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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.

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Captain Equinox
Sep 15, 2005

By day a mild-mannered college professor, by night Kiki, go-go dancer at the Pussycat Club. But twice a year, he's... CAPTAIN EQUINOX!
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.

Jezebel
Sep 6, 2004

Skal!

Okay, a friend of mine is trying to find this book he read back in '01- he thinks it had been republished around then for the first time since it came out, way back in the early 20th century.

The subject of the book itself is very vague: It's basically just a revised history of famous figures, like Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Charlemagne. It's tongue-in-cheek, but historically accurate.

But what makes it more notable is that it was written by some recluse who lived in Greenwich Village, NY, back in the 1920s/30s/40sish (pre-war). The sort of guy who read everything and then kept newspapers stacked around the house.

Any ideas?

ETA: Oh wait, never mine. it's "The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody", by Will Cuppy. Which came up really early in my searches, but my friend didn't think it was him and so we went past it looking for something more obscure.

Jezebel fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Dec 8, 2007

Wax On
Mar 22, 2007

drop a bat beat
It was a long time ago, during the ice storm in Montreal and I had a bunch of dragon books my mother had lent me. There was one that stood out however and I'd really like to know what it was.
The story starts off with a handful of humans surfacing from an underground society into a "prehistoric" earth ruled by technologically advanced dragons. If I remember correctly, the whole book just follows these men and women on their way to destroy the dragon city which is made entirely of [orange] plastic.

The only part of the book that I remember clearly is when they are attacked by a triceratops, and they shoot it in the brain with the bad assed nomad chick saying "Takes a few seconds for the brain to realize it's dead."

It was awesome and made the ice storm a whole lot more bearable. If I remember the cover correctly it was mainly purple with a bit of yellow if that helps in any way.

xie
Jul 29, 2004

I GET UPSET WHEN PEOPLE SPEND THEIR MONEY ON WASTEFUL THINGS THAT I DONT APPROVE OF :capitalism:
I read a short story collection about two or three years ago, I'm not sure who it was by. It was classified as horror I think.

Only one the stories I kind of remember was a guy who was into cutting as a sexual pleasure, and this girl he falls for, and they cut each other deep during sex. I think it takes place on a college.

I think there may have been one set in a warehouse or something where there was a supernatural force killing those inside, who were there to investigate.

I feel like maybe it was a Gaimon collection or the name sounded like Gaimon, because I can't find anything on his website that seems similar. I know to have an anthology you have to be somewhat of a well known author. I know he's written some non-short story stuff, maybe novels about vampires?

Ugh this isn't a lot to go one but hopefully a horror fan knows :(

ColonelCurmudgeon
May 2, 2005

Shall I give thee the groat now?

xie posted:

I read a short story collection about two or three years ago, I'm not sure who it was by. It was classified as horror I think.

Only one the stories I kind of remember was a guy who was into cutting as a sexual pleasure, and this girl he falls for, and they cut each other deep during sex. I think it takes place on a college.

I think there may have been one set in a warehouse or something where there was a supernatural force killing those inside, who were there to investigate.

I feel like maybe it was a Gaimon collection or the name sounded like Gaimon, because I can't find anything on his website that seems similar. I know to have an anthology you have to be somewhat of a well known author. I know he's written some non-short story stuff, maybe novels about vampires?

Ugh this isn't a lot to go one but hopefully a horror fan knows :(

Sounds like it would be up the alley of Gahan Wilson. He's pretty macabre and his name sounds like Gaiman. v:shobon:v

Gahan Wilson wikipedia

ColonelCurmudgeon fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Dec 11, 2007

xie
Jul 29, 2004

I GET UPSET WHEN PEOPLE SPEND THEIR MONEY ON WASTEFUL THINGS THAT I DONT APPROVE OF :capitalism:

ColonelCurmudgeon posted:

Sounds like it would be up the alley of Gahan Wilson.

Nope, it would have had to be The Best of Gahan Wilson and that's not it, I checked on Amazon.

I actually just found it after an hour of googling:

Richard Laymon :doh: He's pretty well known too. Thanks though :) The collection I was thinking of is Madman Stan and Other Stories.

Mode 7 Samurai
Jan 9, 2001

I have posted this in several threads, but I have never received an answer, which I know is because I have very few details. In fact I can only barely remember two scenes in the book, and by that I can remember two locations where fights take place.

The book is about some other world where dudes can use magic, one scene they are fighting in a church (I think) and the other one they are fighting in possibly some sort of town square by a water fountain.

That's literally all I can remember about this book, it is I am pretty sure part of a series.

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD
Sep 14, 2007

everything is yours

Captain Equinox posted:

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.

It sounds more like Stand on Zanzibar. Make Room, Make Room is part of the overpopulation genre but it's boilerplate stuff like The Ultimate Solution or something.

Unkempt
May 24, 2003

...perfect spiral, scientists are still figuring it out...

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:

It sounds more like Stand on Zanzibar. Make Room, Make Room is part of the overpopulation genre but it's boilerplate stuff like The Ultimate Solution or something.

'Stand on Zanzibar' is pretty much the opposite of a short story. Plus, they're not actually standing on Zanzibar.

Someone asked a similar question on rasfw the other day, and the best they could come up with is Larry Niven's 'Bordered in Black', but I don't think that's it either.

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD
Sep 14, 2007

everything is yours
You're right, I missed the "short story" part cause that is a pretty drat long novel.

Final Call
Nov 15, 2005

The book I'm looking for takes place in a country/state called "Nihila" (or something similar)a place which practices nihilism to its fullest extent. It's like Grand Theft Auto in novel form, from what I remember. You get points for running people down in the street, status is based on how many mistresses you have. The nation's highest goal is to send a couple into off on a shuttle to make live sweet porno love for the populations below to watch.

Found it about 15 years ago in a school library which weren't too big on buying in new books, so it must be say twenty+ years old?

Patrovsky
May 8, 2007
whatever is fine



Here's one I read a few years back. I'm a bit vague on the big picture, but I remember some of the details. It was about three children who break into some variation of a haunted house and accidentally reawaken some axe-weilding zombie beast, and then they need to go on some magical journey to send the axe-weilding zombie back from whence he came. There was a magic wand in there somewhere, also a boat trip, and some magical berries that you could only eat 60 of otherwise you'd get a tummy-ache. I think the characters were called Margaret, Felix, and something else. Also, one of them turns into a parrot for a brief period of time on some weird jungle island. Someone assure me that this is not just the product of an overactive imagination.

teamdest
Jul 1, 2007
alright maybe someone can help me, this has been driving me mad for close to six years now, and i'm at my wit's end!

there are two stories i remember reading, that i really enjoyed years ago but cannot remember the name of.

the first one was possibly in an elementry school short story collection, and was about (i think) the sun becoming a red giant in the far future. the earth is being evacuated, and the story follows a poor family who are crammed aboard one of the "cheap" starships and launched out into space. when they finally reach a planet the youngest child on the ship is chosen to name it, and she (he?) chooses the name "sunshine" or possibly "sunlight". additionally, there is some kind of grass on the planet that is very sharp and cuts their feet when they first run out onto the ground, and they call for boots. that's all i can remember.

the second was a short novel of some type about how in the future the majority of mankind is unemployed, and something about how some a group of high-school students "join the ranks of the unemployed" and how it's a pretty bad but not unlivable lifestyle, and they from time to time take part in a simulation of a different world where everything is bright and cheery. in the end however, they enter the simulation one time and everything is not perfect, and they realize they've been actually sent as colonists to a different world.

i will love forever anyone who can tell me the name of these stories!

teamdest
Jul 1, 2007
whoops, double post. unstable connection. suckyness.

Kessel
Mar 6, 2007

I'm looking for two books.

The first is about a boy with a rat/mouse which is apparently magical and can talk. He and his friends go around stopping the crimes of some evil dude I can't remember the name of. One of the stories involves them stopping a gold bullion heist by figuring out something about articulated trucks in a convoy.

The other is a sci-fi novel about some aliens - could be the Martians - who put everyone on Earth to sleep by poisoning the water supply. Some people didn't drink the water and so they begin to fight back. A major part of the story involves one guy taking control of the robots in a shopping centre and using them to break into a camp and save more humans, and also capture the antidote to the poison.

Please help.

Seksiness
Aug 24, 2006
I screwed your grandma and all I got was this lousy custom title... and herpes
I'm looking for some help finding a piece of prose.

It was a long time ago so some of my descriptions may be incorrect but the poem was written about (two?) towers in a field of wheat/soya in a dystopian society. All I can clearly remember was part of the poem being written from within a canteen in one of the towers. I believe it was part of an anthology of prose (called Brave New World) that was part of the GCSE cirriculum, although we never studied that particular piece

Nrapture
Feb 8, 2007

SkaWes posted:

I have posted this in several threads, but I have never received an answer, which I know is because I have very few details. In fact I can only barely remember two scenes in the book, and by that I can remember two locations where fights take place.

The book is about some other world where dudes can use magic, one scene they are fighting in a church (I think) and the other one they are fighting in possibly some sort of town square by a water fountain.

That's literally all I can remember about this book, it is I am pretty sure part of a series.

It's a long shot, but The Elder Staves?

roffles
Dec 25, 2004

Mister Kingdom posted:

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.

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.

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.

Mode 7 Samurai
Jan 9, 2001

Nrapture posted:

It's a long shot, but The Elder Staves?

No that book is far to new, this book was written at the very least in 1997, but I think the book was probably older than that because I got it from the library in high school, and they didn't exactly update books all that often.

I often times confuse it with what I think is another series all together, I think in that one they could go from a "normal" world in to a world of magic by walking though some sort of tunnel or something, but again I think that was another book series entirely, and has nothing to do with the one I am thinking of.

Nrapture
Feb 8, 2007

SkaWes posted:

No that book is far to new, this book was written at the very least in 1997, but I think the book was probably older than that because I got it from the library in high school, and they didn't exactly update books all that often.

I often times confuse it with what I think is another series all together, I think in that one they could go from a "normal" world in to a world of magic by walking though some sort of tunnel or something, but again I think that was another book series entirely, and has nothing to do with the one I am thinking of.

Alright, I have one more try. Still not a serial, but The Faerie Queen? It's definitely old enough, and a high school library would probably have a copy. Otherwise, I'm out of ideas, sorry.

Fake edit: The more I think about it the more it sounds like the C.S. Lewis books, but I haven't read those in 20 years so what do I know.

subpage
May 27, 2003

Alea iacta est
Trying to remember a book that I started readed last year but lost before I could finish it. It was recommended pretty heavily here on SA so I think it'll be pretty easy to I.D.

The Book is Sci-Fi;It's starts with a genetically engineered assassin (with poison finger nails and teeth) getting tortured and then saved by his giant allies. There is also a race at war with these giants that are mostly humans and robots living together. I read up until he was on some ice planet and blew up a cruise liner with a nuke or something.

thanks

King of Fools
Aug 24, 2005

you are getting very pompous in the early morning

teamdest posted:

the second was a short novel of some type about how in the future the majority of mankind is unemployed, and something about how some a group of high-school students "join the ranks of the unemployed" and how it's a pretty bad but not unlivable lifestyle, and they from time to time take part in a simulation of a different world where everything is bright and cheery. in the end however, they enter the simulation one time and everything is not perfect, and they realize they've been actually sent as colonists to a different world.

i will love forever anyone who can tell me the name of these stories!

I think you're talking about Invitation to the Game by Monica Hughes.

Edit: Actually, I'm 99% certain you're talking about that book.

King of Fools fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Dec 14, 2007

Elderling
Feb 17, 2007

Nrapture posted:

Alright, I have one more try. Still not a serial, but The Faerie Queen? It's definitely old enough, and a high school library would probably have a copy. Otherwise, I'm out of ideas, sorry.

Fake edit: The more I think about it the more it sounds like the C.S. Lewis books, but I haven't read those in 20 years so what do I know.

You must be fakeposting. Spenser and Narnia?

I don't know what the guy's looking for, but I'll guess The Wheel of Time, because there are plenty of magic fights in large buildings and poo poo... and Thom Merrilin faces off against a myrdraal by a fountain in a town square if I recall correctly.

teamdest
Jul 1, 2007

King of Fools posted:

I think you're talking about Invitation to the Game by Monica Hughes.

Edit: Actually, I'm 99% certain you're talking about that book.

THANK YOU! that was the book. now if only i could figure out what that other one was called. also as promised, i will love you forever.

Teh Jawesome
Apr 8, 2004
Hot!: Free title from Coupons!
Ok, this one's been bugging me for ages. I remember reading a book back in elementary school in which a panther is loose outside a village (maybe in either England or New England?). The main character is a boy who is trying to convince people that the panther exists, but (if I remember correctly) no one believes him. At one point he faces off with the panther with only a pellet gun. If someone can actually figure out what this is, I'll lose my mind.

Piell
Sep 3, 2006

Grey Worm's Ken doll-like groin throbbed with the anticipatory pleasure that only a slightly warm and moist piece of lemoncake could offer


Young Orc
This is a book that came out a few years ago I think. It's about a guy who goes on a trip into space, but a micro-meteorite takes out the radio and the pilot. He starts writing his life story on a computer, which somehow is able to be read by people on Earth, who put it up on the news. There is an spaceship sent to save him, but he doesn't know about it so he flies the ship down to earth himself.

Runcible Cat
May 28, 2007

Ignoring this post

Teh Jawesome posted:

Ok, this one's been bugging me for ages. I remember reading a book back in elementary school in which a panther is loose outside a village (maybe in either England or New England?). The main character is a boy who is trying to convince people that the panther exists, but (if I remember correctly) no one believes him. At one point he faces off with the panther with only a pellet gun. If someone can actually figure out what this is, I'll lose my mind.
The Nature of the Beast by Janni Howker?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nature-Beast-Janni-Howker/dp/0744590329

haveblue
Aug 15, 2005



Toilet Rascal

subpage posted:

Trying to remember a book that I started readed last year but lost before I could finish it. It was recommended pretty heavily here on SA so I think it'll be pretty easy to I.D.

The Book is Sci-Fi;It's starts with a genetically engineered assassin (with poison finger nails and teeth) getting tortured and then saved by his giant allies. There is also a race at war with these giants that are mostly humans and robots living together. I read up until he was on some ice planet and blew up a cruise liner with a nuke or something.

thanks

Consider Phlebas, by Iain M. Banks.

Take the plunge! Okay!
Feb 24, 2007



Two stories, both Sci-Fi:

One about the Soviet astronaut left to die on the Moon because they can't figure out a way to get him back to Earth.

The other about HP Lovecraft and Robert Howard teaming up in Hell.

Nrapture
Feb 8, 2007

mcustic posted:

The other about HP Lovecraft and Robert Howard teaming up in Hell.

Shadow's Bend by David Barbour?

Elderling posted:

You must be fakeposting. Spenser and Narnia?

I don't know what the guy's looking for, but I'll guess The Wheel of Time, because there are plenty of magic fights in large buildings and poo poo... and Thom Merrilin faces off against a myrdraal by a fountain in a town square if I recall correctly.

Why would you say that? Because they are wellknown? Then your suggestion isn't that much better.

Mode 7 Samurai
Jan 9, 2001

Nrapture posted:

Alright, I have one more try. Still not a serial, but The Faerie Queen? It's definitely old enough, and a high school library would probably have a copy. Otherwise, I'm out of ideas, sorry.

Fake edit: The more I think about it the more it sounds like the C.S. Lewis books, but I haven't read those in 20 years so what do I know.

Nope it wasn't that, and I know it isnt a CS Lewis book.

:smith:

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD
Sep 14, 2007

everything is yours

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 really similar in tone to High-Rise, also by Ballard.

Teh Jawesome
Apr 8, 2004
Hot!: Free title from Coupons!

LittleSunshine posted:

The Nature of the Beast by Janni Howker?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nature-Beast-Janni-Howker/dp/0744590329

YES! Thank you so much! You have no idea how long I've been trying to figure that out.

Take the plunge! Okay!
Feb 24, 2007



Nrapture posted:

Shadow's Bend by David Barbour?

Not really. The one I read was a short story. It's about this weird afterlife in which everybody that ever lived appears in flesh, sort of like the Riverworld saga. The great military leaders of their age such as Queen Elizabeth, Genghis Khan and others organize vast armies. HP and Howard serve as courtiers to the Queen Elizabeth. Another character that appears is the Swiss humanitarian Dr. Schweitzer. There are all kinds of humans inhabit that strange world, thought to be Hell. Neanderthals are mentioned, as well as Celts, victims of the Black Plague and others. Oh, and Lovecraft and Howard are a gay couple.

fritz
Jul 26, 2003

mcustic posted:

Not really. The one I read was a short story. It's about this weird afterlife in which everybody that ever lived appears in flesh, sort of like the Riverworld saga. The great military leaders of their age such as Queen Elizabeth, Genghis Khan and others organize vast armies. HP and Howard serve as courtiers to the Queen Elizabeth. Another character that appears is the Swiss humanitarian Dr. Schweitzer. There are all kinds of humans inhabit that strange world, thought to be Hell. Neanderthals are mentioned, as well as Celts, victims of the Black Plague and others. Oh, and Lovecraft and Howard are a gay couple.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroes_in_Hell ?

Death Hamster
Aug 21, 2007
Is this a two-bagger I see before me?

mcustic posted:

Two stories, both Sci-Fi:

The other about HP Lovecraft and Robert Howard teaming up in Hell.

"Gilgamesh in the Outback" by Robert Silverberg

subpage
May 27, 2003

Alea iacta est

HB posted:

Consider Phlebas, by Iain M. Banks.

Thank you.

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JackNamesThePlanets
Jul 5, 2007
Chic or just a glamorous freak?
I've got a book and a short story.

As for the book, I read it when I was young, and remember almost nothing about it. It may or may not have had a dragon in it, and the cover may or may not have had a flying carpet on the front. What the book DID have was some magical force that gets referred to as The Interface, and I think the main character's ultimate goal was to repair it before everything got all jacked up. I've never been able to find the book for obvious reasons, but I didn't understand it very well the first time I read it, and I REALLY want to re-read it and see if it makes more sense now. This has been bothering me for years.

In the short story, the narrator was standing around watching these blobs of people go around getting other people stuck to them, creating what eventually became whole new organisms. It was a pretty creepy story. I think I found it in some sci-fi collection.

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