|
Science fiction novel. The language was sort of 1950/60ish. A father is concerned that his 10 year old suddenly starts having imaginary friends. The son starts asking weird questions abou the Earth, claiming his invisible friend needs to know these facts. In the end we fnd out the imaginary mates are really aliens interogating the boy to prepare for an invasion and colonisation of Earth.
|
#
?
May 18, 2014 19:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 00:13 |
|
|
BattyKiara posted:Science fiction novel. The language was sort of 1950/60ish. A father is concerned that his 10 year old suddenly starts having imaginary friends. The son starts asking weird questions abou the Earth, claiming his invisible friend needs to know these facts. In the end we fnd out the imaginary mates are really aliens interogating the boy to prepare for an invasion and colonisation of Earth. Sounds like "Zero Hour" by Ray Bradbury.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2014 20:00
|
|
|
Or Chocky by John Wyndham.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2014 21:14
|
|
|
I've seen this book on a bunch of lists for this year but can't seem to find it now. Title is single word like Apocalypse or Pestilence that takes up the whole cover of the book. Think the book itself is like a lime yellow or something. Also it's an 'episodic' trilogy in that all the books are being released this year? On the tip of my tongue but can't find it anywhere.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2014 22:52
|
|
|
Runcible Cat posted:Or Chocky by John Wyndham. Thank you, that's it.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2014 22:58
|
|
|
the roon posted:I've seen this book on a bunch of lists for this year but can't seem to find it now. Title is single word like Apocalypse or Pestilence that takes up the whole cover of the book. Think the book itself is like a lime yellow or something. Also it's an 'episodic' trilogy in that all the books are being released this year? On the tip of my tongue but can't find it anywhere. Annihilation? Jeff Vandermeer is the author.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2014 23:24
|
|
|
Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Annihilation? that's the one. I pinned it as an A title with some sort of vague, foreboding title. Thanks
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2014 01:27
|
|
|
Here is a vague one. Centaur-like aliens have a warp-drive malfunction that puts them in our section of the galaxy. They don't know where they are but decide to invade Earth or one of it's colonies anyway. A bunch of farmers from a high gravity world are drafted to fight the invaders on a different planet, I can't remember if it's Earth or not. The book talks a bit about how life on the high gravity planet sucks. The only other thing I remember is that they mention how blasts from whatever plasma/pulse/laser weapons the humans use "unravels" after a few miles so they don't have to worry about missed shots hitting someone miles away.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2014 19:34
|
|
|
Poldarn posted:Here is a vague one. Centaur-like aliens have a warp-drive malfunction that puts them in our section of the galaxy. They don't know where they are but decide to invade Earth or one of it's colonies anyway. A bunch of farmers from a high gravity world are drafted to fight the invaders on a different planet, I can't remember if it's Earth or not. The book talks a bit about how life on the high gravity planet sucks. The only other thing I remember is that they mention how blasts from whatever plasma/pulse/laser weapons the humans use "unravels" after a few miles so they don't have to worry about missed shots hitting someone miles away. John Ringo's Legacy of the Aldenata series?
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2014 19:52
|
|
|
ToxicFrog posted:John Ringo's Legacy of the Aldenata series? Nope not that one. I think this one was published some years before that.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2014 20:09
|
|
|
Poldarn posted:Here is a vague one. Centaur-like aliens have a warp-drive malfunction that puts them in our section of the galaxy. They don't know where they are but decide to invade Earth or one of it's colonies anyway. A bunch of farmers from a high gravity world are drafted to fight the invaders on a different planet, I can't remember if it's Earth or not. The book talks a bit about how life on the high gravity planet sucks. The only other thing I remember is that they mention how blasts from whatever plasma/pulse/laser weapons the humans use "unravels" after a few miles so they don't have to worry about missed shots hitting someone miles away. Soldiers(!) John Dalmas. I just finished reading it on the Kindle, in two parts.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2014 13:21
|
|
|
branedotorg posted:Soldiers(!) John Dalmas. I just finished reading it on the Kindle, in two parts. Yes, that's it! I remember that fantastic cover art.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2014 20:58
|
|
|
Science fiction short story. I think it's even been asked and answered in this thread at some point in the distant past. I think it's pretty famous. Latest it could have been written is the early 90s but I feel like it's probably from the 60s/70s. A scientist creates an intelligent microscopic life form that has an incredibly fast life cycle so it goes through hundreds of generations per day, and since it's intelligent it keeps inventing new technologies. I think the government or other bad guy stand-in comes after him and he is saved by a force field from the creatures.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2014 22:53
|
|
|
regulargonzalez posted:Science fiction short story. I think it's even been asked and answered in this thread at some point in the distant past. I think it's pretty famous. Latest it could have been written is the early 90s but I feel like it's probably from the 60s/70s. A scientist creates an intelligent microscopic life form that has an incredibly fast life cycle so it goes through hundreds of generations per day, and since it's intelligent it keeps inventing new technologies. I think the government or other bad guy stand-in comes after him and he is saved by a force field from the creatures. Microcosmic God by Theodore Sturgeon.
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2014 00:11
|
|
|
Zola posted:Microcosmic God by Theodore Sturgeon. So it is, thanks!
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2014 02:26
|
|
|
Flatliner posted:Looking for a book I managed to read a bit of about 20 years ago. It's set somewhere in the north of america I think, I didn't get to read too much of it. I think it might be about werewolves, there is a piece of music "something Blue" I think. Anyway the protagonist rocks up at this hotel/asylum thing and is a bit weirded out by what is going on, bout all i can remember. Moondance by S. P. Somtow, maybe? I don't have my copy to hand but I think it ticks the north of America and asylum boxes. It definitely is about werewolves.
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2014 15:42
|
|
regulargonzalez posted:So it is, thanks! I have that one in my collection, as well as Crystal Nights by Greg Egan. If you like Microcosmic God, you really should read Crystal Nights. Coincidentally, I couldn't remember Crystal Nights' title, and came to this thread to be reminded. Of course, immediately after someone answered me, I sat down on the john and opened one of my collections right to the first page of Crystal Nights.
|
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2014 10:45
|
|
|
I read a short story back in the early 90s, during the whole Scary Stories craze, though I'm pretty sure it wasn't in that particular series. It was about a boy that's visiting a friend's house, and by the time he starts heading home, it's dark out. They live out in some rural area, so it's all lonely and spooky. The road has streetlights, and eventually the boy notices something is following him. Somehow he realizes the thing doesn't like light, so he stops in one of the pools of light give off by the streetlights, and the creature, which I seem to remember being described as a tall, hulking black shape, stands just outside the light. He has to stay there until it's morning. If anyone can tell me the name of this story, I would appreciate it, because I'm almost starting to think it was something I dreamed up.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 06:51
|
|
|
Trying to remember a book I read a few years ago. Probably no older than 10 years. Basically, the premise of the book is these 2 old collector guys are on one of their islands (I think), and then one of the guys ends up opening a glass vial that contains preserved air from some biblical kinda time. Turns out, WHOA THAT'S A PLAGUE and they end up killing a lot of people. Can't really recall anything else. About 90% sure it was a paperback, and I think the cover was a tan/brown color.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2014 07:14
|
|
|
I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly or not but I'm looking for a book that comes with a bunch of scraps of paper and notes that you're supposed to follow along with the story. I think it was described a bit like House of Leaves and I'm hoping I'm not just making this up.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2014 03:28
|
|
|
Danlee posted:I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly or not but I'm looking for a book that comes with a bunch of scraps of paper and notes that you're supposed to follow along with the story. I think it was described a bit like House of Leaves and I'm hoping I'm not just making this up. Was it this one?
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2014 04:20
|
|
|
Or maybe Griffin and Sabine?
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2014 07:05
|
|
|
miryei posted:Was it this one? Thank you! This is the one I was thinking about but I'm definitely going to check out Griffin and Sabine. Thanks to the both of you.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2014 09:22
|
|
|
I'm trying to remember the name of a post-apocalyptic scifi novel I started a few months ago- it was set years or scant decades after some mysterious virus/bacteria/magical biology had rendered people incapable of carrying babies to term. The protagonist was a nurse/physician/generic medical woman who looked at how many people among the nurses were required to undergo artificial insemination (they were basically studying how the babies died to counteract the virus), went 'screw that', and became a medic for a scavenging/ranging team that went beyond the confines of the city to explore. That's where my recollection ends, sound familiar to anyone?
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2014 03:46
|
|
|
Children's book! Moral had to do with lying. The kid tells his parents he's going to be somewhere he isn't and then sneaks over to his "bad" friend's house (who's parents don't supervise him) and watches scary movies. The lie manifests into some kind of horrible monster which chases him around until he confesses. I was born in 1980, so probably published between 80 - 87?
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2014 22:38
|
|
|
Two old SF short stories - think small hardcover anthologies with yellowing pages from the library ten years ago. 1) Humankind is at war with aliens that are implacable and completely kicking our rear end. Follows a single pilot who's outrunning one of their ships at near-lightspeed. We find out that humanity made themselves immortal by murdering another immortal species, and that's why these aliens already killed all our immortals, knocked us all the way back to just Earth, and induced an ice age (which they claim was to speed our redevelopment of civilization.) Humans didn't learn anything, did the same thing again, and now they're trying to exterminate us altogether. The pilot keeps running away, and thanks to time dilation survives until the Big Crunch starts, and it ends with the pilot laughing at them, saying something like "Humanity made it to the end of this universe, and maybe there's a place for us in the next". 2) A robot is talking with some humans, then goes into routine standby mode. He wakes up when his battery is low, in the same place, but it's all old and stuff. Then he looks all over the Earth and finds no one alive, except one human he used to know, who says that everyone else got killed by a nerve gas that humans had only ever tested in small quantities that didn't "settle" as expected and so murdered everyone. The guy dies, the robot reactivates some factories and makes more robots who make spaceships and scour the galaxy looking for the aliens that killed mankind. In the end, they've only found caveman-level aliens, and eventually a robot realizes that hey, man did this to himself. And I assume there's a conclusion after that.
|
|
#
?
Jun 6, 2014 07:25
|
|
|
DACK FAYDEN posted:Two old SF short stories - think small hardcover anthologies with yellowing pages from the library ten years ago. 1) http://www.e-reading.ws/chapter.php/82872/53/Catastrophes!.html Stars Won't You Hide Me by Ben Bova. I've read #2 as well but don't recall the details
|
|
#
?
Jun 7, 2014 02:58
|
|
|
I read this one within the last 3 years and I believe it was written within the last 5. Young, adult woman works one legal job and another for a gang. She has illicit mind/magic powers and is caught after using them in a subway to escape people trying to detect or capture her. She is imprisoned with others like her and expects to be executed. Instead is taken to another city and slowly trained in the use of her powers by a higher-up of some race of superior-powered beings who are universally malicious. This city is populated largely by individuals who have failed their training and live a miserable existence. She saves her master's life early on by treating him when he returns one night mortally wounded. Eventually finds out he is not on board with his people's endgame plans and is helped by him when the failures revolt. I think he is suspected of assisting in a previous revolt? Lots of other plot points as well but I am not 100% sure they're from this book or another similar one. I think one involves researching the past of her world/city. It's all a blur really.
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2014 03:06
|
|
|
jaadee posted:I read this one within the last 3 years and I believe it was written within the last 5. The Bone Season http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1620401398?pc_redir=1401958355&robot_redir=1 Dr. Kloctopussy fucked around with this message at 05:38 on Jun 8, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2014 05:35
|
|
|
Dr. Kloctopussy posted:The Bone Season That's it, thanks!
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2014 11:45
|
|
|
A children's book, starring a dragon. The dragon is small, about the size of a lizard, but then he decides he's sick of being picked on and having to work so hard all the time and he starts conning the other animals into giving him food. He starts growing and as he grows in size, he grows new heads. The first is a "talking head" so he doesn't have to stop eating to talk to (and keep conning) the other animals. Eventually, he grows absolutely massive and has several heads (seven? nine?), including a fire-breathing one, an ether-spewing one and a "leader head." At this point he's eaten basically everything and the ether (or poison, the translation may have been weird) has destroyed the surrounding landscape. He's way too big for any one animal to take on, but they all band together and destroy the dragon. A point is made that the biggest contribution was from the birds and insects swarming his eyes and vulnerable spots and the moral of the story is something along the lines of "no matter how strong one is, they are never stronger than many others." The title may have been alluding to that, I really can't recall. It was a relatively short book, illustrated in inked black and white. I read it when I was a wee lad, so it'll have been originally published somewhere before, oh, 1998? Definitely before 2000.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2014 21:43
|
|
|
When I was a kid I had a book that was sort of a cross between D&D and choose your own adventure. You would fight monsters and poo poo and to determine if you beat them there was a grid with numbers in it and you would drop a pencil on to the grid and whatever number it landed on determined the amount of damage you did. At least that's how I remember it working. The book was the size of a regular paperback book, and I think it was part of a series. Is this familiar to anyone?
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2014 00:36
|
|
|
Lone Wolf? Most of them are online now: http://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Books
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2014 01:54
|
|
|
Sesquiculus posted:Lone Wolf? Most of them are online now: http://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Books That's definitely it, thanks! Back when I was 12 my family was pretty religious and I got in a lot of trouble for having one of those.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2014 04:08
|
|
|
Fantasy novel, the protagonist was purchasing or considering purchasing some sort of cursed ring or amulet from a merchant in the beginning of the novel. Had a unique writing style.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2014 07:38
|
|
|
gatz posted:Fantasy novel, the protagonist was purchasing or considering purchasing some sort of cursed ring or amulet from a merchant in the beginning of the novel. Had a unique writing style. Every fantasy novel ever written, excluding those that begin on a farm or in a tavern.... But possibly Amulet of Samarkand http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/334123.The_Amulet_of_Samarkand Although in that one, it's the antagonist who buys the amulet, and I'm not sure if it is cursed or just magical, but it does use footnotes, which I guess fits the "unique writing style" part. Dr. Kloctopussy fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Jun 22, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2014 19:07
|
|
|
Dr. Kloctopussy posted:Every fantasy novel ever written, excluding those that begin on a farm or in a tavern.... I'm pretty sure that wasn't it. Thanks for the try, though. I know what I described fits a ton of books.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2014 19:54
|
|
|
GutBomb posted:That's definitely it, thanks! Back when I was 12 my family was pretty religious and I got in a lot of trouble for having one of those. The entity series is available as a free download on the android app store btw
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2014 20:07
|
|
|
I read a review about a book on SA several years ago that I always intended to read but never got around too. By the time I decided to get around to it, I had forgotten the books title. It's stars the President of the US and his staff, as he decides to ensure America's supremacy by destroying every other nation on earth using a bioweapon. In the end though, the weapon kills everyone on earth except the President, because the vaccines that were meant to be handed out to the public were produced by an inferior American company instead of a superior foreign one. The President survives because he got the original vaccine, produced by the foreign (I want to say Chinese) company. There's also a few other small details I remember like one of his aides being vegetarian, but forcing himself to eat hamburgers during photo-ops because of the bad publicity it would cause.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2014 21:58
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 00:13 |
|
|
I was at the library today and saw a HUGE novel which I now can't recall. I remember it had a brown and yellow cover with a 60's-ish psychedelic font for the title. It was subtitled "American Epic" or "American Novel" or something similar, and it had to be at least 1200 pages long. Any ideas? Edit: It was A Moment in the Sun by John Sayles. Jive One fucked around with this message at 02:51 on Jun 26, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2014 02:32
|
|
