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I'm looking for the name of a book I read as a kid. All I can remember is that it was a Sci-Fi book about a boy with a chip in his head that let him talk with an AI that he's had for his whole life I think? It was a secret and he didn't know it was an AI until like, the end. I recall something about the kid wanting to buy this girl he liked a pair of diamond earrings after it was suggested to him by the AI. There was also something about some undersea plant network thing that was important for some reason. I'd swear the title was "Star"something and the cover had a picture of a futuristic cruise ship.
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Sep 20, 2014 00:53
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All right this is driving me a little nuts. When I was a kid in the nineties, we bought books on the reg from Scholastic. One of the books I read had the following plot: A dude works out on his bike all year to impress his cousin, because he is a big gross. He's off to a lake for the summer to live with this cousin and their grandmother. In an accident one day, he lands in a pool of water, and when he gets out, he's got mind powers (just telepathy, as I recall, though it could have been more). It turns out--the cousin he's trying to impress has these powers as well, and she's been arranging awful stuff to happen to different people because of what she learns with them (I think she causes a boating accident or something?). Then, their grandmother has the mind powers too, and there's this big showdown thing. I think the female cousin ends up brain dead or something? Who knows. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS BOOK IN MY HEAD
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Sep 22, 2014 22:38
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Captain Magic posted:All right this is driving me a little nuts. When I was a kid in the nineties, we bought books on the reg from Scholastic. One of the books I read had the following plot: could be "the Silent Strength of Stones" by Nina Kiriki Hoffmann?
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Sep 22, 2014 23:28
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fritz posted:could be "the Silent Strength of Stones" by Nina Kiriki Hoffmann? That is a heck of a guess, but no. The telepathy ended up being caused by like, radioactive waste leaking into the water of the lake (or around the lake), not by any sort of magic. I mean, insomuch as telepathy caused by radioactivity isn't magic. I remember that part of it specifically because the Grandma ended up being a super-telepath because she had been drinking the water on purpose, and the kids had only been doused in it.
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Sep 23, 2014 01:02
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This has been bugging me for days. The genre is basically over the top epic space-opera adventure. The plot is that a WWII vet (I think he flew against Japan) is living a normal, boring, somewhat sad life in the 50s until he starts hearing voices which get worse. One voice becomes clear and the guy actually starts talking to it. The voice claims to be a researcher from the future asking to be mind swapped. After a while the guy gives in and accepts the offer, and what do you know he wakes up in the future in the body of the researcher. But it turns out that the researcher was space royalty, poo poo goes the gently caress down and the main character gets very forcibly pulled into a web of interstellar intrigue and war without having any clue of wtf is going on or what to do. I remember the bad guys living in nebula space and having a mind reading machine that turned you into a vegetable. I think there was a second book where the dude was pulled into the future in his physical form. There were reptilian mind controlling aliens.
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Sep 26, 2014 01:26
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^^^ I have no idea what that book is, but somebody better because I want to read that whole series right now. ^^^
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Sep 26, 2014 06:06
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White Phosphorus posted:This has been bugging me for days.
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Sep 26, 2014 10:01
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Okay, someone somewhere has to know this book. I've asked in here before but it's been frustrating me to no end. When I was in primary school (roughly 14 years ago, so this would have been 2000 or so) my teacher had a set of books which were shortened versions of various novels. The only two books I remember reading from that bunch were Black Beauty and this one book that I can't remember the name of. In it, all of humanity has been forced to leave planet earth due to pollution, but they've left the animals behind because they couldn't take them. They now live on a different planet and name their children after the animals that they believe are all dead. The protagonist is named Hummingbird. She somehow ends up leaving this planet and finding another one where she is shocked to learn that the animals abandoned on earth have created a planet for themselves made entirely from rubbish and junk. I don't remember what happens after that but it's the most detailed memory I have out of all the books I've forgotten so I thought it might be the easiest to find. I've had no luck so far though.
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Sep 26, 2014 14:01
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This is a really long shot. When I was a kid (mid 80s) I remember the library/school had this one book that I absolutely loved. It was about a spaceship. I don't remember too many specifics other than it had a really neat physical mechanic where the spaceship would move from page to page through slots in the page itself! I would love to find this book or a similar book for my son. Hoping someone can help. Thanks!
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Sep 26, 2014 17:18
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I've asked about this one before but I think it's been over a year so I will try again. There was an illustrated book of science fiction stories in my school library. I probably read it in the early 80s, definitely before 1984 and I think probably more like 1981 or 1982. I am pretty sure it was a collection of stories, but I only remember details of one of them. It was about a female space explorer in the future who lived alone on her spaceship. The story explains that she is always nude on her ship, and the paintings/pastels depicted this but in the same way Adam and Eve are shown in children's illustrated bibles. She picks up an alien on some planet that looks pretty much like a brown feather boa, I don't think it had any eyes or other features, just long brown hair. I think she believes it to be an unintelligent animal at first but she starts wearing it wrapped around herself, and it communicates telepathically with her that it loves her. I can't remember any other twists or details to the story but I suspect there were some things that flew right over my head at the time. The art style is memorable, I can still visualize one of the pictures. It was very soft, possibly done with pastels though maybe I am remembering wrong and it was watercolors. I did an image search for illustrations from children's books from that era and the ones in this link are the closest in style to what I remember - http://50watts.com/The-Children-s-Theater-of-the-Absurd Unfortunately, googling for nude female astronauts with furry aliens isn't very productive and can be a bit disturbing. I've been trying to find the name of the book for YEARS, it's a good example of the very strange books I was always finding in the elementary school public library - another was a book about werewolves that described in detail a satanic ritual you could perform to become a werewolf. EDITED TO ADD: Here's a couple of other books I've tried unsuccessfully to identify in this thread over the last couple of years, might as well re-post them too. REPOST 1 I remembered another book I'd like to know the name of. It was a pretty generic fantasy that was very reminiscent of Lord of the Rings - I think the main storyline even involved a bunch of stereotypical dwarves teamed up with a hobbit-like humanoid. I know there's a ton of stuff like that, so here's the only detail I can remember. The main characters are in an old underground dungeon-type place, and are being menaced by hordes of goblin-type creatures. They are cornered in a small room, maybe a tomb, and the goblins, after several failed assaults, start pouring oil into the room to burn the protagonists out. Then the hobbit-like character realizes that a magic sword can be used as a key to open a secret passage they use to escape. I read this around 1991 or 1992. I'm not sure when the books were written, but I remember the art style of the book cover made me think it was 70s or early 80s. REPOST 2 While visiting my late mother, I read an old book that stuck with me that I haven't been able to identify. It was several years ago, but this is what I remember about it. The book was written in the late 1940s. The main character had worked in a steel mill, he was connected to the management. He ended up fighting in WWII, and was on a ship that sank, because of faulty steel provided by the company he had worked for - he actually saw the company's stamp on a piece of metal, and was aware before he joined the war that an unscrupulous person in the company was increasing their profits by providing inferior steel. The story was set after he returned after the war, I think to Pittsburgh. He had a girlfriend that he knew before the war, and once when he returned on some kind of leave he saw her with a group of other girls who were trying to be picked up by sailors and soldiers. After the war she buys a fur coat on credit, and the store deceived her about the terms and the payments ended up being more than she could afford. She goes to a city alderman that she knew to see if she could get help about the harassment by her creditors, and he rapes her. The protagonist is trying to get justice, both for the person who sold bad steel and the city alderman who raped his girlfriend. I can't remember how it resolved, but I remember thinking it was well written, the prose seemed very modern for the time it was written, and the degree of cynicism about American institutions seemed pretty high for the era as well. I haven't had any luck finding anything about it, I think I may have even asked about it in a thread like this one (maybe this one) months or even years ago. ClearAirTurbulence fucked around with this message at 15:16 on Sep 27, 2014 |
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Sep 27, 2014 15:06
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^^^^The fantasy one sounds like it could be a Dennis McKiernan book.
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Sep 27, 2014 19:52
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REPOST 1 I remembered another book I'd like to know the name of. It was a pretty generic fantasy that was very reminiscent of Lord of the Rings - I think the main storyline even involved a bunch of stereotypical dwarves teamed up with a hobbit-like humanoid. I know there's a ton of stuff like that, so here's the only detail I can remember. The main characters are in an old underground dungeon-type place, and are being menaced by hordes of goblin-type creatures. They are cornered in a small room, maybe a tomb, and the goblins, after several failed assaults, start pouring oil into the room to burn the protagonists out. Then the hobbit-like character realizes that a magic sword can be used as a key to open a secret passage they use to escape. I read this around 1991 or 1992. I'm not sure when the books were written, but I remember the art style of the book cover made me think it was 70s or early 80s. That's not one of the Shannara books is it?
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Sep 28, 2014 22:46
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Laverna posted:When I was in primary school (roughly 14 years ago, so this would have been 2000 or so) my teacher had a set of books which were shortened versions of various novels. The only two books I remember reading from that bunch were Black Beauty and this one book that I can't remember the name of. I've never read it, but I think this might be "The Star Zoo" by Harry Gilbert. Reviews from the target audience, etc here: http://www.librarything.com/work/3697575/reviews
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Sep 29, 2014 12:51
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Rhaegar posted:This is a really long shot. I had one of these about a hot air balloon. It had a green cover and a little pocket to keep the balloon in. I think my granddad might still have it somewhere, I'll ask.
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Sep 29, 2014 14:28
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Nettle Soup posted:I had one of these about a hot air balloon. It had a green cover and a little pocket to keep the balloon in. I think my granddad might still have it somewhere, I'll ask. Wow! Thank you, that would be great.
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Sep 29, 2014 16:59
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Gorbash posted:I've never read it, but I think this might be "The Star Zoo" by Harry Gilbert. Reviews from the target audience, etc here: http://www.librarything.com/work/3697575/reviews That's it! Thank you so much! And wow, those reviews sure are something.
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Sep 29, 2014 20:57
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Runcible Cat posted:That's The Star Kings by Edmond Hamilton. Awesome! Thanks.
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Sep 30, 2014 01:43
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savinhill posted:^^^^The fantasy one sounds like it could be a Dennis McKiernan book. Thanks, it was! I think it was "The Brega Path" that I read.
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Sep 30, 2014 06:46
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Rhjamiz posted:I'm looking for the name of a book I read as a kid. All I can remember is that it was a Sci-Fi book about a boy with a chip in his head that let him talk with an AI that he's had for his whole life I think? It was a secret and he didn't know it was an AI until like, the end. I recall something about the kid wanting to buy this girl he liked a pair of diamond earrings after it was suggested to him by the AI. There was also something about some undersea plant network thing that was important for some reason. Starswarm, by Jerry Pournelle.
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Sep 30, 2014 07:08
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Zeth posted:Starswarm, by Jerry Pournelle. Yep, that's the one. Thanks!
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Oct 1, 2014 06:41
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Okay here's a doozy because I have very few details. I just remembered a book series I read as a kid. It was very likely to be published by Scholastic Corporation. It was a whole series of books but they weren't all tied to the same subject and had different names, like Goosebumps. It was a lot like Goosebumps, or Animorphs, or Everworld, other series I was reading at the time, elementary/middle-school reading level stuff, not quite high school. I remember it had to do with aliens and monsters a whole lot. The biggest thing I can remember is that all the covers had these really bad 90s CG renders, most of which had aliens in them which looked like demons or cat-monsters. If I could see the cover, I'd definitely recognize it. I remember this big guy with huge horns on the sides of his head... (kinda like Violator from Spawn?) They were a whole bunch of different one-off kids books just like goosebumps but with another name. I hope that's enough 
Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Oct 2, 2014 |
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Oct 2, 2014 18:05
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Zaphod42 posted:Okay here's a doozy because I have very few details. I just remembered a book series I read as a kid. It was very likely to be published by Scholastic Corporation. It was a whole series of books but they weren't all tied to the same subject and had different names, like Goosebumps. It was a lot like Goosebumps, or Animorphs, or Everworld, other series I was reading at the time, elementary/middle-school reading level stuff, not quite high school. It's not the Goners series by Jamie Simons is it? http://tinyurl.com/ljsonrc That seem to have dropped off the face of the planet and if I still had mine I apparently could charge a million space bucks to sell.
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Oct 2, 2014 18:30
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a friendly penguin posted:It's not the Goners series by Jamie Simons is it? Nice try but nope. The covers were definitely cheesy 90s CG, not hand drawn. Like playstation level cinematics. Flat-colored phong shading.
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Oct 2, 2014 18:38
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Zaphod42 posted:Okay here's a doozy because I have very few details. I just remembered a book series I read as a kid. It was very likely to be published by Scholastic Corporation. It was a whole series of books but they weren't all tied to the same subject and had different names, like Goosebumps. It was a lot like Goosebumps, or Animorphs, or Everworld, other series I was reading at the time, elementary/middle-school reading level stuff, not quite high school. Bone Chillers? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_Chillers
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Oct 3, 2014 11:00
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Wezzo posted:Bone Chillers? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_Chillers Wow, those look exactly like goosebumps. But no. Again, the covers had 3D cheesy CG on them, not hand drawn art. That's one of the few key details I remember.
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Oct 3, 2014 16:11
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Zaphod42 posted:Okay here's a doozy because I have very few details. I just remembered a book series I read as a kid. It was very likely to be published by Scholastic Corporation. It was a whole series of books but they weren't all tied to the same subject and had different names, like Goosebumps. It was a lot like Goosebumps, or Animorphs, or Everworld, other series I was reading at the time, elementary/middle-school reading level stuff, not quite high school. Have you asked Scholastic Publishing directly?
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Oct 3, 2014 21:38
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xcheopis posted:Have you asked Scholastic Publishing directly? What, just email them "hey did you guys ever sell a book with weird cheesy CG monsters on the cover?" 
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Oct 3, 2014 22:17
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Zaphod42 posted:What, just email them "hey did you guys ever sell a book with weird cheesy CG monsters on the cover?" Yes, why not? Give them the same information you gave here.
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Oct 3, 2014 22:23
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Zaphod42 posted:Wow, those look exactly like goosebumps. In the UK, the covers were more like what you describe, but probably still not quite matching your description: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_nr_n_1?rh=n%3A291758%2Ck%3Abonechillers&keywords=bonechillers&ie=UTF8&qid=1412371931&rnid=1642204031
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Oct 3, 2014 22:33
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Imagine the poor librarian who has to research this poo poo based on half remembrances from people's childhoods.
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Oct 3, 2014 22:35
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Wezzo posted:In the UK, the covers were more like what you describe, but probably still not quite matching your description: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_nr_n_1?rh=n%3A291758%2Ck%3Abonechillers&keywords=bonechillers&ie=UTF8&qid=1412371931&rnid=1642204031 It looked more like this:  (Not that exactly, that's reboot, a great show. But it was that same high-poly phong-shaded flat-textured look of 90s CG) xcheopis posted:Yes, why not? Give them the same information you gave here. BgRdMchne posted:Imagine the poor librarian who has to research this poo poo based on half remembrances from people's childhoods. Well I shot Scholastic an email, we'll see what I get back. If I ever do find the series Its gonna be funny to see how wrong my memories are. And they're probably not the best books anyways. But my nostalgia! Edit: Well they did get back to me. They took a guess (sadly wrong) but mostly just said "yeah sorry we have no idea" Maybe I'll run into it at a half-price books some day. Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Oct 3, 2014 |
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Oct 3, 2014 22:41
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Was it something like this? http://books.google.com/books?id=o4nr_YWggj4C Or possibly one of the books in the Point Horror series?
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Oct 4, 2014 05:13
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ZoeDomingo posted:Was it something like this? http://books.google.com/books?id=o4nr_YWggj4C That's not CG  So no.I think I have read that Aliens book though. Hm, I guess if they're still around they may have a different cover now. Or more likely they were just forgotten.
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Oct 4, 2014 15:49
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Nettle Soup posted:I had one of these about a hot air balloon. It had a green cover and a little pocket to keep the balloon in. I think my granddad might still have it somewhere, I'll ask. Just wondering if you were able to figure out what this book was called. Thanks again.
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Oct 6, 2014 19:51
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Zaphod42 posted:Okay here's a doozy because I have very few details. I just remembered a book series I read as a kid. It was very likely to be published by Scholastic Corporation. It was a whole series of books but they weren't all tied to the same subject and had different names, like Goosebumps. It was a lot like Goosebumps, or Animorphs, or Everworld, other series I was reading at the time, elementary/middle-school reading level stuff, not quite high school. Did you see this page? This is only the first part of a series of 4, so be sure to check out the other ones, a cover might ring a bell.
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Oct 6, 2014 21:08
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Zola posted:Did you see this page? This is only the first part of a series of 4, so be sure to check out the other ones, a cover might ring a bell. HOLY loving poo poo YOU DID IT Halfway down that page. STRANGE MATTER.  Zola Wins!Mind blown.  See the lovely CG covers I was talking about? None of those is the beast/alien guy I was talking about, but I DEFINITELY remember the covers to Bad Circuits and Fly The Unfriendly Skies. It appears that since they have been re-released with new covers, so that explains why it was hard to recognize. Time to go read them and find out how lovely my middle-school reading tastes were. Thanks! Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 23:07 on Oct 6, 2014 |
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Oct 6, 2014 23:04
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^ Make sure to tell the poor guy at Scholastic  Rhaegar posted:Just wondering if you were able to figure out what this book was called. Not yet, I only see him once a week or so and it's a bit of an obscure thing to ask, I'm talking to him on Wednesday so I'll ask then. While I was looking, for reference other books I've found are ISBN 1855651343, Up and Away! (Really cool, it has a magnet and the balloon kind of slots into the page, also worryingly obscure) and David Woods "Pop-Through-The-Slot" books, neither of which look anything like the one I remember but might help you. Edit: I found the ones I was thinking of, Ted and Dolly's Magic Carpet Ride and Ted and Dolly's Fairytale Flight, by Richard Fowler. Seems he's worked with David Wood too. [ Link ] Were you thinking of this one? The Amazing Journey of Space Ship H-20 Nettle Soup fucked around with this message at 00:20 on Oct 7, 2014 |
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Oct 6, 2014 23:30
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I've been trying to remember this book from when I was younger. I read it in 1992, which is when I think it came out. Young adult about a girl and a dragon. I don't remember any other details about it unfortunately.
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Oct 7, 2014 01:37
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calandryll posted:I've been trying to remember this book from when I was younger. I read it in 1992, which is when I think it came out. Young adult about a girl and a dragon. I don't remember any other details about it unfortunately. Swanwick's The Iron Dragon's Daughter came out in 93, though I probably wouldn't classify it as YA.
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Oct 7, 2014 02:43
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 15:39 |
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calandryll posted:I've been trying to remember this book from when I was younger. I read it in 1992, which is when I think it came out. Young adult about a girl and a dragon. I don't remember any other details about it unfortunately. Alternatively, Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede, though that came out a couple years before.
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Oct 7, 2014 02:54
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