|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:Maybe The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster? Probably not though. Interesting... I had never heard of that story, but the description is close to the book I'm thinking of. However, the book I read was a full length novel and published in the 80's or 90 's.
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2014 04:57
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 21:07 |
|
|
A short story, I think by a science fiction author. The main character is a sentient house that basically cleans everything on autopilot. It's been doing this for a while without anyone checking up on it, and it's eventually revealed that there was a nuclear war that killed everyone and all of the other smart houses. I think the story ends with a tree falling and destroying the house while it tries in vain to clean up everything. e: It just came to me, it's this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Will_Come_Soft_Rains_(short_story)
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2014 05:40
|
|
|
I'm looking for a children's picture book that was unusually adult in it's message. It was written (and probably illustrated) by a woman but I can't remember her name. The drawings were done in this delightfully modern colored pencil style, so I'm thinking it was released in the 90's. The whole thing took place in an apartment. It was from the point of view of a black cat with a white muzzle who was neglected by his owner - a business woman whose face I don't think we ever see. He is lonely and spends his time watching a tv show about a superhero cat and imagines himself having space adventures. There's a hippie who feeds the cats outside and pets them. Our black cat wishes he was a stray so he could get attention, too. One day a mouse named Ezra shows up and, to Ezra's surprise, the cat doesn't want to eat him. When the cat tells Ezra his problems Erza laughs, saying "You're spoiled! You have a home, plenty of food, and safety. Stop complaining!" The cat stops complaining and things are fine up until the owner sees Ezra. She says that they'll call an exterminator and kill him. The cat can't allow this and refuses to let Ezra leave the apartment alone, so they tear a hole in the screen window and escape. They spend the night on the streets, cold and afraid, until the hippie lady finds them. She thinks the pair of them are adorable and takes them home with her. The end. I think Ezra's name is in the title but for the life of me I can't find it on Google, Amazon, WorldCat, Bing, and plenty of other search engines. Any ideas?
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2014 16:20
|
|
|
I'm looking for a book that I can't find due to more modern releases interfering with my Google-fu. It's a children's picture book, but I couldn't tell you when it was published, no later than '93, though. Reading level and length, about what you'd expect for books aimed at children who are starting to read short stories on their own. It's about a little girl named Ruby whose family turns into animals during the... full moon? Red moon? Moonrise of a particularly magical color? Anyway, each of her family members turns into a different animal, but she doesn't change and she feels left out. She leaves on a journey to find her SPIRIT ANIMAL--I'm taking some sarcastic liberties here, it wasn't based on/a Native American story or anything and the author didn't make a big deal about it--and finds... a witch? A wise woman? A wiseman, maybe? who turns her into a blue bird. She goes home and her family doesn't recognize her until she reveals that it's her, the end.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2014 07:15
|
|
|
Plethora posted:I'm looking for a children's picture book that was unusually adult in it's message. I've never seen this book, but I think it's Lucky's Choice. Westport Public Library posted:Lucky is a pampered but unloved house cat who longs for affection from his uncaring owner. The high point of his day is watching the Cat Lady who pets and loves the alley cats outside Lucky's apartment. When he meets Ezra, the first mouse he has ever seen, they become friends, and his days become more pleasant. Lucky's owner discovers the mouse and wants him killed, so Lucky and his only friend decide to run away. The Cat Lady then finds them huddled together in the alley, and knows that she has found a special pair of friends to adopt. The humorous pictures are executed mainly in pastel colored pencil. although they then go on to be rather uncomplimentary of the artwork.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2014 11:28
|
|
|
The Grey posted:This book was about civilation that had moved underground for some reason. It had kind of a City of Ember-like plot, only the main character was a typical sci-fi tough guy. I remember him working his way upward through the underground levels. It ends with him emerging from an underground portal on to the surface, so I think it may have been the first book in a series. A bit of a long shot, and the cover doesn't match, but could this be Paradox by John Meaney?
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2014 12:01
|
|
|
I'm trying to remember a play or something I read at school where someone's tasked with the job of painting a large bridge, which takes so long that when he gets to the end, the start needs painting again.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2014 12:01
|
|
|
If it helps, that's probably the Forth Bridge, and "Painting the Forth Bridge" is a popular idiom.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2014 12:56
|
|
|
Some sci-fi thing where a certain species of alien has hardly any sense of taste, and so values foodstuffs on texture instead. I want to say Larry Niven but I'm not sure.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2014 01:20
|
|
|
Sanford posted:Some sci-fi thing where a certain species of alien has hardly any sense of taste, and so values foodstuffs on texture instead. I want to say Larry Niven but I'm not sure. This sounds familiar. Did the aliens resemble penguins and/or trees? (Not the Ender's Game series, this was a completely different author)
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2014 05:56
|
|
|
Short story mystery about a guy who gets murdered by his business partner, and then gets reincarnated as the guy's cat, and tried to plot to kill the guy. I read it in a detective fiction class I took in 2009-ish. I think it won an award of some sort, maybe?
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2014 09:25
|
|
|
Disappointing egg posted:A bit of a long shot, and the cover doesn't match, but could this be Paradox by John Meaney? Good guess, but that's not it. It has the sub-terrain and caste concept down, as well as being the first book in a series. However, other then the cover difference, I also remember the book to be more Earth based. (I don't think it had alien species or people with supernatural powers.)
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2014 17:00
|
|
|
Urban-fantasy-ish novel set during the Civil War, the book starts with Abraham Lincoln getting attacked by a werewolf in the White House, and the werewolf is beaten to death with a silver serving tray. The guy who kills it (a butler I think?) is then set up as a task-force type thing to figure out what all this supernatural conspiracy stuff is about.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2014 23:56
|
|
|
Bureau 13 , that's the last published book, Damned Nation (which was kind of a prequel to the other's that take place "nowadays" in the series). Nick Pollota wrote em, and he will be missed  edit - Got one myself. These people find a hidden wall in a basement, like a safe (they are investigators I think?) and they open it to find some guy had been trapped in there until he died. The family had thought that he had left however many years ago. I can't recall much else about it. It was an ebook though, so it's been released or I read it sometime the last 5 years? I remember one of the people freaking out because of how horrible it'd be to be trapped in the dark in the celler (where the hidden door was), and he had to go outside because he couldn't handle it at the moment. Not 100% on this, but I think it was near the start of the book. Stupid_Sexy_Flander fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Feb 18, 2014 |
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2014 00:39
|
|
|
Hi, I'm trying to find a scifi / existential horror story that took place it seemed like in the late 1800s or early 1900s about a research assistant working with a scientist/doctor/researcher about what happens when we die. The researcher was trying to find out things that went on after they died. The research assistant I think was a woman and was gifted or psychic and followed the researcher's mind as it died. The scientist died of some disease or fever. Basically the assistant watches as the man's mind breaks down slowly as it decomposes and dies and that there is no afterlife but this extended hell and slow destruction of this internal universe in which every second in the real world is is like eons in the dead brain. The assistant then destroys the doctor's brain/body with dynamite. Soon after the assistant then tries to destroy themselves with dynamite but is instead caught by police and put into a mental institution with the end basically being the assistant will eventually die and have the same fate happen. I don't remember enough details for a good google hit and I've been looking for months. If anyone knows what story this is, I would be grateful!
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2014 08:05
|
|
|
I am Communist posted:Hi, I'm trying to find a scifi / existential horror story that took place it seemed like in the late 1800s or early 1900s about a research assistant working with a scientist/doctor/researcher about what happens when we die. A number of the details are wrong, but generally similar notions are touched on in Junji Ito's horror manga "Long Dream". Nothing's coming up in a cursory Google for me, but it could maybe be a starting point for more in depth research? I'm no manga expert, but someone out there who knows the topic might be aware of similar fiction.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2014 16:32
|
|
|
Crackmaster posted:A number of the details are wrong, but generally similar notions are touched on in Junji Ito's horror manga "Long Dream". Nothing's coming up in a cursory Google for me, but it could maybe be a starting point for more in depth research? I'm no manga expert, but someone out there who knows the topic might be aware of similar fiction. Yeah I liked the long dream. I remember the story I was looking for was linked in one of the scary/ghost story threads but there have been so many. I wish there was a good way to search through them honestly.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2014 04:22
|
|
|
I am Communist posted:Yeah I liked the long dream. I remember the story I was looking for was linked in one of the scary/ghost story threads but there have been so many. I wish there was a good way to search through them honestly. Maybe see if anyone in the pyf spooky Internet fiction thread remembers?
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2014 12:58
|
|
|
There's this fantasy book I read way back, might have been part of a series. All I remember is that the hero and his group end up in this place that is run by lizard people, and for whatever reason they end up going underground to look for whatever their goal is, and they move through these tight tunnels that the lizards have dug out. One of the gang might have bought it in the tunnels. The place might have actually been an entirely different planet/dimension from the hero's own, though I don't recall if there was any space/dimensional travel for sure, and I feel like all the weaponry might have been stuff like swords and bows, so that might rule space travel out, although I might be conflating some things. I feel like the hero might have been an elf or other similar typical fantasy creature. I read this early or mid-90s, so it was written around then or earlier.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2014 05:18
|
|
|
Detective Thompson posted:There's this fantasy book I read way back, might have been part of a series. All I remember is that the hero and his group end up in this place that is run by lizard people, and for whatever reason they end up going underground to look for whatever their goal is, and they move through these tight tunnels that the lizards have dug out. One of the gang might have bought it in the tunnels. The place might have actually been an entirely different planet/dimension from the hero's own, though I don't recall if there was any space/dimensional travel for sure, and I feel like all the weaponry might have been stuff like swords and bows, so that might rule space travel out, although I might be conflating some things. I feel like the hero might have been an elf or other similar typical fantasy creature. I read this early or mid-90s, so it was written around then or earlier. Pretty vague, but it could be one of the books in the first Dragonlance trilogy, Dragonlance Chronicles. Do the names Tanis, Caramon, or Raistlin ring a bell?
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2014 02:09
|
|
|
regulargonzalez posted:Pretty vague, but it could be one of the books in the first Dragonlance trilogy, Dragonlance Chronicles. Do the names Tanis, Caramon, or Raistlin ring a bell? I was also thinking maybe the Drizzt Do'Urden series...
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2014 02:21
|
|
|
I've managed to get a book I read at my local library stuck in my head but can't find it using my weak googling. It must have been around 2000 because it was when I started sneaking into the adult's horror section at a pretty young age but I suspect it was older than that. It was a trilogy as far as I know about a girl and a guy who meet in an American city, not sure how and it turns out he's a vampire. They end up at his house which is way outside the city, isolated and run down and full of this group of other vampires that live there too. She ends up staying there, I'm pretty sure not voluntarily and they have this weird relationship. She's scared of the other vampires that live there and him as well, I think he gets scary possessive etc. Eventually she gets pregnant and has a son, possibly called Matthew or something similar but that's highly likely to be wrong. He grows up pretty quick and the other vampires are scared/worried about him because he has super hybrid vampire powers or something. The covers were variations of guy and a girl on the street with a brick wall and a lamp post I think and they were slightly bigger books than normal sized paperbacks. I'm pretty certain that they were absolutely terrible books but it's driving me mad now and googling is pretty useless now there are so many vampire series around.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2014 03:40
|
|
|
Twilight?
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2014 03:44
|
|
|
Nah, it was older and had some actual violence in it. Probably just as badly written if that's possible though.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2014 04:02
|
|
|
Circusmacabre posted:Nah, it was older and had some actual violence in it. Probably just as badly written if that's possible though. Some of the details sound like Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice, although some are off.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2014 04:04
|
|
|
Circusmacabre posted:I've managed to get a book I read at my local library stuck in my head but can't find it using my weak googling. It must have been around 2000 because it was when I started sneaking into the adult's horror section at a pretty young age but I suspect it was older than that. Parts of it sound very similar to Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite, but it's not a trilogy. Not sure.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2014 04:16
|
|
|
Unfortunately it wasn't those two. I managed to go through pretty much every vampire/werewolf/urban fantasy book I could find as a teenager. Rereading them now reveals I had some pretty terrible taste as a kid, Lost Souls? was one of the better ones I read, or at least one of the more interesting. Cheers though.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2014 16:05
|
|
|
I'm trying to remember this sci-fi short story I read a few years back. I think it was originally published in some magazine in the 90's. It's about a man who comes back from a great battle at the end of time to his original home. A recently colonised planet that has a very wild west feel. Any ideas?
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2014 18:55
|
|
|
A story I read in elementary school, about a girl (I think Bosnian) who was fleeing her home country to be a refugee in the US. She's teased for being an outsider by other kids (I think specifically there was a girl with blonde hair). Anyway, for a Thanksgiving project, her teacher had them make little dolls of the pilgrims to bring back and have a little class Thanksgiving. The girl asks her mom to help, but instead of a traditional pilgrim she makes a doll that looks like the little girl. The girl brings it back, and the other children tease her for being weird, while the teacher just thinks she misunderstood. Then the girl tells the whole class that her mom said that they were pilgrims too, because they were escaping oppression to come to America, just like the old pilgrims.
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2014 15:15
|
|
|
computer parts posted:A story I read in elementary school, about a girl (I think Bosnian) who was fleeing her home country to be a refugee in the US. She's teased for being an outsider by other kids (I think specifically there was a girl with blonde hair). Anyway, for a Thanksgiving project, her teacher had them make little dolls of the pilgrims to bring back and have a little class Thanksgiving. The girl asks her mom to help, but instead of a traditional pilgrim she makes a doll that looks like the little girl. Molly's Pilgrim. I never read the book, but I remember watching the movie in elementary school.
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2014 19:06
|
|
|
Antinumeric posted:I'm trying to remember this sci-fi short story I read a few years back. I think it was originally published in some magazine in the 90's. It's about a man who comes back from a great battle at the end of time to his original home. A recently colonised planet that has a very wild west feel. Any ideas? I read it too but I can't remember where. If I read it and it wasn't in a Best Of collection, it was either in Omni or Asimovs Science Fiction magzine, that might help.
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2014 19:17
|
|
|
What's that book about people living on a wall? Vertically. It's... well it's a big loving wall, and they live on it. I can't remember more than that. It's been published probably within the last 5 years or so.
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2014 18:19
|
|
|
Adam Roberts' On? Published in 2001, so that might not be the one you mean. Edit: Oh, also Reynolds' Terminal World starts like that, and is much more recent. Hobnob fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Mar 9, 2014 |
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2014 20:02
|
|
|
Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:What's that book about people living on a wall? Vertically. Stone and Sky by Graham Edwards? It's been lurking on my to-read list for a few years now.
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2014 20:05
|
|
|
Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:What's that book about people living on a wall? Vertically. "Farewell Horizontal" is older but got reprinted or a new edition a few years back.
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2014 20:32
|
|
|
Terminal world was it  That's been bugging me for a few days now.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2014 02:20
|
|
|
Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Terminal world was it Terminal World isn't really about that though. Stone and Sky by Edwards is, much much more. It's a huge wall. People live on it. edit for clarity: Terminal World = SF; Set in the far future, there's a city built on the side of a space elevator, about 90% of the book takes place on the horizontal ground away from that city, also there's airships. Stone and Sky = Fantasy; An infinite wall with countless civilisations, oceans, forests, incomprehensible mega-architecture, and so on. Lots of non-human fantasy races too. Protagonist is from Earth, Victorian era, gets transported to the vertical world when the eruption of Krakatoa tears a hole through reality. Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 12:41 on Mar 11, 2014 |
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2014 12:36
|
|
|
Antinumeric posted:I'm trying to remember this sci-fi short story I read a few years back. I think it was originally published in some magazine in the 90's. It's about a man who comes back from a great battle at the end of time to his original home. A recently colonised planet that has a very wild west feel. Any ideas? I think you're looking for "A Dry, Quiet War" by Tony Daniel, available here: http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/quietwar.htm
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2014 16:22
|
|
|
I'm trying to remember a possibly cyberpunkish book set in the future, female main character, maybe partially set in DC. One aspect of this future was a Vietnam-type war fought against Chinese robot soldiers in Tibet in this setting's past.
Teriyaki Hairpiece fucked around with this message at 17:19 on Mar 18, 2014 |
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2014 18:42
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 21:07 |
|
|
A sci-fi novel I read about 20 years ago; a group of genetically enhanced children, each a genius of one sort or another, but limited in other respects. One is able to manipulate people's emotions, another is a brilliant artist. The final reveal involves the artist's work in some way. I think the protagonist turns out to be another of the children, to his surprise. That's all I remember.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 00:14
|
|