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First thing that comes to mind is Harry Harrison's Make Room, Make Room!. IIRC, it's the novel that Soylent Green was based on.
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Dec 7, 2007 14:26
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LittleSunshine posted:This happens to David, the hero of John Wyndham's The Chrysalids - his society has a religious horror of mutants and his dad gives him the full "YOU HAVE OFFENDED GOD BY WISHING YOURSELF A MUTANT!" treatment. It's a novel though, but I suppose you could have read an excerpt.... Mister Kingdom posted:I don't think that's it. I'm sure the story was new at the time I read it. Thanks, though. From your initial description, I'm positive LittleSunshine is right. That scene is right out of the start of The Chrysalids. Here's a quote: I said I was sorry, and added: "I could have managed it all right by myself if I'd had another hand." My voice must have carried, for silence fell on the whole room like a clap. My mother froze. ... "You - my own son - were calling upon the Devil to give you another hand!" he accused me. "But I wasn't. I only - " "You blasphemed, boy. You found fault with the Norm."
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Jun 9, 2008 03:13
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Tmavomodry posted:Over twenty years ago when I was about ten I remember reading what seemed to me at the time a really awesome science fiction book. It was a collection of short stories that told the story of the empire of mankind from it's rise to it's utter destruction. The little me was really impressed with the idea of human kind going from nothing to being (quite evil) galactic overlords and on to extinction. Anyway I obviously don't remember the name or the book or the author, but I do remember a few things about some of the stories including: That general theme seems to follow Mike Resnick's book Birthright: The Book of Man. The details don't quite fit, though, so I'm probably wrong.
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Jul 26, 2008 04:03
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nemotrm posted:I think it was written by Arthur C. Clarke, Joe Haldeman, Robert Sawyer or Neal Stephenson. The only thing I really remember is that at the end of the book an international law is put into place where no country can have more nukes than any other, so every time France disposes of a nuke Russia and the US have to as well. This is from a short story by Joe Haldeman, To Howard Hughes: A Modest Proposal.
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Oct 7, 2008 06:21
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nuvan posted:6. aliens invade earth. we start a guerilla war against them. they run their standardized intelligence test on us (which they weren't supposed to do) and find out we're smarter than they are, they just had/have better tech. Do you remember what the aliens were like? The plot sounds pretty close to Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, where the aliens look like small elephants. I also recall a similar theme where the aliens are lion-like (leonine?) but can't think of the title or author at the moment.
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Nov 6, 2008 01:05
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Brenton posted:A book involving a young boy (high school, I think) in some kind of alternate, somewhat futuristic reality, where the school's end-of-year project involved all students be transported to the middle of nowhere and to fend for themselves. Sounds like Heinlein's Tunnel In The Sky http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/robert-heinlein/tunnel-in-sky.htm
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Dec 10, 2008 03:21
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That70sHeidi posted:Book 2: About large cats who walk through walls. Technically it's about something else, but I remember the girl involved lives in this super technologically-advanced world and would go to school for something like 8 days and then have 3 days off, and her mother would let her ride the hovertrain or some such to visit friends, which happened to be this giant cat couple who were professors or something. They had the ability to merge with solid mass then pass through it, slowly. They taught the girl how to do it too, and describes in detail how it felt. I remember being captivated at the thought and actually trying it too. Could this be the Starcats series by Phyllis Gotlieb? http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/phyllis-gotlieb/ Or maybe James Schmitz' Telzey stories, which also included giant cats: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/s/james-schmitz/
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Nov 6, 2009 21:21
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The Erland posted:I'm trying to find a short story about a man who pretends to be really poor so that he can beg for money. I think there's a rather long sequence about him changing his clothes to look like a beggar, but I'm not sure. Also, I think he has to bribe a policeman or something who knows about his tricks? There's a Sherlock Holmes story that fits this description, The Man With The Twisted Lip. Found it online here: http://www.mysterynet.com/holmes/06twistedlip/
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Nov 26, 2009 01:01
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Beach Bum posted:A child is asking his father questions about things like "why is the sky blue" and whatnot, but the father doesn't know and is frustrated when he tries to think, by things like this buzzing noise in his ears. The father was worried about his child because of some sort of intelligence test that the government runs, and worries about if his kid was going to "pass" or not. Just a guess, this sounds like it could be Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron
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Jan 31, 2010 22:07
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kapalama posted:I just read Neuromancer for the first time, and it reminded me of a somewhat similar book that I can remember only some stuff about : Sounds like it could be When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger.
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Jun 29, 2010 05:55
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well dressed hobo posted:
Not an exact match, but there's a Ray Bradbury short story called Mars is Heaven! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_is_Heaven!
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Aug 4, 2010 02:16
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dms666 posted:Okay, I've got a pretty tough one. I saw this book on Amazon ages ago but never got around to ordering it...now I'm interested again. If I remember, it was a fairly modern book (or series of books) about a traveling American folk hero who may or may not have also been a musician. I think he was sort of a Johnny Appleseed/Davy Crockett character who encountered all sorts of legendary and outrageous characters throughout the book. First thing that came to mind was the "Alvin Maker" series by Orson Scott Card. Seventh Son is the first book, I think there were six in the series.
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Apr 7, 2011 06:59
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marshmallard posted:2. Book for small children, read in around 1991 Not sure if this was suggested, but could it be The Black Pearl, by Scott O'Dell? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Pearl_(Scott_O'Dell)
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Aug 8, 2011 04:08
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Sanford posted:Another one, based on some memories stirred up by earlier discussion in the thread. It was a short story, post apocalypse world. A guy comes out of the wilderness to a deserted city, and exerts a huge amount of effort to get a battery into a power node that turns on all the lights, sets the walkways moving and so on. It's the closest he can get to what it was like when he wasn't alone. After a very short amount of time, the power runs out and everything shuts down again, and he leaves. He was sad because he realised he wouldn't be able to do it many more times, because the batteries were running out or he was getting too old to move them or something. That's it. I just told my fiancée about it she says it sounds like the saddest thing, so now I need to find it and read it to her. It's by Roger Zelazny, called Lucifer. In the collection The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth and other stories. Has to be the worst book title ever.
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Mar 25, 2012 00:58
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Captain Equinox posted:It's by Roger Zelazny, called Lucifer. In the collection The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth and other stories. Has to be the worst book title ever. Google found this online version: http://www.kulichki.com/moshkow/ZELQZNY/Lucifer.txt Goddammit, edit and quote are two different buttons!
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Mar 25, 2012 01:00
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Hedrigall posted:the guy ends up being killed by some giant parasite that was feeding from the dinosaur Hope somebody gets this one, because it's gonna bug me too, now. I remember the ending creeping me out, with its description of the crab-like parasite cheerfully snipping the fingers off the guy. 
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Jul 21, 2012 21:41
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Wolfechu posted:...a story or book based on the Arthurian legends, but in the future. She remembers Arthur had some kind of robot sidekick/friend, and time travel may possibly have been involved. Closest match I can think of is The Warlock in Spite of Himself by Christopher Stasheff. Not Arthurian legends, but set in a middle-age society, protagonist has a robot horse sidekick and time travel is part of the plot. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/s/christopher-stasheff/warlock-in-spite-of-himself.htm
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Dec 16, 2012 21:30
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Demon of the East posted:I remember seeing a fantasy collection of short stories that all existed/took place in the same fictional city/world written collaboratively, I think, by many different authors. The title contained the word "Cat" somehow (It's not Catfantastic)and is was not from the 90s or 00s, based on the make of the book. That is all I can remember and this is driving me crazy. Could it be the Liavek series?
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Mar 29, 2013 18:13
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Project1 posted:The other involves a comet coming to Earth, containing Prometheus and some sort of demon, who are actually aliens. The demon was not actually evil, just animalistic, like Pan. Then he leaves to settle another planet and stops the humans there from developing beyond neolithic levels. Then time changes or something, and these other humans invade Earth. Then the heroes have to change time again and prevent it. Or something. I remember it being a confused mess, like a lot of old pulp Sci-Fi. Argh, I've read this book too but can't recall the author or title. A couple of additional details; there was a female character who could somehow manipulate time - she ended up 'marrying' the demonic alien, who was a more sympathetic character than the Prometheus alien, who was pretty much an rear end in a top hat. I think the cover showed the demonic alien (with bat wings) flying with the woman in his arms. Another scene I recall is just after the wedding, the woman and demonic alien are supposed to have sex in the fields, in front of the whole crowd, in order to symbolically fertilize the crops. Because she doesn't want to do this in front of everyone, she convinces the demonic alien to have sex while flying above the crops, so no one can watch them. Yeah, it was a weird book. Captain Equinox fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Aug 7, 2013 |
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Aug 7, 2013 21:13
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Thanks, that was bugging me.
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Aug 10, 2013 19:07
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Good God. THAT won a Nebula?
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Sep 30, 2013 05:26
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Eyeneedle posted:The first one had a scientist who invents a virus(drug?) that amplifies the human sense of smell. The entire world gets infected. This sudden amplified sense of smell leads to the humans becoming aware of a new sentient species living on earth. This species has been living on earth all along and had been peacefully coexisting with the humans as long as they went undetected. But as soon as they realize that their existence has been discovered they turn hostile and attack the humans. There is an all out war between the two. The story was not about the war itself, but surviving the aftermath. There was also an expanded, novel-length version of this story called Telempath. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/r/spider-robinson/telempath.htm
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Oct 19, 2013 00:28
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Hughlander posted:Hmm that reminds me of one I wouldn't mind rereading it's a post apocalyptic society where the apocalypse was a retrovirus that increased everyone's sense of smell by 1000X to the point that you almost instantly went mad just from being in a city and few people could stand to be around anyone who wasn't directly related to them. Anyone recall that one? I think it was by a 'Great' of Sci-Fi maybe Zelazny? Are you 100% sure it's a different story? In the novel, the alien species isn't really alien - they're an Earth species that was undetectable until the virus allowed people to identify them by scent. And the focus of the story isn't the 'war', it's the main character's mission to hunt down the scientist who created the virus. Other points are just so similar - some people went crazy with the virus; the protagonist's brother killed himself by smashing his head into the concrete because it was too much sensory input for him to handle. And no one lived in cities anymore because of the overwhelming smells. If it's not the same story, it's just weird that there'd be another with such a similar premise. edit: ^^ beaten like a rented mule ^^
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Oct 19, 2013 17:11
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Linnear posted:It was a short story about two of the last people on Earth. One was a vampire, and the other was... something else, I don't remember. Not an exact fit with your description, but it's close to The Stainless Steel Leech by Roger Zelazny. It's about the last vampire on Earth and a robot who steals the energy from other robots, making him the new vampire of his time. Found an online copy of the story here: http://www.e-reading.co.uk/chapter.php/73093/4/Zelazny_-_The_Last_Defender_Of_Camelot.html
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Jan 9, 2014 11:04
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Zazamoot posted:...his body had to be scanned, torn apart and reconstituted between shifts. This was horrifying because the destruction of his body took place while he was fully conscious, but because his physical state was scanned and digitally recorded just moments prior to the event, he never remembered it or knew to expect it at the end of the day. Not an exact match, but something very similar to this happens in the Orson Scott Card novel Hot Sleep. Only it relates to the suspended animation the protagonist goes under, with his memories recorded just before hibernation. Because the process is painful but happens after the recording, he always thinks something has gone wrong.
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Apr 6, 2014 00:19
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Chance II posted:I've been trying to remember the title of a couple books I read years ago. One featured zepplins and primitive humanoids while the other was Martian adventure style story. Both were part of a series that involved aliens seeding planets with humanoid species and connecting the via gates. Any clues? And wow, I just realised how bad that series was ripping off star gate. That might be S.M. Stirling's Lords of Creation series. The first book was The Sky People, set on Venus and including primitive cave people. The second was In The Courts of the Crimson Kings, set on Mars with a humanoid race interacting with visiting Earthmen. Both had a very '50s sci-fi feel to them.
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Apr 16, 2014 04:20
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WastedJoker posted:It's a book about a population on a hostile world where the plant life is hostile or maybe it's on Earth and an alien plant life is slowly consuming everything. I think the protagonist is female and the title is something like Changa/Chungu. That second part sounds like David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr series. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Against_the_Chtorr
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Jul 14, 2014 19:04
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mirthdefect posted:I remember nothing else about this book except one of the guys was some sort of trust fund kid whose access to money would go away when he graduated, so he basically did everything up to the last paper required to become a doctor, a psychologist, an engineer etc. It's probably a lovely sci-fi or post-apocalyptic book because that's mostly what I read. Sounds like Roger Zelazny's novel Doorways in the Sand. The main character is living off a trust fund that stops once he graduates, so he keeps taking more and more college courses. Captain Equinox fucked around with this message at 20:09 on May 3, 2015 |
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May 3, 2015 20:07
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