|
Attention Deficit posted:Hey folks, I was (poorly) describing this to my wife earlier. At a guess, I'd have read it in the mid-90s. It may have been a short story. Maaaybe 'Childhood's End', a rather short novel by Arthur C. Clarke
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2013 00:29
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 13, 2024 15:08 |
|
|
Attention Deficit posted:Hey folks, I was (poorly) describing this to my wife earlier. At a guess, I'd have read it in the mid-90s. It may have been a short story. That sounds like this book and its sequel.
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2013 01:02
|
|
|
There's one book I've been trying to track down, but it's been really hard to find. "Military Science Fiction Parody" brings back almost no results... This would be like several years ago, mid 2000s or so, but maybe published earlier. I skimmed through it briefly but didn't buy it, but it was a sort of Galaxy Quest-esque novel parodying military science fiction where these guys go around pretending to be mighty space marines for the great empire of Earth or something. The thing is, they're not soldiers at all and there isn't any kind of empire or federation or anything. They just go around bumming supplies and technology off of various aliens, trying to make themselves look like heroes and generally being space assholes. I skimmed through it at a Borders once and DIDN'T BUY IT (STUPID) and now I can't remember what the title was! Any of this sound familiar to anyone?
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2013 06:45
|
|
|
miryei posted:That sounds like this book and its sequel. That's exactly it! Thanks a mil 
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2013 08:37
|
|
|
I am glad I found this thread... I saw a made for T.V movie years ago that a acquaintance told me was based upon a classic book. A brief synopsis without the ending is provided below: A man is serving as a grunt in an army (redcoats perhaps but not 100% sure) when a senior officer with no family dies in his arms. He switches uniforms and uses his new name to court a wealthy widow who has a son. He fathers a son that the older boy grows to love/hate. The younger boy is spoiled rotten and his father drinks, whores and gambles the estate away. Eventually the father buys the younger boy a small pony with the understanding that he is not to ride it without direct supervision...being a spoiled little poo poo he promptly gets himself killed on the pony and the older boy who has slowly come to the realization that this man is not who he says he is and has wasted the entire fortune challenges him to a duel... Unfortunately I had a power out and I did not take note of the title...this has been driving me nuts for years.
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2013 02:30
|
|
|
scaper exile posted:I saw a made for T.V movie years ago that a acquaintance told me was based upon a classic book. A brief synopsis without the ending is provided below:
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2013 15:05
|
|
|
Quicksilver6 posted:There's one book I've been trying to track down, but it's been really hard to find. "Military Science Fiction Parody" brings back almost no results... This would be like several years ago, mid 2000s or so, but maybe published earlier. I skimmed through it briefly but didn't buy it, but it was a sort of Galaxy Quest-esque novel parodying military science fiction where these guys go around pretending to be mighty space marines for the great empire of Earth or something. The thing is, they're not soldiers at all and there isn't any kind of empire or federation or anything. They just go around bumming supplies and technology off of various aliens, trying to make themselves look like heroes and generally being space assholes. I skimmed through it at a Borders once and DIDN'T BUY IT (STUPID) and now I can't remember what the title was! Any of this sound familiar to anyone? There are a few different books that this description sort of reminds me of: Harry Harrison's Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers, and to a much lesser extent some of Chris Anvil's Interstellar Patrol books (Strangers to Paradise, Dukes of Desire, and The King's Legions). The 'fake space army' thing is also a big part of the Vorkosigian books by Bujold - especially "The Warrior's Apprentice (a decent starting place in the Vorkosigian saga). They're all pretty good books, in my opinion.
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2013 15:08
|
|
|
Great Gray Shrike posted:Chris Anvil's Interstellar Patrol books (Strangers to Paradise, Dukes of Desire, and The King's Legions) THIS IS THE ONE! Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2013 18:27
|
|
|
Looking for a trilogy set in a just-alternate middle east focused around El Iskandriya. Name has something with Fox in them I think, there's a dude who's a quasi private investigator at the heart of it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2013 19:46
|
|
|
Benagain posted:Looking for a trilogy set in a just-alternate middle east focused around El Iskandriya. Name has something with Fox in them I think, there's a dude who's a quasi private investigator at the heart of it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2013 21:40
|
|
|
I'm looking for the name of a children's choose your own adventure story about an owl who loses his balloon in a tree. Does anyone know it? I think the owl was wearing blue overalls and there was a squirrel involved somehow.
|
|
#
?
Jun 15, 2013 03:31
|
|
|
SanitysRequiem posted:I'm looking for the name of a children's choose your own adventure story about an owl who loses his balloon in a tree. Does anyone know it? I think the owl was wearing blue overalls and there was a squirrel involved somehow. My google-fu suggests Little Owl Leaves The Nest
|
|
#
?
Jun 15, 2013 03:45
|
|
|
Awesome, thanks!
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2013 00:01
|
|
|
Not really a book per se, I've been reading "Little House on the Prairie" to my daughter and I remember seeing somewhere a list someone had compiled from the books of the things that Charles Ingalls (Pa) is depicted as doing competently. Does anyone know where to find that list?
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2013 21:05
|
|
|
Just got a kindle and I've gotten back into reading again. I'm looking for two books and a story I read back in 6th grade in one of my language books. The first one I never got to finish because my dog decided it was lunch. All I remember was the part I was reading was about a magician and a few associates (A girl and I think another guy). The part I remember specifically is that they were in some town, and there was a fair, and the magician guy was performing. The thing was real magic was rare, and he was trying to do all these "magic tricks" using real magic but trying to look fake, and he caught one guy in the crowd that realized it wasn't, and it was a bad guy. I remember the big evil was somewhere in the north and was trying to take over this part of the world. The second book was a series I believe. I don't remember much, but one part where the group you were following was going through a mountain cave of some sort. At some point they come across an open room that had a dragon and a dragon rider encased in ice. Thinking on it, I think the dragon riders were rare. Either way it seems that the rider was wielding a lance of some sort, and that the main hero felt the rider's eyes on him. The third is probably going to be impossible, as I don't remember much of anything, except it was an excerpt in one of my reading/language comprehension books in middle school. It was about some wizard guy who had a pet. The pet seemed to be raccoon like with rings on it's tail and it was brown. Yep. that's all I remember. Any ideas on generic fantasy adventure, generic dragon fantasy adventure, and really vague short story?
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2013 04:50
|
|
|
I read this story about 20 years ago. There was a ship travelling well beyond inhabited space, on the trail of Ancient Dead Aliens. First they found some "mandalas", which they didn't understand. Then was an ice planet, which mysteriously had ice full of oxygen and other useful elements, more than would be natural. The crew finally got to take off their suits which they had to wear, as the ship couldn't be filled with air, too wasteful. Sex, baths, and other nice things, for the first time in ages. It also turned out that the ice was seeded with data cubes or something, which the aliens had left for anyone tracking them. They could stay on the ice planet and live in relative comfort, but no, it was back on with the suits, and continue the journey.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2013 06:16
|
|
|
Gothmog1065 posted:The second book was a series I believe. I don't remember much, but one part where the group you were following was going through a mountain cave of some sort. At some point they come across an open room that had a dragon and a dragon rider encased in ice. Thinking on it, I think the dragon riders were rare. Either way it seems that the rider was wielding a lance of some sort, and that the main hero felt the rider's eyes on him. It's been a long time since I read them, but that one almost has to be a scene from one of the Dragonlance books, probably Dragons of Winter Night.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2013 06:31
|
|
|
Gothmog1065 posted:Just got a kindle and I've gotten back into reading again. I'm looking for two books and a story I read back in 6th grade in one of my language books. The first is likely one of the Dragonlance Preludes books involving Raistlin. The second, as called by ToxicFrog, is Dragons of Winter Night, also a dragonlance novel.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2013 12:06
|
|
|
NinjaDebugger posted:The first is likely one of the Dragonlance Preludes books involving Raistlin. The second, as called by ToxicFrog, is Dragons of Winter Night, also a dragonlance novel. Interesting. I don't think I read the books anywhere near each other, and I know the sources of where I got them were different. Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2013 22:20
|
|
|
So, in elementary school there was a book read to us, but it was real long and they only read random parts. Something about these guys kayaking/canoeing/some kind of boat-ing down this I want to say bayou river? And there was this girl who kept saying "Sassafras!" like a substitute for "Nonsense!". Aaaaand there was a flashback to some point about a tragic event in the main dude's childhood, something to do with tree houses and/or guns?
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2013 14:02
|
|
|
I read this maybe..10 or 15 years ago. I can't recall if it was a short story or a novel but the basic premise was, guy gets shot like 9 times, dies and goes to hell. Hell turns out to not be as big a shithole as you imagine, since all the "fun" people end up there. There really is only one rule, and that is DON'T LOOK IN THE CLOSET , or DON'T gently caress WITH THE THING IN THE CLOSET. I can't recall which. Dude's having a great time, but since he's a total loving idiot, he decides to poke around in the closet and messes with the thing, and it ends up lobbing him back up into his body right after he'd been called by the paramedics, i.e all shot up and hosed up, but alive and you know, completely screwed. Any ideas?
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 04:41
|
|
|
This came up in an IRC channel, and it occurs to me I may have squashed two novels together in my mind, and I want to clear it up. I remember a book I read ~15 years ago. It was sci-fi, set in roughly the current era. Someone developed a technology to remote view undetected--something like quantum wormholes. They could be opened anywhere and even anywhen by the end of the book. The tech spread and basically destroyed privacy and secrecy. The youth culture adapted and started having sex in the streets and even began making a group mind by placing these wormholes in their brains. Now, this is basically The Light of Other Days by Clarke and Baxter, except the ending described on Wikipedia isn't what I remember. The ending I remember involves the main character dying and being resurrected at some point in the future, where we learn that they're resurrecting everyone. Ever. From the dawn of humanity. I don't recall the Sisyphan bit or the asteroid bearing down on earth from Light of Other Days; I don't remember ever reading that book at all, but it sounds like I did and somehow stitched on something else's ending.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 23:55
|
|
|
The books sounds a lot like the Light of Other Days. However, the first bit sounds like the Pastwatch books by Orson Scott Card, maybe? The resurrecting everyone in all of history sounds like either S. Robinson's Deathkiller/Lifehouse or P. J. Farmer's Riverworld (To Your Scattered Bodies Go), maybe?
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2013 00:52
|
|
|
Great Gray Shrike posted:The books sounds a lot like the Light of Other Days. However, the first bit sounds like the Pastwatch books by Orson Scott Card, maybe? Nope, the resurrection thing I remember was definitely at the end of the book (and in my mind at least, specifically related to the privacy-destroying technology that is the focus of the book's plot), and I know I haven't read any of those other books. It's entirely possible the Wikipedia entry on Light of Other Days just doesn't mention the resurrection bit at the end and I've forgotten everything else it talks about, but that's why I want to clarify.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2013 01:20
|
|
|
Dug up my copy of Light of Other Days. It totally has a everyone-will-be/is-resurrected scene right at the end, in the epilogue only.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2013 02:44
|
|
|
Great Gray Shrike posted:Dug up my copy of Light of Other Days. It totally has a everyone-will-be/is-resurrected scene right at the end, in the epilogue only. That answers that, then. Looks like I need to re-read since I've clearly forgotten a lot of it. Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2013 06:15
|
|
|
I read this book in 1987 - 1988, and I believe it was a few years old at the time. All I can really remember is that revolved around a kid who played a video game (I had the sense it was something Atari-ish) that he couldn't beat (I think he always lost to the final boss). Then he found himself trapped inside the video game and had to struggle through its challenges and beat it (surprise)! I know it's not Killobyte. I'm reasonably sure it's not Space Demons, since that deals with multiple kids and this was a solo adventure. I should add that it was a chapter book -- not a full-blown novel, though. Alaemon fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Jul 2, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2013 20:12
|
|
|
^The time period above cuts out a lot of guesses. Maybe Alan Dean Foster's The Last Starfighter novelization (1984)?
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2013 22:04
|
|
|
Great Gray Shrike posted:^The time period above cuts out a lot of guesses. Maybe Alan Dean Foster's The Last Starfighter novelization (1984)? I very much doubt that one. I loved that movie as a kid, I have to think I would've realized if I was reading the book of it. Unfortunately, I'm pretty concrete on the year, because I remember which teacher I had when I read it -- and that narrows it down to third or fourth grade (same teacher for both). It bugs me that I can't figure it out myself -- I was always the book locator of last resort when I worked in a bookstore.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2013 03:04
|
|
|
Alaemon posted:I read this book in 1987 - 1988, and I believe it was a few years old at the time. I'm probably way off, but for a short time Nintendo published a series of books regarding this premise. Master blaster was one such title.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2013 12:43
|
|
|
Roydrowsy posted:I'm probably way off, but for a short time Nintendo published a series of books regarding this premise. Master blaster was one such title. Ooh, good thought, but I had all of the Worlds of Power series. Nintendo? In a book? BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT!
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2013 17:24
|
|
|
Asking this for a customer, as I was completely stumped. She said it was essentially a book of Doctor Who plot synopses (all the old series, of course), and she had it in the early 80s. She said they were 2 pages or so per episode, but knew very little besides that. Thank you if anyone has any ideas!
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2013 07:07
|
|
|
AreYouStillThere posted:Asking this for a customer, as I was completely stumped. The Programme Guide?
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2013 17:35
|
|
|
That's gotta be it. Thank you!
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2013 19:55
|
|
|
There was a novel I read years ago about a caveman encountering a magical shining tower and having adventures fighting its inhabitants. The ending is that , in a shocking twist, the tower turns out to be a space ship and the inhabitants alien invaders, but the entire thing is written in the caveman's very basic and primitive style so it takes a while to piece that together. Can't for the life of me remember the title or author, but I wanted to give a copy to a friend as a birthday gift.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2013 04:52
|
|
|
Alaemon posted:I read this book in 1987 - 1988, and I believe it was a few years old at the time. This almost sounds like The Bishop of Battle, although that was from a movie. I wonder if it was released as a book or if someone took the basic short story from the film and added additional details?
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2013 02:01
|
|
|
So I read this book like 5-6 years ago, and I have no idea when it was written. It was a fantasy book, and I think that the hardcover version had a black dragon or something on the front cover. It was set in modern times, and something happened and caused mythological creatures to come into our world. Either the main male character or the main female character was like a professor of mythology, I think, and I do believe that it was part of a series. And another book I read a while ago was one aimed more at teenagers, and was part of a series. The main character was an explorer, and I think he had a boy sidekick. The book I read the main character had discovered a lost Mayan or Aztec city, and I can remember that the leader of that society kept being referred to be overweight, and he had a daughter. The book also had some illustrations throughout it, and one I can remember is the leader of the city sitting on a couch with his daughter. Food Guy fucked around with this message at 13:34 on Jul 7, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2013 13:24
|
|
|
A fantasy series, VIking and/or Anglo-Saxon culture based, got decent reviews from what I remember. One of the covers had a wolf on it, I think? Maybe one of the titles had 'oath' in it? It's been published in the last four years or so. I can't remember what it was and it's driving me nuts. I never read the books or I'd probably be able to remember better, but this also describes like 35% of fantasy novels out there so it's hard to try and search for it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2013 13:39
|
|
|
A kid's book I think. Two children meet this old lady and she educates them about life and such. I remember specifically one of the kids telling their parent(?) that they were studying "the Flora and Fauna of Central Park" In the end she dies, and since no one cares about her but them, the kids bury her in a construction ditch in Central Park per her wishes. I thought this was From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler initially, but I checked and even though it's a similar theme of children + old lady she doesn't die in the end. EDIT: Kids are definitely somewhere between middle-school and high-school. Probably one girl and one boy. Gyre fucked around with this message at 14:41 on Jul 7, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2013 14:35
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 13, 2024 15:08 |
|
|
Zola posted:This almost sounds like The Bishop of Battle, although that was from a movie. I wonder if it was released as a book or if someone took the basic short story from the film and added additional details? Interesting thought. I hadn't heard of it before. Don't think they're connected, but certainly drawing from the same topic.
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2013 20:10
|
|