The identify that story/book thread: Home of the gas pump boy

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The identify that story/book thread: Home of the gas pump boy

«‹›9 »

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

You could have a look at https://gamebooks.org/ and see if anything rings a bell?

Absurd Alhazred posted:

Maybe the Sorcery! system wasn't as crunchy as the rest of Fighting Fantasy?

It was the standard Fighting Fantasy system with added spells (3-letter codes to remember or look up).

Runcible Cat fucked around with this message at 12:32 on Aug 14, 2021

# ¿ Aug 14, 2021 12:30

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 14, 2024 08:31

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

q!=e

# ¿ Aug 14, 2021 12:31

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Short story, Silver Age I think, Sturgeon or Kuttner or someone from that era.

Little boy on a farm bragging to a little girl called Precious that he can wish for things and they come true, but the wish wears off in a few hours. He proves it by turning a pig into a giant piggy bank and dropping a coin in. Then he turns himself into a giant insect to frighten her and she stamps on him.

The last line is about the shock Precious' mother's going to get when she sees what stuck to Precious' shoe in the morning.

# ¿ Aug 21, 2021 19:41

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

wheatpuppy posted:

Talent, by Sturgeon

Weird, I went through my Sturgeons before posting and couldn't find it. Thank you!

# ¿ Aug 22, 2021 07:54

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Arsenic Lupin posted:

In my experience, little kids adore ghoulish books. I grew up on, and could recite from memory, Matilda, who told lies and was burned to death.. Hilaire Belloc was the late 19th-century Edward Gorey.

Harry Graham was another one: Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes

Billy, in one of his nice new sashes,
Fell in the fire and was burnt to ashes;
Now, although the room grows chilly,
I haven't the heart to poke poor Billy.

Father heard his Children scream,
So he threw them in the stream,
Saying, as he drowned the third,
"Children should be seen, not heard!"

# ¿ Sep 10, 2021 13:58

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Arsenic Lupin posted:

Card has a big loving Thing about abused children, doesn't he?

Yeah, I read that answer and "oh of course it's loving Card that explains it".

# ¿ Sep 13, 2021 07:14

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Dinho Eledair posted:

Does anyone know a fantasy novel where the main character is a regular human with some magic abilities in a society where regular humans are treated as second class and the 'real' humans are like taller, stronger, (more magical?) versions of humans.

I think the first novel had the main lead solve a criminal conspiracy for a friend who happens to be a high ranking member of the ruling class type folks. I believe the main lead gets a lot of jobs due to his ability to use special magic or something like that. The setting for the regular humans is definitely like regular medieval fantasy i.e. not too advanced techonology (I think) and although there's magic it's not everywhere (again from what I recall). Different for the ruling humans/people - I think there's a lot more tech/magic there ?

I think he maybe takes over a criminal organisation or tears it down in the progress of the first story too? Can't really recall.

I also think I got the feeling it may have been a type of story where humanity is in a far future where a portion were engineered to be stronger versions but then that history got lost and just began treating regular humans as a separate sub-species or something of that ilk. Not sure if that was explicitly in the novel, or just the feeling I got - it's been a while since I read it!

Any help remembering the title/series would be great!

Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series?

# ¿ Oct 8, 2021 08:21

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Rupert Buttermilk posted:

Could also be Ghostbusters, if the girl is Gozer and the lockjaw is the streams crossing.

Yes, but if the girl is actually the One Ring and the lockjaw is the Crack of Doom...

# ¿ Nov 13, 2021 21:32

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Copernic posted:

I've asked before but no harm trying again.

This is a sci-fi book I read in the late 90s. The main character was exiled from some imperial-ish polity to a libertarian-anarchist planet with a bunch of nuclear-armed enclaves. The main identifying element I recall is that interstellar travel is via wormhole, but anyone taking the terminal end of the wormhole the other way would go back in time. At the end it turns out that the protagonist's older/alternate self traveled back in time to save the life of the love interest.

Doesn't quite fit, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallen_Dragon?

# ¿ Dec 5, 2021 00:19

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

GrayGriffin posted:

I read this short online story once that was written in the format of a report/article, that slowly turned out to be about the aftermath of a self-driving car running over a little girl instead of hitting an endangered bird. I remember it being a fairly quick read, don't remember if it was part of an online magazine or a personal page or what though.

STET by Sarah Gailey

# ¿ Jan 29, 2022 09:56

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Splicer posted:

Hmm.

Disagree.

AI posting detected!

# ¿ Feb 28, 2022 19:34

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

ScienceSeagull posted:

Short story involving a company that creates genetically modified mini-dinosaurs as a sort of designer pet/living toy. They're semi-sapient, and can talk. The story mainly focuses on a shelter for abandoned and neglected mini-dinosaurs. I think there's a bit where the dinosaurs sing a Barney-esque song that they're all genetically programmed to know.

The Measure of All Things, by Richard Chwedyk

# ¿ Mar 30, 2022 19:09

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Isolationist posted:

Not part of a larger established universe - the story took place entirely within the singleship/in conversation with the alien. The background of the universe had humans basically being stuck in an inimical, unpopulated universe - unable to explore due to the psychological block.

I vaguely remember this but not enough to trace it yet. It's not All The Way Back by Michael Shaara, which has humans finding empty/scorched planets all around, and eventually a group of astronauts meet up with an alien who explains that yeah all the alien races had to gang up and wipe out this incredibly nasty and savage species on all the planets they'd taken over but oopsie looks like they missed a spot astronauts die but oopsie 2 the aliens forgot to check that they could track them back and now have to worry about when the rest of the human race will show up.

It's not that though, since I remember reading the psychological rubberband one and being reminded of it...

# ¿ Apr 30, 2022 14:37

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Retroblique posted:

Large, hardcover, coffee-table style book of science-fiction illustrations (Chris Foss style stuff), published some time in the early/mid-1980s. Bought this in the UK but I imagine it was just as available elsewhere.

The one thing that made this unique was that the editor wove a novella sized story between all the (otherwise unconnected) illustrations, which told the story of a colony ship leaving Earth, arriving at a new planet, and then getting involved in some conflict.

Apparently there was some sort of sequel or companion book, another illustration anthology that tried to tie all the illustrations together with a story.

One of this series? https://www.goodreads.com/series/76965-galactic-encounters-series

Or this one? https://www.goodreads.com/series/64380-terran-trade-authority

# ¿ May 31, 2022 18:20

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

I think that's the Varjak Paw series.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2022 12:47

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

That story's The Horror of the Heights by Arthur Conan Doyle.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2022 01:10

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Agh, what's the title of the kind of recent post-apocalypse book where the narrator turns out to be his best buddy's imaginary friend? Stupid title, was a big thing a couple of years ago. I kept thinking it was The Half-Made World but it's not.

# ¿ Jul 20, 2022 13:21

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Action Jacktion posted:

The Gone-Away World.

I was so close! Thank you.

# ¿ Jul 22, 2022 20:51

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

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.

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?

Zero Point by Neal Asher?

# ¿ Jul 22, 2022 20:55

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

navyjack posted:

Random, but I�m thinking of a story. Fantasy or Urban Fantasy where there is a basilisk or cockatrice or Medusa thingy that turns people to stone, but just their skin and the resulting heat cooks the meat inside which is what the critter eats. Maybe Laundry Files or the Seanan McGuire Crypid books but I�m not sure and don�t want to do a re-read if I don�t haveta

Probably the Laundry Files one where a load of CCTVs get weaponised into having basilisk gaze.

# ¿ Sep 14, 2022 07:34

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

woke kaczynski posted:

Short story that I would've read in some fantasy or sci-fi anthology, I would've read it in I think the past 5 years but no idea when it was published. Basically about a society that's found an equilibrium point in some sort of medieval-ish era level of technology and social structure, and people who question things too much are I think killed off so nobody gets to the point of building nukes and things again

Did it involve a kid re-inventing the wheel and his grandad taking the blame so he was the one burned to death for it? That's John Wyndham's The Wheel.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2022 12:21

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Rebecca's World by Terry Nation. She has to follow a map with clues to find the last GHOST tree. The couple are the National Society for the Furtherance of Bad Habits, in between the Tongue Twister Monster and the Swardlewardle creatures who breathe out laughing gas.

Ed: look familiar?

Ed2: ah, found the white whale thread and you already said no because you didn't remember any lying. Does this change that?

Runcible Cat fucked around with this message at 10:56 on Nov 10, 2022

# ¿ Nov 10, 2022 07:25

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Mr Darcy posted:

That. That does change things a bit.

Thank you.

Cheers!

# ¿ Nov 10, 2022 20:39

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Sri.Theo posted:

Wow that�s a blast from the past. I used to love that book but have never really heard anyone discuss it.

I think it's one of those that sticks in the memory if you read it as a kid, but it was only ever printed in the 70s with one reprint in the 90s, so it never really got a lot of traction.

Pity, it's good silly fun. Kind of surprised a kids' book about reversing the ecological destruction caused by a greedy billionaire with a strong stake in keeping it destroyed so he can keep on profiting from the unexpected side-effect hasn't had a reprint this century, all things considered...

# ¿ Nov 12, 2022 20:00

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Sounds like the Kensho series: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?6579

Runcible Cat fucked around with this message at 10:48 on Nov 16, 2022

# ¿ Nov 16, 2022 10:44

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

John Lee posted:

I got a request from my cousin:

This also sounds vaguely familiar to me, but I can't place it. Any ideas?

The War Between the Pitiful Teachers and the Splendid Kids?

# ¿ Mar 4, 2023 14:41

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Hughlander posted:

I think I'd remember if it was.... I'm thinking like 70s new wave, James Tiptree Jr or something. It's really driving me crazy, it was the first story of the anthology I was reading and I read it like 13 years ago but I have no idea what it was.

Ian Watson, maybe? Sounds like his kind of thing, but I can't remember any of his that quite fit that...

# ¿ Mar 14, 2023 20:24

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

silvergoose posted:

Now that I read the question, it's gotta be that. Not all magic is done with dragons blood, but some of the big stuff is.

Lives of Christopher Chant is the other main one that feels similar, Witch Week and Magicians of Caprona are also in the set.

Lives has bad guy using Christopher as an interdimensional mule for dragon livers and chunks of mermaid and whatnot, too.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2023 14:53

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

oldpainless posted:

Short story where the neighbors on a street are driven to paranoia of each other by a man just doing little things/starting rumors. I feel like it�s a matheson story but didn�t find it.

Sounds like Matheson's The Distributor: https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?72804

quote:

Pale morning mist engulfed Sylmar Street. Theodore moved through it silently. Under the back porch of the Jeffersons� house he set fire to a box of damp papers. As it began to smolder he walked across the yard and, with a single knife stroke, slashed apart the rubber pool. He heard it pulsing water on the grass as he left. In the alley he dropped a book of matches that read Putnam�s Wines and Liquors.

A little after six that morning he woke to the howl of sirens and felt the small house tremble at the heavy trucks passing by. Turning on his side, he yawned, and mumbled, �Goody.�

Runcible Cat fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Mar 25, 2023

# ¿ Mar 25, 2023 15:14

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

MrGreenShirt posted:

Science fiction book (I found at a dollar store maybe 20 years ago) centered on a perfectly normal woman who is in contact with psychic jellyfish who live in a tidal cave on an alien world.

Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time?

# ¿ Mar 30, 2023 18:29

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Owl at Home posted:

Ok, I have one I need help finding.

A juvenile/young adult fantasy story, pretty certain it was a standalone book and not part of a larger series. Very similar in tone to some of the postmodern meta-fairytale retellings that were everywhere in the 90s-early 2000s. (Like somewhat along the lines of Ella Enchanted, Dealing with Dragons/Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Once Upon a Marigold, etc.)

The premise is that all book or story characters are really �alive,� and when their stories are being read characters are acting out the story as if they are in a play. When their book is closed they live their lives as normal, but when it�s open they have to be �on-script� and recite their dialogue, perform key actions, etc. The protagonist is a stock fairytale princess, I think she�s meant to be the main character of the story-within-the-story but I don�t remember for sure. Her character arc focused a lot on her frustration about the inherently limited scope of her reality and existence. One scene I remember is that she skips or messes up her lines and the reader character becomes confused, other book characters have to improvise to cover for her mistake and they get mad at her later.

The strongest visual I remember is that the storybook characters perceive their readers as huge figures looking down on them from the sky or through the roof, with the sets and characters of the story being described like a diorama viewed from above.

Eventually the reader character becomes fully aware of the living book people and has various direct conversations with them, especially the princess.

That�s all I got, I wish I remembered more of the story beats or how the plot was resolved. I must have read it sometime in the early 2000s, based on what I remember the tone of the prose was very typical 90�s juv lit but it could have been from earlier, maybe 1980s. Anybody recognize this one?

The Great Good Thing by Roderick Townley?

# ¿ Jul 17, 2023 19:17

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Qwertycoatl posted:

Ah found it, it was Elidor by Alan Garner (or maybe I was conflating two unrelated books, maybe the stone circle stuff was something else)

Nah, there's an evil stone circle in Elidor too.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2023 22:39

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Sanford posted:

Right then, British kids book I read in the 80s but could have been much older. I think it was called �the something/someone of somewhere� but I realise that doesn�t narrow it down by much.

Two very very English children, a boy and a girl, are on holiday (maybe evacuees?) in the countryside. The girl has a necklace and a variety of bad bastards want it - I think an evil sorceress and an old guy who used to be a hero, maybe more. I think it might have had dwarves and elves and so on but that�s so generic I may be wrong. I remember a lot of tricksy business and general confusion over who the good/bad guys are. I also think it might have had a radio dramatisation because I can remember a really scary bit about being chased by spectral hounds or similar, and either I heard it somewhere or I�m much better at imagining stuff than I thought. No idea what happened at the end or at all, really.

Maybe The Weirdstone of Brisingamen? It's a bracelet in that though.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2023 17:06

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Sanford posted:

It was this though! The cover of the 1983 version unlocked the hidden memory cutscene and allowed me to level up. Published in 1957. it�s free on kindle so I�ll have a listen and see how weird it is. There were radio versions in 1963 and 1989 and it�s probably more likely I heard a recording of the 1963 version in about 1985. Thank you very much!

It's good stuff, so's the sequel.

It gets fabulously weird in the 3rd book he finally got around to writing 50 years later after spending most of those decades despising the first 2 books and writing... well, rural psychogeography? Folk not-horror? instead. Garner's pretty hard to classify except as writing Alan Garner books.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2023 22:21

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 14, 2024 08:31

Runcible Cat: May 28, 2007; Ignoring this post

Not female or American, but Robert Tressell's The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists?

# ¿ Oct 31, 2023 23:32

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The identify that story/book thread: Home of the gas pump boy

«‹›9 »