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Could it be an Anne Rice book? She's had a bunch of different ones with immortal characters. That line sounds like something one of her characters would say too.
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Aug 13, 2014 01:41
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I read a sci-fi short story in one of those best of collections. It's premise was that of a soldier returning home after a war in the future at the end of times where warriors from all times come together for Armageddon. It may or may not have something to do with like good or evil winning. This soldier arrives home, finds it changed, a girl he likes bartends and is harassed by a passing contingent of low level soldiers also returned from the future war. I believe one of the soldiers hits or harasses her, the main character asks them to stop, they dont, he expands/grows/something and they recognize him as a pivotal warrior from the future. He kills them, and says something along the lines of it being worth it for the girl and having to win or do it all over again. Any ideas?
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Aug 13, 2014 02:22
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savinhill posted:Could it be an Anne Rice book? She's had a bunch of different ones with immortal characters. That line sounds like something one of her characters would say too. Nah, I haven't read Rice in decades, and even then the only book I liked was the mummy one. I gave up on the vampire ones after the Interview one came out. This is gonna bug the crap out of me , but when/if I do find it I'll post up in the thread so the rest of you now wondering will know.
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Aug 13, 2014 06:01
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Waroduce posted:I read a sci-fi short story in one of those best of collections. It's premise was that of a soldier returning home after a war in the future at the end of times where warriors from all times come together for Armageddon. It may or may not have something to do with like good or evil winning. This soldier arrives home, finds it changed, a girl he likes bartends and is harassed by a passing contingent of low level soldiers also returned from the future war. I believe one of the soldiers hits or harasses her, the main character asks them to stop, they dont, he expands/grows/something and they recognize him as a pivotal warrior from the future. He kills them, and says something along the lines of it being worth it for the girl and having to win or do it all over again.
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Aug 13, 2014 08:58
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Runcible Cat posted:A Dry, Quiet War by Tony Daniel <3 E: do you know anything similar
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Aug 14, 2014 02:48
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Sir_Substance posted:That sounds very much like the Gizmo series by Paul Jennings, there are four books, all of which have plots revolving around someone finding a small sphere that does some crazy and specific thing. I only read one of them and a casual google doesn't find any plot synopses, but I don't think they ever changed the cover art, see if you recognise one. Nah, that's not it, the cover was more of that clean vibrant early '90s style. Gah, I'll never figure this out.
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Aug 14, 2014 02:54
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Waroduce posted:<3
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Aug 14, 2014 17:55
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Runcible Cat posted:The sort-of Western feel or the melancholic-time-travel-warriors-rest thing? First one, maybe Brass Man by Neal Asher (3rd in a series, but he was just getting into stride on the first one, you can start on the second and catch up no problem), second maybe Fritz Leiber's The Big Time and his other Snakes-vs-Spiders stuff? The second one. Thanks again
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Aug 14, 2014 20:17
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Waroduce posted:The second one. Thanks again
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Aug 14, 2014 22:04
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I am trying to remember the title of a science fiction short story. The story is pretty recent, published in the last few years, and I definitely have it somewhere in my home in one of the "Year's Best" anthologies. This should be easy for those of you who don't have Swiss-cheese holes in your brain the way I do. The story is told point-of-view by a guy who is trapped at a space port due to lovely circumstances/lack of funds. The plot revolves largely around a transsexual space prostitute. Eventually, the narrator ends up turning space-tricks. Despite how it sounds, it's an excellent story, and a bit of a tear-jerker. I don't recall the author's name, but he is a professor at a school in the Cleveland area, or he is from Cleveland and teaches somewhere in Ohio.
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Aug 15, 2014 07:21
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Runcible Cat posted:A Dry, Quiet War by Tony Daniel Is this the third time that story has been identified in this thread?
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Aug 16, 2014 06:05
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Thanks
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Aug 16, 2014 08:02
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ClearAirTurbulence posted:Is this the third time that story has been identified in this thread?
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Aug 16, 2014 08:34
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Somebody must have said what the result was ...
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Aug 16, 2014 17:26
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This ID is more for nostalgia purposes than anything else, and to see if I dreamed the whole series I am going to ask about, I know you guys don't do YA lit that often, but I am really desperate for help. Can someone help me identify a series? It had Roswell type aliens and the typical YA team of teenagers saving the world. I remember one could speak every language in the universe by listening to it, another could learn to fight, or do anything physical just by watching it be done. I remember a cover with a silver hand, and a story about a kid they think can become an ally of their's but he ends up being some sort of deep cover alien assassin and even he didn't know it. Google fails me. I think I saw it in the mid 90's.
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Aug 19, 2014 18:48
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Mr.Drf posted:This ID is more for nostalgia purposes than anything else, and to see if I dreamed the whole series I am going to ask about, I know you guys don't do YA lit that often, but I am really desperate for help. Can someone help me identify a series? It had Roswell type aliens and the typical YA team of teenagers saving the world. I remember one could speak every language in the universe by listening to it, another could learn to fight, or do anything physical just by watching it be done. I remember a cover with a silver hand, and a story about a kid they think can become an ally of their's but he ends up being some sort of deep cover alien assassin and even he didn't know it. Google fails me. I think I saw it in the mid 90's. Wouldn't happen to be The New Mutants comic by chance? You described the first year or so of that comic fairly well.
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Aug 19, 2014 22:00
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regulargonzalez posted:Wouldn't happen to be The New Mutants comic by chance? You described the first year or so of that comic fairly well. It's not a comic, it's a series of thin paperbacks. I also read this series as a kid and also can't remember what it was. Further details: they all had silver blood and the talky guy once persuaded ants to eat away some ropes he was tied up in.
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Aug 20, 2014 00:45
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Was it this Mindwarp middle-grade series? I've never read any of them, but I remember seeing them in the local library as a kid.
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Aug 20, 2014 01:14
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BlueFlowerRedSky posted:Was it this Mindwarp middle-grade series? I've never read any of them, but I remember seeing them in the local library as a kid. Yes it was! Thank you, I had been trying to track that down for days, but my memory was fuzzy on solid details.
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Aug 22, 2014 22:33
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regulargonzalez posted:Wouldn't happen to be The New Mutants comic by chance? You described the first year or so of that comic fairly well. Did the guy with the hand thing in New Mutants get shot and go into like a chrysalis thing, and when he came out he had one hand that could kill by touching, and the other could heal/resurrect? If that is New Mutants then you just identified the story I was coming here to ask about before I'd even done so. Big coincidence and I think probably a new best, even for this thread.
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Aug 23, 2014 22:55
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There was a book that I remember reading as a kid, that was about a young boy who wanted to be an artist (possibly comics) or cartoonist but either his parents didn't like it or he had trouble creating a character (or both), with a secondary plot of a black sheep, also-kinda-artsy uncle who was trying to produce a play he had written. The emotional climax involved the boy being at a production of his uncle's play and being inspired by shadows cast on the theater walls. I believe it was also illustrated, but the artwork was fairly crude, as if the boy himself had drawn them. I don't remember exactly how old I was when I read it, but it'd have to be from the early- to mid-90s at the latest. Sorry if it's a bit vague, but it's bothered me off and on for years, and I've had no luck myself. Thanks.
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Aug 28, 2014 07:49
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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. I know this one is from a really long time ago, but if you're still looking try The Sunset Warrior by Eric Van Lustbader.
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Aug 28, 2014 09:53
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On Tuesday night I saw a guy reading a book that looked pretty interesting and I wanted to check it out, but I'm kicking myself for not remembering the title. All I remember it being is completely white, non-fiction (perhaps some sort of encyclopedic work) with a latin-sounding title (that has the word "universe" in it, I think). Looks like one of those older books written in medieval times or something. That was probably horribly vague but if it rings a bell I'd be grateful.
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Aug 29, 2014 02:37
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Two things: first, the line "Time is over in an instant but within that instant stretches on unceasingly" or words to that effect. Second, a story about a train to Heaven or the afterlife. People get off at their correct stop, and it's kind of a space thing. There is a stop for overly religious people that takes them to a plane filled with crosses, but it isn't the "real" end of the line. Main character was a little girl.
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Aug 29, 2014 09:45
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A few months back I read a short story about some nerds who developed software and hardware designed to allow crowds of protesters (specifically Occupy SF i think) to evade police lines and riot troops. I think it might have been on tor.com but I couldn't find it anywhere. Suggestions? Thanks goons i love you.
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Sep 3, 2014 00:40
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I have been trying for months to remember the name of this story I read when I was in fourth or fifth grade. It was in our English textbook reader anthology thing. My memory's kind of hazy since it's been so long, but the story took place in the late 1800s or early 1900s, and it was about these children in this town at the base of a dam. I think it was based on real events. Anyway, the dam burst and flooded the town and killed, like, everyone. And these children had this very anxiety-prone aunt who freaked out when the wave came and hid inside of a steamer trunk with the youngest son of the family. The older kids ran out of the house and somehow managed to survive the flood. They were going through the wreckage afterwards, and all I remember is they found that trunk floating around with their aunt and brother dead inside of it, I think.
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Sep 3, 2014 08:33
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CorruptGuardian posted:I have been trying for months to remember the name of this story I read when I was in fourth or fifth grade. It was in our English textbook reader anthology thing. I did a Boolean search based on what you wrote. It wouldn't happen to be this book would it? http://www.amazon.com/The-Johnstown-Flood-David-McCullough/dp/0671207148
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Sep 4, 2014 07:00
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Zealot4223 posted:I did a Boolean search based on what you wrote. I can't quite tell, but I don't think so. The one I'm thinking of was a narrative about some kids. But I think it might have been about that flood, because the description of the dam seems familiar.
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Sep 4, 2014 19:24
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Well, I've narrowed it down for you :P Rudyard Kipling noted the flood in his novel, Captains Courageous (1897), as the disaster that destroyed the family of the minor character "Pennsylvania Pratt." Marden A. Dahlstedt wrote the young adult novel, The Terrible Wave (1972), featuring a young girl as the main character, the book is inspired by the memoir of Gertrude Quinn (Slattery) who was six years old at the time of the flood. John Jakes featured the flood in his novel, The Americans (1979), set in 1890 and the final book in the series of The Kent Family Chronicles. Rosalyn Alsobrook wrote Emerald Storm (1985), a mass market historical romance set in Johnstown. The characters Patricia and Cole try to reunite with each other and loved ones after the flood. Kathleen Cambor wrote the historical novel In Sunlight, In a Beautiful Garden (2001), based on events of the flood. The book was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Richard A. Gregory wrote The Bosses Club, The conspiracy that caused the Johnstown Flood, destroying the iron and steel capital of America (2011), a historical novel that proposes a theory of the involvement of Andrew Carnegie and other wealthy American industrialists in the Johnstown Flood, told through the lives of two survivors. Judith Redline Coopey wrote Waterproof: A Novel of the Johnstown Flood (2012), a story of Pamela Gwynedd McCrae from 1889-1939 through flashbacks. Kathleen Danielczyk wrote "Summer of Gold and Water" (2013) which tells story of life at the lake, the flood and a coming together of the classes. If it's not there, at least the fact that it's based on the flood..should narrow it down for you in a Google search. Zealot4223 fucked around with this message at 06:42 on Sep 5, 2014 |
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Sep 5, 2014 06:38
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Nearly everything about this memory of a book is hazy, but here goes. About ten or more years ago I read an autobiography of an American guy who, when he was a kid, was fascinated by rockets so he and his friends designed and built their own. It's possible that they lived in a coal mining town and were looked at with suspicion for their interests because they were expected to grow up to be minors. There may have been some tragedy in the town related to the mine, possibly the kid's father was killed. I'm fairly certain that the guy grew up and joined NASA as an engineer. Sorry for being so vague, I remember the book being really good and I'd love to read it again.
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Sep 5, 2014 14:56
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Rocket Boys, which became the film October Sky?
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Sep 5, 2014 14:59
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Pork Pie Hat posted:Nearly everything about this memory of a book is hazy, but here goes. Rocket Boys, filmed (and I think also republished) under the name "October Sky", by Homer Hickam Jr.
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Sep 5, 2014 15:04
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CaptainJuan posted:Rocket Boys, which became the film October Sky? Hobnob posted:Rocket Boys, filmed (and I think also republished) under the name "October Sky", by Homer Hickam Jr.  I can't quite believe that I didn't try searching for a title like that. You both have my somewhat embarrassed but heartfelt thanks.e: I had no idea it had been made into a film, so double thanks for that!
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Sep 5, 2014 16:59
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Pork Pie Hat posted:
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Sep 5, 2014 17:04
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Zealot4223 posted:Well, I've narrowed it down for you :P Thank you a ton--it was The Terrible Wave, it turns out. I tried searching for books about the flood, but for some reason, that one never came up. Much obliged, goonsir. 
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Sep 5, 2014 17:51
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This is driving me nuts mainly because it's so obvious. Cross-genre (with vague implications of cross-generational a la Rice & Salt), had a film adaptation recently, cyberpunk sections where a clone (or robot?) works in a fast food joint and is shut away at night and the workers are recycled into (more workers or burgers?). The hero of that section is attending super-elite university or something. The book started (and ended?) in the past, merrily jumping through time. Also, the film adaptation was suprisingly decent, but completely unheard-of. e: Found it - Cloud Atlas. petrol blue fucked around with this message at 02:12 on Sep 15, 2014 |
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Sep 15, 2014 01:55
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Cloud Atlas? Edit: beat me by a second!
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Sep 15, 2014 02:12
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Thanks anyway, good to know goonmind is at the ready to save me beating my head against IMDB tagging. 
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Sep 15, 2014 02:18
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I'm looking for a short story that I'm fairly sure is considered to be an example of magical realism. I'm think the author is Latin American, though I know it isn't Marquez and I don't think it's Cortazar, either. It deals with two (?) people in a house that slowly get forced into a smaller and smaller area of the home by something unseen. I think all they hear is noises, and the house is basically taken over by them, but the characters don't respond with fear or anything. They just kind of shrug and and accept that the rooms are now off-limits. I almost want to say it's a brother and sister living together, though it could be a husband and wife as well, and the woman knits. I know that's all kind of vague and a lot of it is half-remembered, but I'm curious if anyone has any idea what I'm talking about.
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Sep 18, 2014 03:07
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Grizzled Patriarch posted:I'm looking for a short story that I'm fairly sure is considered to be an example of magical realism. I'm think the author is Latin American, though I know it isn't Marquez and I don't think it's Cortazar, either. It deals with two (?) people in a house that slowly get forced into a smaller and smaller area of the home by something unseen. I think all they hear is noises, and the house is basically taken over by them, but the characters don't respond with fear or anything. They just kind of shrug and and accept that the rooms are now off-limits. I almost want to say it's a brother and sister living together, though it could be a husband and wife as well, and the woman knits. I know this probably isn't it, but it sounds very similar to a story in Nicole Krauss's The History of Love.
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Sep 18, 2014 08:13
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