|
miryei posted:This sounds familiar, but I can't remember the title or author. If I'm remembering the same book, the super important thing was gold in color--maybe egg shaped? At one point the young girl main character used a melty chocolate bar to make a handprint on a crate she needed to come back and check later, which allowed her to mark it while the bad guys assumed she was just a stupid messy kid. The girl could also see shapes in hyperspace, which was unusual, because most people in that setting just got sick looking at it. Uglies?
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2015 05:40
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 10:39 |
|
|
miryei posted:This sounds familiar, but I can't remember the title or author. If I'm remembering the same book, the super important thing was gold in color--maybe egg shaped? At one point the young girl main character used a melty chocolate bar to make a handprint on a crate she needed to come back and check later, which allowed her to mark it while the bad guys assumed she was just a stupid messy kid. The girl could also see shapes in hyperspace, which was unusual, because most people in that setting just got sick looking at it. Ahhhhhh, I think whatever that is, that's it! The hyperspace thing sounds incredibly familiar.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2015 19:13
|
|
|
miryei posted:I'm looking for a story which was science fiction, and most of the people were genetically engineered to be genius supermodel/athletes. The main character was a teenage girl who was not genetically modified, and who was sort of frumpy and overweight. Other kids insult her by calling her TB, for "throwback"--basically calling her a Neanderthal. At one point she mentions that she's so saggy that she can hold a stylus under her breast. She's mad at her parents for not modifying her like everyone else. Then there's some terrible disease that goes around, and it turns out that one of the standard modifications that almost everyone has makes you super susceptible to this disease, and most of her classmates die. Sisters by Greg Bear.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2015 19:23
|
|
|
Puzzle Thing posted:Ahhhhhh, I think whatever that is, that's it! The hyperspace thing sounds incredibly familiar. This also sounds really familiar to me but I can't remember what it is either.
|
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2015 18:15
|
|
|
ToxicFrog posted:This also sounds really familiar to me but I can't remember what it is either. I just found the one I was thinking of, it's Alien Secrets
|
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2015 18:38
|
|
|
At least 10 years ago, I read a series of young adult books. I think it might have been a trilogy. It involved the young woman main character going into an alternate world inside TV sets. I think I remember her participating in some sort of game show. I don't remember what the conflict was, but at some point she has to race to a TV store in the mall because her TV at home is broken or something. Does anyone recognize this one?
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2015 17:29
|
|
|
22 Eargesplitten posted:At least 10 years ago, I read a series of young adult books. I think it might have been a trilogy. It involved the young woman main character going into an alternate world inside TV sets. I think I remember her participating in some sort of game show. I don't remember what the conflict was, but at some point she has to race to a TV store in the mall because her TV at home is broken or something. Does anyone recognize this one? Finders Keepers by Emily Rodda. I loved that book so much. It's a boy, not a girl.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2015 13:11
|
|
|
An illustrated childrens' book. In the 'margins' or boring space of the illustrations, the illustrator drew little The Borrowers-style villages and scenarios. I really want to say Anthony Browne but I think I'm conflating this book with Changes, which I also owned at the time.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2015 11:10
|
|
|
Brain In A Jar posted:An illustrated childrens' book. In the 'margins' or boring space of the illustrations, the illustrator drew little The Borrowers-style villages and scenarios. Could be the "What a mess" books by Frank Muir, they had a lot of weird little people in the margins.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2015 14:18
|
|
|
Hedrigall posted:Finders Keepers by Emily Rodda. I loved that book so much. It's a boy, not a girl. That sounds familiar, and looking at the second book in the series, it sounds even more familiar. Now I'm wondering what I got it mixed up with, though. This one is more of a long shot, but this is the one part I distinctly remember about this book. The main character is a girl, her little brother has gotten involved in some magical thing or another that lets him know the future, at least by a day or so. He's insisting that it's going to rain, she says it won't because the forecast didn't say anything about rain, and it doesn't look like it's going to rain. They go on a walk, he warns her that her new Italian leather shoes are going to get "rooned." She corrects him that it's "ruined," and that they won't, because it's not going to rain. It does rain, and that's when she realizes something weird is going on with him. I know, that's very little to go off of, but for some reason that's the one thing I remember for sure as being from that book, and I had it mixed up with Finders Keepers.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2015 16:23
|
|
|
A sci-fi series where the ruling class were a bunch of genetically modified super-beings who were pretty much all killed in a revolution engineered by one of the elites who was a general. One series in this world is about restoring the lost heir to the throne. The other is about a band of mercenaries post-restoration of the monarchy, the leader of which has one leg and a prosthesis concealing many weapons and he's hunting down his old partner who betrayed him who turns out to have transitioned into a woman. I can cough up a million more little details about this series, but none of them is a name that might lead me to finding a title.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2015 23:47
|
|
|
there wolf posted:A sci-fi series where the ruling class were a bunch of genetically modified super-beings who were pretty much all killed in a revolution engineered by one of the elites who was a general. One series in this world is about restoring the lost heir to the throne. The other is about a band of mercenaries post-restoration of the monarchy, the leader of which has one leg and a prosthesis concealing many weapons and he's hunting down his old partner who betrayed him who turns out to have transitioned into a woman. I can cough up a million more little details about this series, but none of them is a name that might lead me to finding a title. Wild shot, since I only ever read part of the first one, but "Star of the Guardians" by Margaret Weis?
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2015 03:54
|
|
|
Lemniscate Blue posted:Wild shot, since I only ever read part of the first one, but "Star of the Guardians" by Margaret Weis? That's it! So many years of searching... Thanks.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2015 16:37
|
|
|
A trilogy of weird fantasy novels. The second one is set in a "pastel" colored city, and revolves around efforts to stop a race of rapacious locust-like creatures from eating everything. This is all actually a dream of someone in England. Neil Gaiman did the introduction to a reprint. Edit: okay I googled immediately after posting, and the first book is actually called "The Pastel City", the series is Viriconium, I have solved my own problem.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2015 05:25
|
|
|
I remember reading this novel at least fifteen years ago, probably more. There was a girl, maybe the daughter of a noble or something, she finds a sword, kills a dragon, brings its' head back home. The head ends up rolling down the street and maybe the dragon could talk? I think there's a magical sword and some sort of fire-resistant grease. It's all kind of jumbled up, but I'd really love it if anyone could remember the name. Thanks
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2015 03:14
|
|
|
Loopyface posted:I remember reading this novel at least fifteen years ago, probably more. There was a girl, maybe the daughter of a noble or something, she finds a sword, kills a dragon, brings its' head back home. The head ends up rolling down the street and maybe the dragon could talk? I think there's a magical sword and some sort of fire-resistant grease. It's all kind of jumbled up, but I'd really love it if anyone could remember the name. Thanks A google search for "fireproof grease dragon book" led to The Hero and the Crown amongst a bunch of nethack info. Lprsti99 fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Apr 13, 2015 |
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2015 03:32
|
|
|
Lprsti99 posted:A google search for "fireproof grease dragon book" led to The Hero and the Crown. Dammit. I saw the sequel and didn't bother reading the description for the prequel. Thanks, I appreciate it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2015 03:35
|
|
|
Loopyface posted:Dammit. I saw the sequel and didn't bother reading the description for the prequel. Thanks, I appreciate it. No problem, it led me to this site, which I'm finding rather hilarious.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2015 03:41
|
|
|
Lprsti99 posted:No problem, it led me to this site, which I'm finding rather hilarious. Oh cool a literary version of Capalert
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2015 06:48
|
|
|
Humbug Scoolbus posted:Oh cool a literary version of Capalert Does this mean you guys haven't heard of Common Sense Media?
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2015 12:13
|
|
|
Lprsti99 posted:No problem, it led me to this site, which I'm finding rather hilarious. I'm deeply amused that the writer who seems to have the most bad reviews on that site is ... Shakespeare.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2015 20:49
|
|
|
Huck Finn holy poo poo quote:He and Jim break the slavery law throughout the book. Okay, I'm done derailing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2015 00:07
|
|
|
Trying to remember where I read a passage about how an excess of joy or happiness could destroy one's reason as effectively as an excess of misery. Could have been in Sherlock Holmes, maybe aubrey/maturin, not sure; feels like it was something 19th century. edit: nevermind pretty sure it's Nutmeg of Consolation or the one before it quote:Another remarkable circumstance is, that immoderate joy as effectually disorders the mind as anxiety and grief. For it was observable in the famous South Sea year, when so many immense fortunes were suddenly gained, and as suddenly lost, that more people lost their wits from the prodigious flow of unexpected riches, than from the entire loss of their whole substance. ‘That is something to the point,’ he said, ‘but what I really want is a case of the sudden onset of folie de grandeur.’ He glanced at the measures recommended: diet low but not too low, bleeding of course, cupping, saline purgatives, emetics, camphorated vinegar, the strait waistcoat, blistering the head, chalybeate waters, the cold bath; and closed the book. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 03:54 on Apr 16, 2015 |
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2015 03:37
|
|
|
22 Eargesplitten posted:That sounds familiar, and looking at the second book in the series, it sounds even more familiar. This is definitely A Billion for Boris (apparently also called ESP TV?) by Mary Rodgers. It's a sequel to her better-known Freaky Friday - in this one the main character Annabelle's little brother finds a TV that shows tomorrow's programs, including things like the weather and the news, etc. I read this as part of a trilogy collection that also includes Summer Switch, where the brother and the dad switch bodies like the mom and daughter did in the original.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2015 01:12
|
|
|
Edit: Never mind, the title randomly came to me just now.
Ziji fucked around with this message at 12:02 on Apr 20, 2015 |
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2015 11:23
|
|
|
Hoo boy, got a tricky one. I can only remember a few details: - French (translated into English) - Humorous - Involves a guy on a tram - Has a "multiple viewpoints of same event" gimmick I know, not the best details to go on. I'd seriously appreciate it if any goons could help with this.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2015 20:06
|
|
|
I'm trying to remember the name of a dumb fantasy story. The first part was about a brother and sister in an incestuous relationship who are killed. Then in their next life they are resurrected as father and daughter. The father is a sellsword and is creepily protective. I think the girl was also a berserker in a past life. In this world, one of the weapons used in combat is called a dart that's basically a shortened javelin. There was a glossary for all the nonsense fantasy terms. The author's picture on the back had her wearing some unflattering old people sunglasses. I remember all these details except the title. I read it during the heyday of my teenage fantasy obsession years so I can almost guarantee it was schlock.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2015 22:18
|
|
|
moot the hopple posted:I'm trying to remember the name of a dumb fantasy story. The first part was about a brother and sister in an incestuous relationship who are killed. Then in their next life they are resurrected as father and daughter. The father is a sellsword and is creepily protective. I think the girl was also a berserker in a past life. In this world, one of the weapons used in combat is called a dart that's basically a shortened javelin. There was a glossary for all the nonsense fantasy terms. The author's picture on the back had her wearing some unflattering old people sunglasses. *according to my memories of it a decade later.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2015 09:19
|
|
|
Splicer posted:The Deverry Cycle by Katherine Kerr. It's, uh, much better than it sounds*. Yeah that was it. I looked it up and saw that the first book is called "Daggerspell", so there was no way younger no-taste me wasn't going to read it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2015 20:39
|
|
|
Once upon a time I read a post where someone was describing a short story about a post-apocalyptic Earth far, far in the future, in which the extremely wealthy have augmented their bodies and evolved into enormous hulking cyborg colossi, and the only means of survival for everyone else on Earth is to band together in the hundreds to topple and kill one of these creatures and feast on its corpse. I think about this often and would love to read it someday but I have never been able to find it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2015 20:45
|
|
|
I'm looking for a book I know mostly by the cover. It's a young adult fantasy and/or horror book that was part of a series from the 90s or very early 2000s. The picture on the cover is of a fork in the road and a signpost with signs pointing down each road. I think there was a raven sitting on the signpost. One road leads to a horror-like locale and the other to a non-horror locale (I think it was heaven-like). Also I remember the protagonists, of which I think there were three, had unusual names.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2015 00:45
|
|
|
PlatinumJukebox posted:Hoo boy, got a tricky one. I can only remember a few details: Is this perhaps Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau? It's a bus, not a tram but its main gimmick is the retelling of the same short event that happens on the bus in many different styles. It's quite a well known book, by no means obscure at all.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2015 13:40
|
|
|
ivantod posted:Is this perhaps Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau? It's a bus, not a tram but its main gimmick is the retelling of the same short event that happens on the bus in many different styles. It's quite a well known book, by no means obscure at all. Yes, that's it! Thank you so much!
|
|
#
?
Apr 24, 2015 10:50
|
|
|
Short story, I think by Asimov, about a group of scientists that send a robot into the future to send back dispatches. I don't remember many details, but I think it was written in diary form from the perspective of the scientists, and travel to the past was ruled out as a scientific impossibility. Any clues?
|
|
#
?
Apr 24, 2015 16:12
|
|
|
Numbuh 212 posted:This is definitely A Billion for Boris (apparently also called ESP TV?) by Mary Rodgers. It's a sequel to her better-known Freaky Friday - in this one the main character Annabelle's little brother finds a TV that shows tomorrow's programs, including things like the weather and the news, etc. I read this as part of a trilogy collection that also includes Summer Switch, where the brother and the dad switch bodies like the mom and daughter did in the original.  You're good. I never read Freaky Friday, and had no idea it was a sequel.
|
|
#
?
Apr 24, 2015 16:39
|
|
|
Oh, boy. Maybe you guys can help me answer a couple of itchy little back-brain questions! 1. There's this older short story that's basically Needful Things without the supernatural elements. There's a guy who moves into a house on a nice, quiet little street and starts to slowly fabricate and plant 'evidence' that his neighbors are doing bad things--making it look like the husband from this family is having an affair with the wife from that one, like this guy is drinking again, like that guy is embezzling from his company, like those kids broke that window, and so on, and so on--and escalating his efforts over time so that the neighborhood dissolves into paranoia, arguments, fistfights, arrests, suicides, and murders. The story ends with the street looking all ragged and unkempt, with five or six 'For Sale' signs in yards--including the guy's yard, as he quietly moves out again. The story ends with him moving into a house on another nice, quiet little street in another state and the suggestion that this is just his job: to go around the country destroying people's lives in community-sized chunks. I remember being kind of disappointed that Needful Things wasn't more like it, because taking out the supernatural elements and leaving it as something that could actually happen would have made it way scarier, goddamn. 2. At some point in the mid-eighties I was at my great-aunt's house and I was super bored, so I found this lame thriller and read it. It was about this boy who was totally a genius (and was an arrogant jerk because of it) and also I think he was super-rich and away at boarding school or something, and also he maybe had a bodyguard or a driver or something? Anyway, there was some super-sensitive information that only the boy and his father knew the code word to access, and then the boy gets word that his father has either died or disappeared, which means that he absolutely has to rush across the country to find the men his father was working for and pass the secret code word to them--only the Bad Men who were responsible for his father's death/disappearance also knew that the boy knew the secret, so they were after him, oh no. Anyway, the book goes along with the kid getting into scrapes and finally some of the Bad Men corner him in the middle of nowhere when he's alone, and he tells them that he totally has a super-secret ninja bodyguard that no one has ever seen because the ninja's job is to shadow the kid invisibly at all times and save him if his life is in danger. Of course he's totally not lying and the ninja bodyguard takes out all the bad guys and then I think the kid passes out and the bodyguard carries him off on his back? Finally the boy manages to reach his father's employers who want the secret knowledge and it turns out that the boy's father had made his super-genius son memorize a list of thousands of names and addresses (I guess they were spies or people who would need to be extracted or something) and he sits there in the chair and reels off all this information while the men look uncomfortable. Once he's done one of them tests this information by saying 'Person X is at (incorrect) Address Y?, correct?' and the kid is so annoyed that they could watch him perform this trick and then think he was just making it up, so he corrects the guy and then I guess the book ends or something. I'm pretty sure it was terrible, but I'd love to read it again and find out for myself.
|
|
#
?
Apr 25, 2015 00:07
|
|
|
Picayune posted:1. There's this older short story that's basically Needful Things without the supernatural elements. There's a guy who moves into a house on a nice, quiet little street and starts to slowly fabricate and plant 'evidence' that his neighbors are doing bad things--making it look like the husband from this family is having an affair with the wife from that one, like this guy is drinking again, like that guy is embezzling from his company, like those kids broke that window, and so on, and so on--and escalating his efforts over time so that the neighborhood dissolves into paranoia, arguments, fistfights, arrests, suicides, and murders. The story ends with the street looking all ragged and unkempt, with five or six 'For Sale' signs in yards--including the guy's yard, as he quietly moves out again. The story ends with him moving into a house on another nice, quiet little street in another state and the suggestion that this is just his job: to go around the country destroying people's lives in community-sized chunks. The Distributor, by Richard Matheson. I have it in a short story collection of his called "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet", though it is probably in others as well.
|
|
#
?
Apr 25, 2015 05:06
|
|
|
Khizan posted:The Distributor, by Richard Matheson. Ha! Nailed it. Thank you! (How do I not have that collection?)
|
|
#
?
Apr 25, 2015 05:23
|
|
|
A bit of a tricky one here. About 10 years ago I talked about a book with my dad, as I remember it was about Basil Liddell Hart http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._H._Liddell_Hart and the allied response to the German army's superior small arms and training. I really can't remember any more that that.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2015 20:59
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 10:39 |
|
|
I have a couple, one sci-fi, one fantasy. The sci-fi was a short story and a simple premise. When the guy went downstairs, he travelled back in time. Upstairs, forwards in time. I think there might have been some kind of inter-dimensional administrative agency trying to fix whatever problem was causing it. The fantasy one is more difficult. It was perhaps spread across more than one book. A group had to collect something (gems?) to stop A BAD THING from happening. The plot was incredibly contrived and more like the plot of a video game ("Aha, we have captured the gem of the centaur king! Now to challenge the leader of the swamp lords for his gem!"). One of the main party of characters was female and specialised in knives and knife-throwing. I think that the big bad they were trying to stop was also female. And that's all I have.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2015 22:01
|
|
