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computer parts posted:I think this is a kid's book. All I remember is that the protagonist is kind of young (probably no more than 10) and she(?) lives in a city, probably New York City. She's traveling to somewhere more out in the country, and she's amazed about how bright the autumn leaves are, because in the city the leaves just turn kind of brown because of the pollution. The book might be 'Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great'. It's follows Sheila, a recurring character in the Fudge books.
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Jan 31, 2016 06:30
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I read a piece of fiction in the late 90s that was book length. This was after the sarin attacks but before 9/11. It was about a man who infiltrated terrorist cells/cults, helped them out up until the pivotal moment, and then left to go help another group somewhere else. He had fallen in love with one of the terrorists and was trying to decide if he'd stay to be with her or get out. I think the cult they were in was based on Aum Shinrikyo but I'm not positive. I think it had vignettes about him helping other groups but again I'm not positive. I don't remember much else about it, and for obvious reasons it's become impossible to search for. It is not The Democratic Terrorist.
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Jan 31, 2016 08:02
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I'm cross posting this from the pyf creepy pictures thread since scary stories were brought up.quote:Since the "Scary Stories" books are being talked about, does anyone remember the horror story anthology that was for kids that had the story about a family moving into a house that had another family murdered? The twist was the families shadows come alive in the house and kill them and I remember the ending being the kid walking in to his parents room to see his mom being strangled and dad ripped apart. Can't for the life of me remember the book. Anyone know what short story this was it book it Came from?
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Feb 4, 2016 20:55
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I think that one also had a story of a kid finding a spooky house with a Frankenstein monster in it that ends with the kid bursting out the door into the sunlight, the monster following him out, dragging him back in, and the line "now it could get out."
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Feb 4, 2016 21:48
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Peztopiary posted:I think that one also had a story of a kid finding a spooky house with a Frankenstein monster in it that ends with the kid bursting out the door into the sunlight, the monster following him out, dragging him back in, and the line "now it could get out." Holy poo poo. I really need to know this book now.
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Feb 4, 2016 22:04
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Another crosspost from PYF because its annoying me that I can't remember what this book was;Internet Kraken posted:I think when I was in gradeschool one of our required readings was a story about a girl who goes to live with some creepy relative that is implied to be like, almost a skeleton or something. Said skeleton keeps not so subtly talking about how its going to rip off her skin and eat it. I don't think the story was actually scary, but it was weird. Weird because I had no idea why this of all things was our required reading.
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Feb 4, 2016 23:06
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Peztopiary posted:I think that one also had a story of a kid finding a spooky house with a Frankenstein monster in it that ends with the kid bursting out the door into the sunlight, the monster following him out, dragging him back in, and the line "now it could get out." Ooh I know this one! Haunted Planet by DJ Arneson.
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Feb 5, 2016 04:21
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That's definitely it. I remember that cover. It's weird, I'm pretty sure that's the first book I read as a kid where every story ended with the plucky kid(s) dying.
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Feb 5, 2016 05:46
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wheatpuppy posted:Ooh I know this one! Haunted Planet by DJ Arneson. Ordered this online because this sounds cool as gently caress.
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Feb 6, 2016 16:46
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It seriously traumatised me as a kid; it was the first scary story collection I read that didn't have happy endings. It was so good-creepy that I had to re-read it frequently and then sleep with a light on.
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Feb 6, 2016 18:51
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A friend of mine told me about a book he'd read years ago, which he'd like to remember and which I'd like to find for myself. Here's how he described it in a couple of e-mails: quote:[It] featured some creatures being grown in a research lab which started off looking like flying jellyfish but then flipped inside-out and became terrifying flying toothed things. Every chapter had a fresh illustration of them, slightly farther ahead in their development. e: he thinks it was published sometime between the late 80s and early 00s. I have one of my own, too: a children's horror short story about faces appearing on walls. They start out as isolated ears, mouths, and such, but then emerge as full faces that appear to be sculpted from the wall's material, and which can slide around, following the protagonist. I think it ended with the protagonist figuring out what the faces wanted, and placating them somehow so they leave. SerialKilldeer fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Feb 11, 2016 |
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Feb 11, 2016 16:24
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SerialKilldeer posted:I have one of my own, too: a children's horror short story about faces appearing on walls. They start out as isolated ears, mouths, and such, but then emerge as full faces that appear to be sculpted from the wall's material, and which can slide around, following the protagonist. I think it ended with the protagonist figuring out what the faces wanted, and placating them somehow so they leave. I think I read this as a kid, it was part of a collection called Listen Ear by Paul Jennings.
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Feb 11, 2016 17:39
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I've been looking for this book for years: A group of teenagers go and visit an abandoned cinema before it is due to be demolished. They start dying strange deaths. One guy runs down several flights of stairs and eventually discovers the the stairs are never-ending and he'll die there. Another goes down a slide and gets cut to pieces by razor blades. I think that a couple die while loving. Can't really much else about it.
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Feb 13, 2016 20:16
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SerialKilldeer posted:A friend of mine told me about a book he'd read years ago, which he'd like to remember and which I'd like to find for myself. Here's how he described it in a couple of e-mails: From what I remember, this is the plot of Hydra, by prolific British children's author Robert Swindells. It's not listed on his Wikipedia page, so it must be one of his more obscure books.
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Feb 13, 2016 23:54
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There's this young adult book I remember from the 90s, teenage female protagonist, cover had a picture of the girl in question watching herself walking into some kind of portal. Plot involved time travel and alternate universes of some sort? The only scene I remember clearly is when the protagonist screwed up time travel somehow and only moved in time, not space, so she stayed in place as the earth moved backwards and appeared in space. There was a rather grisly description of the liquid in her eyeballs freezing and poo poo as she died, though I don't recall that being the actual end of the book so it might have been a cyoa of some sort?
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Feb 14, 2016 05:02
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Galsia posted:I've been looking for this book for years: There's a book of short stories, Silver Scream that might have what you're thinking of.
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Feb 14, 2016 07:32
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Lprsti99 posted:I think I read this as a kid, it was part of a collection called Listen Ear by Paul Jennings. I did read a lot of Paul Jennings stories when I was young, though I recall all the collection had titles beginning with Un- (Unbearable, Unreal, Undone, etc). Seems there were other collections, and this cover shows just the scene I remember!  So thank you! rollick posted:From what I remember, this is the plot of Hydra, by prolific British children's author Robert Swindells. It's not listed on his Wikipedia page, so it must be one of his more obscure books. I'll pass that on to my friend, then. The Kindle previews do show jellyfish images at the beginning of each chapter, though they don't change-- maybe the cool illustrations he remembers were only in one edition. e: He says that's the book, so he offers his thanks! SerialKilldeer fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Feb 14, 2016 |
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Feb 14, 2016 16:35
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This was a sci-fi series about an agent that travels around the galaxy but the author has a boner for bio-mechanical beings that can have wheels, and he goes into great detail involving these alien ecosystems with the biologically wheeled alien creatures and whatnot. I last read it like 20 years ago so don't remember much more about the series, but he gets captured with some other humans at some point and is stuck in some kind of weird zoo space station and while he is trying to escape has to pass through all these alien ecosystems.
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Feb 15, 2016 03:23
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Washout posted:This was a sci-fi series about an agent that travels around the galaxy but the author has a boner for bio-mechanical beings that can have wheels, and he goes into great detail involving these alien ecosystems with the biologically wheeled alien creatures and whatnot. I last read it like 20 years ago so don't remember much more about the series, but he gets captured with some other humans at some point and is stuck in some kind of weird zoo space station and while he is trying to escape has to pass through all these alien ecosystems. I would have said Piers Anthony's "Cluster" books but the zoo space station bit doesn't seem to fit.
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Feb 16, 2016 01:51
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Selachian posted:I would have said Piers Anthony's "Cluster" books but the zoo space station bit doesn't seem to fit. Is it Jack chalkers "Well of souls" series?
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Feb 16, 2016 02:49
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Mr Hootington posted:I'm cross posting this from the pyf creepy pictures thread since scary stories were brought up. This was not from The Haunted Planet, but the Frankenstein-type monster story was. The story is called "The House on Pearl Street" and it was creepy. All the stories were a bit creepy. I felt bad for these kids. They weren't even bad kids, just kids. Neat book. I wish someone knew where this story was from, though.
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Feb 17, 2016 21:12
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I am having a crisis of memory. Help me identify these stories. The first story is about a young boy who (cleverly) seeks out an alien assassin to help him with an issue involving a sleazebag politician. The alien is a member of a race that has a perhaps not entirely fair reputation for violence. The aliens are large and physically powerful. At one point, the alien assassin rips the door off a helicopter or other flying machine. At the end of the story, the alien meets his demise out in space on some mercenary mission, and the boy receives a package. The alien, apparently recognizing a kindred spirit, has sent the boy a sort of assassin's starter kit. The story is actually very good, and the ending is a lot more poignant than it sounds. The second story, which I may have asked about in a previous post, it about a guy who gets stranded in a crummy spaceport. He ends up in a codependent relationship with a transsexual space-prostitute. He is in love with her, but she does not love him back, and is probably too broken to do so, anyway. This story is also strangely poignant, and always hits me in the gut. I remember that the author is a professor of something-or-other somewhere in or near Cleveland, OH. These both probably came from volumes of "The Year's Best Science Fiction." I have read both stories numerous times, but I can't seem to dredge up their titles.
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Feb 21, 2016 10:26
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Centripetal Horse posted:The first story is about a young boy who (cleverly) seeks out an alien assassin to help him with an issue involving a sleazebag politician. The alien is a member of a race that has a perhaps not entirely fair reputation for violence. The aliens are large and physically powerful. At one point, the alien assassin rips the door off a helicopter or other flying machine. At the end of the story, the alien meets his demise out in space on some mercenary mission, and the boy receives a package. The alien, apparently recognizing a kindred spirit, has sent the boy a sort of assassin's starter kit. The story is actually very good, and the ending is a lot more poignant than it sounds. "Kin" by Bruce McAllister. Its one of my favourites. Read it for free here, buddy: http://www.spacewesterns.com/articles/100/
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Feb 21, 2016 13:13
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Hedrigall posted:"Kin" by Bruce McAllister. Its one of my favourites. Yes, thank you. It's so good.
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Feb 21, 2016 20:53
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Hedrigall posted:"Kin" by Bruce McAllister. Its one of my favourites. Whoa, it's the Alien alien, isn't it?
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Feb 21, 2016 21:05
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Selachian posted:I would have said Piers Anthony's "Cluster" books but the zoo space station bit doesn't seem to fit. I read the wikipedia and this is it, thanks!
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Feb 22, 2016 00:38
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mcustic posted:Whoa, it's the Alien alien, isn't it? It really is. I had forgotten about that story. So good.
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Feb 22, 2016 04:33
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I have vague memories that might be made up of a book that was about a shark/monster that came up on land. I remember it being pretty dumb but scaring me when I read it, which was like about 20 years ago. Am I insane or does this exist?
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Feb 22, 2016 22:21
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The Berzerker posted:I have vague memories that might be made up of a book that was about a shark/monster that came up on land. I remember it being pretty dumb but scaring me when I read it, which was like about 20 years ago. Am I insane or does this exist? Probably Creature (AKA White Shark) by Peter Benchley.
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Feb 22, 2016 22:35
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They made a two part miniseries of it starring Craig T. Nelson and Kim Cattrall too.
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Feb 23, 2016 18:07
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Speaking of shark stories: a short story about some sort of native shark deity impersonating one of researchers or fishermen on a tiny island in order to kill them all. Ends with it being revealed and trying to swim through an underground current too narrow for it or something like that. I think it was supposed to be horror but I just liked the description of the thing's fish form. Anyone familiar with it?
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Feb 23, 2016 19:20
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This is going to be horribly vague, sorry. A book about a guy living alone in the wilderness. I forget if he was trapped there for some reason, or left human society voluntarily. I think that the book covers a span of several years and ends with him meeting people again. The one bit I remember clearly is that at one point he gets an overwhelming craving for liver, and kills some wild animal and eats its liver and feels much better afterwards, leading him to speculate that he had some kind of nutritional deficiency that was satisfied by eating it, hence the craving. At this point the book says something like "liver he had craved, so liver he had sought, without knowing why". I would have read this in grade school, I think, so mid-late 90s, but it could easily be older than that. E: holy poo poo, google, I searched for [book about a guy living alone in the wilderness who eats liver] and My Side of the Mountain was the first hit. That's the book. ToxicFrog fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Feb 24, 2016 |
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Feb 24, 2016 03:45
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ToxicFrog posted:This is going to be horribly vague, sorry. I think its Hatchet.
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Feb 24, 2016 03:49
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morestuff posted:Probably Creature (AKA White Shark) by Peter Benchley. This might be it! I had no idea there was a movie of it, either. Thanks thread.
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Feb 24, 2016 03:59
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I read a sci-fi novel a long time ago about this generational colony spaceship that had been meant to populate some far off planet, but so much time had passed (and I think something went wrong/there was a disaster of some sort) that the society had degressed to farmer-level with this weird quasi-religion based around worshipping a god named Jordan, which actually turned out to be the name of the foundation that had funded the trip. The main character was a young man who had grown up in that society and then through some sort of event ended up living with the "muties," malformed humans who lived in other regions of the ship and knew about the ship's original mission. There was a two-headed man who was leader of the muties named Joe-Jim something, Joe being one head and Jim being the other. In the end I think main character guy and Joe-Jim led an expedition to the ship's control room or something, but I don't remember how it turned out.
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Feb 24, 2016 06:35
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AnonSpore posted:I read a sci-fi novel a long time ago about this generational colony spaceship that had been meant to populate some far off planet, but so much time had passed (and I think something went wrong/there was a disaster of some sort) that the society had degressed to farmer-level with this weird quasi-religion based around worshipping a god named Jordan, which actually turned out to be the name of the foundation that had funded the trip. The main character was a young man who had grown up in that society and then through some sort of event ended up living with the "muties," malformed humans who lived in other regions of the ship and knew about the ship's original mission. There was a two-headed man who was leader of the muties named Joe-Jim something, Joe being one head and Jim being the other. Orphans of the Sky. I think I read it after someone else posted it in this thread.
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Feb 24, 2016 07:43
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Shark talk has made me half remember a story. A depressed nobleman is walking along some cliffs. He sees a ship getting wrecked. Then a huge shark attacks the sailers. The nobleman is so impressed with the bloodthirst and rage of the shark he kind of falls in love with the sea monster. In the end he throws himself to the shark, hoping to have some kind of extacy when he is eaten. Pretty sure it was written in the 1800s, and it may have had "Count of..." in the title.
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Feb 25, 2016 12:47
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BattyKiara posted:Shark talk has made me half remember a story.
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Feb 25, 2016 13:39
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Runcible Cat posted:Les Chants de Maldoror. Thank you!
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Feb 25, 2016 13:42
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My dad told me a short story he read once as a kid, and it may have been part of an anthology from the late 50's-late70's. It goes like this [parts I'm not sure about go in brackets]: A very successful man takes [his best friend] out [somewhere] to tell him his deepest darkest secret. The successful man tells his friend he's an alien and explains a bunch of stuff about the world he came from. The man used to be a [king/revolutionary/criminal] or somesuch and he was overthrown. As part of his punishment he was exiled to earth and forced to live as a human and has spent his entire time here rebuilding his life. The friend then reveals that he's also an alien and he was sent there to spy on the man. And the moment he rebuilt his life and became happy again he'd be exiled to a new planet to start all over. Now I'm beginning to wonder if it was a Twilight Zone episode or a ghost story he heard.
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Feb 26, 2016 21:47
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