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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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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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DoctorScurvy posted:
"Something Passed By" by Robert R. McCammon. An excellent short story, you can read it here http://www.robertmccammon.com/fiction/something.html.
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Jun 9, 2008 06:57
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tastysoup posted:This is a book that I read as a kid. It was a trilogy by John Christopher collectively called The Tripods The White Mountains The City of Gold and Lead The Pool of Fire all written in the late 60's, in '88 he wrote a prequel called When the Tripods Came. Very enjoyable series, almost a War of the Worlds Jr.
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Jun 18, 2008 18:47
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Two more. First book was a young adult book. Kid for some reason feels like an loner, either 'cause he just moved or just doesn't socialize much. Gets sent to summer camp makes friends with a boy and girl. There might've been something about treasure but I don't know for sure. Only specifics I remember is when they sang camp songs it actually had all the words to them, two songs I remember are "Oh My Darling Clementine" and one about keeping your elbows off the table. Second book was a young adult survival adventure. Kid goes on a mountain climbing/hiking trip and a storm comes up and he gets separated from everyone else and ends up going down the wrong side of the mountain. He finds a river and follows it down 'til he gets rescued or finds a town. Scenes I remember are one where he makes a fish hook out of a paperclip, goes swimming and stands up under an overhang too fast and concusses himself. Also if I remember correctly the search parties are looking in the wrong area because the guy in charge of the kids lied about seeing him with the rest of the group to cover his own rear end because the whole thing was his fault. Possibly had a part in the beginning where the main character gets a job doing yard work for this old guy to raise the money.
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Jun 24, 2008 22:36
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I have three stories that have been hovering around my subconscious for a while, First one was a story about a guy who ends up transformed into some dog like creature I think to as a curse and then he ends up with this lady and being a guard dog or something, I'm pretty sure it took place on a different planet. Second is a short fiction story about the history of the song "Waltzing Matilda" but every time I've tried to look it up I either just get the lyrics or the actual history of the song. and last was a sci-fi book about a lady who is an outcast for having something wrong with her face, I think she was missing her nose, and she finds a special prosthetic that couldn't be detected and had to decide if she wanted to stay an outcast or not. Sorry for the lack of details hopefully at one of you knows these.
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Sep 26, 2008 18:13
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Rocambole posted:First one might be Moon of Three Rings by Andre Norton - synopsis here. Not a clue about the others though. Yes thank you, recognized the second cover and synopsis thank you
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Sep 26, 2008 19:57
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ist posted:This one just randomly popped into my mind, and I've gotta figure out the title to it. Could it be "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E. L. Konigsburg? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_Mixed-Up_Files_of_Mrs._Basil_E._Frankweiler First thing I thought of. Elohssa Gib fucked around with this message at 06:53 on Sep 27, 2008 |
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Sep 27, 2008 06:50
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enuma elish posted:This one sounds like Expendable by James Alan Gardner, although the flaw in that story was a birthmark on the cheek. Sound familiar? Yes thank you, have no idea why I thought her nose was gone.
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Oct 4, 2008 09:49
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WE DOIN IT NOW posted:OK this has been bothering me for the last few days and no amount of googling or looking through my bookshelf seems to help. The first thing that popped into my head was Jack L. Chalker's Well World series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well_World
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Nov 7, 2008 21:55
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Jezebel posted:Okay, in my high school library was a scifi-ish YA short story collection that I read several times out of boredom. The stories were by different people, and it might have had a "great stories of 19xx" title or something. The cover just had the title in a really bright color (yellow?) on a blue (?) background? http://www.amazon.com/2041-Stories-Science-Fiction-Writers/dp/0440218985 Don't know about the copy you're thinking of but this is the version I have and the flying story is called "If I had the Wings of an Angel" by Joe Haldeman, and the other is "Ear" by Jane Yolen
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Dec 13, 2008 04:14
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Was browsing at Barnes and Noble a couple years ago and I found a book in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section but forgot to write down the title. This was 2 or 3 years ago and from what I can remember it was a trade size book. If I remember right, the plot was about this farmer guy who gets some sort of summons to a school of magic and I think he enters though a door he shouldn't have been able to. He seemed to have some sort of druid like magic but never seemed to acknowledge that he did. There was also some plot about political intrigue and possibly a street fair where some Punch and Judy kind of show puts some sort of spell on one of the female main characters. Also the guy might have been old, I think he was married and then his wife died or something.
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Feb 28, 2009 22:21
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Khisareth posted:I didn't finish reading it but was it Convergence, Book 1 of the Blending by Sharon Green? One of the main characters is a farmer who is called to become an Adept and there is political intrigue. No, I have all five of the Blending series, and it's sequel series the Blending Enthroned. This book is most likely only 4 or 5 years old and when I was reading through it the book was trade size, so I think it had just come out.
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Mar 6, 2009 20:59
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Dacap posted:I remember reading a kids sci-fi/adventure book series as a kid, the name of which escapes me. All I remember was that one of the books had a title that was a parody of "The Search for Spock". Sorry I can't remember anything else, I just remember I never finished it. Bruce Coville's Rod Albright Alien Adventures series, the parody title was the search for snout Wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliens_Ate_My_Homework
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May 24, 2009 06:55
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nightchild12 posted:I read this book in the 90s. I remember none of the plot or characters whatsoever. All I remember is that it was a fantasy-style book that in the end you learn is actually all sci-fi, maybe. There are magic (crystals? vials?) that contain (nanobots?) that give people powers when they use them, but a body can only handle like one or two kinds at once before getting overloaded and dying. I remember that at one point, one of the main characters is near a rack full of these (crystals/vials?), and he breaks them all and falls into the resulting mess, cutting himself up and getting all of this (nanobot?) crap in him but because there were so many of them they all balance out and he survives and gets super-immense magic powers. He may have done this on purpose. Could it be Janny Wurts' Cycle of Fire trilogy: Stormwarden http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stormwarden-Cycle-Fire-Janny-Wurts/dp/0586204830 Keeper of the Keys http://www.amazon.co.uk/Keeper-Keys-Book-Cycle-Fire/dp/0586204849/ref=pd_sim_b_1/278-6315132-8514960 Shadowfane http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadowfane-cycle-fire-Janny-Wurts/dp/0586204857/ref=pd_sim_b_1 You find out fairly early that the entire planet's population is the descendants of a spaceship that crashed due to engine failure, and all the demons are just aliens from the ship.
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Nov 6, 2009 10:23
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I had a book pop in my head the other day. I can't remember much about it except it was a sci-fi about this guy who is given the ability of extra dimensional travel. If I'm remembering correctly the guy uses the skill to cheat in Vegas, and also observes some 2 dimensional people. There were some drawings in the book of the 2d people. I think he accidentally kills one while trying to get it to be 3d, and there was something about needing to pee on people so they could access the extra dimensions. Any help that proves I'm not insane would help.
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Jan 12, 2010 06:25
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Unkempt posted:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceland_%28novel%29 ? That's the one, now I just have to figure out where the gently caress I read it the first time. Thank you.
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Jan 13, 2010 10:32
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Astroduck posted:I'm trying to remember a series of English Childrens books I read as a kid in the early 90's (93-94 thereabouts, though the books are older than that), about a magical street and the characters that lived there. Each book was about a different character, but the one i remember most was about a group of kids that found a sort of green hairy Kangaroo monster in their garden. Used to terrify me for some reason. That last part sounds like Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Children_and_It
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Apr 1, 2010 14:37
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I read a book about 8 or 9 years ago, two scientist get stuck on a planet made almost entirely of diamonds, I think they're stuck because the diamond dust in the atmosphere destroys the gears and valves. The planet is in the process of being destroyed either by the sun going nova or just getting pulled into it. The scientists have to find a way to escape or they die. In the end they find a way to use the diamonds to propel the whole planet back to earth. Elohssa Gib fucked around with this message at 22:02 on Sep 29, 2010 |
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Sep 29, 2010 21:59
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dimwitf posted:- An spaceship/time machine is sent back to prevent The Asteroid from wiping out dinosaurs. The people inside then hop forward many years at a time, watching the dinos develop culture and tech, and hit a "go home" button before they might be detected by telescopes on the ground. Mission's a success, big party to celebrate all they've learned - and it's interrupted by "aliens". They explain that they're actually the descendants of the dinosaurs, and with their 65-million-year head start on us, they'd developed time travel long ago. At one point, they decided to sent a spaceship/time machine back to see what would happen if An Asteroid wiped out their ancestors... Dinosaur Nexus?
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Oct 27, 2010 07:18
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Keep having this book pop in my head when I'm at work It's a slice of life book that takes place in the late 1800s early 1900s about a farm family, the main character is a girl and each chapter may be a separate story of her life, I specifically remember 3 specific stories, in one she is mad at her brother for some reason and stuffs his pillow with ragweed and then feels bad when he has a severe allergic reaction. Second one she finds a doll in a ditch and when they set it on the stove to dry while there eating it starts making noise and moving, turns out it was full of corn which starts popping, and the last I can remember is they buy a trunk or crate from some gypsies without knowing what was in it. I think it turned out to be full of bent nails or other scrap metal and I learned the term pig in a poke from the story.
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Dec 1, 2011 14:39
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EvilMoJoJoJo posted:'Fraid I can't help you, but your description made me think of a series I read and quite enjoyed. The story follows a slave who is the only one who can help the ruling family's scion with his demon-haunted dreams. The slave is a demon killer in his dreams, which is how you fight demons in this world. Carol Berg's The Rai-Kirah series Transformation (ISBN 0-451-45795-1) (2000) Revelation (ISBN 0-451-45842-7) (2001) Restoration (ISBN 0-451-45890-7) (2002)
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Dec 27, 2011 19:07
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Had a book pop in my head at work today Sci-fi/Fantasy Future where mankind has developed interstellar travel, family moves to this planet where the whole city is inside a giant robot plant thing, I think. Also the kid in the family goes to school and uses a toy duck to make a translator for the robot/nanobots I remember specifically that they use it on a door and the door says it hurts and later they see the door getting repaired. and then it gets taken away and rebooted. I think there was a robotic uprising shortly after that and everyone realized they were too reliant on the robot and didn't treat them well. Also I think space travel was don by folding space and was explained in the book using a handkerchief as an analogy for space. Any ideas or am I just insane?
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Dec 31, 2011 02:18
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Elohssa Gib posted:Had a book pop in my head at work today Still wondering about this, only thing I can think to expand on this is the handkerchief metaphor, basically they explain that to travel it's like two points on opposite corners of a hankie where if you had to fly it straight would take way too long and take way too much fuel so some how they are able to fold space so that the points are touching and then they travel just that short distance and then unfold space again and they're at the destination. I really need to find this book again so I can stop wondering about it when I'm trying to work.
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May 9, 2012 09:27
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navyjack posted:They have used it in half a dozen stories about folding space. Most recent example I can think of is actually a fantasy version. Rand and Egwene use it as a description of Traveling in the Wheel of Time series. I was afraid of that, the only other real specific thing I can remember is that the kid in the book goes to a day care or preschool makes a friend and they get this robot duck dictionary thing, I think it's supposed to be educational but they somehow are able to make it translate what the nanobots are saying and get it taken away when they tell someone about a damaged door that was saying it hurt, they may also have used it as a skeleton key to get out of the daycare/school.
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May 10, 2012 20:42
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BlueFlowerRedSky posted:Elohssa Gib, I've been searching for your book too, since I love children's (assuming it's a children's book?) sci-fi and fantasy with weird settings. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything It wasn't a kids book, unfortunately my copy had no front cover as I got it in the early 90s from the stack of unsold paperbacks to be returned in the back room of a college bookstore when I was around 8 or 9. I think I remember it was kind of a dark story near the end with the doors being controlled by nanobots so when they revolted people were trapped in there rooms and couldn't leave.
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May 11, 2012 18:42
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Do you remember any details of the cover, perhaps?
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Gonna try this again maybe someone will recognize it. Read a book ages ago, around the early 90s. Family moves to new planet because the dad was either an ambassador or got a new job the. City where they live has robot servants and nanotechnology. There ends up being an uprising and all the robots quit and the nanotechnology doors stop working. Family ends up negotiating truce between humans and robots. Only really specific things I remember are a scene when they are entering the city the elevator the are on is described as being like a cell in a tree/plant, and another scene the young child of the family is in a daycare and is given a translator/learning toy that I think was in the shape of a duck, that he somehow with his friend use to open the nanodoors and specifically when they point it at one door the door says its side hurts. After they get caught outside the daycare they tell the nanny/teacher robot what the door said. The duck gets taken away and when it's returned it is basically at a factory reset and they can't get it to translate for the doors any more but they do see the door that said it was sore getting repaired. Any help at all in finding this book would be fantastic as I've been looking for a long time now.
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Aug 28, 2013 06:51
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