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I'm trying to remember the name of a novel or series of novels I read part of as a kid. They were likely published in the 80s or early 90s. The premise is that a character or characters can see into the future and maybe they have some other psychic powers as well, I can't really remember. The scene that stands out to me is that the character sees a sign over a road collapse and he runs into the street to knock a kid out of the way before the sign falls and kills him. The sign falls and then everyone is suspicious of the character. I thought the book was called "The Seer" or "Seer" or something like that, but searching for a book with that name hasn't been super successful.
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Mar 10, 2018 15:42
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Mniot posted:
Barbar got dark Atlas Hugged posted:I'm trying to remember the name of a novel or series of novels I read part of as a kid. They were likely published in the 80s or early 90s. The premise is that a character or characters can see into the future and maybe they have some other psychic powers as well, I can't really remember. The scene that stands out to me is that the character sees a sign over a road collapse and he runs into the street to knock a kid out of the way before the sign falls and kills him. The sign falls and then everyone is suspicious of the character. Psi-Man?
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Mar 11, 2018 16:47
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I'm trying to find a graphic novel, maybe part of a series that I read in the early-mid 90's. It was fantasy, swords and sorcery stuff with the main guy as a normal young human and his chum was a big green lizard(?) type guy with a wide head who also wore clothes. Whenever they did magic there would be circles and geometric shapes around their hands. I can't remember what the story was about but at one point they summoned a giant demon thing with a hammer to smash something but it didn't work out as planned. I don't think it was marvel/whatever superhero comic publishers but can't be sure
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Mar 11, 2018 17:14
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Plumps posted:I'm trying to find a graphic novel, maybe part of a series that I read in the early-mid 90's. It was fantasy, swords and sorcery stuff with the main guy as a normal young human and his chum was a big green lizard(?) type guy with a wide head who also wore clothes. Whenever they did magic there would be circles and geometric shapes around their hands. I can't remember what the story was about but at one point they summoned a giant demon thing with a hammer to smash something but it didn't work out as planned. Normal young human and big green lizard guy? That's gotta be Skeeve and Aahz, in Phil Foglio's adaptation of Robert Asprin's "Myth" books. 
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Mar 11, 2018 21:34
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Davros1 posted:Psi-Man? I don't think so. I recall the main character being a teenager, not a teacher. And the setting wasn't a futuristic dystopia.
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Mar 12, 2018 03:03
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Davros1 posted:Barbar got dark I swear my dad and I read a Babar story about the family playing pranks on each other. That poo poo was insane. Anyway, I found the book I was looking for. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/814428.The_Seer The Seer, by G. Clifton Wisler, part of the Antrian series.
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Mar 12, 2018 03:41
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Selachian posted:Normal young human and big green lizard guy? That's gotta be Skeeve and Aahz, in Phil Foglio's adaptation of Robert Asprin's "Myth" books. That's it! Thanks - I've been to remember what this was for ages. Now to read it again and see if it stands up
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Mar 12, 2018 11:36
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A short story I read a while back, that I cant find again. It has the entire Earth copied and transplanted onto giant petri dishes by aliens, and Carl Sagan is a starring character who the aliens assassinate at one point, I think.
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Mar 12, 2018 12:21
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Biplane posted:A short story I read a while back, that I cant find again. It has the entire Earth copied and transplanted onto giant petri dishes by aliens, and Carl Sagan is a starring character who the aliens assassinate at one point, I think. Missile Gap by Charles Stross
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Mar 12, 2018 12:52
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Ornamented Death posted:Missile Gap by Charles Stross Thank you kind goon!
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Mar 12, 2018 18:21
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Reposting this one from ages back because I'm wondering if anyone recognizes it nowDACK FAYDEN posted:Two old SF short stories - think small hardcover anthologies with yellowing pages from the library ten-plus years ago.
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Mar 12, 2018 19:01
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A short story about a highly rigid society. Our viewpoint character is a kid who grew up in isolation with a bunch of musical instruments and spent all day free styling. One day a malcontent pops in, explains he's being watched by society and that his life was engineered, and drops off some Mozart for inspiration while warning the kid not to sound derivitive. Shortly after a pair of cops who have obvious mutilations show up and tell the kid he no longer sounds original. He will be dumped into a general labor pool and is forbidden from making music again. The kid starts improving instruments so the cops come by, break his hands, and send him to a worse job with other deformed people. He sings for them and then gets his tongue removed. There may also be a third step I'm forgetting. At the end the kid is now one of the heavily mutilated cops sent to punish some other trouble maker.
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Mar 14, 2018 22:05
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Someone in a facebook group was trying to find this one, and damned if it seems familiar but I can't place it. Only plot point he remembers is this : The first chapter opens with the sad elderly vampire hanging from a chandelier and is being reminded he can't die that way by a talking cat. Who is actually the vampires best friend who's soul was stuck inside the cat. Sound familiar to anyone?
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Mar 15, 2018 06:40
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Added Space posted:A short story about a highly rigid society. Our viewpoint character is a kid who grew up in isolation with a bunch of musical instruments and spent all day free styling. One day a malcontent pops in, explains he's being watched by society and that his life was engineered, and drops off some Mozart for inspiration while warning the kid not to sound derivitive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unaccompanied_Sonata
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Mar 15, 2018 19:44
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There's a novel I'm thinking of, written sometime in the late 70's to early 90's, where a man who is up for a job vacancy kills the other people who might be fill it? It's a very specialized job, possibly something involving the processing of wood products? So he's able to figure out exactly who else in the US could take the job and target them? Possibly a mail bomb is involved at some point?
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Mar 24, 2018 06:41
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:There's a novel I'm thinking of, written sometime in the late 70's to early 90's, where a man who is up for a job vacancy kills the other people who might be fill it? It's a very specialized job, possibly something involving the processing of wood products? So he's able to figure out exactly who else in the US could take the job and target them? Possibly a mail bomb is involved at some point? The Ax, by Donald Westlake. Just read it again recently, and, boy, does it ever hold up.
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Mar 24, 2018 15:06
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filmcynic posted:The Ax, by Donald Westlake. Just read it again recently, and, boy, does it ever hold up. Perfect ID! Thank you! I read it when I was in high school in the early 2000's. Teriyaki Hairpiece fucked around with this message at 15:05 on Mar 25, 2018 |
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Mar 25, 2018 05:32
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Looking for a specific sci-fi book that was recommended to me years ago but I never picked up. Cover art was a rather nice painting of a big spaceship with star destroyer type giant rear end engines heading into a red cloud, I would know it if I saw it but couldn’t turn it up with a quick google. As near as I recall the concept was that a spaceship, maybe a generation ship, was passing into a region of space with like abnormally high entropy or something and everything on the ship has gotten seriously hosed up because of this, including the people. I thought for some reason it might be a Brian Aldiss book, but I think after a bit of searching I might just have confused it with Non-Stop or some other author’s generation ship book.
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Mar 26, 2018 20:08
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skasion posted:Looking for a specific sci-fi book that was recommended to me years ago but I never picked up. Cover art was a rather nice painting of a big spaceship with star destroyer type giant rear end engines heading into a red cloud, I would know it if I saw it but couldn’t turn it up with a quick google. As near as I recall the concept was that a spaceship, maybe a generation ship, was passing into a region of space with like abnormally high entropy or something and everything on the ship has gotten seriously hosed up because of this, including the people. I thought for some reason it might be a Brian Aldiss book, but I think after a bit of searching I might just have confused it with Non-Stop or some other author’s generation ship book. Piers Anthony's Ghost? If so, don't bother, it's dreck. 
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Mar 26, 2018 22:03
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Selachian posted:Piers Anthony's Ghost? If so, don't bother, it's dreck. Definitely not Anthony. e: I’m pretty sure I found the source image for the cover. It was either this or something very close to it. 
skasion fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Mar 26, 2018 |
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Mar 26, 2018 22:29
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skasion posted:Definitely not Anthony. Well, a bit of googling on the artist's name seems to suggest you're looking for Frederik Pohl's Jem. Which I haven't read, so I can't venture an opinion on it.
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Mar 26, 2018 23:06
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Selachian posted:Well, a bit of googling on the artist's name seems to suggest you're looking for Frederik Pohl's Jem. Which I haven't read, so I can't venture an opinion on it. Hmm, that definitely doesn’t sound right though the image does fit. A bunch of searching has convinced me that I might be thinking of Raft by Stephen Baxter, though I can’t find a version with remotely similar art.
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Mar 26, 2018 23:28
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skasion posted:Hmm, that definitely doesn’t sound right though the image does fit. A bunch of searching has convinced me that I might be thinking of Raft by Stephen Baxter, though I can’t find a version with remotely similar art. dont worry its just because you're remembering something predates the timeline shift e: it's not this? 
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Mar 26, 2018 23:40
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OK, this is something from my childhood and I will be mightily impressed if you can find this thing:Remembering a horror story posted:Another hosed-up story I've only ever read in one of these translated anthologies was about some guy coming back to the house of his now dead parents. In some flashbacks while he is entering the dark house we learn he thought as a kid that there was a monster living on one of the higher steps of the main staircase. A wet furry thing. He laughs about how stupid he was, telling himself it probably was just a stray cat or something sneaking in to sleep on the steps. In an almost Stephen King like fashion we also learn how in his childhood he was so scared of going down the staircase to the only toilet of the house, he often pissed himself. Charming. (The lights close to the staircase often went out, so it was always creepily dark.)
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Mar 27, 2018 21:40
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Libluini posted:OK, this is something from my childhood and I will be mightily impressed if you can find this thing: i got u bb. ray bradbury, the thing at the top of the stairs, collected in The Toynbee Convector chernobyl kinsman fucked around with this message at 23:03 on Mar 27, 2018 |
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Mar 27, 2018 23:00
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Humans are all dead, but get resurrected by tree aliens, who also make them immortal. They travel the galaxy in a giant tree ship trying to find out why humans all died out, turns out there's like some rotating gyre of gamma beams or something that wipes the galaxy clean every X amount of years
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Mar 27, 2018 23:19
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chernobyl kinsman posted:i got u bb. ray bradbury, the thing at the top of the stairs, collected in The Toynbee Convector Wow thanks! And I even found it cheaply on Amazon! Now let's see if that story can still scare me...
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Mar 28, 2018 19:05
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Short story I read in an anthology a couple of years ago. Guy is on sabbatical wandering around the Canadian woods, meets Paul Bunyan, they end up having a gay relationship, guy leaves to go back to his home & wife (I think?), meets Paul a few more times in life and then Paul ends up dying of AIDS. It was really well done; a Moving contemporary rewrite rather than a chuck tingle special.
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Apr 5, 2018 17:39
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It was a fantasy series. Swords and magic standard stuff. No idea how many books there are total but I read 3 back in the 90s. They were consecutive. All I remember was that there was a really dangerous powerful creature that could change shape and was trying to infiltrate the castle of the protagonists. While at the same time a massive army of undead viking types (beards and axes) was raised. The climax of one of the books or the whole series i dunno. Was the undead viking army storming the castle and the creature wrecking things inside.
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Apr 6, 2018 03:09
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Read in the 90s. Set on earth in the near future. Aliens have invaded and operate in some sort of hive mind. They have telepathic powers - they can't be attacked by humans because they know what's coming. A male was trained from a very young age to hunt mindlessly - the goal being to attack the aliens without letting on what is happening. Please help.
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Apr 6, 2018 12:48
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Read in the 80’s, sci fi/horror. Death by atomic bomb is so fast that the soul has no time to go on to the next world (or something) and has to wander the earth. 40 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki the souls of the dead of those cities finally reach America to wreak their revenge (mostly on horny teenagers, as I recall).
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Apr 6, 2018 13:37
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yaffle posted:Read in the 80’s, sci fi/horror. Death by atomic bomb is so fast that the soul has no time to go on to the next world (or something) and has to wander the earth. 40 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki the souls of the dead of those cities finally reach America to wreak their revenge (mostly on horny teenagers, as I recall). Psychlone by Greg Bear?
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Apr 6, 2018 13:44
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Runcible Cat posted:Psychlone by Greg Bear? Yes, thank you, I remember the cover now, I might even have a copy in the attic.
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Apr 6, 2018 13:52
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yaffle posted:Yes, thank you, I remember the cover now, I might even have a copy in the attic. I suspect this book was the reason I’ve never managed to finish any of Bear’s SF.
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Apr 6, 2018 13:55
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Runcible Cat posted:I suspect this book was the reason I’ve never managed to finish any of Bear’s SF. It’s not his best book, Darwin’s Radio and Blood Music, for example, are much better. Avoid Vitals though, it’s one of the creepiest books I’ve ever read.
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Apr 6, 2018 14:13
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yaffle posted:It’s not his best book, Darwin’s Radio and Blood Music, for example, are much better. Avoid Vitals though, it’s one of the creepiest books I’ve ever read. I forgot Blood Music - it’s a nice example of horror-book-without-horror-ending, from what I remember.
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Apr 6, 2018 14:22
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huh posted:Read in the 90s. I know this story! Haven't thought about it in ages. In case it helps, let me add some more details: The male fails because he can't suppress his thoughts properly. A young girl who had been trained at the same time succeeds in killing one of the aliens. The hive mind gruesomely enacts collective punishment. At some later point the aliens just suddenly leave, leaving a ruined humanity behind. It is hinted that the inscrutable aliens may have been here before, and will probably show up again thousands of years in the future. (That's about all I can clearly remember, hope it helps in finding this story.)
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Apr 6, 2018 14:36
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Libluini posted:I know this story! Haven't thought about it in ages. In case it helps, let me add some more details: Oh wow that's it! I remember enjoying it so much I just hope it holds up.
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Apr 6, 2018 15:35
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The Alien Years by Robert Silverberg. It's pretty neat, maybe not a classic but I enjoyed it on a re-read and it definitely has plenty of moments that stuck in my mind from the first time I read it decades ago.
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Apr 7, 2018 03:56
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uvar posted:The Alien Years by Robert Silverberg. Yes! Here's to it holding up!
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Apr 7, 2018 16:03
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