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I'm looking for a book I read as a child about 20 years ago. If I remember correctly, (1) the author was a priest who eventually died in a concentration camp (2) the author might have been Polish (?) (3) the story was about a kingdom, a young child becomes king (4) somehow he decides that all the adults and children should switch positions (5) this ends in a disaster, and the child king is exiled Does anyone know which book this is?
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Apr 8, 2018 12:48
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Barto posted:I'm looking for a book I read as a child about 20 years ago. From google, I'm guessing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Matt_the_First
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Apr 8, 2018 16:11
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:From google, I'm guessing: Thanks so much! I spent hours googling for it, but couldn't find a single thing. Really appreciate
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Apr 9, 2018 02:02
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I suspect this one will be pretty easy, but I am brain farting. It’s a relatively recent (+/- a decade) science fiction short story or novella. I had it in a Year’s Best collection. I think it was the Dozois series, and not the Hartwell series. The story was the cover story for the collection. The story is a first-contact scenario, where humans are communicating with the aliens across a black hole or a worm hole. There’s a lot of distrust and questioning of motives from the humans. The aliens announce that they have a way for a human to come visit, but it means disincorporating the traveler, and rebuilding her on the alien side. There’s a whole philosophical angle asking whether she is still the same woman after she goes through, since she will be destroyed and rebuilt from scratch during the journey. Her boyfriend decides she will not be the same person, and that’s pretty much the end of their relationship. The humans decide to pack the protagonist’s bones with explosives before sending her over, but the aliens pick up on that, and and chop her head off, extract the explosives, then put her back together.
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Apr 14, 2018 08:58
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Veni Vidi Ameche! posted:I suspect this one will be pretty easy, but I am brain farting. It’s a relatively recent (+/- a decade) science fiction short story or novella. I had it in a Year’s Best collection. I think it was the Dozois series, and not the Hartwell series. The story was the cover story for the collection. Definitely "Ginungagap" by Michael Swanwick.
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Apr 14, 2018 17:01
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Clipperton posted:Definitely "Ginungagap" by Michael Swanwick. Definitely. I don't even need to look it up. Thanks. Edit: I looked it up, anyway. It's much older than I thought. I'm usually pretty good about that. I wonder if I'm wrong about the volume I had it in, or if it was a reprint. Veni Vidi Ameche! fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Apr 14, 2018 |
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Apr 14, 2018 20:58
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Yea pretty old, Ginnungagap is primordial
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Apr 14, 2018 22:04
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I've had zero love from Google It was a short story, 90's when I read it, probably 60's or 70's. In the grim dark future without superstition, they're digging up graveyards to make space and cremating the remains out of respect (but really because that's just what they do now). BUT One man isn't dead! I mean, he's dead, but he's still able to move around and stuff. No one cares that he's a zombie because they're past superstition and stuff anyway there's a The Cask of Amontillado reference at the end
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Apr 18, 2018 00:56
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Alright, this has been bugging me for drat ages. I've been trying to find this trilogy of fantasy books every now and then for years and years. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a good series, but I'm just dying to know what it was or if it really existed or what. What I remember - Book 1 - heirs to a kingdom run away when their nation is taken over by some witch with pink hair. I'm pretty sure it was pink hair, because this was before anime was easily available for me to watch so pink hair was that kinda detail that really jumped at me. There's a scene where the witch is showing someone around the castle, and one room they go through is full of soulless people just lying there and nobody can see them because of the witch's brainwashing In the end they beat her by using some kinda magic walnuts or something like that, but she's managed to spawn(?) baby clones of herself and sent them out to sea Moses-style Book 2 - a girl grows up in this castle on an island, and when she's grown up she's sent to the kingdom from the first book, also the people on the island raising her were ghosts. When she gets to the kingdom they realize (but after she reaches the castle, maybe it was by magic? I dunno) she's one of the evil witch's clone babies but she's not evil and falls in love with the prince and I think maybe she ends up fighting her clone sisters who are still evil? Book 3 - I don't remember anything about this one, a good sign I'm sure
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Apr 26, 2018 00:43
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I think I'm failing to remember something that was just a subplot in a larger book, but I think it was part of a sci-fi where someone meets a group of people who have been living underground in complete darkness for years and no longer use sight for anything. They have a society where they navigate the town using ropes. I think the person who finds this settlement ends up getting rescued by their friends and the cavern is lit up and the people can't comprehend how sight works because they've never had it - they have to touch something before understanding what it is. Edit: Endless googling eventually paid off - it was Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman and I'm going to have to reread it to see how it compares to what I remember! minema fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Apr 30, 2018 |
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Apr 30, 2018 15:12
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I've got another easy one. This is probably Googleable, but I hate to see this thread be so stagnant. There's an old science fiction story where a person is kidnapped by a mysterious being or beings, and plopped down on some foreign landscape, and given instructions he has to follow. There's a lot of, "Walk forward fifty steps, then turn sharply left," and, "This place does not obey the physical laws of your world..." The being giving the instructions often refers to previous victims of this treatment, and encourages the person by telling him the last person didn't make it this far, and so on. It quickly becomes obvious that the person is being used as a living chess piece in a game being played by higher-dimensional beings, or aliens, or something. For some reason (probably the chessish theme), this story is making me think of Unicorn Variations by Roger Zelazny, but it is definitely not Unicorn Variations by Roger Zelazny.
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May 3, 2018 16:04
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I’ve got a couple that I may have posted before, but never got an answer. Edit: probably about 1990 The first was a duo of sci-fi CYOA books, but not CYOA branded. They were thin, high-quality, A4-sized softback books with good quality full colour artwork on every page. The books were in the same setting which I think was a ship or AI of some kind laying out the quest objectives at the beginning. There may have been four books total in the series - I think there were four pictures on the back of each book. The only things I remember about the books - one of the “moderate good” endings was to ascend to a higher plane of existence (didn’t complete your quest but still p. good). The art was white T-shaped beings with green eyes. The ultimate bad ending was being put in a suspended animation tube thing and placed in a museum/prison for tourists of all species to visit for entertainment. The art was looking down towards a pair of feet, with the viewer inside a bronze tube that is being filled with green liquid. The text described your body going numb and you can still see and hear but otherwise are frozen in time, and goes on to describe your tube being placed in the [museum/prison thing]. It has just occurred to me that my dad might have got these through his job as a headteacher and it’s possible they were never properly released. Any publishing people know if that’s a possibility? The second book will be much easier to explain with a picture so I’ll come back later and oh my god I’ve just realised that maybe these never got a full release either. I’ve got to ring my dad and ask him about this. Sanford fucked around with this message at 18:15 on May 3, 2018 |
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May 3, 2018 18:10
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Veni Vidi Ameche! posted:I've got another easy one. This is probably Googleable, but I hate to see this thread be so stagnant. Rogue Moon by algis budrys, I think. In the SF hall of fame collection. Except in that he's repeatedly cloning himself to test the alien thingy.
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May 4, 2018 00:41
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Rogue Moon by algis budrys, I think. In the SF hall of fame collection. Except in that he's repeatedly cloning himself to test the alien thingy. I was going to say that isn’t it, because Rogue Moon is a novel, and involves people voluntarily going into the artifact. Then, I went to Wikipedia, and read that a “substantially cut” version was publish in Fantasy and Science Fiction, and included in the Hall of Fame as you mentioned. I can’t find my copy of the Hall of Fame 1929-1964, and I can’t find the text online, so I don’t know if that’s it, and now it’s bothering me. Holy poo poo, are there a LOOOOOT of scam sites out there pretending to have PDFs for download. I think you might be right, but I can’t find the novella version to check.
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May 4, 2018 05:29
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Veni Vidi Ameche! posted:I was going to say that isn’t it, because Rogue Moon is a novel, and involves people voluntarily going into the artifact. Then, I went to Wikipedia, and read that a “substantially cut” version was publish in Fantasy and Science Fiction, and included in the Hall of Fame as you mentioned. Could it be one of the other short stories in the Zelazny short story collection titled Unicorn Variations? Google led me to this which I haven't read : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Maze_of_Death and probably isn't it
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May 4, 2018 15:32
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Google led me to this which I haven't read : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Maze_of_Death and probably isn't it (it's pretty good if you like late Dick.)
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May 4, 2018 19:04
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Could it be one of the other short stories in the Zelazny short story collection titled Unicorn Variations? No, I actually think you are correct about which story it is. I just can’t confirm, because I can’t find my copy of the Hall of Fame collection. I tried to find a PDF, but I failed.
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May 4, 2018 22:00
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I have been on an odyssey. First, let me say that I was WRONG about how easy this one would be to Google. It turns out that "alien," "kidnap," and "chess," in all their variations, produce a lot more results than you'd expect. I searched more for a PDF version of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, with no greater luck than I'd had last night. It was frustrating. I was casting about for ideas on how to get my hands on a copy, when it hit me: my library card! My library system allows online checkouts of audobooks and ebooks. My fat little fingers flew, and off I went! Oh. There is only a single copy available, and it is currently checked out. Not only that, but there are five people in line ahead of me. It will be months before my turn comes. I pondered a bit. I searched my shelves. I searched my closets. I searched my heart, and my heart told me I was hosed. Then, a thought! My car! I had the weirdest feeling that my copy of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame might be in the trunk of my old car, which has not been driven in a year, and not driven regularly in almost two. I grabbed my phone (for the flashlight feature, you see), and headed out to my driveway. Rain water has seeped in, and the trunk smells musty. There are damp boxes, and damp clothes, and... damp books. Ah, I see some books! Oh, what's this in the back corner? It's an XBox box full of even more books! I gathered the loose books, and the box, and headed inside. With the books heaped on my desk, I begin to rummage through the pile.  The Old Man and the Sea. This is not what I am looking for, but I can't be mad. Holy poo poo, could Hemingway write. William Faulkner once said of Hemingway, "He has never been known to use a word that might cause the reader to check with a dictionary to see if it is properly used." Hemingway replied, "Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?" This book is proof, in my mind, that Hemingway won that exchange. Every time I finish reading this book, I have to look at my hands to be sure I don't have rope burns, because I can feel them there on my palms.  Those two men, and their television show, were a lot more badass, and a lot more subversive, than you think they were. I saw "were," but they're both still alive and kicking.  The study of psychopathy is, let's call it a hobby, of mine. This is not my favorite book on the subject, but it's worth a read.  Ok, sure. It's mostly jokes straight from the television show, but "the Abracadabra" is a pretty drat funny way to secure a table at an exclusive restaurant. Don't say you're Bob Seger, though, because too many people know he's supposed to have a beard.  Because of course I do. Man, I'm starting to feel like this book might not have been in my trunk, after all.  Hey, hold on! This is a step in the right direction. It's not what I want, but it's the right genre.  Meh.  Alright! Back on track. This isn't my favorite Year's Best, but I'm glad to have found it to keep on the back burner for some light toilet reading.  Philip Carlo was a mediocre writer by pure writing standards, but he had a talent for telling the stories of criminal figures. Richard Kuklinski is probably my "favorite" psychopath, and it wouldn't be right to not read Carlo's work on the man.  Anyone who wants to rant about the Constitution and the Founding Fathers should be required to read this. Hamilton is, frankly, a bit of a page-hog.  Hey, another one. I was once again starting to despair, but unearthing some more science fiction from the pile has buoyed my spirits a bit. This is a much better collection, in my opinion, than the 25th edition, pictured above. Among other strong pieces, this edition contains Crystal Nights, which I think is the best artificial intelligence short story ever written. I can't imagine an argument that would put it out of the top three or four on just about any list.  Robert Hare is a giant in the field of psychopathy. He literally wrote the book, and also the standard test (The Psychopathy Checklist, Revised) which is used to diagnose psychopaths. Anything he writes on the topic is a must-read if you have an interest in psychopathy.  This has, by far, the most discomfiting constipation sub-plot of any book I have ever read. By. Far.  The short story version of Galactic North is high on my list of all-time greatest epic space-operas. It spans billions of years, and shows incredible insight into what influence a small number of near-immortal beings can have while traipsing across the universe. Alastair Reynolds is the best to write in that space in several decades, I think. I honestly cannot recall how this novel version stacks up to the short story, so I may have to re-read it. Wait! What's this? That cover looks familiar... it is! It's The Science Fiction Hall of Fame!  AAARGH! IT'S VOLUME ONE! WARGHBLGHGL! It's flattering to know that I'm important enough for the universe to gently caress with me, personally. In short: I still don't know if Rogue Moon is the right answer to my question. Veni Vidi Ameche! fucked around with this message at 03:43 on May 5, 2018 |
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May 5, 2018 03:38
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A for effort but C for lateral thinking... and I hope this doesn't count as  ?Internet Archive - Fantasy & Science Fiction December 1960. Rogue Moon is first up.
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May 5, 2018 06:47
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uvar posted:A for effort but C for lateral thinking... and I hope this doesn't count as Oh, wow. I knew it had been published in Fantasy and Science Fiction, but I did not think a 1960 edition of that would be online. Nice find. I can now report that Rogue Moon is not the story in question. The story I am thinking of had no characters, to speak of, and no dialog. It was all descriptive, with the only dialog being in the form of instructions being transmitted to the person being forced to to participate in the little game.
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May 5, 2018 09:39
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Veni Vidi Ameche! posted:
FYI, this isn't a novel version of "Galactic North"; it's a short story collection that includes it as one of the stories.
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May 5, 2018 11:59
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ToxicFrog posted:FYI, this isn't a novel version of "Galactic North"; it's a short story collection that includes it as one of the stories. That would explain why I couldn't remember what the novel was like. Edit: Although that doesn't explain why I thought there was a novelization in the first place. Did he have some other short story that he expanded into a novel?
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May 5, 2018 12:08
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probably? i mean thats a pretty good authors trick. make sure it sells before you expend the effort
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May 5, 2018 14:08
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I've just had my own little odyssey thanks to this latest mystery story! One of my notes for books I wished I could remember reads: quote:Another book (maybe same as previous?) where aliens are big wormy things, spaceships possibly shaped like large spheres connected with tubes, they're monks or called 'brothers' or something? I really remember very little. I made a cursory effort at some point but found nothing, and just left it on the list. Meanwhile, looking for VVA's story I came across this page about chess in science fiction and found quote:In 1992, Greg Bear wrote Anvil of Stars. The Brothers or cords, worm-like creatures, discovered chess, and it became a release for them. They would play chess all day on a space ship without eating or sleeping. One of the cords died while playing chess. Checking it further, it's gotta be the same book. So, thanks! I don't suppose there's a plot point in Anvil of Stars or Forge of God where people are told to go to shallow water along coastlines for their only chance to be transported off the planet, is there? Because that's the fragment the "same as previous" refers to.
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May 6, 2018 04:04
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uvar posted:I've just had my own little odyssey thanks to this latest mystery story! Hah. I also came across that page, because I was using "chess" in my searches. Congratulations on scoring an answer to your question. I still want to figure out which story I am thinking of! ALSO - thinking about Chess in science fiction reminded me of another story whose title I cannot remember. This is another one I think should be quite easy to figure out, but I was super wrong about that, last time. It's about a group of college friends who were all on the chess team. One of them has become ludicrously wealthy and successful. The rich one invites all the others for a get-together. The rich guy is still very bitter about the treatment he received at the hands of his teammates, mostly stemming from one game they all think he hosed up. He basically traps everyone there, and forces them to play chess against him. There are several characters, but the ones who stand out most to me are the married couple who have come to despise one another, and the rich nutjob. There's a big twist that explains both how he got so rich, and how he apparently got so much better at chess. I've read the drat story like four times, and still can't remember who wrote it or what it's called. Please don't give up on the other one, but now I want to know the title and author of this one, too. Edit: The chess one is Unsound Variations, by George RR Martin. Veni Vidi Ameche! fucked around with this message at 07:39 on May 6, 2018 |
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May 6, 2018 04:26
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uvar posted:Checking it further, it's gotta be the same book. So, thanks! I don't suppose there's a plot point in Anvil of Stars or Forge of God where people are told to go to shallow water along coastlines for their only chance to be transported off the planet, is there? Because that's the fragment the "same as previous" refers to. That might be Anvil of Stars; it ends with the few chosen survivors of humanity that the friendly aliens are able to evacuate going to coasts or lakeshores to board the escape ships while those who didn't get a spot on the fleet find a nice scenic spot to watch the end of the world from.
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May 6, 2018 20:57
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ToxicFrog posted:That might be Anvil of Stars; it ends with the few chosen survivors of humanity that the friendly aliens are able to evacuate going to coasts or lakeshores to board the escape ships while those who didn't get a spot on the fleet find a nice scenic spot to watch the end of the world from. That's pretty close, I definitely need to find a copy now! No luck with alien chess, I'm guessing it's just one of the many stories that's not famous or unique enough to have left an individual imprint. Unless it's in Pawn to Infinity? Unsound Variations is, and I couldn't find plots for most of the other stories, but your description makes it sound a little too simple for the likes of the ones I could find.
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May 6, 2018 22:46
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uvar posted:That's pretty close, I definitely need to find a copy now! It’s not a classic along the lines of The Last Question, or Flowers for Algernon, but I don’t think it’s an unknown story, or by an unknown author. It was most likely in a Hall of Fame or Year’s Best type of collection, but it’s not unthinkable that it was just in an issue of Asimov’s, or something. Maybe my description is bad. My brain isn’t what it used to be, and, although I’ve read the story numerous times, details are slim in my memory. I’ll take one more stab at it. A person is mysteriously transported or teleported to an alien or other-dimensional place. The person is given instructions, with little or no explanation. The entire story is told by having us listen to the instructions, commentary, and scant explanations of the off-screen character who is in charge of the situation. The instructions are things like, “Ahead of you, you will see a rock outcropping. Proceed toward it quickly, but do not run.” As the person receiving instructions reaches certain goals, he or she is transported to new locations, and the instructions become more complex, and the situation more dangerous. The instructions start including things such as, “You will feel an excruciating pain, but you must not stop,” and, “You may find yourself in a form you are not familiar with. You may find that you do not have all the senses you are used to,” and so on. That last one might actually have been a warning given at the beginning. As the story progresses, the alien/hyperdimensional/whatever being who is running the show gives encouragement and updates. “Congratulations. Only 26 of your species have made it to this point.” That’s not an exact quote, but it’s close. At some point, the being gives an expanation for what’s going on, saying something like, “You are part of a contest between beings like myself ...” I don’t remember the specifics, but the implication is that this is a game being played by advanced beings to kill time. The narration is psychopathic. There’s is no indication that the human is seen as anything more than a disposable game piece, and it’s also implied that the beings use more than just humans for this game. As we near the end of the story, the human game piece is pretty hosed up. I think he’s missing limbs, and pretty much dragging himself along, and has been through a couple of shape shifts that didn’t necessarily give him back all his pieces when he changed back and forth. I really thought I could give a better description of this, and it wouldn’t be hard to figure out, but I was wrong.
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May 7, 2018 06:47
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OK here's another. I don't remember what the book was about or even who the main character was, but a supporting character has a gun or energy cannon built into his chest (or maybe head?). It's mentioned that firing this cannon is dangerous to that character, but he can control the power level to normally keep it below where it would damage him. Of course, near the end of the book, this character has to fire that cannon at maximum power to save his friends and it either kills him or mortally wounds him. I don't even remember if this is a novel, or short story. It might be a YA book too.
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May 10, 2018 04:51
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Poldarn posted:Of course, near the end of the book, this character has to fire that cannon at maximum power to save his friends and it either kills him or mortally wounds him. It's been a good while since I read them, but could it have been one of the Nazi superpowered kids from Ian Tregellis' Milkweed Triptych (prob Bitter Seeds, if any of them)?
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May 10, 2018 05:02
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I don't think so, this one would have been published before 2010.
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May 10, 2018 05:14
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Did the guy also have some other stuff built in like fire breath and extendable claws? I read something like that a few years ago about a cyborg guy. Think his name was echo or something.
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May 10, 2018 08:04
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Did the guy also have some other stuff built in like fire breath and extendable claws? I read something like that a few years ago about a cyborg guy. Think his name was echo or something. I don't think so, I think his sole gimmick was the chest cannon. There may have been a party who had other individual powers but I'm not sure.
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May 10, 2018 09:23
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Oh, nevermind then. The book series I was thinking of only had the one powered up dude. I think he couldn't have sex cause the increase in his heart rate or hormones would cause his fire breathing thing to go off. It was a weird one.
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May 10, 2018 14:31
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There's a guy with a gun built into his skull in The Diamond Age (he gets cross-hair marked sunglasses because he thinks it'll make him look badass) but nothing else really fits your recollection.
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May 11, 2018 00:44
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The Diamond Age is like three books down on my To-Read list but I don't think I've read it before. Maybe the gun was built into the characters arm but firing it damaged his chest? This is driving me nuts.
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May 11, 2018 03:46
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Oh, nevermind then. The book series I was thinking of only had the one powered up dude. I think he couldn't have sex cause the increase in his heart rate or hormones would cause his fire breathing thing to go off. It was a weird one. what was that one?
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May 11, 2018 07:33
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branedotorg posted:what was that one? It was not, sorry.
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May 11, 2018 08:58
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I have one that's driving me nuts. I'm looking for a letter (and the story to which the letter refers) where -- I think -- Ernest Hemingway submits a story and in his letter to the editor is like, "Hey, so here's a story about a guy who goes home and commits suicide, but uh, I left out the part where he goes home and commits suicide. Readers will get it, though. Peace." I think this letter was for his story, "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," but if so... (1) Google is failing me, because it's all just really crappy high school analysis. I've tried searching Google Books previews of Hemingway's collected letters, but so far nothing in what's actually available. (2) I do have some doubts, because the suicide thing is pretty drat explicit in that story, and my memory says the quotation is from a story people wouldn't have thought was about a guy's final few hours before he offs himself. I could be wrong, though. (3) I seem to recall seeing the quotation/letter on Wikipedia, and yet I can't find any reference to the letter/quote on the wiki article for that story, or in the article's older revisions. Another thought I had was "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" by J. D. Salinger, but no luck that I can find there, either. And again, in that one, the suicide is even more explicit.
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May 11, 2018 12:57
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Dang, I guess that pink-haired witch trilogy is even more obscure than I thought... I'm almost certain I read it in English, but maybe it was written by a local fantasy writer.
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May 11, 2018 13:02
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