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Trying to find a sci-fi book I impulse-bought at books-a-million in the early 2010s. The title was alpha protocol or zero protocol or something along those lines, it was the 2nd or 3rd book in a series. The main character had some form of autism, the entire universe was dystopian as hell. The main plot in the one I read was about him taking over a space-station made to smelt asteroids and turning it into a barely-functioning FTL prototype. There were a few space battles, but it was EXTREMELY early days of solar system exploration, not The Expanse style "everyone's in space". The main character was killed somehow in one of the earlier books, and he winds up growing extra brains to keep in armored cases around the station. At one point he gets shot in the head and the spare brains take over, directing his few allies on what to do with the body so a spare brain can take it over / resume being alive. Back on earth, it goes HARD dystopian nightmarescape, the one person who ultimately ends up in charge forces everyone on earth to wear "loyalty collars" or something like that, basically she becomes the ultimate dictator because she can strangle anyone (or everyone) with a single command. The counterpoint to her is her own bodyguard, who stays loyal until the 2nd half of the book, and it ends with a shuttle crash and said bodyguard doing the right thing for the human race and not saving her. Kills her rather badly, infact. It came up the other day in conversation about dystopian hellscapes as an example, and I always wanted to read those first two books in the series to see how the gently caress it got there. That ring any bells for anyone?
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Jul 21, 2022 00:35
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Horror anthology I saw in the 90s It wasn’t Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark but was like it. Spooky tales some with drawings. Not as gruesome but spooky still The only one I can remember is there’s one about a woman whose driving and spots a hitchhiker at night and she’s like awww hell no and keeps driving past him But then she sees him again. And again. And again. Until her car starts dying and all of a sudden he’s holding a knife. Iirc it ends by not saying what happens but jumps to later another driver picks up a woman or a man and a woman and implies that she was the original driver. Iirc the new driver gets killed or winds up dead I think the drawing was a hitchhiker. Creepy guy in a jacket or trenchcoat
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Jul 22, 2022 08:03
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Alan Smithee posted:Horror anthology I saw in the 90s The only other horror anthology I can think of that's like that is "Scary Stories for Sleepovers". Aimed at kids around 8-10 years old with pictures.
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Jul 22, 2022 19:34
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Action Jacktion posted:The Gone-Away World. I was so close! Thank you.
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Jul 22, 2022 20:51
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Tiny posted:Trying to find a sci-fi book I impulse-bought at books-a-million in the early 2010s. The title was alpha protocol or zero protocol or something along those lines, it was the 2nd or 3rd book in a series. Zero Point by Neal Asher?
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Jul 22, 2022 20:55
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Humanity is extinct or something, and some tree-like aliens resurrect them and also make them immortal. And then they sent them off in a spaceship, also possibly shaped like a tree, and the humans go off to find earth or something. Turns out theres a gigantic rotating gamma ray burst thing that wipes out all life in the galaxy every hundred million years
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Jul 22, 2022 22:12
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The Chad Jihad posted:Humanity is extinct or something, and some tree-like aliens resurrect them and also make them immortal. And then they sent them off in a spaceship, also possibly shaped like a tree, and the humans go off to find earth or something. Turns out theres a gigantic rotating gamma ray burst thing that wipes out all life in the galaxy every hundred million years https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Genesis_Quest and sequel?
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Jul 22, 2022 22:53
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Runcible Cat posted:Zero Point by Neal Asher? YES! Thank you!
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Jul 23, 2022 02:39
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Tiny posted:YES! Thank you! I do want to chime in that Alpha Protocol was the name of a video game that came out in 2010 and it's sort of funny / interesting to see someone else's memories get scrambled in a way I can relate to.
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Jul 23, 2022 08:26
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Alan Smithee posted:Horror anthology I saw in the 90s These pages might be useful if you haven't looked there already: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BewareOfHitchHikingGhosts https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HostileHitchhiker Maybe look up "vanishing hitchhiker" urban legends too?
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Jul 23, 2022 20:13
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ScienceSeagull posted:These pages might be useful if you haven't looked there already: Stuck with covid and nothing better to do than read TVTropes entries - this one from Beware Of Hitch-Hiking Ghosts sounds close to AlanSmithee's description: quote:A different version appeared in one story in a book called Railway Ghosts and Highway Horrors. A woman driving home late at night and running out of gas spots a hitchhiker on the side of the road. It's late, and she's alone, and he's grubby-looking, so she doesn't pick him up. She gets further on and comes down a hill...to see the same hitchhiker by the roadside. grinning at her. She passes him again, now very unnerved, and is almost home when she sees him a third time—and this time, he's holding a butcher knife. She's going up the final hill before her house, almost out of gas... The police find her car the next morning, sitting on empty at the bottom of the hill. She's in the driver seat with a cut throat. The story ends with "Needless to say, the killer was never found."
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Jul 23, 2022 20:27
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Yuuuuuup that's it! I recognize the old cover with the dragonfly nymph alien and the weird walker. Apparently I've only ever read the sequel? Thanks a ton that's been bothering me off and on for years
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Jul 23, 2022 22:23
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Ripley posted:Stuck with covid and nothing better to do than read TVTropes entries - this one from Beware Of Hitch-Hiking Ghosts sounds close to AlanSmithee's description: hmm. The year of publishing seems to line up too. Can't seem to find any images of the drawings though.
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Jul 24, 2022 16:08
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There's copies on archive.org but you'll probably need an account to view the whole thing - https://archive.org/details/railwayghostshig00cohe/page/20/mode/2up?view=theater
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Jul 25, 2022 13:16
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uvar posted:There's copies on archive.org but you'll probably need an account to view the whole thing - https://archive.org/details/railwayghostshig00cohe/page/20/mode/2up?view=theater gently caress me that's the one idk how archive works but when i saw it originally it only let me see cover to cover, but i guess since you shared it? Still only lets me see your link and covers
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Jul 25, 2022 14:49
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uvar posted:There's copies on archive.org but you'll probably need an account to view the whole thing - https://archive.org/details/railwayghostshig00cohe/page/20/mode/2up?view=theater This gives me huge Uninvited vibes. I wish Zojoi would remake that game.
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Jul 25, 2022 17:39
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Alan Smithee posted:idk how archive works but when i saw it originally it only let me see cover to cover, but i guess since you shared it? Still only lets me see your link and covers It's still in copyright so they treat it as a library book. The button at the top of the page lets you borrow it for an hour at a time for free and view the whole thing (and 'renew' your loan repeatedly if nobody else has asked to read it), but you need to be logged in first. Alternatively, after googling the weirdly specific name of the driver, "Eleanor Tabori", some random person posted it to GameFAQs years ago: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/270-horror/72089748
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Jul 25, 2022 23:21
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Short Story: Aliens investigating ruined Earth. Blah blah blah, some guy genetically engineered humanity to be able to diagnose cellulose. In turn there was a population explosion as food was no longer as scarce just eat grass/trees etc... Until so many people ate so much that the O2/CO2 cycle was disrupted and people choked to death. I think it also mutated to be airborne, maybe it was bacteria in the gut that was genetically modified. I remember that one of the explorers couldn't return to their ship because the outside of their spacesuit was infected and they'd lose all their food if they returned to the spaceship. Can't remember if it was Analog or something or an Anthology.
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Jul 26, 2022 03:28
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Hi friends I have a few books from my childhood that I can't find out about. The first was a children's book about a dinosaur (like a brontosaurus shape) that could shrink things and turn invisible, including people. I have a vague idea that it was British and the dinosaur went to a museum with his friend. The only part I can really remember is the dinosaur shrank the main character's car to about the size of one of those mini battery powered cars that kids ride on. Second book was a couple kids who stayed overnight in a museum and basically started living there, surviving by taking coins from the wishing well fountain to buy things at the gift shop. I think they also used that same fountain to bathe in? Last book was a young adult sci-fi thing; there's an apocalypse and the official dog catcher of whatever city is frozen or put in cryosleep before it happens, just by accident while trying to catch a dog maybe. They're awakened in a post-apocalyptic world either by a robotic exosuit or just happen to find it after awakening. It has rocket feet, missiles, the usual. At some point he ends up in some kind of society that has a King and mentions "nuclear weapons" or something similar. Everyone gets quiet and say they don't use those words in front of the King but the King says it's ok as the guy obviously wouldn't have known. He ends up President or something, because he's the last remaining official Government Employee, being a dog catcher. Edit: These would've been around the early to mid 90s. Probably the first two were much older though, maybe 70s or 80s?
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Jul 26, 2022 23:54
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Kids living in the museum sounds like From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg.
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Jul 26, 2022 23:57
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wizzardstaff posted:Kids living in the museum sounds like From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg. Ooh yeah reading the wiki page about it sounds exactly right, I forgot about them sleeping in some ancient bed that's on display, thanks!
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Jul 27, 2022 00:00
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Dogcatcher book sounds like American Knights by Nick Pollotta E: and just a guess based on Goodreads keyword search, but the last one might be Ever Ride A Dinosaur? by Scott Corbett
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Jul 27, 2022 05:17
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wheatpuppy posted:Dogcatcher book sounds like American Knights by Nick Pollotta You're both my hero, I was never able to Google these two well enough to get a hit.  I don't remember it being essentially a CYOA book but I was big into those around that age.
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Jul 27, 2022 05:57
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A short story about a highwayman who robs carriages in a swamp in England. One day he sees a beautiful woman in the swamp, and he starts following her. She trapped him, by leading him off the safe path into the bog where he gets stuck and drowns. She's actually the ghost of someone he killed in one of his robberies. Anyone know what this is?
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Aug 2, 2022 00:02
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VostokProgram posted:A short story about a highwayman who robs carriages in a swamp in England. One day he sees a beautiful woman in the swamp, and he starts following her. She trapped him, by leading him off the safe path into the bog where he gets stuck and drowns. She's actually the ghost of someone he killed in one of his robberies. Hm not exactly the same but it resembles this folk tale https://moonmausoleum.com/the-highwayman-robbed-of-his-life/
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Aug 2, 2022 04:48
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Sci-fi short story, definitely in the last decade It's about an apparently autistic physicist who realizes the world is ending as earth falls apart and is sucked into a black hole or something He lives with his kid He chains them both to a toilet or pipe to keep them being from torn away I think the word "blue" is in the title It crushed me. E: thanks, that’s it. Optioned for a movie apparently. gvibes fucked around with this message at 21:16 on Aug 2, 2022 |
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Aug 2, 2022 16:02
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gvibes posted:Sci-fi short story, definitely in the last decade The Blue Afternoon That Lasted Forever by Daniel H. Wilson
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Aug 2, 2022 18:20
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Take the plunge! Okay! posted:The Blue Afternoon That Lasted Forever by Daniel H. Wilson And it can be read online here. Wow. That is absolutely heartbreaking. I've had similar nightmares. Goddamn.
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Aug 2, 2022 23:23
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They're making a movie of it
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Aug 2, 2022 23:53
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:And it can be read online here. Wow. I read that a very long time ago. Oh Jesus does it hit different now that I’m middle-aged and have a small person in my life.
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Aug 3, 2022 00:48
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DeimosRising posted:They're making a movie of it 
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Aug 3, 2022 09:47
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Hope it doesn't end like Guts by Chuck Palahniuk
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Aug 3, 2022 10:03
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Short story. Robin Hood has been reincarnated. He is now a professional shoplifter. Targeting extremely posh supermarkets and only stealing very niche luxury foods. Like truffles and caviar. Which he then hands out to the homeless and people who wait in queues in front of foodbanks. Each items comes with text like "Have a taste of what those who keep you downtrodden eat!".
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Aug 5, 2022 13:35
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BattyKiara posted:Short story. I don't know that story but man I'd be pissed if I were starving and someone handed me a handful of fungus and offal.
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Aug 5, 2022 21:47
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navyjack posted:I read that a very long time ago. Oh Jesus does it hit different now that I’m middle-aged and have a small person in my life. Yeaahhh that's making it hard to even get past the first couple pages with the uh, hot tears and stuff, and it hasn't even gotten to anything more painful than a baby growing up Maybe I shouldn't read this at present lol
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Aug 5, 2022 22:54
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A late 80s early 90s choose your own adventure type book (but not an actual branded cyoa from the series or a fighting fantasy.) You either end up joining some kind of city resistance or the secret police who hunt them down depending on your choices. Possibly UK or US based? Things I remember: -Two of the weapons you get to use are a colt and an Ingram m10 -You live in an apartment when you put coins in a slot in the wall to keep things running. It's when you fish a coin out you remember the pamphlet you got at some kind of rally -Many of the deaths involve you getting shot -You can fake join the resistance by revealing the double agent in it -I don't remember rolling for stats but I do recall the book would tell you to write down numbers on occasion. Then later on if you had specific numbers written down, you'd have to turn to a specific page etc
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Aug 6, 2022 06:54
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Brawnfire posted:Yeaahhh that's making it hard to even get past the first couple pages with the uh, hot tears and stuff, and it hasn't even gotten to anything more painful than a baby growing up Punch out, dude! Abort! Abort mission!
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Aug 6, 2022 07:51
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I don't even have kids and it was rough on me. I can't imagine. Just say NO
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Aug 6, 2022 19:01
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e: Wrong thread, sorry.
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Aug 10, 2022 11:25
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Indian scifi short story following an indian man going through the matchmaking process in a future where pre-birth gender selection has left india with a huge male to female ratio. A phrase like "How to be an exceptional boy" or "quality boy" or something kept being used.
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Aug 15, 2022 13:01
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