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Wolfechu posted:Here's one a customer asked in the bookstore I work in yesterday, and it sounds familiar enough that it's annoying the hell out of me. If it was actually in the early 90s this might be Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones. It features (apparent) time travel, Arthurian references, and a futuristic galactic government/corporation. It's... odd.
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Dec 17, 2012 07:32
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RC and Moon Pie posted:I think I've asked this before and if I did, I didn't get a response. OK, this is a long shot, and almost certainly wrong, but could you be thinking of "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been," by Joyce Carol Oates? The climax of the story is a girl alone in her house, being pursued by a mysterious creep-o, while her parents and the rest of her family are away at a barbecue. The story is from the late '60s, and is the sort of thing that pops up in English classes.
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Dec 17, 2012 20:27
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Centripetal Horse posted:OK, this is a long shot, and almost certainly wrong, but could you be thinking of "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been," by Joyce Carol Oates? The climax of the story is a girl alone in her house, being pursued by a mysterious creep-o, while her parents and the rest of her family are away at a barbecue. The story is from the late '60s, and is the sort of thing that pops up in English classes. That's funny because it reminded me of another Joyce Carol Oates story, Strip Poker, which is about a girl vacationing in her family's cottage, but then she goes off with some older guys who get her drunk and make her play strip poker. As far as I can tell that story is from 2011 though.
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Dec 17, 2012 22:28
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navyjack posted:I read this too. The boy was playing baseball with himself, and there was a button on the bat that recalled the ball to him. I want to say it was by Ben Bova. Really hope someone knows what it is, it's been driving me nuts for years, and it seems to be impossible to Google for.
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Dec 18, 2012 00:39
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angelicism posted:Really hope someone knows what it is, it's been driving me nuts for years, and it seems to be impossible to Google for. It's funny because since I've been thinking about it, I remember more and more about it. The baseball glows because he can hit it so far in lower gravity, makes it easier to see. There's a siren that goes off, and he starts hauling rear end for the house. I think one of the diamonds cuts his shirt or his heel, but not his skin before he gets in the house. And he's all pissed at the end because his mom makes him go shovel the diamonds off the walk. I almost feel like it was in a middle school English text. And I would have read it almost 30 years ago, so it's definitely old.
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Dec 18, 2012 05:06
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God dammit now I am remembering this book. I think it was a short story though, and not an entire book.
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Dec 18, 2012 05:11
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Googling found another person looking for it, but I can't log in to see if there were any answers: http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-sci-fi-short-story-in-which-it-rains-diamonds-on-the-moon#.
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Dec 18, 2012 05:15
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miryei posted:Part of this sounds a lot like Learning to be Me by Greg Egan. Nope, just looked and it's not that one.
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Dec 18, 2012 10:38
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In this scifi novel humanity meets up with a one eyed alien that looks like a giant fly with tenticles to see about joining an intergalactic community, and gets turned down. i used to have it. any ideas?
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Dec 19, 2012 00:15
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Kunzelman posted:Don DeLillo's White Noise? Nah, it's just a short story, not a novel. I wish I could find the collection that it was in, but I have no idea where that ended up.
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Dec 19, 2012 07:17
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Food Guy posted:I have a couple of books that I remember, but for the love of my I can't remember what they are called. Reposting these. I can't think of anything to add to the first one. For the second series, I think it may have been a magic bakery, rather than a magic wool shop, because I remember that the owner employs little people to act as wedding cake decorations. And in one of the books there was a large summer or autumn festival, and all the costumes were essentially magical and had cool effects associated with them. I think in the first book there were a couple of people from the outside who managed to find the place and were going to expose it or something. Also, there were magic scarab beetle things that I am pretty sure the two main characters used to message each other. Food Guy fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Dec 20, 2012 |
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Dec 20, 2012 05:26
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A science fiction novel, probably from the '70s or '80s. Aliens give a con-man a ring that gives him hypnotic persuasion abilities that work on anyone he shakes hands with. His job is to herd the entire human race into a giant black cube that ostensibly teleports anyone who walks into it somewhere else. So he shakes hands with world leaders and politicians to convince them that the world is ending, and the cube is the only way to evacuate everyone off of the planet. I'm pretty sure that the true purpose of the cube is sinister. It's a comedy, and is at least famous enough to have a Wikipedia article, but not quite famous enough to warrant me finding that article when I looked for it again after I saw it. Mimir fucked around with this message at 12:53 on Dec 20, 2012 |
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Dec 20, 2012 12:27
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wheatpuppy posted:Googling found another person looking for it, but I can't log in to see if there were any answers: http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-sci-fi-short-story-in-which-it-rains-diamonds-on-the-moon#. That's actually me.  I've been asking the entire world for this for the last few years.
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Dec 20, 2012 17:11
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I recall a couple of stories I read somewhere on the internet within the past few years. It's possible these are elements of the same story. I looked around on creepypasta and did some googling to see if I could find them/it, but haven't had any luck. One story (or one part of the story) involves a community/ world where everyone is not allowed to actually perceive how the world looks; to them, everything is blackness. The primary character is a school-aged boy or girl (I want to say maybe 5th grade or slightly older). His/her school has windows blocked so no one can see out, and everyone has to wear special clothing/glasses. I think the point was something like in the Oz novels, where the Emerald City wasn't actually green, but the glasses Dorothy & Co. were made to wear made them see it as green. Somehow this kid finds out that the community/world has been deceived, and the outside isn't what people think it is. The kid overhears his/her parents and/or other adults discussing the fact that he/she is aware of this reality, so he/she is in danger. Another story (or maybe part of the same story) involves people using spray paint/ graffiti to spread the truth about something. The government treats these people as traitors, or otherwise serious offenders. One character is beaten to death because he/she is spraying this message everywhere. They were reasonably well-written, as far as I can recall, so I don't know that I saw them on a random short story wiki-type website. But anything is possible. ZoeDomingo fucked around with this message at 17:25 on Dec 20, 2012 |
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Dec 20, 2012 17:22
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Mimir posted:A science fiction novel, probably from the '70s or '80s. Aliens give a con-man a ring that gives him hypnotic persuasion abilities that work on anyone he shakes hands with. His job is to herd the entire human race into a giant black cube that ostensibly teleports anyone who walks into it somewhere else. So he shakes hands with world leaders and politicians to convince them that the world is ending, and the cube is the only way to evacuate everyone off of the planet. I'm pretty sure that the true purpose of the cube is sinister.
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Dec 20, 2012 18:35
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pkticker posted:I recall a couple of stories I read somewhere on the internet within the past few years. It's possible these are elements of the same story. I looked around on creepypasta and did some googling to see if I could find them/it, but haven't had any luck. There's no way in hell it isn't Different Kinds of Darkness, by David Langford, which is available online here: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/different-kinds-of-darkness/ . The second part might be a different short story using the Basilisk theme. Runcible Cat posted:It's not one of Lloyd Biggle's Jan Darzek books, is it? No, it was a standalone work, as far as I could tell.
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Dec 21, 2012 06:47
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Prolonged Priapism posted:I had a series of paperback science books maybe 15 years ago. They were small (like smaller than a regular small paperback book) and had lots of color illustrations/photos (along with lots of text). Each book dealt with a different subject (the oceans, dinosaurs, astronomy, insects, and so on). They were well written. The most distinctive feature I can remember about them was that the covers were really brightly colored - the "oceans" book was a shocking blue, the "dinosaurs" one was aqua (maybe), "insects" might have been bright red. The astronomy one was definitely black or brown. They had inset cover illustrations too, but the rest of the covers were a single solid color. There were at least a dozen of them, they were written for maybe a 12 year old to read, and were probably from the early 90s or late 80s. My younger brothers and parents remember the books but not what the series was called. It's killing me! Any ideas? I checked these for you at my parents' house today, and mine are the "A Golden Guide to ____" series. Like this one, but lots of different subjects and colors.
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Dec 21, 2012 07:07
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Mimir posted:A science fiction novel, probably from the '70s or '80s. Aliens give a con-man a ring that gives him hypnotic persuasion abilities that work on anyone he shakes hands with. His job is to herd the entire human race into a giant black cube that ostensibly teleports anyone who walks into it somewhere else. So he shakes hands with world leaders and politicians to convince them that the world is ending, and the cube is the only way to evacuate everyone off of the planet. I'm pretty sure that the true purpose of the cube is sinister. Damon Knight's Why Do Birds?
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Dec 21, 2012 08:28
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pkticker posted:Another story (or maybe part of the same story) involves people using spray paint/ graffiti to spread the truth about something. The government treats these people as traitors, or otherwise serious offenders. One character is beaten to death because he/she is spraying this message everywhere. Mimir posted:The second part might be a different short story using the Basilisk theme. Yes, it might be a misremembered BLIT, also by Dave Langford.
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Dec 21, 2012 11:48
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Lucania posted:Damon Knight's Why Do Birds? This is it. Cover art matches what I remember.
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Dec 21, 2012 12:32
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Mimir posted:There's no way in hell it isn't Different Kinds of Darkness, by David Langford, which is available online here: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/different-kinds-of-darkness/ . The second part might be a different short story using the Basilisk theme. Yes, that's it! Thank you so much! Disappointing egg posted:Yes, it might be a misremembered BLIT, also by Dave Langford. And that! You guys are amazing! Now, my little mystery is how did I stumble on these Langford stories in the first place? Hmm...
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Dec 21, 2012 14:14
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pkticker posted:Now, my little mystery is how did I stumble on these Langford stories in the first place? Hmm... I read them in a hardcopy short story collection some years ago, so you might have originally found them offline. I didn't even know they were online until this thread.
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Dec 21, 2012 16:57
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ToxicFrog posted:I read them in a hardcopy short story collection some years ago, so you might have originally found them offline. I didn't even know they were online until this thread. I did some poking around and here's the hardcopy version, I think. Different Kinds of Darkness
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Dec 21, 2012 18:29
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I have thought about this book or story at least three or four times a year, every time hoping some new combination of search terms will reveal its title. Sorry if its a long shot and just a silly kids book, but for nostalgia's sake I'd love to figure this out, as it is my earliest memory of completing a book on my own. It is probably a short story or perhaps a very short children's book. I read it in 3rd grade maybe, which was 1984 for me. Could be up to 2 years later but anything published after about 1986 is out. It was a realistic setting that turned into a fantasy adventure, maybe a boy running away from home. About the only thing I remember is that the climax of the plot was that to save a (friend/family member/pet?), the protagonist had to hold on to their hand as some malevolent force turned the hand they were holding into a series of things designed to make the protagonist want to let go. The point being that if the protagonist was to prevail, he has to hold on to the hand no matter what. I seem to remember the hand turning into a burning branch, a porcupine, a cobra maybe? There may have been a wizard or something. Thanks in advance.
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Dec 25, 2012 03:31
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uwaeve posted:It was a realistic setting that turned into a fantasy adventure, maybe a boy running away from home. About the only thing I remember is that the climax of the plot was that to save a (friend/family member/pet?), the protagonist had to hold on to their hand as some malevolent force turned the hand they were holding into a series of things designed to make the protagonist want to let go. The point being that if the protagonist was to prevail, he has to hold on to the hand no matter what. I seem to remember the hand turning into a burning branch, a porcupine, a cobra maybe? There may have been a wizard or something. vvv Hooray! Merry Xmas and God bless us every one! vvv Runcible Cat fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Dec 25, 2012 |
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Dec 25, 2012 13:02
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Runcible Cat posted:By "realistic setting" do you mean contemporary setting? The only book with that climax I can think of offhand is Mollie Hunter's The Haunted Mountain, but that's set in Scotland pre-Industrial Revolution. Can you remember any other details at all? This is the best Christmas present That's almost definitely it! By realistic I simply meant it didn't seem like a fantasy setting to begin with, but that fantastic and magical things wound up happening. Could have been wrong on that one. Thank you so much, I've been hoping to figure this out for our son. Though he still has some years to go, he's already as big a bookworm as he can be (hauling us books saying "weed it?").
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Dec 25, 2012 14:24
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Zola posted:I did some poking around and here's the hardcopy version, I think. Different Kinds of Darkness Nope, that's not it, it was a multi-author collection. Looking at the bibliography, it's probably the version in Year's Best SF 6 - I've picked up a lot of those collections in second-hand book sales over the years. E: Langford needs to badger his publisher and get He Do The Time Police in Different Voices and Different Kinds of Darkness on the kobo store. ToxicFrog fucked around with this message at 16:19 on Dec 25, 2012 |
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Dec 25, 2012 16:15
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Looking for a book mentioned in a thread a while back. All I can remember is that it starts off with some ship captain or merchant reading a letter about some mariner. I believe it was a rather recent book and i remembering thinking it reminded me a lot of a China Mieville book but was not by him but it did seem like a weird mash of fantasy/urban fantasy/steampunk(?) I know this is vague I just thought I would throw it out there.
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Dec 26, 2012 22:50
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SilkyP posted:Looking for a book mentioned in a thread a while back. All I can remember is that it starts off with some ship captain or merchant reading a letter about some mariner. I believe it was a rather recent book and i remembering thinking it reminded me a lot of a China Mieville book but was not by him but it did seem like a weird mash of fantasy/urban fantasy/steampunk(?) I know this is vague I just thought I would throw it out there.
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Dec 27, 2012 00:11
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Runcible Cat posted:Tim Lebbon's Fallen, maybe? I don't think so. I know my description is kind of vague, sorry. I know it was a book that had at least two or three books set in the same universe but I'm not sure if they were strictly all part of a series.
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Dec 28, 2012 06:28
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The Ketty Jay series by Chris Wooding? Haven't read it myself, but the way it was described to me was "Firefly in a sci fi fantasy sort of world". The first book is called Retribution Falls. Here's the plot synopsis. quote:Frey is the captain of the Ketty Jay, leader of a small and highly dysfunctional band of layabouts. An inveterate womaniser and rogue, he and his gang make a living on the wrong side of the law, avoiding the heavily armed flying frigates of the Coalition Navy. With their trio of ragged fighter craft, they run contraband, rob airships and generally make a nuisance of themselves. So a hot tip on a cargo freighter loaded with valuables seems like a great prospect for an easy heist and a fast buck. Until the heist goes wrong, and the freighter explodes. Suddenly Frey isn't just a nuisance anymore - he's public enemy number one, with the Coalition Navy on his tail and contractors hired to take him down. But Frey knows something they don't. That freighter was rigged to blow, and Frey has been framed to take the fall. If he wants to prove it, he's going to have to catch the real culprit. He must face liars and lovers, dogfights and gunfights, Dukes and daemons. It's going to take all his criminal talents to prove he's not the criminal they think he is ...
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Dec 28, 2012 12:33
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:The Ketty Jay series by Chris Wooding? Nah this isn't it but this looks interesting. I might have to pick this one up instead!
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Dec 29, 2012 02:45
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Ganymede or Clementine by Cherie Priest, perhaps? They're not that good a match but they're the only things that come immediately to mind. The ships in question are zeppelins, though, not wet-ships.
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Dec 29, 2012 04:32
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Medicinal Penguin posted:I checked these for you at my parents' house today, and mine are the "A Golden Guide to ____" series. Like this one, but lots of different subjects and colors. YES! These are exactly right. Amazing work, I was sure you'd forgotten! Thanks!
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Dec 29, 2012 06:46
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been googling around this morning and can't ID this: there is some kind of AI/alien entity named the "clockmaker," it makes a series of clocks and then it starts making booby traps and bombs
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Dec 30, 2012 20:26
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pile of brown posted:been googling around this morning and can't ID this: there is some kind of AI/alien entity named the "clockmaker," it makes a series of clocks and then it starts making booby traps and bombs
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Dec 30, 2012 20:46
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of course after I post I find it on my own: It's from "The Prefect" by Alistair Reynolds, the clockmaker is an AI that sets itself up in the Glitter Band and is related to the Exordium project.
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Dec 30, 2012 20:58
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Over the summer I read a collection of science fiction short stories, one of the stories was about a scientist who is working on the Manhattan Project during WWII, he leaves the base and goes to an Indian Reservation where he eats some peyote and hallucinates/time travels into the future where the Nazis and the Japanese have conquered America. There he briefly lives on a Japanese collective farm before being captured by Nazis and studied. Eventually he convinces the Nazi pseudo-scientists to find some peyote and he escapes back to his time were he returns to the base and finishes the Manhattan Project. I've tried googling everything I can think of that relates to the story but can't find it, please help.
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Jan 1, 2013 19:28
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a bunch of ants posted:Over the summer I read a collection of science fiction short stories, one of the stories was about a scientist who is working on the Manhattan Project during WWII, he leaves the base and goes to an Indian Reservation where he eats some peyote and hallucinates/time travels into the future where the Nazis and the Japanese have conquered America. There he briefly lives on a Japanese collective farm before being captured by Nazis and studied. Eventually he convinces the Nazi pseudo-scientists to find some peyote and he escapes back to his time were he returns to the base and finishes the Manhattan Project. http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?40842
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Jan 1, 2013 19:56
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SilkyP posted:Looking for a book mentioned in a thread a while back. All I can remember is that it starts off with some ship captain or merchant reading a letter about some mariner. I believe it was a rather recent book and i remembering thinking it reminded me a lot of a China Mieville book but was not by him but it did seem like a weird mash of fantasy/urban fantasy/steampunk(?) I know this is vague I just thought I would throw it out there.
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