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Going to be real surprised if it isn't, and if it isn't I want to read it
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Aug 25, 2020 01:40
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Same. The SCP had stuff like computers running a FaithOS and giant ambulatory monsters with weird limbs that absorbed people. Vats of people who were "sinners" being healed/forgiven with Angel's or Saint's tears or something like that. Was one of the better ones on the site.
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Aug 25, 2020 05:13
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Splicer posted:Some of this sounds like The Wiz Biz. He makes a programming language for magic by building big spells out of small spells but IIRC he doesn't run out of stamina he's just kind of a garbage coder so he can't turn off the worm virus he made to gently caress up the bad guys' magic That's just an omnibus edition of the first two Wiz Zumwalt books; the one the OP was describing is specifically the first one, Wizard's Bane (which someone already suggested), although they've mis-remembered some of the details like the love spell. Those books were favourites of mine when I was younger and I still re-read some of them every few years, although I think the first one was the weakest. The second one -- where the wizards have to send an agent back to our world to hire a team of programmers to sort out the huge, undocumented clusterfuck Wiz has left them with (before getting kidnapped, so he's not around to help) -- is probably my favourite. (And not just because there's a scene where "management" walks in on them playing acm, aka the flight simulator I grew up with -- there's a lot of UNIX geek stuff in these books that is direct nostalgia triggers for me, which is probably why I like them so much.) ToxicFrog fucked around with this message at 13:08 on Aug 25, 2020 |
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Aug 25, 2020 13:04
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baromodo posted:Hey folks. I've been trying to find a short story which may have been written by a regular (at one time) contributor on this very site. I want to say Zack Parsons because the style reminded me a bit of his That Insidious Beast series. I could be completely barking up the wrong tree about its origin though. My memory of the story I'm looking for is super vague, but I think it involved some sort of dimension-hopping experience into a bizarre empty world with giant infant-like creatures stomping around. I have another fragmented visual about stretching limbs and vials of liquid? This could all be a fever dream, but I'm hoping someone remembers... Liminal States?
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Aug 25, 2020 13:52
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Ornamented Death posted:Pretty sure you're remembering SCP-093. Yeah... I think you're right. Memory is a funny thing. Thanks.
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Aug 25, 2020 15:58
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ToxicFrog posted:That's just an omnibus edition of the first two Wiz Zumwalt books; the one the OP was describing is specifically the first one, Wizard's Bane (which someone already suggested), although they've mis-remembered some of the details like the love spell.
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Aug 26, 2020 05:30
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Solenna posted:That's funny, one of the books I asked about was apparently book #3 in that series. I had no idea that it was part of a series when I read it, which explains why it made so little sense. Aww, you missed the explanation of why Wiz specifically chose Forth as the programming language for wizardry.
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Aug 26, 2020 20:06
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Looking for a sci-fi short story(?) where aliens observe the Earth and determine that cars are the intelligent creaures and humans are just parasites.
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Aug 27, 2020 01:07
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Mister Kingdom posted:Looking for a sci-fi short story(?) where aliens observe the Earth and determine that cars are the intelligent creaures and humans are just parasites. There's an animated short film called What on Earth with that plot. It's not based on a short story. There's also a poem called "Southbound On The Freeway" by May Swenson with a similar idea.
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Aug 27, 2020 02:25
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And the minor joke in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which is why one of the characters is named Ford Prefect.
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Aug 27, 2020 11:23
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AQ Q[Y
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Aug 28, 2020 22:08
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Request from a friend: - late 1990s or early 2000s - YA novel adapted into a movie, probably british - girl is playing a VR game(?) and designs a male character for her self, then some sort of power surge ends up trapping her in the male body - she and her friends then have to make it back to the machine to turn her back - Icelandic title of the movie was "Spegill Spegill" ("Mirror Mirror") but they don't know if that was a direct translation of the English title, and it's not the same as the title of the book (there is a book with that name but it's a collection of folktales)
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Aug 30, 2020 12:30
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Short story about a criminal who is imprisoned in an apartment, and told that something within the apartment is a death trap, and that he'll go free if he can survive for a day (or whatever). The story ends with the criminal learning, after several agonizing hours of trying to avoid touching everything, that he's been acquitted, so he opens the door. But the doorknob is what triggers the death trap, killing him instantly. This is presented as a humane method of execution. Mister Kingdom posted:Looking for a sci-fi short story(?) where aliens observe the Earth and determine that cars are the intelligent creaures and humans are just parasites. Carl Sagan wrote something along those lines, I think. Might have been in Pale Blue Dot?
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Sep 2, 2020 10:00
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SerialKilldeer posted:Short story about a criminal who is imprisoned in an apartment, and told that something within the apartment is a death trap, and that he'll go free if he can survive for a day (or whatever). The story ends with the criminal learning, after several agonizing hours of trying to avoid touching everything, that he's been acquitted, so he opens the door. But the doorknob is what triggers the death trap, killing him instantly. This is presented as a humane method of execution. Looks like it's "In The Hereafter Hilton" by Bob Shaw Available online: http://www.williamflew.com/omni24b.html Via https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/169974/sci-fi-capital-punishment-story-with-execution-by-apartment-deathtrap Which was the first link for "short story criminal execution apartment" on Bing
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Sep 2, 2020 10:12
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Thanks, that was quick!
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Sep 2, 2020 10:32
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Google’s failing me on this, but I can’t put a name to a series of books I read. What I remember: -Magic (someone has trouble making a light at one point due to being weak with fire) -Creepy archmage who replaced his eyes with gems. Name might be something like Mithras? -4 elemental artefacts (Harp of Winds?) -probably mid 90s
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Sep 5, 2020 12:26
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I've never read it, but Maggie Furey's Artefacts of Power is four books with a Harp of Winds and a bad guy archmage called Miathan from the mid 90s, so I'm pretty confident that might be it.
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Sep 5, 2020 13:00
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Resident Idiot posted:I've never read it, but Maggie Furey's Artefacts of Power is four books with a Harp of Winds and a bad guy archmage called Miathan from the mid 90s, so I'm pretty confident that might be it. That’s the one! Cheers!
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Sep 5, 2020 13:26
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Short story, set in England. Travelling salesman (may not be) ends up in a hotel he'd never been to before and his car breaks down. Everything is a bit off. All the guests are eating vast amounts of food. It's very very hot. He's sharing with a roommate who is a bit off. Can't get his car fixed. Sense of dread throughout. Any ideas?
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Sep 7, 2020 22:37
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Gambrinus posted:Short story, set in England. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a0odh8ro08 ??
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Sep 7, 2020 23:01
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Gambrinus posted:Short story, set in England. gently caress I think I have read this one. Dude ends up at a manor house that's like some kinda rehab/asylum place for people, waitress lady gets pissed he's not eating all his food?
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Sep 8, 2020 04:30
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It’s Aickman’s The Hospice
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Sep 8, 2020 05:32
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Take the plunge! Okay! posted:It’s Aickman’s The Hospice Ya it's this one
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Sep 8, 2020 06:50
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It has this tendency to stick with you and make you forget the author or where you’d read it. I know I experienced it myself. I guess that the oneiric quality in it really shines and plants it somewhere near the unconscious. That’s why we get it that often in this thread.
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Sep 8, 2020 07:49
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For sure, it's a weird & creepy story.
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Sep 8, 2020 10:31
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Resident Idiot posted:Tatty Apple by Jenny Nimmo from 1984? Just realised I never said thank you for this. Can I ask how you found it? My sister and I had googled every possible combo of the words in my description, I’m sure.
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Sep 8, 2020 11:30
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Take the plunge! Okay! posted:It’s Aickman’s The Hospice Cheers!
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Sep 8, 2020 12:58
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Sanford posted:Just realised I never said thank you for this. Can I ask how you found it? My sister and I had googled every possible combo of the words in my description, I’m sure. I figured if it was on UK radio it's be BBC, so I tried "Green rabbit" children's story bbc radio 1980s which led me to a cached search from swiftconsortium.org.au, which had "Skuse, C. J., 1980- Coleman, Lisa, 1970- ... Cover image for The children of Green Knowe [audio book CD] ... Only Owen-Owen knows the secret of the green rabbit's extraordinary powers - and when his family and neighbours ... BBC Radio 2." Searching Owen owen green rabbit led to a Bolinda audiobook description reading "Tatty Apple enters Owen-Owen's life all of a sudden, one cold spring day when ... Owen has never seen such an extraordinary rabbit before – green and brown, ..." and once i had Tatty Apple it was easy.
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Sep 8, 2020 13:32
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Trinity and Beyond Here's a weird one where I actually know the title because I wrote it down without any contexr and now can't find any information on it or remember why I wrote it down.
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Sep 14, 2020 06:00
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TommyGun85 posted:Trinity and Beyond Are you sure you're thinking of a book? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114728/
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Sep 14, 2020 06:26
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Google is flooded with hits for someone's bandcamp and a toy unboxing youtube channel, but there's also this if you're a soccer fan.
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Sep 14, 2020 06:54
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Don't know why this one suddenly popped into my head. Pretty sure it's either a Phillip K Dick or Bradbury short story. Ends with a guy finally letting himself have fun and riding a giant stone lion to the cheers / ridicule of the people nearby. Just can't find it.
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Sep 21, 2020 19:07
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So glad we have this thread. I've been desperately searching for a book I read. Science fiction. It details a wide-variety of extraterrestrial life forms and their development throughout the universe (some of them are incredibly bizarre and not even what we would recognize as life). Begins with the author falling into a dream, and he then goes on to explain all of these fantastical civilizations. It's quite old; I want to say it was written in the 1940s? I may be off by a decade or two, but it's definitely not anything close to modern. I am dying to re-read this as it was on my old Kindle and I didn't back it up. One of the best sci-fi books I've ever read and Google hasn't helped at all. Doesn't show up on any "best-of" lists I can find.
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Sep 22, 2020 11:11
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Fly Ricky posted:So glad we have this thread. I've been desperately searching for a book I read. The Night Land by William Hope Hodgeson?
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Sep 22, 2020 11:18
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navyjack posted:The Night Land by William Hope Hodgeson? This sounds awesome! Not the one I read but I am all over this. Thank you. The book I read doesn't particularly follow any story progression. It's as if his consciousness just observes a variety of different alien worlds. Picks up with one, moves on to another, etc. (It may indeed be as old as the early 1900's, as The Night Land.)
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Sep 22, 2020 11:22
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Fly Ricky posted:So glad we have this thread. I've been desperately searching for a book I read. Sounds a bit like Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon, published in 1937. If that's it and you like it (or if it's not but looks interesting anyway) the same author's Last and First Men is good too.
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Sep 22, 2020 12:00
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Myron Baloney posted:Sounds a bit like Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon, published in 1937. If that's it and you like it (or if it's not but looks interesting anyway) the same author's Last and First Men is good too. OMG that's it! Thank you with every bit of my being.  Unbelievable. I had no idea about anything else he has written either. I will dive into Last and First Men immediately after I spend all night re-reading Star Maker. edit: I’ve been wasting time on this site for ten years and this is bar-none the best thing that’s ever come out of it. Granted, it’s a small list, but this honestly is fantastic and I love you goons. double edit vvv: Wow, sounds great. After I finish it I'll look it up. And yes, I literally stayed up all night re-reading Star Maker. Goddamn that's a great book. The speed at which you guys nailed it amazes me. I figured I'd just throw it out there and hopefully it wouldn't get buried. To get a response in roughly an hour... jaw-dropping. Fly Ricky fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Sep 23, 2020 |
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Sep 22, 2020 12:22
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Fly Ricky posted:OMG that's it! Thank you with every bit of my being. Last and First Men was apparently made into a video essay by an Icelandic Film Composer...
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Sep 23, 2020 01:13
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Fly Ricky posted:OMG that's it! Thank you with every bit of my being. My pleasure, so many times the quickness of the responses in this thread have astounded me, it feels good to get one on rare occasions.
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Sep 23, 2020 01:39
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navyjack posted:The Night Land by William Hope Hodgeson? Hey, thanks for this, I had low-key been trying to find it for years. And knowing the proper name let me find John C. Wright's stories in the same setting, which are at least as good as the original.
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Sep 24, 2020 20:14
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