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Tokelau All Star posted:A night watchman at a college discovers a sub-basement with old long abandoned classrooms filled with old desks. As he explores he gradually finds more and more levels until he walks down an enormous utility stairwell leading deep underground where he finally comes to an extremely large dark room, where he finds some demonic doors and fights a were-tiger of some sort. That sounds like unxmaal's "The Stairs and the Doorway", from the Spring/Summer 2011 Ghost Story thread.
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Feb 8, 2013 20:30
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Tokelau All Star posted:I'm not sure if this was in a horror anthology or if I read it online. I really feel like this was a story posted in one of the semiannual ghost story threads, but I could be wrong. And beaten. I should really check for new pages...
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Feb 8, 2013 21:11
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Nice! Thanks buddies! What a cool story.
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Feb 9, 2013 05:07
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A story about a man descending what appears to be an infinite escalator in what I think is a department store. There's no way of getting back up. I think I read it on here a few years ago, but couldn't say for certain. It was definitely online though, not in a "proper book".
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Feb 9, 2013 11:38
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Gambrinus posted:A story about a man descending what appears to be an infinite escalator in what I think is a department store. There's no way of getting back up. I think I read it on here a few years ago, but couldn't say for certain. It was definitely online though, not in a "proper book".
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Feb 9, 2013 11:43
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Fully illustrated, but not a comic book. Realistic art style. A child makes a snowman. Later they look out of the window and the snowman is pointing at them. Ended up that there was a fire or some other reason for the child and their family to get out of the house straight away, that the snowman was trying to warn them about. I think it was a scary ghosty kind of thing because it utterly terrified little me. I still have a thing about people/things pointing at me unexpectedly  I used to read a lot of Usbourne mystery/puzzle books in the 90s, and that's the only place I can think of that this might have been from, but the art style is wrong and I just don't know. It might have been in the ancient girls' magazine annuals like Bunty or Judy that I borrowed from my mum's collection, but it seems too dark for that. Although... now I'm remembering a story about gnomes that came to life and murdered the family who bought the house they lived in, so I guess anything went back then. Also, this one I posted last year: eating only apples posted:One time I read a short story that was really like Stephen King's Misery. It's only now I'm actually reading Misery that I remember it. It was in a collection of short horror stories, probably teen-oriented. Really want to know what it was! eating only apples fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Feb 9, 2013 |
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Feb 9, 2013 21:56
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I've got a very hazy recollection of a concept from a book I guess I must have read 15-20 years ago in my early teens. There's a group of people and they all have to get in a circle. Then some kind of force called "The Fury" comes along and goes round and round the circle, possessing them one by one. They each go crazy with rage while it has hold of them. Eventually it settles on one of them and that is bad for that person in some way.
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Feb 10, 2013 00:27
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Speaking of Stephen King, when I was in grade school I remember opening one of my mom's Stephen King books to a random page. It was a story about a guy who has to kill a puppy. He's reluctant but someone tells him he has to, so he either strangles or smothers the puppy and talks about the light going out of its eyes. I think it was in a book of short stories. I kind of hope it was actually some kind of weird dream 
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Feb 10, 2013 02:07
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A Pinball Wizard posted:Speaking of Stephen King, when I was in grade school I remember opening one of my mom's Stephen King books to a random page. It was a story about a guy who has to kill a puppy. He's reluctant but someone tells him he has to, so he either strangles or smothers the puppy and talks about the light going out of its eyes. I think it was in a book of short stories. I kind of hope it was actually some kind of weird dream I've read all of King's short story collections multiple times and I don't remember a story like this, though it's possible I've just blocked it out.
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Feb 10, 2013 03:51
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Here is a stumper. When I was a kid (circa the early 90s) I stumbled across a series of books for kids. From what I remember these books weren't "Current" to the 90s. Most likely they were published in the 80s, perhaps even earlier. They were science fiction stories taking place far in the future. The main character was a kid. His parents are rich I think, and the kid is an only child and pretty much has no friends. (I don't remember why). At one point the parents buy the kid a robot. The robot and this kid look completely identical, and then they'd get into adventures and things. One detail I remember is that the way to tell the two apart was that the robot walked with this "stiffed knee" walk. Of course the real kid taught himself how to copy it and so in their adventures they'd pretend to be one another and stuff. I stumbled across this guy a couple years ago. I was doing a freelance writing job for an encyclopedia of writers. I actually ended up writing a biography on the guy for this encyclopedia but then I totally forgot the dudes name. Anybody remember these?
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Feb 10, 2013 05:32
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Alfred Slote's My Robot Buddy. I think he did a couple sequels to it too.
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Feb 10, 2013 05:38
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Runcible Cat posted:Thomas Disch, Descending. Thanks!
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Feb 10, 2013 06:00
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Ornamented Death posted:I've read all of King's short story collections multiple times and I don't remember a story like this, though it's possible I've just blocked it out. Same. Not ringing a bell for me either.
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Feb 10, 2013 06:00
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This one's probably a long shot. I read a teaser excerpt (probably the first few chapters) online around 2000. I think it had a real publisher, not self-published, but it may have been a small-press SF house. A present-day historian (I think specifically a science historian) ends up unexpectedly, by unknown means, in just-pre-WWII London. He's able to contact an important scientist working on weapons for the government and convince him of his future knowledge (I recall one of the things that stops him being dismissed as a madman is mentioning "Tube Alloys", the code name of the British nuclear weapons research effort). Anyway, he's able to influence things like research into radar and successful aircraft designs, and accelerates the readiness of the British at the beginning of the war. The end of the excerpt has him looking at a photo from an intelligence report and recognizing a type of German E-boat that shouldn't exist yet. He comes to the realization that the Germans have someone like him on their side. Anyway, I never read anything more than the teaser and I was reminded of it because I'm currently reading R.V. Jones' Most Secret War. I know it's nothing to do with John Birmingham's Weapons of Choice etc., despite some similarities.
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Feb 10, 2013 08:09
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JingleCreb posted:I've got a very hazy recollection of a concept from a book I guess I must have read 15-20 years ago in my early teens. There's a group of people and they all have to get in a circle. Then some kind of force called "The Fury" comes along and goes round and round the circle, possessing them one by one. They each go crazy with rage while it has hold of them. Eventually it settles on one of them and that is bad for that person in some way. The Last Human by Doug Naylor. The 3rd(?) Red Dwarf book, and the first written solo rather than as one half of Grant Naylor, with Rob Grant.
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Feb 10, 2013 10:30
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Sanford posted:The Last Human by Doug Naylor. The 3rd(?) Red Dwarf book, and the first written solo rather than as one half of Grant Naylor, with Rob Grant. Ahhhhhhhyes. Thanks!
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Feb 10, 2013 14:40
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A Pinball Wizard posted:Speaking of Stephen King, when I was in grade school I remember opening one of my mom's Stephen King books to a random page. It was a story about a guy who has to kill a puppy. He's reluctant but someone tells him he has to, so he either strangles or smothers the puppy and talks about the light going out of its eyes. I think it was in a book of short stories. I kind of hope it was actually some kind of weird dream Closest thing I can think of is the cocker spaniel who gets shut into a fridge at the dump in "It."
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Feb 10, 2013 16:29
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Hobnob posted:This one's probably a long shot. I read a teaser excerpt (probably the first few chapters) online around 2000. I think it had a real publisher, not self-published, but it may have been a small-press SF house. The Foresight War, Anthony G Williams. This is probably what you read: http://www.authorsonline.co.uk/viewbook.php?show=sample&eBookID=385
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Feb 11, 2013 19:50
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Unkempt posted:The Foresight War, Anthony G Williams. This is probably what you read: Fantastic! I'm amazed anyone knew that one, especially as it does look like it was self-published. Thank you!
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Feb 11, 2013 21:11
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Clipperton posted:I read this horror anthology when I was a kid and if someone could tell me the title it would be completely awesome. (There's an outside chance I might be remembering stories from two different anthologies.) This one was posted over a year ago, but I remembered this same book when I first saw this post and just managed to find it when I was searching through all my childhood junk I've had in storage for years. It contains at the very minimum the doll story and the one about the mushroom growing lodger, I haven't read through them all to see if the others are there. The book is The Magnet Book of Sinister Stories.
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Feb 12, 2013 22:47
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We read a book a long time ago in class in middle school and i cannot find it or figure out which one it is. I have vague memories. Its a post apocalyptic novel with a self sustained town in a mountainous area that guards the roads in. For some reason some military types show up to confront the townspeople. I remember tanks coming up the road and the decision whether or not to fight them. Anyway we read it in the 80s. I woudl love to find it again and find out what the hel I read. If anyone has any list of possibilities I will sort through them to find it.
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Feb 12, 2013 22:57
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Errant Gin Monks posted:
Robert McCammon's Swan Song has a scene very much like that, it was published in 1987.
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Feb 12, 2013 23:07
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I book I read probably twenty years ago had a plot where the central character runs away from home and stows away on a big hovercraft, which subsequently sinks. He's adrift in the pacific for a time, and then gets guided to an island near Australia by dolphins, where he then starts a new life as a dolphin trainer and learns to talk to them with some kind of translator gadget.
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Feb 13, 2013 13:54
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Belgarath posted:I book I read probably twenty years ago had a plot where the central character runs away from home and stows away on a big hovercraft, which subsequently sinks. He's adrift in the pacific for a time, and then gets guided to an island near Australia by dolphins, where he then starts a new life as a dolphin trainer and learns to talk to them with some kind of translator gadget.
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Feb 13, 2013 16:13
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I've been spending several weeks dredging this out of my memory, and here's what I have: -Children's/young adult book -Written in 60's or 70's (I think) -Possibly from Sweden/Norway? The setting is in one of those Nordic countries. The plot is basically: a boy and a girl, of pre-teen age, become friends and hang out and all that. At some point, the boy teaches the girl the rhythm of an old song. Over the course of the book, they become suspicious of a man (maybe a new teacher at the school?), who they later find out is a spy, and is working out of the school late at night doing spy stuff. After discovering this (alone), the boy is captured by the spy and tied up in the old bomb shelter under the school. Nobody can figure out the whereabouts of the spy until the girl happens to hear a tapping sound that matches the rhythm the boy taught her earlier, and realizes he's somewhere near a steam pipe in the school, tapping on it with his knife. The school staff figures it out and gets the boy out of the bomb shelter. He then can reveal the spy's nefarious plans to attack a Fort or something, and stop him just in time. I've pieced all that together with reasonable certainty, but I cannot remember the names of any of the characters, except for a Police Inspector named Olmstedt, which hasn't proven useful. Help me sleep better at night instead of trying to remember poo poo like this!
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Feb 14, 2013 07:32
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Okay I'm trying to find a book described to me by a friend. I've scoured my library but I can't find anything that fits. It's pretty much a post apocalyptic scenerio where all of the animals on earth go batshit insane and start hunting humans for sport, all of them. So there's very few people left and the story centres around a group of scientists that barricade themselves in Vancouver's University of British Columbia in order to find the cure or reason or whatever. Everything else I have going for me is that it's a fairly thick book that's possibly burgundy?? Her description wasn't very good. It's also definitely not Zoo by James Patterson.
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Feb 14, 2013 07:43
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I'm looking for a short story I read ages ago (really original opening line there). Basically, a small town journalist is looking for a story, and finds out about a cat skeleton that was being recovered from a pond and given a proper burial. It turns out that a pregnant woman killed a cat and the cat turned the unborn baby into a kitten or something? I remember it being pretty good, and I'd love to read it again
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Feb 14, 2013 08:33
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A Pinball Wizard posted:Speaking of Stephen King, when I was in grade school I remember opening one of my mom's Stephen King books to a random page. It was a story about a guy who has to kill a puppy. He's reluctant but someone tells him he has to, so he either strangles or smothers the puppy and talks about the light going out of its eyes. I think it was in a book of short stories. I kind of hope it was actually some kind of weird dream This has been bothering me as a King fan. I read a ton of the short story collections way too quickly so they're all a blur now. But I wonder if maybe it was in either Needful Things (novel) or maybe one of the two main characters did something like it in "Apt Pupil", which was in the collection Different Seasons (with the story that would later be made into Stand By Me)? I don't have hardly any of my book collection after moving, or I would have checked instead of offering guesses, sorry.
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Feb 14, 2013 11:37
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I'm trying to find a book that someone on this forum recommended, and that I thought sounded interesting. I think it was called some variation on "Sorcerers" or "Wizards", and I remember it was described as similar to Harry Potter (wizards at wizard school and all that) but aimed at an older audience.
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Feb 15, 2013 14:46
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Lev Grossman's The Magicians, perhaps?
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Feb 15, 2013 14:59
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Hobnob posted:Lev Grossman's The Magicians, perhaps? I think that's the one, thanks.
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Feb 15, 2013 15:47
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Great Gray Shrike posted:This sounds to me like Bloodsport by William R Burkett Jr. I honestly remembered this more from the picture. Thats it! I really appreciate the help  Its been driving me crazy for last few weeks trying to remember more about it.
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Feb 16, 2013 13:05
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I was looking for a thread like this... awesome. There was a book I read when I was 10-12 or so (it had to have been the late 90s) and it was a run of the mill story about a teenager and his family but out of nowhere the family's baby ate a tub of butter and ended up dying from it. It gave me a huge WTF moment as a kid. Does anyone have any idea what this was or was it just a delusion?
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Feb 19, 2013 00:21
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A Pinball Wizard posted:Speaking of Stephen King, when I was in grade school I remember opening one of my mom's Stephen King books to a random page. It was a story about a guy who has to kill a puppy. He's reluctant but someone tells him he has to, so he either strangles or smothers the puppy and talks about the light going out of its eyes. I think it was in a book of short stories. I kind of hope it was actually some kind of weird dream This sounds SO familiar. I want to say that the kid was made to raise the puppy and was forced to kill it as part of some military training. (Kids were being raised as emotionless super soldiers or something like that?) The game Bioshock has something similar and it made me think of this story when I played it.
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Feb 19, 2013 23:38
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I Love My Axe posted:This sounds SO familiar. I want to say that the kid was made to raise the puppy and was forced to kill it as part of some military training. (Kids were being raised as emotionless super soldiers or something like that?) There's a eunuch mercenary order in Song of Ice and Fire that do this, but that doesn't sound like what's being asked for.
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Feb 20, 2013 00:16
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It might not be Stephen King, I just remember that my mom read a lot of his books at the time. It was someone in that genre, though. Also, I think the dog was a poodle, if that makes a difference? Although I had a pet cocka-poo at that age, so I might be projecting... edit: VVVV I was thinking Dean Koontz, because that was the other author she was really into, but I don't know much about him and I didn't want to sound dumb 
A Pinball Wizard fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Feb 20, 2013 |
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Feb 20, 2013 00:20
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The other King-like authors my mum read back then, and that I ended up reading (too young) as well, were John Saul and Dean Koontz and I'm certain a good amount of lights went out of puppy eyes in their pre-2000 careers.
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Feb 20, 2013 00:35
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I don't think there's ever been any puppy-killing in a Dean Koontz book. That's kind of the exact opposite of how every dog he has ever written about ends up.
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Feb 20, 2013 04:22
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Ornamented Death posted:I don't think there's ever been any puppy-killing in a Dean Koontz book. That's kind of the exact opposite of how every dog he has ever written about ends up. I was pretty sure of that after the Moonlight Bay books and such around the time he went off the deep end and dogs were Definitely Characters, but I thought '80s Koontz was more standard thriller material. My mistake. Maybe the light went out of a kitten's eyes. 
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Feb 20, 2013 04:29
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This isn't much, I know. But I read a passage in a book, and this is literally everything I remember: Someone wants someone else to eat rice, but the person doesn't want any. So the rice-giver offers him pickled plums or cucumbers or something, which "makes the Japanese palette cry out for rice".
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Feb 21, 2013 04:07
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