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

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Bob Ojeda: Apr 15, 2008; I AM A WHINY LITTLE EMOTIONAL BITCH BABY WITH NO SENSE OF HUMOR

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marrone posted:

When I was in middle school, I read this novel about a boy that goes hiking with his father, gets lost in the desert, and somehow gets transported so far into a post-apocalyptic future that the people have started adapting and have these padded soles on their feet.

He realizes he's in the future when he finds a piece of a broken coke bottle in the ground. And there's some kind of king, but he's a prisoner from the kid's time that got sent to the future too.

Any thoughts?

Pretty sure this is The Transall Saga by Gary Paulsen - does that sound right?

Mark it Zero posted:

I read this series when I was about 10 or 11 (95ish) and I remember them scaring the crap out of me, but little else. The series protagonist is a fat kid with glasses who ends up living with his grandparents after his mom and dad die. The kid was catholic, I think he may have even been an altar boy. the books centered around him solving these mysteries around his town, but I remember there being lots of ghosts and riddles behind statues and whatnot. the series takes place in the 50's. the cover art reminded me alot of the Edward Gorey Mystery intro on PBS.

So . . . Fat catholic kid with glasses facing off against ghostly happenings, anyone?

I distinctly remember some very similar books in my school library growing up. I think there were several related series; I recall the one you mentioned, and also one where the kid is close friends with the local librarian - perhaps they travel to an alternate dimension with some sort of people who are plotting to take over earth.

Edit: Got lucky with some Googling - pretty sure the person I was thinking of was John Bellairs. Is that who you were thinking of?

Bob Ojeda fucked around with this message at 07:28 on Jun 9, 2008

# ¿ Jun 9, 2008 07:26

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 14:26

Bob Ojeda: Apr 15, 2008; I AM A WHINY LITTLE EMOTIONAL BITCH BABY WITH NO SENSE OF HUMOR

IF YOU SEE ME POSTING REMIND ME TO SHUT THE FUCK UP

Elohssa Gib posted:

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.

This one sounds like Expendable by James Alan Gardner, although the flaw in that story was a birthmark on the cheek. Sound familiar?

# ¿ Oct 1, 2008 07:01

Bob Ojeda: Apr 15, 2008; I AM A WHINY LITTLE EMOTIONAL BITCH BABY WITH NO SENSE OF HUMOR

IF YOU SEE ME POSTING REMIND ME TO SHUT THE FUCK UP

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.

I have this weird memory of a book,well it may have been a dream but I don't think I'm that creative, in which there is a story of a guy ending up in a kind of purgatory. In this purgatory are people of various eras sitting in a HUGE dark room. All the people have different clothes on from different eras and looks like they could have been there for hundreds of years while some could only have been there for a short amount of time. Anyways, there's a well in the middle of the room with a bunch of people huddled around it. The main guy goes to look into the well and sees people floating, drowning, and sinking underneath the dark water. Just as he gets done looking into it one of the guys huddled around the well decides to jump in. Just as the guy hits the water there is this bright light that appears and the man disappears through it. The main character finally realizes where he is and what is happening.

This reminds me a lot of Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld, but not enough for me to really think so. Still, worth a shot.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2008 11:06

Bob Ojeda: Apr 15, 2008; I AM A WHINY LITTLE EMOTIONAL BITCH BABY WITH NO SENSE OF HUMOR

IF YOU SEE ME POSTING REMIND ME TO SHUT THE FUCK UP

Short story I'm trying to remember. Only things that I can recall is that it was about two lesbians in a relationship, one of whom was completely non-musical - unable to comprehend music - and the other one of who was a concert musician of some sort. I read it several years ago, but I think it's fairly contemporary - published within the last twenty or so years. That's all I got. Hope someone recognizes it.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2010 20:52

Bob Ojeda: Apr 15, 2008; I AM A WHINY LITTLE EMOTIONAL BITCH BABY WITH NO SENSE OF HUMOR

IF YOU SEE ME POSTING REMIND ME TO SHUT THE FUCK UP

Neurosis posted:

I remember reading about a book series and author on the Gene Wolfe mailing list which sounded vaguely similar to Wolfe's New Sun series, at least, in setting. It involved an incredibly distant-future world, possibly under a dying sun, which was decrepit and vast, built on the dust of previous civilisations. It also included a techno-dwarf and other such absurdities, leading to a very depressing end. I remember reading a brief wiki about it.

I'm wondering if anyone remembers this, or knows vaguely what I'm talking about? I know, it's a very general description, but I remember reading the first few pages and finding it okay (on a website somewhere), and people on the Wolfe list mentioning it in high regard, which generally indicates that it has a reasonable level of literary quality (yeah, yeah, I know, they're writing to a sci-fi mailing list, but a lot of erudite discussion goes on there).

And no, I do not mean the Dying Earth.

Could conceivably be M John Harrison's Viriconium cycle.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2010 05:25

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