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BattyKiara posted:That would be The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect That was quick. Thanks very much 
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Jun 10, 2012 09:44
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computer parts posted:It's a banjo instead of a guitar but some googling brought up No Promises in the Wind. Oh, hey, that's it.  Creepy assed clown. Thank you. Your google-fu is strong. I couldn't find it even presumably knowing way more about the book than you, and I thought I was pretty adept at googling.
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Jun 11, 2012 23:58
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This book is from the 80s I think. A bunch of misfits band together to recreate Camelot, jousting on 3 wheeled motorbikes. The King Arthur in the group has nightmares about a bloke who has black eagles on his shield. The Merlin is a doctor who had a nervous breakdown the first week after he got his medical licence, and has face tattooes. There is a Mordred bloke who think he is destined to kill the king of the group. One of the girls is a scizophrenic who is experimenting with her medications because she misses her real feelings. Also a bloke who has religious visions and tries to purify himself to be worthy of something. I don't really remember most of the story, but it was written with point of view chapters for most of these people. I think it had a sad ending with tuns of forshadowing.
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Jun 13, 2012 12:27
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I'm looking for a book I read in the 90s that I'm fairly sure was a young adult book. I vaguely remember the premise had to do with a psychic girl and pretty sure her dog was psychic as well. I remember it was pretty trippy towards the end. For some reason the color purple comes to mind when I think of it, so maybe it had a purple cover.
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Jun 13, 2012 17:18
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HagridOfTheLibrary posted:I'm looking for a book I read in the 90s that I'm fairly sure was a young adult book. I vaguely remember the premise had to do with a psychic girl and pretty sure her dog was psychic as well. I remember it was pretty trippy towards the end. For some reason the color purple comes to mind when I think of it, so maybe it had a purple cover. I don't remember a psychic dog, but your description and time frame fit The Third Eye by Lois Duncan.
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Jun 14, 2012 02:05
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So I'm trying to remember this book I read in late elementary school/early middle school (probably around the year 2000). I'm not sure if it was specifically aimed or kids or not, but it wasn't overly complicated or confusing, so there's a possibility it may have been. The book's plot involved a group of people (one of which I remember being a professor or some sorts) time traveling to a primitive society, like Rome or Egypt or something like that. I don't remember a lot of specific details other than the fact that the professor was some kind of war vet (he mentioned he didn't have a problem sleeping on the ground because he had to sleep on rocks in Korea) and that in one of the conflicts with the natives, they escaped by use of a device they had with them the entire time (but they did not know what the device did until then). I remember it being a small hand held object with little fan blades on it... it basically looked like a handle for a sink, and it allowed them to fly away from their problem. I don't know if this is too vague or not, but hep identifying this book would be greatly appreciated!
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Jun 14, 2012 02:17
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This was a series I read in highschool. They were fantasy books about this world full of wizards and talking animals and things. The main character was this guy who was learning some sort of magic that involved playing music to cast spells. The twist was that he was from our world, so he was always playing classic rock songs.
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Jun 26, 2012 07:36
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Dr_Amazing posted:This was a series I read in highschool. They were fantasy books about this world full of wizards and talking animals and things. The main character was this guy who was learning some sort of magic that involved playing music to cast spells. The twist was that he was from our world, so he was always playing classic rock songs.
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Jun 26, 2012 07:39
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There's a sci-fi book/short story I remember where humans colonized many planets, but were generally divided and fighting each other, and there was an alien empire that was unified and was supposed to conquer all of us. There were a lot of Greek/Persian comparisons in the text itself, specifically that because the human colonies were always fighting they had better weaponry than the at-peace Persian Empire analogues. It might have been a Niven short story, but I don't think it was him specifically. I'm pretty sure I read it in an anthology somewhere though.
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Jun 27, 2012 00:54
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computer parts posted:There's a sci-fi book/short story I remember where humans colonized many planets, but were generally divided and fighting each other, and there was an alien empire that was unified and was supposed to conquer all of us. There were a lot of Greek/Persian comparisons in the text itself, specifically that because the human colonies were always fighting they had better weaponry than the at-peace Persian Empire analogues. By any chance was it "Homo Sol" by Isaac Asimov?
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Jun 27, 2012 04:53
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I remember reading this book in 7th grade about a war with Streetcars. They used pea shooters to shoot out the tires. That is all I remember about this book. It was one of the weirdest books I have ever read. Any ideas?
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Jun 27, 2012 16:11
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DaGr8Gatzby posted:I remember reading this book in 7th grade about a war with Streetcars. They used pea shooters to shoot out the tires. That is all I remember about this book. It was one of the weirdest books I have ever read.
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Jun 27, 2012 16:49
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Goons > Wolfram Alpha .. thank you.
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Jun 27, 2012 22:01
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I just stumbled across this thread and thought of a book that's been bugging me on and off for years now. I read it I think it junior high school, so the 90's. It was a story about a modern day Jewish girl with grandparents who survived the Holocaust. Then somehow she goes back in time to Poland or wherever in that time, and becomes her own grandmother's friend as WW2 starts and they all get sent to the camp. I think it ended with the girl willingly going to the gas chamber to save her own grandmother, then waking up back in the present. I have memories of this book, but not the slightest clue of the title or author or anything else.
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Jun 28, 2012 10:26
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This sounds like The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen.
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Jun 28, 2012 11:18
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Holy Goddamn crap that looks like it. I never thought I'd answer that question. Thank you so much.
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Jun 28, 2012 11:36
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I've been thinking about this specific collection of short stories that I read my senior year of high school. I can't remember what it's called for the life of me, but I remember the cover was a series of photos of someone jumping off of the roof of a building. The photos were actually only of the person's feet as they approached and jumped off the ledge, and the first story was about an EMT's very last day on the job, in which he sees a man jump off (I think) the Brooklyn bridge. The jumper does this tremendous dive and as he's dying, the EMT tells him how amazing of a jump it was. It was pretty surreal, and I'd really like to get my hands on that collection. Does this ring a bell to anyone?
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Jun 29, 2012 07:04
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BatteredFeltFedora posted:By any chance was it "Homo Sol" by Isaac Asimov? That doesn't look like it, sorry. These aliens were sort of like how we view the chinese today, ie as a threatening and potentially overpowering force.
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Jun 29, 2012 23:08
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I'm trying to remember the name of a Young Adult mystery novel that I read a long time ago. It involves 2-3 children investigating an eccentric millionaire and/or his missing fortune. They eventually find his skeleton underneath the house or in an underground passage with the burned remains of the money. The man was trying to burn his fortune but succumbed to the fire, the smoke, or just old age. The kids get to keep the remaining unburned money. Any ideas?
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Jul 1, 2012 09:09
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Lyon posted:I'm trying to remember the name of a Young Adult mystery novel that I read a long time ago. It involves 2-3 children investigating an eccentric millionaire and/or his missing fortune. Makes me think of the Alfred Hitchcock and Three Investigators series. I don't recall that specific plot, but I didn't read all of them, and they occasionally were a bit grim. Any other details you can remember? Failing that, maybe a Hardy Boys novel?
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Jul 1, 2012 18:39
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As a preteen (around 1992+) I read a series of "young adult" fantasy books about dragons and a parallel world inhabited by them. The kids who found a portal to this world lived in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. As soon as they arrived they were confronted by people hunting for "wyrms" (evil dragons) and one of the kids was called out for wearing a Cape Breton shirt because it was the sign of the chief antagonist, an evil sorcerer named Breton. I can't recall the names of any other characters. I've tried in vain to find these books to read again and relive a slice of my childhood but haven't been able to find them. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
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Jul 3, 2012 03:56
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Hobnob posted:Makes me think of the Alfred Hitchcock and Three Investigators series. I don't recall that specific plot, but I didn't read all of them, and they occasionally were a bit grim. Any other details you can remember? Here's a listing of titles on Amazon, see if anything looks familiar: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_s...elevanceexprank
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Jul 4, 2012 01:00
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Three books: The first was a dystopian future novel where Elvis was like a god, a full suit cost $15 and boardroom battles were fought in some kind of roller-rink. The hero/anti hero of the story had no ears and he worked with a girl with nails in her head as well as a man with no arms and a guy with no legs. I read it as a teenager and have no idea where to even start with this one... 2nd - It was a large book with no words (that I could remember) but horror/fantasy/sc fi pictures/art including a blue monster gnawing on a human arm on a pile of bones and some kind of green tree thing with a screaming human mouth. What it was doing in a primary school library is anyone's guess but I'd like to see it again... 3rd - A graphic novel style book that was actually like a CYOA. One part involved chutes and there was also 3 sets of armour you could hide in. I think you were an investigative journalist investing some kind of strange mansion or asylum... Thanks in advance!
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Jul 4, 2012 05:17
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Lyon posted:I'm trying to remember the name of a Young Adult mystery novel that I read a long time ago. It involves 2-3 children investigating an eccentric millionaire and/or his missing fortune. While I don't recall the name I remember something very similar as a movie (made for TV?) that involved 2 kids, a boy and a girl, who found the skeleton of an old man in his secret underground money lair, where he had burned his fortune for some reason. It very well could have been based on a book, but I definitely remember it as a movie.
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Jul 5, 2012 15:40
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KleenexCMW posted:While I don't recall the name I remember something very similar as a movie (made for TV?) that involved 2 kids, a boy and a girl, who found the skeleton of an old man in his secret underground money lair, where he had burned his fortune for some reason. It very well could have been based on a book, but I definitely remember it as a movie. In either the movie that you remember, or in the book that Lyon's trying to find, was there a museum involved? Either the kids ran away and were hiding in a museum, or the old guy owned a museum, or something. If not, then I'm remembering something else entirely.
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Jul 5, 2012 16:15
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miryei posted:In either the movie that you remember, or in the book that Lyon's trying to find, was there a museum involved? Either the kids ran away and were hiding in a museum, or the old guy owned a museum, or something.
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Jul 5, 2012 19:29
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miryei posted:In either the movie that you remember, or in the book that Lyon's trying to find, was there a museum involved? Either the kids ran away and were hiding in a museum, or the old guy owned a museum, or something. I don't think there was a museum, just the old man's large house filled with stuff. I think that one of the character's families had just moved into the house, since the old man had been missing for so long. The kid living in the house teamed up with a neighbor kid, both in their early teens, to solve the mystery of the old man's disappearance. I want to say that we were shown this movie in late elementary school or middle school (early 90's), and it had the pretty weak lesson about being sure to ventilate your hand-dug underground lair in case you decide to burn your money. Or maybe there was no lesson and the teachers just wanted to keep us quite for a couple hours. Now that this has come up I'd like to track it down as well.
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Jul 5, 2012 20:08
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Was there any magic/sorcery involved? Sounds vaguely like the House With a Clock in its Walls series by John Bellairs, but I don't think those were ever made into films.
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Jul 5, 2012 20:47
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miryei posted:In either the movie that you remember, or in the book that Lyon's trying to find, was there a museum involved? Either the kids ran away and were hiding in a museum, or the old guy owned a museum, or something. There was a book with a similar feel to the first Boxcar Children book (when they were just living in the boxcar, before they became adventurers/detectives) where a girl and her brother runaway from home and live in a museum/library. They get money from the wishing fountain and other clever little bits like that. I forget what it was called but I remember liking it quite a bit when I was in elementary school. Not the book I'm talking about though I don't think.
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Jul 5, 2012 22:46
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Lyon posted:There was a book with a similar feel to the first Boxcar Children book (when they were just living in the boxcar, before they became adventurers/detectives) where a girl and her brother runaway from home and live in a museum/library. They get money from the wishing fountain and other clever little bits like that. That's the one Action Jacktion mentioned above, "From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler."
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Jul 5, 2012 22:54
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Amelia Song posted:That's the one Action Jacktion mentioned above, "From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler." Yes, and that's the one that your descriptions reminded me of, though I know it's wrong now.
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Jul 5, 2012 23:00
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Was there any magic/sorcery involved? Sounds vaguely like the House With a Clock in its Walls series by John Bellairs, but I don't think those were ever made into films. No magic or sorcery, and I'm a huge Bellairs fan (and was at the time I saw the movie) so I would have been super excited if that was the case.
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Jul 5, 2012 23:14
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Lyon posted:I'm trying to remember the name of a Young Adult mystery novel that I read a long time ago. It involves 2-3 children investigating an eccentric millionaire and/or his missing fortune. It's the Haunted Mansion Mystery by Virginia Masterman Smith. It was turned into an ABC Weekend Special starring Christian Slater in the very early 80s too. I checked it out of the library last year and it took me right back. Beerdeer fucked around with this message at 18:52 on Jul 6, 2012 |
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Jul 6, 2012 18:50
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Beerdeer posted:It's the Haunted Mansion Mystery by Virginia Masterman Smith. It was turned into an ABC Weekend Special starring Christian Slater in the very early 80s too. Oh hell yes. Looking on IMDB that's the movie I remember watching in school, hopefully it's also the book Lyon was thinking of and you'll have solved a Double Mystery.
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Jul 6, 2012 23:21
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There are a couple Young adult books I'd like to revisit from my elementary and middle school years, but I can't recall the names. I'd appreciate it if anyone could try to give me some names. The first one takes place sometime in the 20th century where this kid runs away from home(I think his home was an apartment) because something happened to his parents. The kid is in this Teens or younger I believe. He begins living on the street and meets two people he sticks with for a while. One of the guys is a 20~40 year old black guy and the other person is an old white dude. Both guys are also homeless. For some reason I remember this one event where the main character and his two homeless pals are chilling around a fire(In a barrel I think) when an old lady approaches and offers them a pie if they let her warm herself around their fire. The Old White guy doesn't eat any and the woman thinks he is about to accuse her of stealing the pie and goes off on a tangent about how it fell off a truck. The old guy tells her to chill because he is just not feeling well. Later the Old white guy dies and for some reason the main character and the black dude decided that they need to sleep in a building that was just painted. The kid gets pretty sick and the black guy takes him to the hospital. The kid blacked out on the way there. The kid wakes up as a patient in the hospital, gets interrogated by a social worker, and eventually meets the black guy again who is no longer homeless. Hopefully that isn't too vague for someone to identify... Next was a book about some kid's family on a cruiser that sinks in tropical waters. While the ship is sinking I believe everyone makes it into those life boat thingies but some poo poo happens and the kid wakes up blind on an island alone with some old guy. The old guy is smart and knows how to survive and tries to teach the kid how to work, even while blind, but the kid is being a brat. The two eventually begin to get along but then a hurricane comes. The old guy and kid cling together on a tree to try and avoid being carried off. They hold on through the storm but the old guy dies for some reason. Then the kid buries the body, and then starts crab fishing with pointed sticks... ... Yea sorry this explanation is so vague. I first read the book back in 2nd grade and haven't read/seen it since. The last book for now has a similar premise to last book, only its a bunch of kids trapped on the island. They try to form their own rules but slowly become rather savage. At one point they try to use this rare sea shell they found as like an imaginary microphone. Who ever holds it while everyone is meeting up is the only who is allowed to talk. Later the kids start hunting. At one point they find a boar and attack. During the attack the kids act like savage animals while they kill it. Eventually the primitive form of government the kids had formed breaks down when the they somehow crush the "nerd" of the group while the nerd was holding the rare sea shell and trying to reason with the other kids.. This kind of symbolized a breakdown of the society among the kids. For some reason the kids decide to try hunting and killing the main character so he runs like hell. He collapses on the beach and finds a soldier when he opens his eyes again. Again, sorry for the kind of vague description. I think I read this book in 5th or 4th grade.
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Jul 7, 2012 19:01
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Nubcakes posted:Eventually the primitive form of government the kids had formed breaks down when the they somehow crush the "nerd" of the group while the nerd was holding the rare sea shell and trying to reason with the other kids.. This kind of symbolized a breakdown of the society among the kids. For some reason the kids decide to try hunting and killing the main character so he runs like hell. He collapses on the beach and finds a soldier when he opens his eyes again.
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Jul 7, 2012 19:13
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Nubcakes posted:Next was a book about some kid's family on a cruiser that sinks in tropical waters. While the ship is sinking I believe everyone makes it into those life boat thingies but some poo poo happens and the kid wakes up blind on an island alone with some old guy. The old guy is smart and knows how to survive and tries to teach the kid how to work, even while blind, but the kid is being a brat. Edit: And the first one might possibly be Monkey Island by Paula Fox. 2nd edit: Definitely Monkey Island, it's got the bit with the lady and the (stolen) pie. wheatpuppy fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Jul 7, 2012 |
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Jul 7, 2012 19:44
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Runcible Cat posted:This one's Lord of the Flies by William Golding. wheatpuppy posted:This is The Cay by Theodore Taylor. You guys are awesome, I think those are the ones! Thankfully they are all cheap and easy to find.
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Jul 7, 2012 21:03
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I'm looking for an SF story/novel, read it sometime in the early 90s but I suspect was written either 70s or early 80s. The background is that someone invented a method of remotely detonating fissile material so nobody can use nuclear bombs or reactors anymore. With oil running out, this has lead to a worldwide energy shortage (solar panels are at a premium) and there's been a number of Fuel and Water Wars (I believe they are referred to as that) for resources. That's the setting, I don't think the actual plot is really much to do to with that, though. At one point in the story a village/settlement is attacked when it's found to have working solar panels. It might be something about receiving an alien transmission though I may be conflating another story. It's definitely not Bob Shaw's Ground Zero Man, though it may be a British or Canadian author.
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Jul 8, 2012 21:14
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I'm sure someone here will know this: It's a sci fi novel that starts with the protagonist talking to a psychiatrist. He's telling the psychiatrist how he became so rich. He was evidently rich enough to afford "full medical", which was a big deal. He used to be on some kind of station/planet where people were paid to take a ride in these alien spacecraft/pod things. Very often the pods didn't work right, or the person taking the ride was killed/never seen again. The pods could go to all kinds of different places and no one knew how they worked. The protagonist ultimately became rich by taking one of these pods, which took him through/near a black hole. The data collected was evidently invaluable. Any ideas?
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Jul 9, 2012 15:53
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