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Teach posted: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. That's The Borribles by Michael de Larrabeiti, about gangs of immortal feral street kids declaring war on the Wombles. It's great fun even as an adult. Fake ed: Actually I think it's the sequel, The Borribles Go For Broke, when the bad guy's digging for the treasure lost at the end of the first one.
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Dec 10, 2018 09:14
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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. I think it was by Elizabeth Bear?
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Dec 10, 2018 09:16
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Runcible Cat posted:That's The Borribles by Michael de Larrabeiti, about gangs of immortal feral street kids declaring war on the Wombles. It's great fun even as an adult. Well, that took three and a half hours, when I've been mithering about that book for years. Thank you!
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Dec 10, 2018 10:54
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Teach posted: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. This is one of the Borribles books by Michael De Larrabeiti, the second one I think. Everyone should read them they are awesome. Also let me know how Conrads war stands up, I really liked it as a kid.
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Dec 10, 2018 19:32
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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. Runcible Cat posted:I think it was by Elizabeth Bear? I was thinking of Tideline by Elizabeth Bear, though there's enough differences that you might not have been. Teach posted:Well, that took three and a half hours, when I've been mithering about that book for years. Thank you! No prob. Like yaffle says, everyone should read all three, because they are all extremely awesome.
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Dec 10, 2018 23:45
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yaffle posted:This is one of the Borribles books by Michael De Larrabeiti, the second one I think. Everyone should read them they are awesome. Also let me know how Conrads war stands up, I really liked it as a kid. It's very ahead of the curve to name your books a combination of the words boring and horrible
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Dec 11, 2018 00:04
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Perhaps you can help me remember this series (?) of book(s) As I recall, the protagonist, who is confined to a wheelchair I think, is on a cruise. Something happens and - poof - he ends up in some other space / time and he’s no longer disabled. A bunch of poo poo happens, but at the end you realize that the “world” he is now living in is the Mediterranean basin which is (for now) dry, and he takes his people slowly into the upper elevations since the wall (at Gibraltar) is weakening and the basin will soon fill with water.
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Dec 11, 2018 06:34
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LongSack posted:Perhaps you can help me remember this series (?) of book(s) I'm 95% sure you're after the Gandalara Cycle by Randall Garriott and increasingly his wife Vicki Ann Heydon, starting with The Steel of Raithskar and ending with the River Wall that you remember. I've not read them for decades, but I remember them fondly. Resident Idiot fucked around with this message at 07:48 on Dec 11, 2018 |
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Dec 11, 2018 07:15
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Teach posted:Well, that took three and a half hours, when I've been mithering about that book for years. Thank you! buy the omnibus of all three - it was cheaper than any of them individually on amazon last time i looked. just one of the best ya series ever, especially if you ever watched the wombles
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Dec 11, 2018 13:23
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Resident Idiot posted:I'm 95% sure you're after the Gandalara Cycle by Randall Garriott and increasingly his wife Vicki Ann Heydon, starting with The Steel of Raithskar and ending with the River Wall that you remember. Yes! Thank you.
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Dec 12, 2018 01:02
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Resident Idiot posted:I'm 95% sure you're after the Gandalara Cycle by Randall Garriott and increasingly his wife Vicki Ann Heydon, starting with The Steel of Raithskar and ending with the River Wall that you remember. Huh, I wondered why she took over and it's fairly conclusive: Wikipedia posted:Although both Garrett and Heydron are credited as authors, she is believed to be the principal author given that Garrett was in a coma for most of the series' publication history.
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Dec 12, 2018 01:27
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Resident Idiot posted:I'm 95% sure you're after the Gandalara Cycle by Randall Garriott and increasingly his wife Vicki Ann Heydon, starting with The Steel of Raithskar and ending with the River Wall that you remember. Thank you for this link; the book summaries look gloriously 80s. "Bearing the Ra'ira, Raithskar's most sacred gem, Rikardon and Tarani flee a ruthless enemy across the burning deserts of Gandalara. Protected by the swordsman's mighty warcat Keeshah, and the mystic bird called Lonna, who obeys the illusionist's commands, the two discover the smoldering passion they have long denied. But Keeshah leaves them to fulfill an ancient mating ritual in the Valley of the Sha'um, Rikardon and Tarani must risk death in the Well of Darkness to fulfill their destiny."
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Dec 12, 2018 01:42
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yaffle posted:This is one of the Borribles books by Michael De Larrabeiti, the second one I think. Everyone should read them they are awesome. Also let me know how Conrads war stands up, I really liked it as a kid. Thank you for all the comments about The Borribles, have ordered the one-volume trilogy. Quotin' this post as I'll pick up Conrad's War in a week or two, and will report back after the New Year. Thanks again, BB.
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Dec 12, 2018 06:02
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wizzardstaff posted:Thank you for this link; the book summaries look gloriously 80s. This series, Robert Vardeman’s Cenotaph Road series, and Sherri Tepper’s Land of the True Game series are the ones I remember most fondly from my younger days.
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Dec 13, 2018 01:04
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LongSack posted:This series, Robert Vardeman’s Cenotaph Road series, and Sherri Tepper’s Land of the True Game series are the ones I remember most fondly from my younger days. Great, thank you for the recommendations!
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Dec 13, 2018 05:17
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I just got hold of True Game after vaguely remembering reading...the third in the series, I think, as a teenager. Everything I've read of Tepper's has been completely bananas somehow so I have high hopes.
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Dec 13, 2018 05:49
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Start with the first three: King’s Blood Four, Necromancer Nine, and Wizard’s Eleven. Some of the writing gave me chills, it was phrased so well.
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Dec 14, 2018 00:52
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titties posted:I think it's A Painted House by John Grisham Thanks for taking a stab at it, but that looks to be too recent.
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Dec 14, 2018 06:16
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Veni Vidi Ameche! posted:Thanks for taking a stab at it, but that looks to be too recent. Yeah, I must have conflated it with something else, no mention of a thresher in the synopsis. What you're asking after does seem really familiar though, I'm sure I will spend the next 20 years trying to remember.
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Dec 14, 2018 19:25
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John Lee posted: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. i don't have an answer for this, because I'm pretty certain it's something which I've also been trying to find: series of detective novels done by a guy who just pulled stuff like the bullshit you've mentioned above, included the detective narrating long sections copied from encyclopedias about any topic the writer or his wife were interested in at the time (generally unrelated to the actual story), as well as a lot of very poorly done supernatural business. One of the other stories may have included a child/ little person's ghost, or something which seemed to be that? Think it was a Victorian thing, but can't really remember any more details
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Dec 14, 2018 21:50
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VileLL posted:i don't have an answer for this, because I'm pretty certain it's something which I've also been trying to find: I suspect both you and John Lee are looking for Harry Stephen Keeler, who wrote back in the 1930s/1940s and is one of a kind when it comes to bad writers. As you note, his usual method of plotting was to grab a bunch of newspaper clippings out of his file and build a story out of them, no matter how little sense they made together. He frequently padded out his books with massive infodumps and completely unrelated stories that he, or his wife, wrote. In John Lee's case, Keeler wrote three books (The Marceau Case, The Wonderful Scheme of Mr. Christopher Thorne, X. Jones of Scotland Yard) all using the same setup for an "impossible" murder (man found strangled in the middle of a freshly rolled lawn, no footprints nearby) but each of which has its own solution. None of the solutions make the slightest goddamn bit of sense, but that's Keeler for you. Seriously, Keeler is utterly bizarre and original in his shittiness, and it's a bit sad he's been so totally forgotten since his day. Selachian fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Dec 14, 2018 |
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Dec 14, 2018 22:30
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that's definitely my one! (and looks like it's definitely the other one as well, looking at the summaries) very appreciated!
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Dec 15, 2018 00:27
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Yeah, thanks a lot. A friend and I were having a discussion about Umineko, a weeb teardown of mystery novels/plotting starting from the very beginnings of the genre, and I kept thinking of that author but couldn't actually remember enough to bring it up.
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Dec 15, 2018 03:18
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Scene from a book: a woman fears she is being pursued by a malign entity, falls down into the gearing of a non-running escalator and then doesn’t shout for help before it is turned on and chops her into bits. Seemed to have ‘magical urban realism’ vibe, I keep thinking it was a Clive Barker but Googled to that effect come up with naught (not helped by the actual Chinese lady who had the same thing happen to her IRL colouring my returns  )
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Dec 17, 2018 17:28
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NoneMoreNegative posted:Scene from a book: a woman fears she is being pursued by a malign entity, falls down into the gearing of a non-running escalator and then doesn’t shout for help before it is turned on and chops her into bits. Seemed to have ‘magical urban realism’ vibe, I keep thinking it was a Clive Barker but Googled to that effect come up with naught (not helped by the actual Chinese lady who had the same thing happen to her IRL colouring my returns Pretty sure it's a Christopher Fowler.
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Dec 17, 2018 17:35
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Runcible Cat posted:Pretty sure it's a Christopher Fowler. I think you're right. I seem to recall the escalator scene from Fowler's Rune, but it's been a long time since I read it.
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Dec 17, 2018 18:15
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Sounds to be right, cheers - that’s going back to 1990 when I first read it at 17 Looking it up on Amazon pointed me to the sequel ‘Roofworld’ which I also read but completely forgot.
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Dec 18, 2018 12:46
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It's some airport thriller/Jack Ryan type stuff - only thing I can recall is that the guy's wife was brought up with like 7 brothers and knew how to wrestle, and wrestled some Russian bad guys to death (possibly on an Antonov?). Nukes were probably involved somehow.
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Dec 29, 2018 04:34
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Big Bad Beetleborg posted:It's some airport thriller/Jack Ryan type stuff - only thing I can recall is that the guy's wife was brought up with like 7 brothers and knew how to wrestle, and wrestled some Russian bad guys to death (possibly on an Antonov?). Nukes were probably involved somehow. Is that Neal Stephenson's The Cobweb? It's got all of that except chemical weapons instead of nukes.
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Dec 29, 2018 13:30
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I think I am going mad because I can't find any trace of it. Ridiculous universe with sort of space australia where huge mutated cows produce very important thing that I cannot remember. And there was a story about a resident of this space-australia who through market manipulations bought entire planet earth and how his life became unbearable. Also I remember one story name from this cycle, but googling gives nothing "O, they are so golden". Or something like that I read in translation.
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Dec 29, 2018 20:56
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Sekenr posted:I think I am going mad because I can't find any trace of it. Ridiculous universe with sort of space australia where huge mutated cows produce very important thing that I cannot remember. And there was a story about a resident of this space-australia who through market manipulations bought entire planet earth and how his life became unbearable. Also I remember one story name from this cycle, but googling gives nothing "O, they are so golden". Or something like that I read in translation. Cordwainer Smith's Norstillia. The other story you are remembering is probably "The Golden Ship Was - Oh! Oh! Oh!"
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Dec 29, 2018 21:04
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Oh thank you so much
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Dec 29, 2018 21:06
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Gonna repost this request of mine because the books came to mind and it's bugging me again. Kinda lost hope about this one, but who knows.Zanzibar Ham posted:Alright, this has been bugging me for drat ages.
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Dec 29, 2018 21:14
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Zanzibar Ham posted:Gonna repost this request of mine because the books came to mind and it's bugging me again. Kinda lost hope about this one, but who knows. Have you looked at Jonathan Wylie's Servants of Ark trilogy? I can't remember pink hair but the mention of the girl being brought up by ghosts looks like this from the 2nd book: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...gamo%22&f=false I can't find any decent plot summaries online though.
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Dec 29, 2018 23:05
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Runcible Cat posted:Have you looked at Jonathan Wylie's Servants of Ark trilogy? I can't remember pink hair but the mention of the girl being brought up by ghosts looks like this from the 2nd book: You're right that I can't find anything super-certain on the net, but violet eyes seems close enough to pink hair considering I was a young teen when I read it and also it may have been translated to Hebrew as well. Thank you very much for the help, this might just be it!
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Dec 29, 2018 23:36
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Zanzibar Ham posted:You're right that I can't find anything super-certain on the net, but violet eyes seems close enough to pink hair considering I was a young teen when I read it and also it may have been translated to Hebrew as well. Thank you very much for the help, this might just be it! Good luck!
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Dec 29, 2018 23:56
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I've been trying to find this book series for ages. It's a pulpy military sci-fi series, about basically paratroopers except from spaceships, it -might- have been called something Spaceborne, but the big detail that I remember is that all the guns the main army dudes used shot tiny pieces of clipped off wire. Anyone have an idea? E: Welp I found it immediately after hoo boy these books have some terrible covers. Lucky 13th series, by Rick Shelley SavTargaryen fucked around with this message at 11:31 on Dec 31, 2018 |
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Dec 31, 2018 11:13
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I'm trying to piece together which of Richard Stark's Parker novels I've read, can anybody tell me which one has him driving a bulldozer into a gun store and taking the guns he needs?
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Dec 31, 2018 22:57
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Aliens scout Earth, deem it an easy target for invasion, and return with their invasion force many years later. The problem is by the time they return human technology has advanced far further than they anticipated and Earth is now capable of putting up a substantial fight. I can't remember the name and it's driving me crazy.
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Jan 7, 2019 13:31
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strange feelings re Daisy posted:Aliens scout Earth, deem it an easy target for invasion, and return with their invasion force many years later. The problem is by the time they return human technology has advanced far further than they anticipated and Earth is now capable of putting up a substantial fight. I can't remember the name and it's driving me crazy. Harry Turtledove's Worldwar books? Aliens scout us in the 12th century, return in the middle of WWII.
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Jan 7, 2019 13:38
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