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

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Like the identify the song thread, let's post stories/books whose title/author you can't remember.

I remember reading this short story back in the 70's. Sci-fi story set in a dystopian future when overpopulation has forced people to live one person per a few square feet of land. There are people as far as the eye can see. Don't know the name or author.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2007 02:42

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 07:59

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

roffles posted:

Is it Billenium, by J.G. Ballard?

This story is about due to super overpopulation, all usable land has to be claimed for raising food, and people are forced into super crowded urban areas. There is a government mandated quota of 5 sq. ft per person (which gets smaller every year). The story is about 2 friends who move in together after they each get kicked out of their singles since the quota has just gone down again and their one-person apartments become reclaimed and rented out as doubles.

That sounds like it. I'll have to try and find a copy.

Thanks.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2007 00:26

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Just a tip for everyone:

:eng101:

Try to give a timeframe of when you read the story/book you're asking about. Just saying "I read this when I was a kid" doesn't help if we don't know how old you are.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2007 21:19

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

I believe this was a short story I read in the late 70s/early 80s.

It takes place in a dystopian future. A boy has to do his chores and says (paraphrased), "I wish I had three arms, then I could do this faster." He is immediately punished for wishing such a thing.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2008 00:35

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

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....

ninja e: it's got a different title in the colonies - Re-Birth, I think.

I don't think that's it. I'm sure the story was new at the time I read it. Thanks, though.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2008 02:38

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Captain Equinox posted:

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."

Now that you quoted it, it does sound like the story. Thanks. I stand corrected.

Now off to the library.

e: crap. went online to my local library and they don't have it.

Mister Kingdom fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Jun 9, 2008

# ¿ Jun 9, 2008 03:38

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Here's one from the late 70s: Took place in a high school and the title of the book was the name of the school's student handbook. May have contained the name "Alfred" in the school name.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2008 03:39

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Encryptic posted:

The Alfred G. Graebner Memorial High School Handbook of Rules and Regulations by Ellen Conford. I remember reading that probably 15 years ago if not longer.

Yep, that's it. Thanks.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2008 04:45

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

About 10 years ago, I picked up a book, The Building, at one of those giant book warehouse places. I remembered trying to read it, but it seemed horribly written and I never got far into it. I no longer have the book, but I cannot remember the author.

It took place in a run-down New York apartment building and was filled with a lot of weird people.

Anybody?

# ¿ Mar 7, 2009 14:22

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

mystes posted:

I spent thirty seconds searching and found this. Is that what you're thinking of?

Edit: I presume you asked this because entering "building" into google or amazon didn't work, so for the record you're better off using something where you can choose to only match the beginning of a book title.

Thanks, but that's not it. This book was horribly-written, so Eisner is out. That link doesn't seem to allow me to search for the phrase "The Building" as the only words in the title.

E: Found it using bookfinders.com and then located a copy on Amazon (for 1 cent - not a shocking price).

I'm tempted to buy a copy and taking another shot at it.

Mister Kingdom fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Mar 7, 2009

# ¿ Mar 7, 2009 22:50

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Here's one, probably late 70s to no more than the mid 80s:

The protagonist is a female scientist. Reptilian aliens (friendly, this time) come to earth and she goes to their ship to work with their scientists.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2009 22:06

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Doctor Zero posted:

That is the most depressing loving story ever.

Watch it on Youtube:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

# ¿ Jul 20, 2010 00:29

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Ballsworthy posted:

He's pretty much the definition of hack.

That's a bit harsh. I've enjoyed some of his non-series books. I'd call his work the bubblegum music of sci-fi.

E: spelling

Mister Kingdom fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Apr 17, 2011

# ¿ Apr 16, 2011 01:09

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Hedrigall posted:

Here's some I asked about years ago in this thread but were never answered:

----

I haven't actually read this, just heard about it:

Mankind develops some kind of portal through which they can (inexplicably) see through the eyes of a member of an alien race. Can't communicate or travel through it, just observe. The plot probably develops from there, but that basic premise is all I know.

(I thought maybe Arthur C. Clarke's "Light of Other Days" but, reading the synopsis on Wikipedia, that doesn't sound like it.)

Sounds like Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2011 17:51

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Guesticles posted:

Is this actually in the book? Or did he just do way too much thinking about how space centaurs do it?

Despite being disturbed by the alien sex stuff, I did enjoy the trilogy. Varley is one of my favorite sci-fi writers.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2012 22:48

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

navyjack posted:

"Word Processor of the Gods" by Stephen King

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qu5im3zI4g

# ¿ Jan 16, 2014 00:34

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

wheatpuppy posted:

The first is All Summer in a Day which IIRC is Bradbury

And it was set on Venus.

Here's a TV adaptation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV-rzGx21rw

# ¿ Jul 17, 2014 02:10

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

SaintFu posted:

The Cold Equations

It was also on the 80s Twilight Zone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_fzDTyOb5Q

# ¿ May 25, 2015 00:16

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Hobnob posted:

Holy , this thread started nearly nine years ago.

I was going to start a new one, but this one got stickied.

The only thing I would add is that when someone says, "I read this when I was a kid", they should say when that was.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2016 14:17

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Trying to remember a comic book story:

A superhero is sent to the nearest habitable planet in suspended animation. While en route, mankind develops FTL travel and, by the time the guy gets there, he's become a laughing stock.

# ¿ May 12, 2017 22:27

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

RentACop posted:

Along those lines, it was a book where the technology was such that you could save your memories up to that point, and then if you died that clone would be activated again. One of the characters rejects some dude and saves a backup, and then goes on some mission where she dies. She gets a dying message back to her activated clone that says she really should have hooked up with that dude, and the clone is "ahaha no that guy sucks" and dismisses it. Also (pretty sure the same book) two dudes who drowned in a swamp get resurrected, and are horrified to discover that people thought they were lovers and in the interim between recovering the bodies and having the technology to resurrect them, made a giant statue out of their dying moments

The first part sounds like "The Phantom of Kansas" by John Varley. The protagonist keeps getting killed but can only afford to back herself up once a month.

# ¿ May 12, 2017 23:59

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:

That's sort of the story of Vance Astro from Guardians of the Galaxy.

He got put into a special suit, and launched towards Alpha Centari, but it turned out the tech to just loving, go there and not be in suspended animation got invented like 50 years later and they just either couldn't find him or forgot about him.

He landed to celebrations and whatnot instead of the magical wondrous new world he was expecting.

That's the one. Thanks.

# ¿ May 13, 2017 00:00

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Here's a couple from the late 70s or early 80s:

Sci-fi novel:

Reptialian aliens come to earth. The main character is a female scientist (biologist, maybe?). Once scene has her being freaked out that they eat their own eggs.

Short story:

Dysptopian future where fundamentalist religion takes over. Even joking about something unnatural can get you into trouble. Example: a kid(?) makes the comment that his chores would be easier if he had a third arm.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2020 01:29

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

froglet posted:

That second one is The Chrysalids by John Wyndham.

Thanks!

# ¿ Jun 6, 2020 13:29

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Looking for a sci-fi short story(?) where aliens observe the Earth and determine that cars are the intelligent creaures and humans are just parasites.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2020 01:07

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Looking for a time travel novel wherein the protagonist could travel back in time but never to the same place twice. I think the guy was trying to save his wife maybe? I think was from the 90s.

# ¿ May 2, 2021 23:11

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 07:59

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Zack Ater posted:

This one is forward in time, not back, but otherwise sounds kind of like Dean Koontz's Lightning?

That's the one. Thanks.

# ¿ May 4, 2021 02:06

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