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Runcible Cat posted:Yeah, sounds like The Naked Sun. Yup! That was it exactly! Now, can you tell me who I was talking to about scifi books a few weeks ago when I was trying to remember the title of this? God my memory sucks.
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Oct 21, 2018 00:13
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BallerBallerDillz posted:Yup! That was it exactly! It was Bill, and he wants his casserole dish back.
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Oct 21, 2018 00:16
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There's an academic text on the fall of the USSR from the perspective of the average citizen and how their culture made them blind to the possibility from one of the big academic presses and I'd really like to go over it again but I can't remember the name.
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Oct 24, 2018 01:18
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The Unlife Aquatic posted:There's an academic text on the fall of the USSR from the perspective of the average citizen and how their culture made them blind to the possibility from one of the big academic presses and I'd really like to go over it again but I can't remember the name. Everything Was Forever, Until it Was No More by Alexei Yurchak, maybe? I'm not especially deep on Soviet history but I really enjoyed it.
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Oct 24, 2018 05:45
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Myron Baloney posted:Everything Was Forever, Until it Was No More by Alexei Yurchak, maybe? I'm not especially deep on Soviet history but I really enjoyed it. YES! This is it exactly. Thank you so much.
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Oct 24, 2018 05:58
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The Unlife Aquatic posted:YES! This is it exactly. Thank you so much. You've no idea how long I've watched this thread hoping to get to answer one!
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Oct 24, 2018 06:39
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A short story about a man living in a society where everyone is assigned their ideal life path by a computer. The man is disgruntled because he insists he was assigned the wrong job and the wrong wife and lives his whole life angry because he’s sure there was a mistake. Turns out he was right. The government shows up and admits it made a mistake and sets the guy up with the “right” job and the “right” wife but he’s middle aged now and he doesn’t know how to do the work and the woman and family he’s been assigned are total strangers and he’s even more miserable than before. I’m 90% sure it’s an Orson Scott Card story but I’ve been flipping through Maps in a Mirror and Keeper of Dreams and can’t seem to find it. Maybe I’m blind or maybe it’s a story by a different author either way it’s driving me nuts.
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Oct 31, 2018 03:59
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Applewhite posted:A short story about a man living in a society where everyone is assigned their ideal life path by a computer. The man is disgruntled because he insists he was assigned the wrong job and the wrong wife and lives his whole life angry because he’s sure there was a mistake. Turns out he was right. The government shows up and admits it made a mistake and sets the guy up with the “right” job and the “right” wife but he’s middle aged now and he doesn’t know how to do the work and the woman and family he’s been assigned are total strangers and he’s even more miserable than before. It's Profession by Isaac Asimov. Edit: Wait, no, I should have actually read this to the end, I don't know this one. 
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Oct 31, 2018 04:16
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Applewhite posted:A short story about a man living in a society where everyone is assigned their ideal life path by a computer. The man is disgruntled because he insists he was assigned the wrong job and the wrong wife and lives his whole life angry because he’s sure there was a mistake. Turns out he was right. The government shows up and admits it made a mistake and sets the guy up with the “right” job and the “right” wife but he’s middle aged now and he doesn’t know how to do the work and the woman and family he’s been assigned are total strangers and he’s even more miserable than before. "The Monkeys Thought 'Twas All in Fun" by Card?
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Nov 1, 2018 03:12
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El_Zilcho posted:"The Monkeys Thought 'Twas All in Fun" by Card? Not as far as I can tell :/
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Nov 1, 2018 13:14
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A book I listened to on cassette borrowed from a library in the UK in the mid to late 80s. A girl living by the sea somewhere tropical discovers a secret reef teeming with life. The “spirit” of the reef is embodied by some massive fish that lives there, either a manta ray or a whale shark. The girl’s brother is a fisherman and he and his crew secretly follow the girl to the reef, and catch all the fish. There is a very graphic sequence describing the girl discovering all the dead and dying fish her brother’s boat has left behind, ignored because their catch was so big.
Sanford fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Nov 2, 2018 |
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Nov 2, 2018 22:52
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Sanford posted:A book I listened to on cassette borrowed from a library in the UK in the mid to late 80s. A girl living by the sea somewhere tropical discovers a secret reef teeming with life. The “spirit” of the reef is embodied by some massive fish that lives there, either a manta ray or a whale shark. The girl’s brother is a fisherman and he and his crew secretly follow the girl to the reef, and catch all the fish. There is a very graphic sequence describing the girl discovering all the dead and dying fish her brother’s boat has left behind, ignored because their catch was so big. I found: Peter Benchley, The Girl of the Sea of Cortez, first published 1982. Goodreads Amazon From the reviews it seems to be what you are looking for.
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Nov 3, 2018 14:01
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Easy-Bake Coven posted:I found: I'm astonished. I never would have found that. What a weird mix of books my library had in the children's audiobook section 30 years ago!
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Nov 5, 2018 09:33
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Pretty sure it was a short story or, more likely, in a compilation of weird short stories. The one I remember was set in a sort of post-apocalypse where Vampires were pretty much running things. The character/s were holed up in a church, and I'm pretty sure blessed some wine in a pop can to make it the blood of Christ for some reason.
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Nov 12, 2018 04:52
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That reminds me, there was this book I read, I think it was part of a series about a similar fantasy post-apocalypse where everything was run by vampires. There were prostitutes specializing in catering to undead patrons. The protagonist might have been disguised as a vampire soldier, and a prostitute was soliciting him with finding a home for his worm for the night.
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Nov 12, 2018 05:09
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pbpancho posted:Pretty sure it was a short story or, more likely, in a compilation of weird short stories. The one I remember was set in a sort of post-apocalypse where Vampires were pretty much running things. The character/s were holed up in a church, and I'm pretty sure blessed some wine in a pop can to make it the blood of Christ for some reason. Absurd Alhazred posted:That reminds me, there was this book I read, I think it was part of a series about a similar fantasy post-apocalypse where everything was run by vampires. There were prostitutes specializing in catering to undead patrons. The protagonist might have been disguised as a vampire soldier, and a prostitute was soliciting him with finding a home for his worm for the night. Are you guys talking about “Under the Fang?”
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Nov 12, 2018 06:15
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navyjack posted:Are you guys talking about “Under the Fang?” Mine's an actual full-length novel.
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Nov 12, 2018 06:19
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Absurd Alhazred posted:Mine's an actual full-length novel. Hmm. Vampire Prostitutes sounds like Anno Dracula by Kim Newman, then, maybe.
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Nov 12, 2018 06:22
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navyjack posted:Hmm. Vampire Prostitutes sounds like Anno Dracula by Kim Newman, then, maybe. Na, other than being ruled by vampires and the undead it was very baseline fantasy. Kind of like Fred Saberhagen's Books of Swords trilogy, but with vampires acting as a combination Red and Blue Temple. Edit: I should say that I'm pretty sure I read this as a teenager, so it was published in the 1990's or earlier. Absurd Alhazred fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Nov 12, 2018 |
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Nov 12, 2018 06:24
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Pretty sure you're talking about Afterage by Yvonne Navarro. Edit: Or maybe not, I somehow glossed over the "short story" and "fantasy" parts.
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Nov 12, 2018 14:08
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Children's books. I'm old so these would be at the latest, from 1988. 1) The title was something like The Boy Who Lived in the [ ] of the [ ], but all combinations I've tried bring up nothing. I actually remember the plot pretty well. The story is that this self-centered little brat thinks he lives in the middle of the universe. His house is located there he says and his parents have indulged this fantasy to the point that he's quite egotistical about that. Until one day, a new boy moves in and claims he's the one who lives in the middle of the world. The original boy gets quite jealous of this and tries to imitate the new kid as much as possible. They both have red hair and since the newcomer's hair is a bit shaggy, original boy tries to look like that. They even dress similarly. One day, the original boy's mom comes to get him from school, but grabs the new boy instead. Original boy learns the value of being an individual. 2) I remember less. It might have even come from our reading books. The narrator is in primary school. One day, a new girl moves into class. She has a double first name. Mary Ann, maybe? Something like that. Narrator and other kids are friendly and try to learn about new girl. A day or two later, new girl doesn't seem to know anything about her new classmates. She gets information wrong, etc. After a few days, she confides to narrator that she's really one of twins. They're too poor to both be in school, so they alternate days. Narrator tells the teacher and the problem is magically fixed. Everyone lives happily ever after.
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Nov 13, 2018 04:34
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Short story about teleporting. When they first test the teleporter on a soldier, for a split second it looks like there are two of him. This is dismissed. But they try again, lots of times in a row, and indeed, the original stays for a tiny amount of time before disappearing, but after the new one arrived. They are teleporting this bloke back and forth in a large gym or something. They keep testing, and soon the original stays for a few seconds. In fact, he stays for something like 0.02 seconds longer with each teleport. They keep testing, always with the same soldier. Trying to figure out why this double twin thing happens. One day the soldier disappears during the transport. The original, who now stays for a few minutes is grinning. A few days later there is a collect call. "Hi, I got bored just going back and forth inside the gym, so I decided to go to Paris." Turns out the soldier has been teleported so many times he can now do it at will, so he is using his new power to take holidays all over the world. Also, since the originals stay for longer and longer, they are now able to teleport at will as well. So he is creating more and more versions of himself, and each new version makes new ones etc. Then end result is massive overpopulation. The Pope specifically make a ruling saying this soldier has no soul, it is every good Catholic's duty to kill him on sight. Abortion is still a sin, but killing this specific person is good. The KKK teams up with a Black Identity group to go Clone hunting. After less than six months there are now more of this person than all other people on Earth put together. There are versions of him fighting on both Israeli and Palestinian sides in the Middle East. Ends with the soldier as a newsreader, reading a bulletin about the last non-Clone dying in Bulgaria.
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Nov 14, 2018 21:04
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I would like to read that book.
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Nov 16, 2018 03:09
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Looking for something I read online. It's not a prose story, it's told through a bunch of emails or forum posts. It's about a bunch of people on a forum who sign up for some kind of game. The person telling them about it promises it'll be fun, but you never find out much about them, even if they were real or not. The "game" involves posting stuff to each other, but the players get suspicious because they don't know what they're going to get. It has this really creepy vibe (ending spoilers)but in the end everyone likes their present and has fun. Ring a bell with anyone else?
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Nov 17, 2018 05:34
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This may be a short story, or may be a scene from a novel, possibly even a classic like The Grapes of Wrath. I don’t remember much, but I believe the story followed some migrant farmworkers, and I remember a Depression-era feel. A young girl gets her hair caught in a thresher, or a picking machine of some sort. This might have been told from the point of view of a boy who liked the thresher girl.
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Nov 26, 2018 10:36
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Safety Biscuits posted:Looking for something I read online. It's not a prose story, it's told through a bunch of emails or forum posts. It's about a bunch of people on a forum who sign up for some kind of game. The person telling them about it promises it'll be fun, but you never find out much about them, even if they were real or not. The "game" involves posting stuff to each other, but the players get suspicious because they don't know what they're going to get. It has this really creepy vibe (ending spoilers)but in the end everyone likes their present and has fun. Ring a bell with anyone else? This I would like to read.
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Nov 26, 2018 23:56
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Beerdeer posted:This I would like to read. Well, you still have about eighteen hours to sign up for the Secret Santa. So if you're interested, hop over to the thread now! https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3874471&pagenumber=1&perpage=40
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Nov 27, 2018 18:49
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Looking for a scifi story, novella-length, about people who maybe go through a wormhole and find aliens who look like giraffe/hippo things, who are cheerful, nice and welcoming. Somehow all but one of the aliens die, and then humans realize that they have to keep the last one alive because their species is dreaming the whole universe and keeping it real. Was reading a lot of Dick and Tiptree around the same time, and the book definitely existed in the Worcester public library.
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Dec 5, 2018 00:37
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Safety Biscuits posted:Well, you still have about eighteen hours to sign up for the Secret Santa. So if you're interested, hop over to the thread now! Boo this man!
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Dec 5, 2018 01:53
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Also looking for a sci-fi story - humans make contact with a race of duck-like aliens. They are kind and generous but also gluttonous and annoying pricks. Everyone has had enough of them until some die in a fire and nearby humans can’t resist the smell of the roasting aliens. Then the humans either eat them all or start to and the rest leave.
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Dec 5, 2018 20:43
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Sanford posted:Also looking for a sci-fi story - humans make contact with a race of duck-like aliens. They are kind and generous but also gluttonous and annoying pricks. Everyone has had enough of them until some die in a fire and nearby humans can’t resist the smell of the roasting aliens. Then the humans either eat them all or start to and the rest leave. Cordwainer Smith's "From Gustible's Planet."
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Dec 5, 2018 23:56
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There was this story about humans evolved for a much colder world in the far future. They live on ice floes and survive by sucking plankton or algae out of the ice they chew. Once your teeth decay, you’re as good as dead. The protagonist sets out to find some fabled land or something and eventually discovers a paradise island heated by geothermal energy. turns out “normal” humans live there and freak out when they meet our blubbery protagonist Probably read it in a magazine a couple of decades ago.
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Dec 9, 2018 12:44
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Veni Vidi Ameche! posted:This may be a short story, or may be a scene from a novel, possibly even a classic like The Grapes of Wrath. I don’t remember much, but I believe the story followed some migrant farmworkers, and I remember a Depression-era feel. A young girl gets her hair caught in a thresher, or a picking machine of some sort. This might have been told from the point of view of a boy who liked the thresher girl. I think it's A Painted House by John Grisham
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Dec 9, 2018 16:44
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Take the plunge! Okay! posted:There was this story about humans evolved for a much colder world in the far future. They live on ice floes and survive by sucking plankton or algae out of the ice they chew. Once your teeth decay, you’re as good as dead. The protagonist sets out to find some fabled land or something and eventually discovers a paradise island heated by geothermal energy. turns out “normal” humans live there and freak out when they meet our blubbery protagonist 
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Dec 9, 2018 18:10
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Take the plunge! Okay! posted:There was this story about humans evolved for a much colder world in the far future. They live on ice floes and survive by sucking plankton or algae out of the ice they chew. Once your teeth decay, you’re as good as dead. The protagonist sets out to find some fabled land or something and eventually discovers a paradise island heated by geothermal energy. turns out “normal” humans live there and freak out when they meet our blubbery protagonist I'm pretty sure this is the same story I asked about quite a while ago and it turned out to be Huddle by Stephen Baxter. That one really sticks with you!
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Dec 9, 2018 22:09
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Bookish posted:I'm pretty sure this is the same story I asked about quite a while ago and it turned out to be Huddle by Stephen Baxter. That one really sticks with you! I’ll check it out, thanks. It stuck with me, yeah!
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Dec 9, 2018 22:14
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I read a long short story, possibly a novella, about 20 years ago about a big mining machine/robot that gained sentience and was repurposed as... something. I don't remember. But I can't remember the title of it, to read it again. I remember at one point it was left sitting in a field, and it was observing a family of mice that built a nest in its gears.
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Dec 10, 2018 03:57
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GORDON posted:I read a long short story, possibly a novella, about 20 years ago about a big mining machine/robot that gained sentience and was repurposed as... something. I don't remember. But I can't remember the title of it, to read it again. Comedy suggestion: Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel.
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Dec 10, 2018 04:02
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I'm not necessarily looking for the story itself, but, like a description of said story, because I've seen a couple but can't find them now. Just online people talkin' about lovely stories, kinda thing. But the actual story in question was an old (as in, early for the genre) mystery story where this guy started saying he saw demons chasing him, and then died of strangulation outside, with no footprints near him, can YOU THE READER figure out the mystery? And in the end the answer given by the author is that he had a rare congenital disease that exactly mimics the effects of strangulation and also makes you hallucinate demons, and it was the biggest bullshit imaginable.
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Dec 10, 2018 04:55
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I'm on a bit of a nostalgia trip, and I've just bought Conrad's War, bu Andrew Davies, which I remember being a very odd anti-war story about a boy obsessed with WW2 until he finds the war leaking into his real life. Can't wait to see how it stands up to adult me and my expectations. I'm now trying to remember a book I read as a kid, so it would have had to have been whatever passed as Young Adult fiction in 1984. I remember nothing about it except the climactic fight between the protagonist and antagonist. They are looking for something buried in the mud in a river/estuary/canal, and have sunk metal (?) sheets, corrugated iron, maybe, into the water to make a kind of lift shaft in which they can work, pumping the water out and digging in the mud. They're working below the water level, of course, and the pumps are fighting against the leaks, and the scene ends with the fight, and someone gets beheaded (?) by the sharp edges of the well-worn spade they've been digging with. Does that help anyone at all, with anything? Thanks!
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Dec 10, 2018 05:47
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