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Okay, maybe someone can help me with this. It's plagued me for years and so far nobody's come up with a solution. This is a book I read from the library when I was about 11 or 12, but that's not really relevant. I'll break everything down into segments, lest anyone has trouble following my vague memories. Title: Something generic along the lines of "Mysteries for Young People." Genre: Anthology of mystery stories, all by different authors. Appearance: Library binding, and the cover painting was vaguely sinister and mysterious. All I remember is a man in a top hat standing near/below a flight of stairs. There were a lot of shadowy figures. Stories: I remember a few of the stories pretty well. While I'd be ecstatic to find out the titles or authors of any of them, I'd be even happier if someone can identify the actual anthology that I read. Story #1: I believe this one is somewhat well-known. It involved someone burying a Thermos full of money underground, and a tree was planted over it at some point. Eventually the money was dug up and discovered to have rotted away (old-style thermos). I think it's called "The Money Tree" but I'm not having any luck on Google. Story #2: A Sherlock Holmes-style tale, featuring an eccentric detective and his duller sidekick. The detective was European, I believe, possibly Hungarian or French. The mystery involved a woman who had been killed and somehow dropped in a lake at the bottom of a large hill, at the top of which a man lived in a cabin. The body was discovered in the spring thaw, and they determined that the woman had been killed sometime over the winter. The man would have been the perfect suspect, except he had a very weak heart and couldn't possibly have lugged a body down the hill to drop it in the lake. The detective finally realized that the man had used a frozen sheet as a makeshift sled to send her body onto the frozen lake, and in the thaw she sunk to the bottom. When confronted with this theory, the suspect immediately had a fatal heart attack. The detective's sidekick asked him if he was disappointed that he couldn't get a confession, but he insisted that the man dying of shock was as good as any confession. Story #3: More Agatha Christie style, but I'm pretty sure it's not by her. The story involves several people in a large mansion. At some point, they all get trapped in a vault with the air running out. I believe there is a recorded/amplified voice speaking to them at one point, and the rhyme "hickory dickory dock" plays a part in the story. Once again, I'm looking for either the anthology itself (which might not exist outside of libraries) or the title/author of any of these stories. And no, it's not Scary Stories to Read in the Dark or whatever the gently caress, which people always seem to suggest blindly without reading the description carefully. I swear it's not. I'd remember.
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Apr 15, 2008 02:43
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I read a book, as part of a series that I never got further into, that had a premise similar to Shadowrun. Details: -Read it about 10 years ago -Book takes place in apparent future, semi-cyberpunk/Shadowrun-esque - involved reawakened fae, dwarfs, etc. - had a "harbinger" in the title and/or as a major theme in the book -dragons were discussed -dwarves were hi-tech, and seemed to be leading the edge in new technological innovation -dwarves had commando units. Yes, I said it, little dwarf commando ninjas. -elves/fae represented a more magical/mystical force -some major heroes from mythology took sides, including a man going by the name of "Bear" or somesuch, who sided with dwarves and was kept suspended animation by them. Bear was known as Arthur at some point - Bear's sword was needed to kill the harbinger (which was some sort of demon/serpent/staff thing) Anyway, it's driving me nuts, I just thought about the book for the first time in years, and now I need to know what it is so I can wiki it, learn the plot, and never have to read the rest of the series. Or something like that.
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Apr 15, 2008 18:06
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Alright, I've tried this in the past on here but not in this forum so maybe I'll have better luck. This book couldn't have been written later than mid-80s as I read it as a kid right around then, it was your typical Ace paperback fantasy-type novel only surprisingly well-written. It was about a red-headed girl wizard and a boy with a (cursed?) sword with three gems on the hilt, all blue (or red). The sword can apparently grant wishes as they both touch it at the same time with the girl wishing she could do magic better and the boy wishing she'd be more drat polite (she was a bit of a bitch). There's a zap and then later on the girl apologizes to him and suddenly she casts a kickass spell or something. They decided the sword had compromised as best it could with their mutual wishes. Anyway they are on a quest to do something regarding this sword (the boy is, I forget how the girl fits in I think he just meets her on the way) and at the end of the book one of the gems in the hilt turns red (or blue, whichever color it wasn't before while the other two remain the original color) which to me indicated that there were probably going to be two more books in a kind of trilogy to 'fix' or 'uncurse' or whatever the sword. That's all I know.
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Apr 16, 2008 14:09
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TortillaFactory posted:words Mystery and more mystery by Robert Arthur? http://www.threeinvestigators.net/biblio3.html http://205.247.101.11/record=b38282306 Top hat? Check. Stairs? Check. Money tree? Check. Not seeing anything definite on the other two stories, but a couple of those titles are vague enough to fit.
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Apr 16, 2008 16:40
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Trying to remember the title of a book from childhood. The protagonist is a little girl, she might have been homeless but I don't remember her ever having to deal with any real problems of food and shelter. What I do remember is that what made her special. She had the ability to really listen to people and they would talk to her about their problems. She would never say anything, but just by listening the people felt pressured into saying more and more and eventually they would talk themselves through the problem. This is the downfall to the bad guy that moves into town and scams people with his smooth businessman manner. When he tries to talk to the little girl she just does her listening thing and the bad guy find himself talking to much and revealing details to his real plan. There's something to do with the bad guys smoking or the smoke that comes out of his cigars and how they turn people stiff like statues. (Maybe he gets them to sell off their time? I think...) At the end of the book, the little girl is the last one not statued and for some reason there's like a thousand copies of the bad guy chasing her. She manages to cut the bad guy off from his supply of cigars and so all his copies are fighting each other to get their cigars or busy trying to chase her down. When the cigars die out the bad guy/clone dies as well.
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Apr 18, 2008 22:03
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I read this one back in the high school library, but at the time it felt like an adult reading level sort of book and I've been trying to find it ever since... It was about a young wolf, something evil had happened to his pack, or an evil wolf pack had taken over it or something, but there was definitely evil, and he eventually teams up with a bear and a rabbit and maybe a something else to fight the evil. All took place in a wintery forest and played pretty straight, instead of anything like "Hehehehe we gots talking animalses." I remember it was pretty graphic, a lot of blood and fighting and death, and interspersed with some spiritualish terminology; the rabbit race was referred to as "swift ones" and stuff. Anyone have any idea?
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May 7, 2008 10:31
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I remember reading a book when I was in middle school (around the mid to late 90's). I think it was about an island ruled by kids and whoever the head kid was had a rope with rocks in it he would beat the other kids with. I really don't remember much else except the kid the story was about rising up finally to take over the island. edit: Anyone have any ideas/suggestions to check out? This has been bugging me for awhile and all my searches have come up with nothing. ExCruceLeo fucked around with this message at 16:03 on May 14, 2008 |
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May 8, 2008 19:43
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Wanderer posted:There was a cheap horror novel in my high school library that I remember distinctly as being extremely depressing. It was a zombie novel, where the end of the book involved all the zombies suddenly falling over dead, followed by a supervirus wiping out the remaining humans, and finally Zombie George HW Bush hitting the nuclear button and destroying everything. For my seventeen-year-old self, it was utterly bizarre to see a book that ended not merely that bleakly, but in such a "Okay, gently caress my characters" sort of way. The book you're thinking of is "Wet Work" by Philip Nutman.
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May 15, 2008 20:29
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I've got a series of books that I'm dying to reread, but multiple searches over the months haven't turned up anything. It's a SF series about human 'tribes' that are clad in very sophisticated suits that warn them with smells because the human mind reacts very fast on smells. Some of the suits are exoskeletons that are sun-powered, and the different tribes are named after games like the pieces of chess... There are also insect-like aliens who, the older they get, get more and more of their biological body replaced by robotic pieces. The more cyborg they are, the higher their age and standing among their kind. I think the human tribe discovers a spaceship, and they find other tribes of men on other planets. They also encounter another species that's very technologically advanced because they can control and direct cosmic strings by magnetic force. The human protagonist is even "thrown" into the middle of a planet that has been hollowed out by one of those cosmic strings (like an apple), and he keeps going through it again and again until he manages to divert his path. I even think, but this is highly speculative, that the insectoids and the advanced aliens are in some kind of war, and the humans become allies of the aliens... I'll try to think of more details ...
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May 15, 2008 21:02
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Axhind posted:I've got a series of books that I'm dying to reread, but multiple searches over the months haven't turned up anything. Pretty sure this is Greg Benford's 'Galactic Centre' series. Take a look at the reviews for 'Tides of Light'.
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May 16, 2008 13:35
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Unkempt posted:Pretty sure this is Greg Benford's 'Galactic Centre' series. Take a look at the reviews for 'Tides of Light'. Hmm, at first it looked like this is it, but on second thought I don't think it's the same series that I'm looking for. It has some similarities though... Thanks anyway!
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May 16, 2008 19:17
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I'm looking for a short story I read several years ago, it was about a future time when they had bases on the moon and a company gave tours, one tour accidentally get sucked into a sinkhole. I seem to remember really good descriptions of how fine the moon dust was. I want to re-read it cause I can't remember how it ended. Another I'm trying to find was a book of amazing facts for kids. I remember it had some neat illustrations, and had different categories of facts and was kinda like a Jr Guinness Book, three of the facts I specifically remember was one about Japanese spider crabs, one about a guy who could extend his neck, and one about natural sugar. We had this in the late 80's early 90's and it might have been older.
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May 17, 2008 05:02
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Elohssa Gib posted:I'm looking for a short story I read several years ago, it was about a future time when they had bases on the moon and a company gave tours, one tour accidentally get sucked into a sinkhole. I seem to remember really good descriptions of how fine the moon dust was. I want to re-read it cause I can't remember how it ended. vvvvvvv You shouldn't have too much trouble finding a copy - enjoy! vvvvvvv Runcible Cat fucked around with this message at 10:28 on May 17, 2008 |
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May 17, 2008 08:45
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LittleSunshine posted:Probably the late great Arthur C Clarke, A Fall of Moondust. Yes thank you, now to get a copy.
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May 17, 2008 08:48
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Ok there's a story from my literature textbook from about 5th grade or so. It would have been about 1988 or 89 in North Texas if that helps anything. The story: An astronaut, possibly from Earth, were either broken down or traveling through space. One astronaut had to pee, but they used the term "evacuating," and there was a lot of drama about him peeing in the spacecraft and how it would kill everybody inside. So, anyway, it has a huge buildup to them jettisoning him from the ship into space where he dies. I'm pretty sure it's a short story. That's all I remember.
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May 19, 2008 03:26
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Poopsichord posted:Ok there's a story from my literature textbook from about 5th grade or so. It would have been about 1988 or 89 in North Texas if that helps anything. Long shot: The Cold Equations?
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May 19, 2008 03:44
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I saw this at Borders about a year ago, and for some reason didn't make a note of the name. From what I remember of the back cover, far into the future two rival factions of humans had gathered. One group wanted to let the universe expand forever until heat death, and the other wanted to start some process that would collapse the universe back into a singularity, giving new life a chance to flourish at the expense of, well, everything. The story may have followed one man who was in the 'collapse the universe' group. Hopefully someone knows what I'm talking about because the concept really interests me!
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May 19, 2008 06:00
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fritz posted:Long shot: The Cold Equations? nah, Cold Equations has an astronaut on a medical supply run to a colony with exactly enough fuel to get him there safely, when the sister of one of the colonists is found to have stowed away. He's forced to airlock her as she makes the ship too heavy and they'd BOTH die, along with the essential supplies on the ship. There's no peeing involved
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May 21, 2008 01:06
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ExCruceLeo posted:I remember reading a book when I was in middle school (around the mid to late 90's). It was about an island ruled(?) by kids and whoever the head kid was had a rope with rocks in it he would beat the other kids with it while they were in a circle. I really don't remember much else except the kid the story was about rising up finally to take over the island. Anyone?
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May 21, 2008 15:10
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I am trying think of a book/short story which I read recently. It was about a woman, with her young son, who left her abusive husband in Philadelphia. They traveled to St. Paul, MN down the Mississippi river to someplace in Kansas where they set up a farm. The husband found them via the Pinkerton firm, and they fled to Alaska to look for gold via San Francisco and Seattle. The major thing I remember about the book/short story was that a few times a crow/raven would tell her 'no gold' which would give her a hint as to what to do next (leave without going to the bank, there is no gold to be found, etc.). If anyone could help me figure out the name of this book/short story that would be wonderful.
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May 23, 2008 03:56
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ExCruceLeo posted:Anyone? Probably Lord of the Flies.
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May 23, 2008 04:00
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Contrabassoon posted:now that I think of it there was one amusing objectivist book Anyone know what book he's talking about
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May 23, 2008 04:56
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Jungle Bus posted:Anyone know what book he's talking about The Golden Age trilogy by John C. Wright. It's not that he went insane and now routinely talks with the Virgin Mary, although he did seem to have a religio-mystical experience that prompted his conversion (see the comments to this blog post, in which he describes that experience). He is currently a Catholic. Anyway, going from Objectivist to Catholic sounds like an improvement in my book. I wonder how it will affect his work.
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May 23, 2008 07:04
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nemotrm posted:Probably Lord of the Flies. Sort of the same but in the book I remember there was no plane crash or anything. There was a group already on the island (maybe like a prison for kids?) and the main character got to the island somehow else.
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May 23, 2008 14:10
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sonofming posted:Mystery and more mystery by Robert Arthur? That's it. I love you.
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May 24, 2008 02:04
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nemotrm posted:I am trying think of a book/short story which I read recently. It was about a woman, with her young son, who left her abusive husband in Philadelphia. They traveled to St. Paul, MN down the Mississippi river to someplace in Kansas where they set up a farm. The husband found them via the Pinkerton firm, and they fled to Alaska to look for gold via San Francisco and Seattle. The major thing I remember about the book/short story was that a few times a crow/raven would tell her 'no gold' which would give her a hint as to what to do next (leave without going to the bank, there is no gold to be found, etc.). If anyone could help me figure out the name of this book/short story that would be wonderful. It turns out it was "The Guardian" by Joe Haldeman.
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May 25, 2008 01:51
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I read a book in the 80s I'd love to find again. It was sci-fi, about a Russian test pilot who gets radiation exposure and crash lands on a Scottish island I think, He turns into some kind of monster and starts raping and killing. The part that sticks in my mind is the author describing him as wearing a white space suit. The tragedy is it was probably such pulp only me ever read it!
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May 26, 2008 12:38
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monkeytennis posted:I read a book in the 80s I'd love to find again. It was sci-fi, about a Russian test pilot who gets radiation exposure and crash lands on a Scottish island I think, He turns into some kind of monster and starts raping and killing. The part that sticks in my mind is the author describing him as wearing a white space suit. Edit: monkeytennis posted:Aaand purchased off eBay for less than a fiver!  Rent the DVD as well; I recommend it! Runcible Cat fucked around with this message at 22:38 on May 27, 2008 |
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May 26, 2008 13:32
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Incredible! Many thanks, second hand books shops here I come! I think I read a reprint version with a 'Nightmare Man' cover. Aaand purchased off eBay for less than a fiver! monkeytennis fucked around with this message at 13:37 on May 27, 2008 |
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May 27, 2008 13:28
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Goldplate posted:Trying to remember the title of a book from childhood. Sounds like Momo by Michael Ende. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momo_%28novel%29
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May 27, 2008 13:54
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Please help! I read a book a while ago about a world like ours, with modern technology and the same political set-up and so on, where magic suddenly begins to work, and all kinds of mythical creatures show up and start causing havoc. It was definitely set in the UK, and was quite scary - I think at one point a character was being chased by one of the black dogs of legend. Giants, trolls, goblins etc all appeared and the police and army were unable to cope. Technology also suddenly became a lot less reliable. It was the first of a series (IIRC) and I'd like to read the rest, as it's an interesting concept, and was quite well-executed.
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May 27, 2008 19:10
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I'm sure there've been a bunch like this. The first one that pops into my mind is Faerie Tale, by Raymond E. Feist, but it wasn't part of a series so it's probably not what you're thinking of. I remember it mainly because it's one of the few things Feist wrote that aren't related to his more famous Riftwar books.
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May 27, 2008 21:33
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EvilMoJoJoJo posted:Please help! I read a book a while ago about a world like ours, with modern technology and the same political set-up and so on, where magic suddenly begins to work, and all kinds of mythical creatures show up and start causing havoc. It was definitely set in the UK, and was quite scary - I think at one point a character was being chased by one of the black dogs of legend. Giants, trolls, goblins etc all appeared and the police and army were unable to cope. Technology also suddenly became a lot less reliable.
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May 27, 2008 22:36
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LittleSunshine posted:Mark Chadbourn's Dark Age trilogy? http://www.markchadbourn.net/books.htm and scroll down a bit. It's not that one.  ... ...but it is the Age of Misrule trilogy instead, which can be found by scrolling down even further! Thank you, thank you, thank you, they're all on order from Amazon now, and I have books to fill my imminent post-Malazan void.
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May 28, 2008 18:51
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EvilMoJoJoJo posted:...but it is the Age of Misrule trilogy instead, which can be found by scrolling down even further! Thank you, thank you, thank you, they're all on order from Amazon now, and I have books to fill my imminent post-Malazan void.
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May 28, 2008 19:34
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I'm looking for a short story. It involved a plane full of people who get somehow stuck in a static point in time that's already passed and they have tp find a way out before the monsters that get rid of past time come and destroy everything. The name of the story is the name of the monsters. I'd like to read it again, but I don't remember the name, who its by, or what collection its part of. I feel like its well known, but I can't seem to place it and its bothering me.
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May 29, 2008 02:14
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SupremeBovine posted:I'm looking for a short story. It involved a plane full of people who get somehow stuck in a static point in time that's already passed and they have tp find a way out before the monsters that get rid of past time come and destroy everything. The name of the story is the name of the monsters. Sounds like Stephen King's Langoliers.
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May 29, 2008 02:21
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Hey guys and girls! (Posting http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2862050 here because I didn't see this thread before) I'll start of with a warning, this post is going beat the definition out of the word vague. I'm looking for a book I found in a library about 12-18 years ago. It was a large (I'm guessing 12" by 12") hard cover book that was a decent thickness. Almost like a coffee table book. Now the post goes down hill : The whole book was full of pictures. Full page pictures, with little text blurbs down the bottom describing what the picture was. The subject matter was in the future. Just pictures of large space ships and the like. I think large tanks and robots too, I can't remember 100% as it was so long ago. Now, all the text blurbs would talk about the space ship or robot or whatever in the past tense, just describing what it is and where it came from (designed during an old war or whatever). I could describe it like an encyclopedia, or catalogue, but it was in the realm of science fiction. I would say it was aimed at the teenage demographic, maybe even right up to early adult. I wouldn't call it a childrens book, but who knows. Recalling what the artwork looked like, it reminds me of some of the cover art on 60's, 70's & 80's Sci-Fi books like Asimov, Hogan and Dick. Kind of like this. The Librarian (same one since I was a kid) doesn't recall the book, and it is no longer on the shelf. I'm guessing the book was made in the 70's or 80's. Can anyone help me or have any directions to point me in to find it? Hours on Google, Amazon and science fiction websites have returned nothing, as it is hard to search for something so vague. It wasn't from a compilation of artists. I think it could have been just the one artist for the whole book, or maybe two, but it wasn't a collection of science fiction artwork by multiple artists. hambeet fucked around with this message at 08:51 on May 29, 2008 |
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May 29, 2008 08:46
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hambeet posted:Now, all the text blurbs would talk about the space ship or robot or whatever in the past tense, just describing what it is and where it came from (designed during an old war or whatever). I could describe it like an encyclopedia, or catalogue, but it was in the realm of science fiction. I would say it was aimed at the teenage demographic, maybe even right up to early adult. I wouldn't call it a childrens book, but who knows.
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May 29, 2008 10:10
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LittleSunshine posted:I know you say it wasn't by multiple artists, but it sounds very like one of the Stewart Cowley/Steven Caldwell compilations of the time - the Terran Trade Authority Handbooks or similar. Hmmm very close actually, even down to the art style, none of the names of those books ring a bell though, and the covers dont strike me either. I might go searching on Amazon to find different published covers or what not, and see if the library has any of the series. Were they the only type of people doing books like this that you know of? What time of genre would this be under as graphic books bring up arts students resources or some manga and marvel comic compilations. Thanks for you time and effort too, you really are a champion.
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May 29, 2008 12:06
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