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anilEhilated posted:Could one be Otherland? It's got Egyptian gods, IIRC there's an Anubis stand-in that fits your description, it's got minds uploaded into VR and there are giant bugs. Based on blurbs/wikipedia/dates, i'm pretty sure this isn't it. But it looks to be on the same level, and is available in my library's ebook collection, so I have checked it out. Important: the people are NOT in virtual reality. They are literally bodily humans in sustenance pods within giant spider robots.
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Dec 13, 2017 09:12
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Some of these things, Egyptian gods and the prostitute/oracle thing might be from Creatures of Light and Darkness by Roger Zelazny.
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Dec 13, 2017 11:11
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IYKK posted:Some of these things, Egyptian gods and the prostitute/oracle thing might be from Creatures of Light and Darkness by Roger Zelazny. Also the hammers. There were creatures that did something with hammers and were rewarded with not being blind anymore and as the people left them made a comment that the other ones will rip out the now slightly guys eyes soon enough to bring everyone back down to the same level. Other really memorable scene to me is the divination in the entrails of a religious leader /diviner who is complaining as he dies that his own entrails are being read wrong by the idiot divine/schism leader.
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Dec 13, 2017 14:17
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Dr. Kloctopussy posted:Based on blurbs/wikipedia/dates, i'm pretty sure this isn't it. But it looks to be on the same level, and is available in my library's ebook collection, so I have checked it out. Yeah, at least one of the books you're talking about is either Creatures of Light and Darkness by Roger Zelazny or a book that copied from it wholesale. The giant spider pod bots are from somewhere else though.
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Dec 13, 2017 14:21
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Hmmm I've been trying to track down a short book for awhile now. It was part of my libraries quick reads section, so about a 100-150 pages long. It was from the point of view of a young runaway in the late 50's who ended up day labouring with a group of Mexican fruit and veg pickers. They essentially adopt him and he travels with them from farm to farm for awhile before getting separated. I also remembering a section where he hitchhikes and gets picked up by a Hungarian refugee whom talks about the Soviet Invasion of Hungary in 1956 while eating donuts and speeding. The protagonist ends up with a group of travelling Carnies. The front cover had an old rollercoaster on it. Edit: I found it, it was called the Beet Fields by Gary Paulsen Baka-nin fucked around with this message at 06:24 on Jan 15, 2018 |
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Dec 13, 2017 16:31
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Oh good, so a thing I can actually re-read and probably enjoy. Awesome! And thank you! My dad might still have the group-mind in spider-tanks one, so if no one recognizes it, I can at least look for it over Christmas.
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Dec 14, 2017 00:46
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Dr. Kloctopussy posted:Oh good, so a thing I can actually re-read and probably enjoy. Awesome! And thank you! One of the Dune prequels written by the son had a bunch of brain-tanks who took over human space, and they had robot spider bodies they could plug into. They had some sort of telepathy/instant communication dealie too, IIRC. They are not good books, even by pulpy sci-fi standards.
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Dec 14, 2017 01:09
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Asked about this one a few years ago with no luck, going to try it again. SF short story, which I probably read in a collection (as opposed to online or in a magazine) sometime in the early 2000s. A team of scientists are working on a time machine and have successfully sent small objects back in time short distances, but have detected "anomalies" in their position as they arrive in the past. One of the scientists wants to send himself back in time one day with a newspaper, another tells him the device is not safe to use, he ignores them and uses the machine anyways and comes out in space somewhere and dies. In overall structure and tone I remember it as being similar to "The Hole Man" by Niven, but it wasn't that and I'm pretty sure it wasn't by Niven.
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Dec 14, 2017 13:53
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Dr. Kloctopussy posted:Oh good, so a thing I can actually re-read and probably enjoy. Awesome! And thank you! Creatures of Light and Darkness is great but it's by far Zelazny's weirdest book. Like, he wrote it basically as a gag as his first novel while he was working at the Social Security administration, and it's wildly experimental and bizarre. Almost every chapter is in a different format -- one's a play, one's a lyric poem, one's a prophecy, etc. Zelaznys' a great author but you might want to start with Lord of Light or Isle of the Dead first as they're much more coherent. Creatures isn't really trying to be coherent, just interesting.
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Dec 14, 2017 14:11
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Creatures of Light and Darkness is great but it's by far Zelazny's weirdest book. Like, he wrote it basically as a gag as his first novel while he was working at the Social Security administration, and it's wildly experimental and bizarre. Almost every chapter is in a different format -- one's a play, one's a lyric poem, one's a prophecy, etc. Thanks for adding this additional context, I think I'll enjoy rereading it more now. I've also read the Amber books, but I think that's it, so grabbing Lord of Light from the library as well.
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Dec 14, 2017 16:35
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It was a goosebumps-era book, not horror but targeted at that same age bracket. The main character(or possibly a side character) lives at a walmart-style super store, hiding in it at night. The only solid detail I remember is that at one point they decide to get bubblegum flavored popcorn, the concept of which apparently disgusted me so much it left decades old mental scars. edit: I don't think it is, Secrets Of The Shopping Mall after flipping through that The Chad Jihad fucked around with this message at 03:17 on Dec 15, 2017 |
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Dec 15, 2017 03:06
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What I'm thinking of is a short story, I think only a few pages long, that I read online a while ago. I first read about the story in an essay that was written about it. I want to say the essay was by David Foster Wallace and the story by George Saunders or something, but I already tried searching for that and didn't find anything, so I guess not. Anyway, in the story there's a group of children asking an adult, maybe their teacher, a series of questions. It starts off like normal little kid questions, but then the questions start becoming more elaborate and mature. I think most of the questions concern the nature of love or something along those lines.
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Dec 15, 2017 08:06
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I was thinking about an illustrated childrens' book I had growing up, and I can't for the life of me remember what it was. It was reasonably realistically drawn – and I think the plot may have involved a child wandering around a house. The thing that made it stand out was that all of the background periphery had tiny little detailed civilisation things going on, think "Borrowers"-style. For example, a bookcase might have houses with lights on sandwiched between the books; under the floorboards would be a lake with a boat on it, or there would be little doorways in the sides of stairs. I remember tiny windows with lights on inside them being pretty promiment throughout. I've been googling and it's driving me mad – any suggestions?
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Dec 20, 2017 07:38
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A book or short story about a kid who joins a gypsy caravan but it turns out the gypsies are a secret race of advanced humans who sell the only source of potassium to a bunch of dirt farmers. At some point maybehe bangs his love interest's mom so he can learn how to gently caress good or something ? Kid eventually plants the potassium plant in the wild for the dirt farmers to find. I may have asked this before but I could not find it. Edit: Destiny's Road, I had asked about it before. Yngwie Mangosteen fucked around with this message at 08:26 on Dec 28, 2017 |
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Dec 28, 2017 08:24
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This is a long shot. It was a book I think about a doctor or physician and I think he was depressed or a drug addict, or generally misanthropic or negative. Maybe it was Russian but I'm definitely not sure on that. It had some sort of horror or thriller bent I think. Sorry it's not a lot to go on, but if anyone can find it i'd greatly appreciate it.
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Dec 29, 2017 22:08
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Kvlt! posted:This is a long shot. It was a book I think about a doctor or physician and I think he was depressed or a drug addict, or generally misanthropic or negative. Maybe it was Russian but I'm definitely not sure on that. It had some sort of horror or thriller bent I think. Sorry it's not a lot to go on, but if anyone can find it i'd greatly appreciate it. The M.D. by Thomas Disch?
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Dec 29, 2017 23:57
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Runcible Cat posted:The M.D. by Thomas Disch? No that's not it. It was more philosophical and less plot driven. Maybe it wasn't even horror or thriller based but more general misery or darkness. I wish I had more to go on.
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Dec 30, 2017 00:00
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Kvlt! posted:No that's not it. It was more philosophical and less plot driven. Maybe it wasn't even horror or thriller based but more general misery or darkness. I wish I had more to go on. Unbearable Lightness of Being maybe?
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Dec 30, 2017 05:26
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Retro Futurist posted:Unbearable Lightness of Being maybe? That's not it. Thanks though. The problem is I never actually read the book so I'm going off a description of it. Maybe I'm misremembering.
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Dec 30, 2017 05:38
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A Country Doctor's Notebook by Bulgakov?
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Dec 30, 2017 19:27
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Big Bad Beetleborg posted:A Country Doctor's Notebook by Bulgakov? Nope, thank you though. Maybe I'm misremembering because nobody can find it anywhere (and neither can I!)
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Dec 30, 2017 20:59
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Kvlt! posted:Nope, thank you though. Maybe I'm misremembering because nobody can find it anywhere (and neither can I!) One of the two books narrated by a self-insert doctor by Celine? The horror is human existence
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Dec 30, 2017 22:15
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Take the plunge! Okay! posted:One of the two books narrated by a self-insert doctor by Celine? The horror is human existence I don't think that's it sorry.
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Dec 31, 2017 01:37
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A question recently posed by a friend, I thought if anyone could answer, it would be this community. There always seems to be someone here with the answer to these things. Quoted from his question, posted elsewhere: "Somewhere back in the '70s (between 1970-and 1977, and probably closest to 1974-1975 +/-2 years) I read a short-short SF/Horror story in one of the little free magazines that we sometimes received in school from Scholastic and possibly other sources. One day a friend showed me a story in their copy of one of these little magazines (it was more or less digest sized) that I had missed because I was out sick (so this was probably in the winter? it explains why I never had my own copy though). The narrator of the story is a child attending another child's birthday party in the future (at least in the future as perceived from the mid-'70s), and bringing a special gift made in the lab in which his/her father worked (I can't remember with any certainty the gender of either the narrator or the recipient of the gift, though I think the recipient might have been a girl). The gift is a little box, and a string or cord extends out of a hole on one side of the box. When the recipient of the gift pulls on the string, the string pulls back. A delightful tug-of-war ensues, until suddenly whatever is on the other side of the string pulls so hard the birthday girl(?) is drawn into the hole and disappears inside the box. Possibly followed by screams and/or crunching/eating sounds... The final line of the story was something close to "I forgot the monster on the other side of the nowhere-hole could pull back." I also distinctly remember a rather spoilery illustration of a monster accompanying the story. The image (which appears in blue ink in my memory) was a frontal depiction of a ragged and vicious-looking humanoid monster with a fibrous cord extending from the tip of one of its claws." Anyone have anything on that??
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Jan 3, 2018 18:38
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Could it possibly be one of Richard Matheson's short stories? I remember reading Born of Man and Woman and A Dress of White Silk in exactly that kind of magazine, and it has a similar feel.
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Jan 4, 2018 02:08
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I just looked through a full list of Richard Matheson short stories, and researched a few that looked promising; but I don't think it's one of those. I think you're right on, though, in that the tone of what I saw seems to fit very well with the description!
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Jan 4, 2018 17:35
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A friend of mine is trying to remember a book he read between 1994 and 1998 that told a story similar to the bible book Genesis through the eyes of God--and God is learning how to use his godly powers in the process. And apparently there are no other characters of note in the book... He also says that it isn't a Christian book per se, just happens to involve God. Any ideas? I have never heard of this book, and Google has failed me. NEVER MIND, we found it... The Life of God (as Told by Himself) https://www.amazon.com/Life-God-Told-Himself/dp/0226244962 tonytheshoes fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Jan 5, 2018 |
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Jan 5, 2018 17:03
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I’m looking for a book I read, I’m going to guess, 25 or 30 years ago. It was a story about a young boy whose family adopted a child from Vietnam, or at least a Vietnamese kid. Another plot in the book was that the main character adopted a raccoon, and the raccoon got up to all sorts of shenanigans. I’m sure the adopted child was Vietnamese, and his last name was Nguyen, but the raccoon may have been a fox. Actually, I kind of think it was a fox. This book was probably aimed at the upper end of the Judy Blume readers age range, think, “Then Again, Maybe I Won’t,” or, “Are You There God? It’s me, Margaret,” and may very well have been from a Scholastic book fair or something.
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Jan 6, 2018 09:04
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I read a SF short in a collection while on the amazon unlimited demo - I think it was a published collection though. Read it on a train while half asleep so I don't remember much of the details but argh. The protagonist was a cat AI / robot, I think they'd been purchased as a replacement for a deceased pet cat by a family. The owners didn't treat it well and it escaped? and maybe found a new owner? A lot of description of the confused cat brain's behaviour not working well in a robot body - lack of scent, etc.
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Jan 11, 2018 05:45
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A couple of requests after scanning back a few pages to see if they'd been requested and found yet. First one I read sometime in the last 10 years. An expedition of feline aliens come to a system where the 2nd planet is a lush tropical paradise ready for colonization. The 3rd is uninhabitable, high temps and toxic atmosphere, despite being in a better orbital zone for life. While checking out the system, they find buildings on the satellite of the 3rd planet. Inside they find a vault with many great works of art and the record of the last days of humanity succumbing to pollution and war. Most of the book is them watching the tapes and learning about human art and self destructiveness. Second one I read back in the mid-80s. Space fighter pilot is shot down buy some new weapon that warps him to some unknown planet. He finds, and is revered, by a tribe of the locals who are copper age at best. He sends a hand recorder with a message with some traders from a slightly more advanced culture hoping they can make the part he needs to fix his FTL communicator. His local primitive friends kill the traders because they've "stolen their god's voice." Pilot gives up trying to fix the FTL and since the radio beacon will take decades, if not centuries to call for help, so he takes a hibernation pill and sleeps. He wakes up in a 20th century type city, messes around, and takes his last hibernation pill. He wakes up and his radio picks up the battle in orbit and he realizes the weapon hadn't displaced him is space, but in time.
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Jan 11, 2018 22:36
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I'm trying to remember a series of children's/ young teen horror stories from circa 1990-2000s. It wasn't Goosebumps - one of the stories was some kid's uncle (Ygor, or Igor) was an actor most famous for playing a vampire, but supposedly dies and is buried in his cape (à la Lugosi) - but it turns out he's inside of some transparent coffin-like life support, trying to come back to life (or something like that). It had a very distinctive illustrated cover of the Dracula in a glass tube with the kid looking worried. It was a series of horror stories - I don't really recall the stories of the other ones, but I remember the cover of another was of a kid tryinf to escape a hurricane. It's been pestering me for the last few years - it's the sort of thing my nephew would like - but I can't remeber the title of the drat things. 
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Jan 12, 2018 00:18
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Fear Street?
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Jan 12, 2018 16:44
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fear street ruled
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Jan 12, 2018 21:27
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This is fairly specific, but I'm just failing to find it on Google. Short story by Stephen Baxter, about a man who is sent back from the future to convince a musician not to make some journey during WWII, because his music is needed in the future to fight off... psychic aliens maybe. Particularly, who is the musician? Edit: I guess I should have given up half an hour ago, I found it nearly right after asking. "Weep for the moon", with Glenn Miller. The man from the future is Herb, his brother, and the aliens are left vague but people without " big ideas" die when they arrive (e.g. religion, music). uvar fucked around with this message at 11:49 on Jan 14, 2018 |
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Jan 14, 2018 11:41
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Science fiction, a very advanced civilisation finds somehow a society that had been cut off from the rest of the universe / culture somehow. The cut off society had evolved so that it was the most extreme example of every man for himself possible, no trust, no such thing as a free lunch etc. Criminal, amoral, and all manner of such things. The cultured society made contact and tried to help them become better galactic citizens but if I recall correctly the book ended with it being very clear that the Darwinian society was going to wipe the floor with the do gooders and take over. I read it about 25 years ago but I have a feeling it is a good bit older than that. I thought it was someone like Fred Saberhagen but it appears not. Any thoughts?
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Jan 14, 2018 23:32
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Tony Cochrane posted:Science fiction, a very advanced civilisation finds somehow a society that had been cut off from the rest of the universe / culture somehow. The cut off society had evolved so that it was the most extreme example of every man for himself possible, no trust, no such thing as a free lunch etc. Criminal, amoral, and all manner of such things. The cultured society made contact and tried to help them become better galactic citizens but if I recall correctly the book ended with it being very clear that the Darwinian society was going to wipe the floor with the do gooders and take over. I read it about 25 years ago but I have a feeling it is a good bit older than that. I thought it was someone like Fred Saberhagen but it appears not. Any thoughts? Frank Herbert's The Dosadi Experiment, perhaps? Been a long time since I read it so I don't recall if all the details match.
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Jan 15, 2018 00:07
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Tony Cochrane posted:Science fiction, a very advanced civilisation finds somehow a society that had been cut off from the rest of the universe / culture somehow. The cut off society had evolved so that it was the most extreme example of every man for himself possible, no trust, no such thing as a free lunch etc. Criminal, amoral, and all manner of such things. The cultured society made contact and tried to help them become better galactic citizens but if I recall correctly the book ended with it being very clear that the Darwinian society was going to wipe the floor with the do gooders and take over. I read it about 25 years ago but I have a feeling it is a good bit older than that. I thought it was someone like Fred Saberhagen but it appears not. Any thoughts? Possibly "The Mote in Gods Eye" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle?
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Jan 15, 2018 07:28
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Tony Cochrane posted:Science fiction, a very advanced civilisation finds somehow a society that had been cut off from the rest of the universe / culture somehow. The cut off society had evolved so that it was the most extreme example of every man for himself possible, no trust, no such thing as a free lunch etc. Criminal, amoral, and all manner of such things. The cultured society made contact and tried to help them become better galactic citizens but if I recall correctly the book ended with it being very clear that the Darwinian society was going to wipe the floor with the do gooders and take over. I read it about 25 years ago but I have a feeling it is a good bit older than that. I thought it was someone like Fred Saberhagen but it appears not. Any thoughts? I believe you're thinking of "Bioshock".
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Jan 15, 2018 13:24
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I'd say Eric Frank Russell's "And Then There Were None," but in that one, the libertarian society is depicted as benevolent and sensible, not criminal and evil.
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Jan 15, 2018 21:03
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Hobnob posted:Frank Herbert's The Dosadi Experiment, perhaps? Been a long time since I read it so I don't recall if all the details match. I believe we have a winner - thanks to you and to the others for their help.
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Jan 20, 2018 19:43
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