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I tried to get some books/stories identified in this thread a couple years back, and no one was able to help. After Zola's (my hero!) success finding Web of Danger, I'm hoping lightning will strike, again. One: OK, I am about to provide you with virtually no useful information and ask you to identify a book based on that lack of information. I do not expect success, but this has been bugging me for years. I read this book perhaps fifteen or twenty years ago. I think it was some sort of social satire, that followed some guy around as he bounced in and out of weird situations. I seem to remember that the main character was often lost in "reverie" (I quote it because reverie was the actual word used, not just a general concept of daydreaming.) It gets suggested nearly every time, so let me say: No, this is not Walter Mitty. I remember that the description on the back of the book included something about insurance being the work of the devil. I don't remember if this was some lesson the main character learned, but I think it was something like that. It might have read something like, "[X] does this, learns that, and discovers why life insurance is the work of the devil." Yeah, that's not a lot to go on, but maybe... just, maybe. Two: The story (a shortish novel?) was about a high school (I think) track and field athlete who wanted to pole vault, but kept being held back by his (her?) own fears. At the top of the vault, he would always freak out and end up clinging to the pole instead of pushing it away. I don't remember if he always had this problem, or if it started after an accident (I seem to remember an injured ankle in there, somewhere), but the main conflict in the story was about this kid overcoming his fear and finally pushing away the pole to make a successful vault.
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Jan 3, 2013 23:22
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Centripetal Horse posted:I tried to get some books/stories identified in this thread a couple years back, and no one was able to help. After Zola's (my hero!) success finding Web of Danger, I'm hoping lightning will strike, again. Any possibility that the first one is Preferred Risk by Frederik Pohl? What might help is if you can talk a little about the kinds of books you were reading at the time. Were you doing studious intellectual books, or were you sticking with light stuff such as Web of Danger? Were you in high school or in college? Were you going through a literary stage, or just reading for fun? Obviously, any additional details you can give would be useful
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Jan 4, 2013 03:05
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Centripetal Horse posted:Two: I've never read anything specifically like this (and a cursory search doesn't turn up anything about pole vaulting specifically) but this sounds almost exactly like the sort of stuff Matt Christopher writes. Short novels for kids about young athletes overcoming fears, a weak throwing arm, an unusual body type for the sport, and so on. He's written dozens of books about all kinds of sports. They're targeted more towards elementary/middle school kids though. Might be a good place to start.
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Jan 4, 2013 09:50
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I'm trying to find a book I read a long time ago back in 2002 or such. It was a fantasy book with a pink cover and about 300 pages or more, but I can't remember the title or the author. It was about the two elf kids growing up, the book never calls them elves it calls them some other made up word. one of them is a girl and I don't really remember what her deal was, but the other was a boy who was a bit more interesting. when he was young he fell down a pit or something and met these giant beetle things, and then they haunt him all through his life after they spare him. He grows up and later in falls down the pit again, but this time wanders deeper in instead of trying to run away. I remember that he discovers that the elves or whatever originally came out of the ground where there is no light, and he has adventures in a lightless society down in the caves. The only scene I vividly remember was a part in the story where he was captured and his captor cracked some flint for brief illumination, and it was a surreal experience for the character since it was the first thing he had actually seen in weeks. That's all I really remember, the only vague title I've been able to come up with is "children of light" but that hasn't turned up anything. I've been searching on and off for what this book was for a while
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Jan 5, 2013 04:20
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The gang-rape and murder of the young woman in India brought up memories of a story I read probably in the mid-late 90's. There is a female journalist who is doing a story on female infanticide in a Middle Eastern country which resulted in some ridiculous gender disparity (population was 80% male, 20% female, something like that). This country was (of course) run Muslim extremists, and was (in retrospect to real life) just as bad than the Taliban in terms of objectification, vilification, and degradation of women. But it was worse because rape was such a common and violent occurrence that any woman outside her home needed no less than three bodyguards in order to prevent attacks. At the end the female journalist (not the main character, I think it was first person) goes off on her own and gets raped in an elevator. Obviously, the story was disturbing on a number of levels. I want to say it was science fiction, since that was mostly what I read back then, but I'm not sure. It may have been near-future / dystopia / social commentary science fiction, since it wasn't aliens and lasers science fiction. Edit: Yes! That's it! Thanks a ton! My dad was a member of the SF&F book club for years, and would periodically get random books in the mail from them. I think this was one of them, I'll have to see if I can find it next time I'm at home. Beef Hardcheese fucked around with this message at 17:04 on Jan 5, 2013 |
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Jan 5, 2013 15:20
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It's a short story in "How to Save the World", an anthology edited by Charles Sheffield. I'm away from my copy right now so I can't tell you the exact title but looking at a list of contents I suspect it might be "Buyer's Remorse" by Katherine Koja and Barry Malzburg? EDIT: vvvvv Hey, I bet that's right. vvvvv Lemniscate Blue fucked around with this message at 07:54 on Jan 6, 2013 |
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Jan 5, 2013 16:08
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BatteredFeltFedora posted:It's a short story in "How to Save the World", an anthology edited by Charles Sheffield. I'm away from my copy right now so I can't tell you the exact title but looking at a list of contents I suspect it might be "Buyer's Remorse" by Katherine Koja and Barry Malzburg? I think it's "Choice" by Lawrence Watt-Evans. An Amazon reviewer described it thusly: quote:In college anthropology I was first introduced to the dilemma faced by many feminists in Asia (and other locales) regarding abortion. It is, in short, that the rhetoric of "reproductive choice" that has dominated liberal discourse on the issue for almost two generations (i.e., that a woman's choice to terminate a pregnancy is absolute and absolutely hers) stands in uncomfortable company with third-world cultural realities which lead most women with free access to contemporary reproductive technologies to abort only female fetuses. Watt-Evans presents a "culturally pure" (read: third world) society, presumably in the Middle East, where poverty, disease, overpopulation, etc. have been become things of the past. How? By allowing women to make their free choices, aborting females and keeping males until the ratio of men to women is over 10 to 1. This, as we see in the story, poses its own interesting problems.
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Jan 5, 2013 16:41
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Treffies posted:I'm trying to find a book I read a long time ago back in 2002 or such. It was a fantasy book with a pink cover and about 300 pages or more, but I can't remember the title or the author. It was about the two elf kids growing up, the book never calls them elves it calls them some other made up word. one of them is a girl and I don't really remember what her deal was, but the other was a boy who was a bit more interesting. when he was young he fell down a pit or something and met these giant beetle things, and then they haunt him all through his life after they spare him. He grows up and later in falls down the pit again, but this time wanders deeper in instead of trying to run away. I remember that he discovers that the elves or whatever originally came out of the ground where there is no light, and he has adventures in a lightless society down in the caves. The only scene I vividly remember was a part in the story where he was captured and his captor cracked some flint for brief illumination, and it was a surreal experience for the character since it was the first thing he had actually seen in weeks.
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Jan 6, 2013 00:01
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Sadly, no, I don't think so. This book seems to be about kids jumping dimensions or something like that. I figured it might have been the same author because the writing seemed similar, but that wasn't true either.
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Jan 6, 2013 05:11
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I've been wondering about this book for years. It's young adult, historical fiction. Borrowed it from the library around the very late 80's early 90's. It's set during the early Twentieth Century/Great Depression. I believe the author was female. It's set in either Chicago or New York or some large northern city which has elevated subways which rumble outside the buildings. There's two brothers who for some reason come home and find their mom is gone, she may have run off or been killed. They live off of the food in their apartment for a while and then venture out and take the train and buy hot dogs and sodas for a nickel. The big clue is that they end up riding the rails going west, to search for relatives or their dad perhaps, and one of the kids calls Los Angeles "Lost and Jealous". I believe the back cover blurb mentioned the "Lost and Jealous" part. The cover art work was a bit gloomy and dark, I'm tempted to say two kids peeking out of a boxcar. Some frightening stuff with hobos and hobo camps may have happened as well. Even though I was getting into more adult fiction at the time I remember being a bit haunted by that story. Googling the hell out of lists of YA fiction set in the Depression, it's like it doesn't exist. Edit: Found it thru http://whatsthatbook.com/ Thanks to whoever posted that link earlier in the thread. Apparently was thinking of two different books: "Cave under the City" by Harry Mazer, for the abandoned kids in the city part at least. The rail riding part is "Tracks" by Clayton Bess. It's even darker than I remember: evil hobos, the Klan lynches a Mexican kid and try to blame it on the brothers, and the older brother eventually gets shot. Both books have two kids peering out of an alleyway/boxcar on the cover so I guess that's how I mixed them up. Looks Like A Camaro fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Jan 11, 2013 |
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Jan 6, 2013 08:56
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Zola posted:Any possibility that the first one is Preferred Risk by Frederik Pohl? I don't think it's Preferred Risk, but thanks for the suggestions, because I like Pohl, and that sounds pretty good. I've never really gone through literary phases, I always read whatever catches my interest, at the moment. I am currently reading Three Felonies a Day, a book about certain broken areas of American law, a couple of Dilbert collections, a Year's Best science fiction collection, and The Psychopath: Emotion and Brain. I recently finished a biography about Einstein, and a biography of his famous e=mc^2 equation (two separate works), and an Asimov textbook on the subject of atomic physics. This is pretty typical of my reading habits, with the only "phases" or streaks usually being made up of science fiction novels and short stories. I was probably in junior high school when I read the book with the "reverie" angle and the little blurb about insurance. I really wish I could remember more about it, and I don't ever expect anyone to successfully identify the book, but I always hope someone will come along and go, "Oh, yeah... insurance is the work of the devil, that's from..." If it helps, I think the book was pretty satirical, maybe even a sort of modern farce à la A Confederacy of Dunces, but less extreme. Did you get the no-ads certificate I sent you way back when? I never followed up on it, I just assumed it came through. Prolonged Priapism posted:I've never read anything specifically like this (and a cursory search doesn't turn up anything about pole vaulting specifically) but this sounds almost exactly like the sort of stuff Matt Christopher writes. Short novels for kids about young athletes overcoming fears, a weak throwing arm, an unusual body type for the sport, and so on. He's written dozens of books about all kinds of sports. They're targeted more towards elementary/middle school kids though. Might be a good place to start. Yes, those Christopher books seem to be targeted to a younger audience than the one I am looking for. The book about the poler vaulter was a fairly serious young adult type novel. I think the main character was in high school, although I was probably a little younger than high school age when I read it. Centripetal Horse fucked around with this message at 14:42 on Jan 6, 2013 |
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Jan 6, 2013 14:39
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Centripetal Horse posted:I don't think it's Preferred Risk, but thanks for the suggestions, because I like Pohl, and that sounds pretty good. Yeah, thought I had pm'ed you to tell you it went through okay. It did, it's really great. I got the Pohl book from of all things, Wikipedia, in the section of the Fictional Actuaries that deals with actuaries in literature, and Pohl had done two novels with C.M. Kornbluth, The Space Merchants and The Merchant's War that were satires on advertising (and they were prescient in some disturbing ways), so I wondered if maybe that was the one. I had also found an author who is well-known for satire, William Tenn, I have one of his story collections, The Square Root of Man, but the back cover yields no insurance quote. (pun not intended) The reason I asked if you were going through perhaps a literary phase is because Kurt Vonnegut did quite a bit of satire, as did Franz Kafka. You might check out "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" (Vonnegut), which is summarized by Wikipedia: quote:The plot focuses on Eliot Rosewater, the primary trustee of the philanthropic Rosewater Foundation, whom one of the family lawyers, Norman Mushari, is attempting to have declared insane, in order for a distant relative, Fred Rosewater, an insurance salesman from Rhode Island, to gain control. Where did you get your books at that point? Did you just go to the bookstore and buy them, or is it likely they were from your school library or public library? That may seem like an odd question, but would help to narrow it down. Unfortunately, the "lost in reverie" isn't as helpful because it was a real common phrase in novels for a while there. Anyway, check the references on the Wikipedia article, because there's a link to an association of actuaries who actually have a fiction contest every year, and somebody from that site may remember your book. Zola fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Jan 6, 2013 |
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Jan 6, 2013 18:39
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Zola posted:Yeah, thought I had pm'ed you to tell you it went through okay. It did, it's really great. Good, I'm glad. Zola posted:I got the Pohl book from of all things, Wikipedia, in the section of the Fictional Actuaries that deals with actuaries in literature, and Pohl had done two novels with C.M. Kornbluth, The Space Merchants and The Merchant's War that were satires on advertising (and they were prescient in some disturbing ways), so I wondered if maybe that was the one. I may have read one or more of these. I like both Konrbluth and Pohl, although some of Kornbluth's solo stuff is a bit angry. Zola posted:I had also found an author who is well-known for satire, William Tenn, I have one of his story collections, The Square Root of Man, but the back cover yields no insurance quote. (pun not intended) Oh, yes, of course. I love William Tenn/Philip Klass. "Time in Advance" is one of my all-time favorite science fiction stories, hilarious satire. I am pretty sure this was not a science fiction novel, though. Zola posted:Where did you get your books at that point? Did you just go to the bookstore and buy them, or is it likely they were from your school library or public library? That may seem like an odd question, but would help to narrow it down. Unfortunately, the "lost in reverie" isn't as helpful because it was a real common phrase in novels for a while there. There's about a 50/50 chance the book came from my local library, otherwise I found it in a book store, maybe a smallish chain like Little Professor. I remember the book being on a shelf, I think a rotating display, and plucking it off to read the back cover. I don't know if the actuaries would be helpful on this one, because I don't recall if the insurance thing was a major plot point, or just some funny one-off lesson learned by the main character. It is possible the main character sold insurance or worked for an insurance company, but I don't recall. I truly expect nothing but failure in searching for this book, but it's been driving me crazy for years, and I figure it's worth a shot.
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Jan 6, 2013 19:26
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Centripetal Horse posted:
Fiction or non-fiction, do you remember? What year, roughly? Did you check out the Vonnegut and do an image search for the different covers?
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Jan 7, 2013 04:33
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A friend of mine recently told me he wanted to remember the name of a book he read a long time ago, so I figured I'd ask about it here. It's about a girl who robs an old man then somehow dies after it, only to come back as a ghost and help the old man accomplish his life goals before he dies. Any takers? e: Thanks a ton, Polka_Rapper! Lori fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Jan 7, 2013 |
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Jan 7, 2013 10:26
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Brohannes Brahms posted:A friend of mine recently told me he wanted to remember the name of a book he read a long time ago, so I figured I'd ask about it here. It's about a girl who robs an old man then somehow dies after it, only to come back as a ghost and help the old man accomplish his life goals before he dies. Any takers? The Wish List by Eoin Colfer
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Jan 7, 2013 10:38
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Satire. Reverie. Insurance. Sounds a bit like 'Something Happened', Joseph Heller.
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Jan 7, 2013 12:35
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I've been trying to find a book that I read as a child and my google searches have been futile and fruitless. It is a historical fiction novel set in the Civl War era where the main character is a young man who decides to enlist in the Union army. There he meets the Bad Character who is a captain that orders a Confederate spy to be executed, which goes against the rest of the troops' wishes since the spy is also rather young for his years as well. After this occurs, the main character is sent to act as a spy for the Union army and enlists in the CSA. Through his travels with the CSA he meets a girl who is the sister of the Confederate spy who was executed in the beginning of the book. Also the Bad Union captain shows up as a traitor who has been smuggling the Springfield repeater rifles to the CSA; the main character makes a dramatic escape and the book ends. At this point, I'd like to know the title so I can use it as an easier introduction to historical fiction for one of my younger cousins so she can then read The Killer Angels but I can't seem to find the title of this book.
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Jan 7, 2013 15:20
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Furious Lobster posted:I've been trying to find a book that I read as a child and my google searches have been futile and fruitless. It is a historical fiction novel set in the Civl War era where the main character is a young man who decides to enlist in the Union army. There he meets the Bad Character who is a captain that orders a Confederate spy to be executed, which goes against the rest of the troops' wishes since the spy is also rather young for his years as well. After this occurs, the main character is sent to act as a spy for the Union army and enlists in the CSA. Through his travels with the CSA he meets a girl who is the sister of the Confederate spy who was executed in the beginning of the book. Also the Bad Union captain shows up as a traitor who has been smuggling the Springfield repeater rifles to the CSA; the main character makes a dramatic escape and the book ends. Possibly "Rifles for Watie" by Harold Keith?
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Jan 7, 2013 17:54
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Zola posted:Fiction or non-fiction, do you remember? Definitely fiction, pretty sure it's not Vonnegut, but I am looking through his catalog, now. I have no idea what the cover looked like. This is probably a pretty hopeless search. Lot 49 posted:Satire. Doesn't look like it, but now I think I'll add that one to my reading list. Speaking of insurance... Here's another one I've been trying to find for a long time. It's a book about a kid with a high IQ, I think the number might be 154. Mostly, I think it's just a book about him dealing with being so unusual, intelligence-wise. There is a scene in the book where the kid (sneaks?) into his father's workplace to tell his father this great scheme the kid has come up with for preventing war: make all the countries buy insurance from each other. The father was probably an insurance salesman, or actuary, or some such. I remember the kid gets a beating from his dad for this little stunt. I think my parents brought this home for me when I was in the general age bracket of the kid in the story, so, maybe twenty-five years ago, give or take. I've tried combinations of "154," "genius kid," "insurance," "kid with high IQ comes up with plan to end wars," and so on, with no luck. The 154 number may or may not be correct, but it's the number I always think of when I think of the book. The number may be the title of the book, but, if it is, 154 is unlikely to be correct, because it doesn't come up under that title.
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Jan 7, 2013 18:18
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I'm trying to track down the source of a random little scene that popped into my head recently. I think it may have been from Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series. I'm hoping someone here who's read that recently can confirm/deny. It's set in 19th-century America, and features a holier-than-thou old maid who spends all her time embroidering Bible scenes. She's obsessed with sin so all her little decorative pillows feature "Delilah tempting Sampson" and "Rahab seducing the soldiers" and "Salome's dance of the veils" and basically her whole house is filled with images of scantily-clad women. Another character, probably the villain, notices this and realizes she must be very passionate underneath her repression so he seduces her then abandons her. I'm not sure if he was trying to get something from her like money or information or if he was just a dick. So, does this ring a bell for anyone?
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Jan 8, 2013 11:28
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BatteredFeltFedora posted:Possibly "Rifles for Watie" by Harold Keith? Yes, thanks for the identification!
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Jan 8, 2013 17:41
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A part of a book I've been thinking about for a bit now, and I originally wanted to say it's from a Hardy Boys book, but after considering it further, I don't think so, since I want to say the boys are younger than the Hardy Boys, and I don't think I've even read a HB book as it is. Though I think it's a mystery story along the same lines as the HB books. Anyway, the scene has these two boys in what I think is a studio back lot built to look like a Western town, though I think it's disused at the point the boys get to it. For some reason they're either following a gang of criminals, or are running from them. They end up in a building in the Western town, and find some gunbelts with Colt Peacemakers in the holsters. The boys think they're leftover props from some movie or show, and put the belts on and start acting like cowboys or whatever. I seem to recall that the guns being described as heavy and smelling like gun oil, meaning they're real guns and not props, though this doesn't dawn on the boys until one of them draws and fires. He drops the gun as the noise of the shot and the recoil startles him, since he was expecting a prop gun. I believe the shot ended up going in the floor, but I'm not sure. The boys strip the guns off after that. The bad guys show up, and I think get suspicious when they realize one of the guns has been fired.
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Jan 10, 2013 02:27
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Detective Thompson posted:A part of a book I've been thinking about for a bit now, and I originally wanted to say it's from a Hardy Boys book, but after considering it further, I don't think so, since I want to say the boys are younger than the Hardy Boys, and I don't think I've even read a HB book as it is. Though I think it's a mystery story along the same lines as the HB books. Anyway, the scene has these two boys in what I think is a studio back lot built to look like a Western town, though I think it's disused at the point the boys get to it. For some reason they're either following a gang of criminals, or are running from them. They end up in a building in the Western town, and find some gunbelts with Colt Peacemakers in the holsters. The boys think they're leftover props from some movie or show, and put the belts on and start acting like cowboys or whatever. I seem to recall that the guns being described as heavy and smelling like gun oil, meaning they're real guns and not props, though this doesn't dawn on the boys until one of them draws and fires. He drops the gun as the noise of the shot and the recoil startles him, since he was expecting a prop gun. I believe the shot ended up going in the floor, but I'm not sure. The boys strip the guns off after that. The bad guys show up, and I think get suspicious when they realize one of the guns has been fired. It could be one of the Bobbsey Twins books. They read a lot like the Hardy Boys, but with younger characters. They featured two sets of twins. An older boy and girl and a younger boy and girl. I couldn't tell you which one. The only one that I remember was one set on a beach, but I couldn't tell you the title to that one either.
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Jan 10, 2013 05:46
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Ok, tough one. Story in a super-hero anthology from maybe 15-20 years ago. The POV is a superhero working with a group and his power is punching things hard by "flexing his arm in a special way only he can." He's a human-looking alien with a superman backstory. A woman obsessed with him discovers his secret identity, and he rejects her because he has no sexual interest in humans because they smell wrong and move wrong and he talks about how he almost starved as an infant before his foster mother found things he could eat. At the end, he says that if she exposes him or won't leave him alone, he'll kill her because he's only a hero to fit in and have something to do.
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Jan 11, 2013 19:18
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One of the Boys by Lawrence Watt-Evans, anthology called Superheroes. Came out in 95.
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Jan 11, 2013 20:01
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:One of the Boys by Lawrence Watt-Evans, anthology called Superheroes. Came out in 95. Wow. Just...wow. Thanks!
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Jan 12, 2013 00:36
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I read it last year or the year before. It was a pretty good story, kinda sticks with ya 
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Jan 12, 2013 01:59
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I have one, not necessarily a story, there was a collection of books that my mother purchased years ago. I want to say that I was 11 or 12, so '91-92. It was a series of books that had different activities for kids, it was color coded by groups. There was red, yellow, green, and a few others. I think there was about 30 books in total, each was only 30 pages or so.
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Jan 12, 2013 04:10
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When I was a kid I read a picture book/graphic novel aimed at adolescents that was a story about a family making a pilgrimage across the old west to start a new life for themselves. They were farmers and the family loaded everything they had into a couple of wagons and set off. On their journey they suffer losses and encounter both friendly and aggressive native american folks, a mix of great and awful weather and run into others making similar pilgrimages. I recall one the the family's daughters (Louisa) dies on the way and they bury her, with a single page with an image of them trekking across the snow with the single line "Louisa died" at the bottom. I recall at the end they build a cabin and begin their lives anew. This book struck a real chord with me, because the tone was so bleak yet you really rooted for the family despite the trying conditions, challenges and poverty they had to work through. It was the first story I read that introduced me to varying emotions while reading and it kinda got the ball rolling for me as an avid reader. To top it off, I remember the illustrations being really detailed with huge, open expanses in a very nice style capturing the old west (so far as how a kid growing up in New Zealand imagined it) in a really captivating way. I would be massively appreciative if someone could name this story for me, as its something I'm been wanting to read again for years. I'd imagine it was written in the late 70s, perhaps the very early 80s.
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Jan 14, 2013 14:41
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dissectional posted:When I was a kid I read a picture book/graphic novel aimed at adolescents that was a story about a family making a pilgrimage across the old west to start a new life for themselves. They were farmers and the family loaded everything they had into a couple of wagons and set off. On their journey they suffer losses and encounter both friendly and aggressive native american folks, a mix of great and awful weather and run into others making similar pilgrimages. Are you sure his was a book, and not you playing a game of Oregon Trail? How many people do you remember dying of dysentery after caulking the wagon and attempting to float across the river?
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Jan 14, 2013 22:01
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This has been bothering me for the past few years. Unfortunately I don't remember much about it except for a few pieces and one minor character's name. And even what I do remember might be wrong. Still, I'd really like to find it again and see why I liked it so much when I read it. It was a book geared towards preteens(?) about a family of dragons, and eventually, some humans too. The book made a lot of time-jumps, especially early on, and it was following a Christian timeline, so there was some God stuff going on I guess  I think the beginning took place in Eden, a week into the world's creation. There were two dragons then(?). A few chapters in, it was just before the Flood that wiped the population out. There's a bunch of dragons now, although nearly all of them are evil because sin and stuff, the reason why the Flood happened, etc. The two dragons from the beginning had a daughter named Roxanne who was in love with one of the evil dragons. Dad interferes; Roxanne says "screw you, Dad", and things end badly for her. I think she survives though, and the whole thing never comes up ever again.The rest of it is extremely hazy to me. I think another part of it takes place in the Arthurian legend timeframe, when the dragons have to hide so they won't be killed by the knights. (Which reminds me: I think the dragons were able to shapeshift into human form now.) Eventually, some stuff happens between a human and a dragon (  ) and there's a half-human, half-dragon who comes out of the relationship. This is in the present-day, I think. Pretty sure her parents get killed towards the end.That's all I remember. If it helps, I originally found the book in a church library, and the book was in almost-new shape. I'm not entirely sure why, since I don't remember it being particularly religious or Bible-thumping outside of references to Biblical events like the Flood. I vaguely recall the cover being dark blue, depicting an unlit bedroom with the door open, a shadowy figure standing in the doorway, and a girl with dragon wings in bed, with her back to the door (the half-dragon girl). I honestly have no idea if that's accurate, though, it's been 4 or 5 years since I read it. I've searched all over the internet for this damned thing, so I think it's a long shot, but if anyone in the thread knows it, I'd really appreciate it.
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Jan 16, 2013 23:51
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melodicwaffle posted:Book about Dragons surviving the Flood Try this: Eye of the Oracle.
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Jan 17, 2013 00:12
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pkticker posted:Try this: Eye of the Oracle. Holy poo poo, you're the best. Thanks a bunch!
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Jan 17, 2013 00:16
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I have been trying to remember the name of a book for quite some time. Read it in highschool so my knowledge might be a bit sketchy. From what i can remember, the cover had a picture of a man sitting on a rock ledge, holding a rather large rifle and next to him was a spherical robot. Basic premise of the story: Famous hunters pay well to go to an Earth-like world to hunt the greatest prey known, a sort of either large cat or dog like species. So, jump ahead a bit, the hunter discovers that the animal is actually a sentient creature. He discovers some ruins of stone structures that were pretty much lasered from low-orbit to try and hide their existence so that the company could own the planet. Corporation tries to kill hunter to continue to hide the fact they are selling hunts on sentient life and destroyed the beginnings of a civilization. Sadly, this is all i can remember.
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Jan 18, 2013 12:52
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Long shot since I remember so very little: It's a book I read in the early 90s that's is about/has a magic sandman in it, and kids (people?) go to a different world, maybe a dream world? Might of just been magic sand instead of a person. It's not the comic book Sandman, but that makes it hard to search. Sorry I cant be more specific.
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Jan 21, 2013 21:46
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Athanatos posted:Long shot since I remember so very little: Could it be a story about an evil little boy who can create sandmen to do his bidding? The book I am thinking of is distinctly adult, which yours doesn't really sound like, but...
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Jan 21, 2013 22:51
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Centripetal Horse posted:Could it be a story about an evil little boy who can create sandmen to do his bidding? The book I am thinking of is distinctly adult, which yours doesn't really sound like, but... Maybe? I'm more thinking the Sandman, or magic bag of sand somehow takes the kids to a fantasy world, or other alternate place.  It's a long gone and hazy memory
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Jan 21, 2013 23:47
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Athanatos posted:Maybe? Yeah, I don't think that's the book I was thinking of. My book has a murderous little boy creating blood-sandmen to rampage on his behalf.
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Jan 21, 2013 23:49
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Athanatos posted:Maybe? Could it be the plot in 'The Magic Faraway Tree' where everyone goes to the Land of Dreams? That book has had several covers, by the way. The one I had as a kid looks nothing like the one in that Wikipedia article. miryei fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Jan 22, 2013 |
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Jan 22, 2013 01:43
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