunt today. She instantly remembered them as the "Lock Key Mysteries," originally published in the UK - but neglected to mention specific titles or the author, and that series name (if it's accurate) is still too generic for a search engine to find. She says she still has them. Hopefully she can find them. 
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Oct 10, 2012 04:57
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Echo Cian posted:I actually got a chance to talk to my aunt today. She instantly remembered them as the "Lock Key Mysteries," originally published in the UK - but neglected to mention specific titles or the author, and that series name (if it's accurate) is still too generic for a search engine to find. Oh, mystery somewhat solved then!  I hope she has them. And I know what you mean. I was working off only "The Skeleton Key" and it was purely by accident that I stumbled upon the author's name after about an hour of searching.This has kind of piqued my interest in the evolution of young adult literature aimed at girls though. If you do find out the rest of the info about the series, could you please post the info?
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Oct 10, 2012 20:36
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Idonie posted: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. Took a while to find this post. I found the series that I was looking for, and it wasn't the Jaran series (which still looks interesting), but it was the Sunfall Trilogy by William James, which is now out of print (and has been for a long time) as large portions of it are direct copies of another authors books. But thanks anyways Idonie, appreciate the help.
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Oct 11, 2012 01:23
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Twiglet posted:Oh, mystery somewhat solved then! Sure thing. I'm getting curious about that now, too. I remember it being easy to find books with little to no romance, and what there was seeming reasonable; now it seems like nearly every YA novel you see with a female protagonist is about the girl's unhealthy fascination with a (hot, dangerous) guy, regardless of genre. Makes me wonder if I just didn't notice it when I was younger, since about the only girl-oriented stuff I read were mysteries like Nancy Drew, or if it's really gotten that much more common.
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Oct 11, 2012 02:22
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Echo Cian posted:I actually got a chance to talk to my aunt today. She instantly remembered them as the "Lock Key Mysteries," originally published in the UK - but neglected to mention specific titles or the author, and that series name (if it's accurate) is still too generic for a search engine to find. Maybe the Keyhole Crime series? It was published by Harlequin in the 80's/90's. They look a little morbid for YA, though: 
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Oct 11, 2012 04:51
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My turn to ask, and this is really starting to bug me because I thought it was a short story by Harlan Ellison and I can't find it. It likely was in an anthology, it could have been as early as the 50's or as late as the 80's. A man is in a city which is buried almost to the top of the skyscrapers in gray gunk. The gunk consists of plastic etc that has broken down to tiny little pieces that are easily blown around, and the world is slowly becoming covered in it. This was long enough ago that I really don't remember much plot, I think that people wore masks to avoid breathing the gunk, and there was a girl who the protagonist thought had figured out a way to move under the gunk. that's all I have.
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Oct 12, 2012 06:23
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This is probably far too vague, but I 'll give it a shot anyways: It was a scifi book published no later than the 90's. The only scene I can remember was when the human protagonist was fighting an antagonist that was a humanoid(possibly bug-like) alien creature. The protagonist beat the living crap out of the alien by rapidly alternating the artificial gravity of the room the alien occupied from bone-crushing on the floor to bone-crushing on the ceiling.
Splashy Gravy fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Oct 13, 2012 |
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Oct 13, 2012 02:35
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Splashy Gravy posted:This is probably far too vague, but I 'll give it a shot anyways: It was a scifi book published no later than the 90's. The only scene I can remember was when the human protagonist was fighting an antagonist that was a humanoid(possibly bug-like) alien creature. The protagonist beat the living crap out of the alien by rapidly alternating the artificial gravity of the room the alien occupied from bone-crushing on the floor to bone-crushing on the ceiling. You might try one of the Doom novelizations, that sounds familiar. By the way, in certain tabletop RPG circles this tactic has been known for years as the ol' "Traveller Trampoline".
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Oct 13, 2012 05:04
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Splashy Gravy posted:This is probably far too vague, but I 'll give it a shot anyways: It was a scifi book published no later than the 90's. The only scene I can remember was when the human protagonist was fighting an antagonist that was a humanoid(possibly bug-like) alien creature. The protagonist beat the living crap out of the alien by rapidly alternating the artificial gravity of the room the alien occupied from bone-crushing on the floor to bone-crushing on the ceiling. BatteredFeltFedora posted:By the way, in certain tabletop RPG circles this tactic has been known for years as the ol' "Traveller Trampoline".
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Oct 13, 2012 06:11
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I am looking for a monologue book that I had years ago in high school. I remember that it had a pink cover, and there was a monologue in it where Monica Lewinsky was speaking, and she had a dream that she was having sex with Wolf Blitzer, and also some sort of alien hybrid. If anyone recalls just that monologue, that would be great too, as that is the reason that I need the book.
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Oct 14, 2012 02:47
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I read a story online (I'm pretty sure it was online, not 100% sure though) a year or two ago in a near-future setting where a handful of ludicrously rich people, who were practically whole countries in terms of net worth, controlled the world, and several major corporations existed solely for the purpose of trying to come up with some brilliant idea for a product one of these super-rich people would actually want to buy. The protagonist works for one of these companies; the product he eventually creates is some kind of virus or nanomachine or something that forces peoples' brains to rewire themselves to be perfectly rational. YES! nervous breakdown averted. Thanks! vvvvvv Mr. Stay-Puft fucked around with this message at 13:36 on Oct 16, 2012 |
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Oct 16, 2012 06:23
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Pretty sure that's Chicken Little by Cory Doctorow, in the 28th Annual Year's Best Science Fiction. And also right here!: http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/04/chicken-little
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Oct 16, 2012 08:49
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Got one that I can't remember. All I remember was a scene where a guy goes to a house, and apparently there was a clown? Some kinda zombie or monster clown, and then they were being chased down the road with it in a car. I remember it was something about a birthday party (hence the clown).
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Oct 16, 2012 19:02
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I'm looking for a short story where a woman creates artificial intelligence. She puts it in a realistic-looking android body, but only the head was functional because she hadn't programmed the movements for the rest of the body yet. The android body looked like a child. She put the android in a wheelchair and had her boyfriend? husband? watch over it for a day, saying it was a friend's child. When she gets back, the man is reading a book to the robot and the line he's on is something about golems turning into real people. She says "Very funny, how long did it take you to figure it out?" to which he replies, "Figure what out?" At the end of the story, the woman still hasn't told anyone about the AI, but she's basically gone crazy because after spending so long programming that AI, she can now predict how every conversation will play out before it does, and becomes really isolated because of that. I should mention that the AI wasn't actually intelligent, it worked like the Chinese room thought experiment to give the appearance of intelligence. e: The man's name was something like Sam, or Stan. The book he was reading from was the Golem of Prague miryei fucked around with this message at 04:43 on Oct 18, 2012 |
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Oct 18, 2012 03:30
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Long shot but... this was a series I read back in highschool, best I can describe it is basically Farscape without the ship. Basic premise was some dude gets sucked through a wormhole and ends up on ths collection of alien structures that are almost planetsize, I think the first book has him on the edges of the solar system or the milky way and then it just keeps on getting further and further...
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Oct 19, 2012 01:21
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OWLS! posted:Long shot but... this was a series I read back in highschool, best I can describe it is basically Farscape without the ship. vvv Hooray! vvv Runcible Cat fucked around with this message at 10:11 on Oct 21, 2012 |
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Oct 19, 2012 08:36
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Holy gently caress, yes it is. Thank you!
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Oct 19, 2012 13:30
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The post a few entries up about the party and a monster reminds me of a similar short story, that starts with people driving to a get together. It's night, and they're traveling on some lonesome back roads without any streetlights. They go by a field I think, and either one of them or everyone in the car sees this thing running alongside the road. It's a big, bizarre looking thing. They pass it off as a bear (or if only one of them saw it, doesn't mention it), and finally arrive at the house. I recall there being some tension at the party, some people having problems. I think one of the guys from the car goes upstairs to be alone, and the thing they drove past busts into the house and starts killing everyone. I don't recall how it ends, if the person upstairs makes it or is eaten in the end. I read this in the late-90s, so it's at least from that period. Another short takes place in an insane asylum. A person, I want to say a woman, is there investigating something. There's some back story, either told to them or simply given through the narration to us the reader, about a crazy person that killed himself by ripping open his wrists with his teeth and bleeding to death. Anyway, the person ends up in that guy's cell for whatever reason, and sees the ghost of the crazy guy. I remember the description of the ghost mentioning something like inky stuff flowing from the ghost's wrists where he tore them open in life. I don't recall how it ended, either.
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Oct 22, 2012 09:37
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This has been haunting me for years, and I haven't been able to find any clues on Google. I read a children's novel years ago, and have absolutely no idea of the author or title. It was about a girl whose family moved to a run-down old house after her parents had triplets (two boys and a girl, I believe). The plot revolved around the girl investigating the history of the house, and ultimately finding a number of bodies that had been buried in the yard by the previous owner. The book was probably written on a fifth-sixth grade level or so, and I probably read it twenty years or so ago. I also remember there being some simple illustrations-crude diagrams, if I remember. Does this plot ring any bells for anybody?
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Oct 26, 2012 17:01
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