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My wife is trying to remember the name of a novel that she got in the school library as a kid. She says she felt at the time that if the school had read it then it probably wouldn't have been there, so it may not be a YA novel. It's set in ancient Egypt, and the story opens with the main character at a party or banquet preparing to do some important, decisive thing. An old man, possibly carrying a scroll, approaches and tell him not to do the important thing. He shoves the old man aside and goes through with it, it leads to his eventual downfall, and so forth. In the end when he dies he begs the gods (there may be a heart weighing sequence) for the chance to go back and warn himself, and they grant his wish and send him back as the old man, to be ignored by his younger self. She also remembers the main character marrying a woman with a name that might have sounded something like "Ssu-bassu".
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May 30, 2015 19:23
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DeimosRising posted:My wife is trying to remember the name of a novel that she got in the school library as a kid. She says she felt at the time that if the school had read it then it probably wouldn't have been there, so it may not be a YA novel. It's set in ancient Egypt, and the story opens with the main character at a party or banquet preparing to do some important, decisive thing. An old man, possibly carrying a scroll, approaches and tell him not to do the important thing. He shoves the old man aside and goes through with it, it leads to his eventual downfall, and so forth. In the end when he dies he begs the gods (there may be a heart weighing sequence) for the chance to go back and warn himself, and they grant his wish and send him back as the old man, to be ignored by his younger self. She also remembers the main character marrying a woman with a name that might have sounded something like "Ssu-bassu". Sounds like Scroll of Saqqara by Pauline Gedge
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May 31, 2015 11:52
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BattyKiara posted:Sounds like Scroll of Saqqara by Pauline Gedge Awesome. Looks like that (under the US title Mirage) was probably it. Thanks!
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Jun 2, 2015 12:45
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A horror book about a bunch of teenage girls home alone when the power goes out. There's a serial killer hunting them down. Most of the book has everyone sneaking around in the dark trying not to alert the killer. When I read it, I thought it was terrifying but it was probably like a young adult level goosebumps book.
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Jun 4, 2015 01:02
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Dr_Amazing posted:A horror book about a bunch of teenage girls home alone when the power goes out. There's a serial killer hunting them down. Most of the book has everyone sneaking around in the dark trying not to alert the killer. When I read it, I thought it was terrifying but it was probably like a young adult level goosebumps book. From a long time ago, but maybe Intensity by Dean Koontz?
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Jun 20, 2015 08:43
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I'm trying to remember this sci-fi book I read awhile back. It was about a space colony that was built by aliens but later inhabited by humans and they didn't know why the aliens were gone. There were a lot of pods where they input codes which would take them to other galaxies, planets, etc and they had no idea where they would end up or if they would come back, so it was a huge gamble that could result in death or finding new alien technology from where the aliens had been before. It's about all I can remember from it at this point. Any guesses?
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Jun 22, 2015 01:42
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Larrymer posted:I'm trying to remember this sci-fi book I read awhile back. It was about a space colony that was built by aliens but later inhabited by humans and they didn't know why the aliens were gone. There were a lot of pods where they input codes which would take them to other galaxies, planets, etc and they had no idea where they would end up or if they would come back, so it was a huge gamble that could result in death or finding new alien technology from where the aliens had been before. It's about all I can remember from it at this point. Any guesses? Heechee Saga?
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Jun 22, 2015 02:08
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Heechee Saga by Frederic Pohl. beaten like Broadhead on his first strike.
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Jun 22, 2015 02:15
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Thanks, nailed it.
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Jun 22, 2015 12:34
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This has been floating around in my head for a while, now: A (probably YA, found it in the school library when I was 11) sci-fi novel in which for some reason a group of teenagers get sent on some sort of space expedition. I remember that the protagonist was a bookish girl with glasses and possibly asthma. Her dad always knew when it was appropriate to say "whom". Pretty sure there was a camel or a llama on the cover. And there was a scene in which they were outside of spacetime looking into a number of windows to various times and places. One of these was a couple having sex which made some of the teenage space travellers giggle. Would have been published pre-2000.
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Jun 22, 2015 20:15
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Hi, I have only a half-remembered synopsis. It may be a short story, but I couldn't be certain. Here goes: God has returned to Earth, and resides in Dorset, England. Most of England has been converted into highways as part of a transport network for bringing God replacements for its giant insectoid limbs. That's all I got. This has been bugging me for ages. Any ideas? Many thanks.
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Jun 30, 2015 15:18
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Looking for an activity book I loved as a kid to give a nephew now. It had three stories in it, each was a sort of mystery adventure, almost Tintin style but more modern. Each double page would be some cartoon drawings and text about the plot, then end with the protagonist coming across some code they had to crack. The codes were pretty original and varied. The three stories were separate enough that I think they may have originally been published separately and this was an anthology. I can remember the first story had a female protagonist that was investigating some crime organization called "The Syndicate" and involving her favorite band which was called "Quicksilver."
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Jun 30, 2015 21:43
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Eggnogium posted:Looking for an activity book I loved as a kid to give a nephew now. It had three stories in it, each was a sort of mystery adventure, almost Tintin style but more modern. Each double page would be some cartoon drawings and text about the plot, then end with the protagonist coming across some code they had to crack. The codes were pretty original and varied. The three stories were separate enough that I think they may have originally been published separately and this was an anthology. I can remember the first story had a female protagonist that was investigating some crime organization called "The Syndicate" and involving her favorite band which was called "Quicksilver." I had that book! It was part of the Usborne puzzle series. I think this is the anthology, but I don't remember the other stories at all (except I think one had a villain called "Ratman"). rollick fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Jun 30, 2015 |
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Jun 30, 2015 23:44
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A Major Fucker posted:I'm looking for a book I think I read in middle school or high school. It's about somebody trapped with a bunch of other people in some kind of geographic zone, it might have been an island. If they try to leave they're killed by sentry turrets or something. Then he gets out of the designated area somehow and finds the people who were supposedly killed are just in the hospital because their deaths were faked. i don't think that was a book, i think it was a half-remembered dream you had
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Jul 1, 2015 00:30
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A Major Fucker posted:I'm looking for a book I think I read in middle school or high school. It's about somebody trapped with a bunch of other people in some kind of geographic zone, it might have been an island. If they try to leave they're killed by sentry turrets or something. Then he gets out of the designated area somehow and finds the people who were supposedly killed are just in the hospital because their deaths were faked. The Maze Runner had a similar plot but you're probably too old for that.
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Jul 1, 2015 01:11
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I've heard people here talk of a fantasy series that has a main character that is comically perfect and can do no wrong and it just a total bad rear end and it kind of ruins the book in its awfulness. There might have been talk of him owning a tavern in his dotage and he is recollecting the story. Is this book of the new sun? It was recommended to me but the name severian is setting off alarm bells of being warned against it. If so, Is it really that bad? meanolmrcloud fucked around with this message at 05:18 on Jul 1, 2015 |
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Jul 1, 2015 05:14
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meanolmrcloud posted:I've heard people here talk of a fantasy series that has a main character that is comically perfect and can do no wrong and it just a total bad rear end and it kind of ruins the book in its awfulness. There might have been talk of him owning a tavern in his dotage and he is recollecting the story. Is this book of the new sun? It was recommended to me but the name severian is setting off alarm bells of being warned against it. That would be "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss, the first book in the Kingkiller chronicles. It's very well written, but I think many are waiting on the third book to see how the whole story pulls together.
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Jul 1, 2015 05:49
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meanolmrcloud posted:I've heard people here talk of a fantasy series that has a main character that is comically perfect and can do no wrong and it just a total bad rear end and it kind of ruins the book in its awfulness. There might have been talk of him owning a tavern in his dotage and he is recollecting the story. Is this book of the new sun? It was recommended to me but the name severian is setting off alarm bells of being warned against it. If your friends have been warning you off The Book of the New Sun, get different friends.
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Jul 1, 2015 09:47
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Gorbash posted:That would be "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss, the first book in the Kingkiller chronicles. Yup ^^^^ It's incredibly well written (seriously, dude can write stories that flow VERY well), but the story itself is complete poo poo. The first book suffers from weird goony "gonna stalk this chick", while sweet gently caress all action happens, while the second book still has a lack of action, but now the goony guy is a sex ninja who's still stalking the same chick anyway after having banged queen of the fairies. Basically if you imagine it being narrated by Futurama's Zapp Brannigan, it's a much better book.
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Jul 1, 2015 10:05
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Basically if you imagine it being narrated by Futurama's Zapp Brannigan, it's a much better book. This is true of every book, though.
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Jul 1, 2015 10:48
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rollick posted:I had that book! It was part of the Usborne puzzle series. I think this is the anthology, but I don't remember the other stories at all (except I think one had a villain called "Ratman"). Exactly right! Thank you.
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Jul 1, 2015 17:11
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Hi! I'm trying to remember the name of this weird novel/essay of Lovecraftian and postmodern tone, that was about the war in Iraq having to do with lovecraftian entities and maybe the oil itself was one of them? The title was Crypto-something or something like that. Any help will be appreciated.
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Jul 5, 2015 05:32
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elpaganoescapa posted:Hi! I'm trying to remember the name of this weird novel/essay of Lovecraftian and postmodern tone, that was about the war in Iraq having to do with lovecraftian entities and maybe the oil itself was one of them? The title was Crypto-something or something like that. Any help will be appreciated. Cyclonopedia?
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Jul 5, 2015 06:40
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That's it! Thank you very much.
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Jul 5, 2015 11:23
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The release of the poster for the Goosebumps movie got me thinking about books I read as a kid, and I've been trying to find the name of this particular book for years. I read it in the mid-90s, but it could have easily been from the 80s or late 70s. The book was given to me by my religious nut grandad, and I didn't realize until decades later that it was basically anti-abortion propaganda. I barely remember the plot, but it's about a highschool couple that has premarital sex, and it features an extremely graphic abortion scene. Typical slasher movie stuff happens to them as punishment for their sins, and I wanna say the actual Grim Reaper shows up at some point, but I'm not sure. It's not an RL Stine book, but he had a series called Fear Street that was marketed towards highschool kids, and the cover of the book I'm thinking of looked a lot like one of those.
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Jul 8, 2015 00:00
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Lester Shy posted:The release of the poster for the Goosebumps movie got me thinking about books I read as a kid, and I've been trying to find the name of this particular book for years. I read it in the mid-90s, but it could have easily been from the 80s or late 70s. Whisper of Death by Christopher Pike?
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Jul 8, 2015 03:10
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kellyleanna posted:Whisper of Death by Christopher Pike? Yes, that's it, thanks! Turns out I was way off about the plot. I've always thought it was explicitly anti-abortion, like a Hell house in novel form, but I guess I probably never finished it as a kid and just remembered the first few chapters as the entire book. The cover is still amazing though: 
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Jul 8, 2015 06:20
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I got a question, there's a book I read that I can't remember the name of. There was a virus that killed men, or made them sterile or something. And there was a guy who was immune to it. He was like a ruffian type, and his pee was a weird color. He had a lot of kids, like, too many for him to really know them all by name, so the thing that marked out his descendants was that their pee was the same unusual color. That's all I remember.
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Jul 8, 2015 16:28
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Lester Shy posted:Yes, that's it, thanks! Turns out I was way off about the plot. I've always thought it was explicitly anti-abortion, like a Hell house in novel form, but I guess I probably never finished it as a kid and just remembered the first few chapters as the entire book. Hohoho oh my glob, I read that in middle or high school. I loving loved Christopher Pike. However, I did not remember the plot to this at all. I think the teens had sex and she called him Dr. Pepper? It was a terrible scene.
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Jul 9, 2015 03:32
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Wachter posted:Hi, I think this is an early M. John Harrison story, can't remember the title though.
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Jul 12, 2015 10:41
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House Louse posted:I think this is an early M. John Harrison story, can't remember the title though. Settling the World from 1975
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Jul 12, 2015 18:28
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Kids/young adult book on dinosaurs and archaeological finds in the United States. It would be really, really outdated now - possibly even 1950s - but I'm curious to see it again. Illustrated front cover, possibly a white background. One of the chapters was "The Weatherhill Boys Go Exploring," though the surname might not be spelled correctly.
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Jul 13, 2015 03:25
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I'm trying to remember the title of this so I can post about it in the awful books thread. Zombie apocalypse book with a self insert main character who was a cartoonist (I think the author was either a comic book writer or cartoonist or something). The main character is stuck living in a high rise with his neighbors and no one can leave due to swarms of zombies. He's single but has a hot neighbor lady below him. The neighbor lady's rear end in a top hat husband who HATES the protagonist for reasons dies a gruesome death when he falls off a balcony and is eaten. Not long after that Mr Mary Sue and Hot Lady gently caress it out like they secretly always wanted to and its awesome because Mary Sue has a much bigger dick than her recently dead husband. That part is mentioned explicitly. I think at some point a mysterious hipster girl with headphones shows up and the zombies ignore her completely. That's all I remember.
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Jul 19, 2015 16:29
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Young adults book, think I read it in school. Kid goes to live on a farm and meets some weird disfigured woman that can't speak, kid can travel back to WWII by going in a barn and meets a girl that is called Ade/Ada? Finale of the book turns out this girl he met is the disfigured woman who ended up getting bombed.
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Jul 19, 2015 21:34
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I'm looking for a particular scene from a Bukowksi book. In it Henry Chianski has signed up for the track team or has been forced to participate in it for some reason. He is younger than the other participants and has no track experience. He does really well at the long jump (I think) mostly out of spite and not giving a poo poo, then as he's walking off afterward he digs in his rear end. Now, that sure sounds like it should be in Ham on Rye but I spent like 40 minutes today at the public library while some piece of poo poo 50 year old woman played World of Warcraft four feet away from me with a clicky mouse (yeah I told her to stop, no she didn't, no there was no where else to sit) and didn't find it. So maybe it's in a short story. Hopefully one of you kind bookish souls knows what volume this is in or what the name of the story is or if it is in fact in Ham on Rye and I missed it. TYVM sexy man/woman
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Jul 20, 2015 00:56
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Rough Lobster posted:I'm trying to remember the title of this so I can post about it in the awful books thread. City of the Dead by Brian Keene?
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Jul 20, 2015 02:57
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savinhill posted:City of the Dead by Brian Keene? I can only conclude you've never actually read City of the Dead and are basing this guess solely off of the title.
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Jul 20, 2015 03:01
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Rough Lobster posted:I'm trying to remember the title of this so I can post about it in the awful books thread. Dammit the irritating thing is I'm pretty sure I've read this poo poo novel. I thought for a moment it might be Jam by Yahtzee, but that's more.. well, jam related than zombies. Also, no fuckin'. I'll dig through my zombie novels and see if anything looks like it's a match. Any idea when it came out?
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Jul 20, 2015 08:35
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I don't really have an idea, but it must be fairly modern. Probably trying to cash in on the Walking Dead craze.
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Jul 20, 2015 08:46
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Science Fiction story (I don't remember the length, maybe a short story) where people from Earth find an alternate dimension with lots of resources and send people over there to mine and/or colonize. While they're there, they meet some people who speak German but are otherwise unfamiliar. It turns out they're from an alternate future where Nazis conquered the earth.
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Jul 21, 2015 07:33
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