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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:I read one last year probably that I can't remember. All I can remember is there was a scene at the ending climax where the protagonist was on an island digging up some arm that was buried because that's what the NYPD? do if it's a John doe body part, and there was a big storm going on I think. I recall he had to avoid boats and poo poo to get onto the island. Gideon's Sword, by Lincoln Child?
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Jun 11, 2017 17:31
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When I was a kid my dad read me an excerpt of a book so this is going to be difficult probably. I assume the book was detective fiction, both because my dad loved mystery books and because what I remember of the excerpt. The excerpt was in a Scottish dialect. Because it was read to me I don't know if the book itself was in a Scottish dialect or just the character speaking. I also remember that the content of the excerpt was suggesting that someone be forced to bring his wife to court (the exact language was something like "produce your good woman") within like two weeks or it be assumed he murdered her. I also remember some suspicion that the suspect may have turned his wife into haggis or sausage or something.
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Jun 11, 2017 22:35
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This is a long shot. 15-20 years ago, PROBABLY for school, I read a book that had some kind of nuclear winter/holocaust theme, and one of the characters was a stereotypical greedy/fat/bad man who either hoarded or stole or both all kinds of money and jewellery, and the end of his arc was him dying from radiation poisoning (I think), with all his watches and rings bonded to his skin. Does that strike a chord at all? I googled everything I could think of and scoured all kinds of middle school book lists, thinking I'd recognise it if I saw it. My brain says it was Ray Bradbury but I really don't think it was. I would've been 8-13ish, so appropriate for that age group (or possibly older teen). Help!
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Jun 18, 2017 14:06
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Tourette Meltdown posted:This is a long shot. 15-20 years ago, PROBABLY for school, I read a book that had some kind of nuclear winter/holocaust theme, and one of the characters was a stereotypical greedy/fat/bad man who either hoarded or stole or both all kinds of money and jewellery, and the end of his arc was him dying from radiation poisoning (I think), with all his watches and rings bonded to his skin. Does that strike a chord at all? I googled everything I could think of and scoured all kinds of middle school book lists, thinking I'd recognise it if I saw it. My brain says it was Ray Bradbury but I really don't think it was. I would've been 8-13ish, so appropriate for that age group (or possibly older teen). Help! Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon. One of a few books I enjoyed reading for school, though I'd forgotten the bit about the radioactive jewelry.
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Jun 18, 2017 15:39
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This book is a comic, I saw it at the library but didn't take it at the time, now I can't remember what it is called. It starts with black panels as a couple lie in bed together, the woman tells the man she is no longer in love with him and wants to see other people, he agrees to an open relationship and they stay in the same house, further in he moves into another room and she brings a new boyfriend back to the house.
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Jun 20, 2017 12:57
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Are you sure it's a comic and not MY LIFE?
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Jun 20, 2017 18:21
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oldpainless posted:Are you sure it's a comic and not MY LIFE? More like oldbabeless 504 posted:This book is a comic, I saw it at the library but didn't take it at the time, now I can't remember what it is called. More details please! Single issue or graphic novel, colour or b&w?
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Jun 20, 2017 19:55
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Lemniscate Blue posted:Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon. One of a few books I enjoyed reading for school, though I'd forgotten the bit about the radioactive jewelry. That's it, holy poo poo! Thanks!
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Jun 20, 2017 20:18
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504 posted:This book is a comic, I saw it at the library but didn't take it at the time, now I can't remember what it is called. I think I read this E/N thread.
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Jun 20, 2017 20:39
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I've been trying to recall this short story off and on for a few years - I may have come across it around 2002-ish but am not entirely certain. It's possibly a side-work to a larger series, but I don't know. This story is set in a post-apocalyptic future where technology is now at a pastoral level. It's about a red-headed kid that no-one really likes, who lives in a town visited by 3 travelers - all red-headed too - who perform marvels for the villagers and are regarded as some by witches. Turns out that red hair is some indication of heightened intellect, and the travelers are scientists of the old world out to try to maintain/restore the old technologies scattered around. Over the course of the story they (or the boy) activate some artifact which melts the snow shrouding the distant mountains, triggering a flood which nearly (or perhaps does?) destroys the village - some lives are saved because they boy got them a warning, but some people thought he was crying wolf and stayed in place.
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Jun 20, 2017 23:11
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Sanford posted:More like oldbabeless Graphic novel, I think it was black and white, if not then muted colors. The art style reminded me of Crumb.
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Jun 21, 2017 00:21
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Several years ago I was in the Strand in NYC buying books, and I foolish didn't buy the book I'm about to describe: it was a compendium of ghosts/myths/folklore/weird things in... I think it was, Britian. It was a green book with encyclopedic style entries on how some random village had a witch, or there was a legend about... a thing in this other place. It was a thick paperback, it had pictures (somewhat) and was interesting...and I didn't buy it. And google isn't really helping me find it as I'm not sure I'm finding the right ones.  Help?
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Jun 25, 2017 06:01
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StrixNebulosa posted:Several years ago I was in the Strand in NYC buying books, and I foolish didn't buy the book I'm about to describe: it was a compendium of ghosts/myths/folklore/weird things in... I think it was, Britian. It was a green book with encyclopedic style entries on how some random village had a witch, or there was a legend about... a thing in this other place. It was a thick paperback, it had pictures (somewhat) and was interesting...and I didn't buy it. And google isn't really helping me find it as I'm not sure I'm finding the right ones. A Dictionary of English Folklore by Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud? Anything by Simpson and/or Roud is a pro read anyway, even if it's not your book.
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Jun 25, 2017 09:42
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If it's not that, it might be The Lore of the Land Unkempt fucked around with this message at 10:18 on Jun 25, 2017 |
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Jun 25, 2017 10:08
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Runcible Cat posted:A Dictionary of English Folklore by Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud? Unkempt posted:If it's not that, it might be These are both close, but not it. Either way, thank you because I'm going to get 'em both just for the reading! (I want to say it was more... place-focused? But now I'm worried that I'm poking the memory too hard and turning into an eyewitness.)
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Jun 25, 2017 10:25
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Was it an older book, perhaps second hand? The contents, being encyclopedic and based on county by county around England sound like Albion - A Guide to Legendary Britain but it looks like it was last published in 1995 and wasn't particularly green. The 1995 version was a paperback, though, so maybe...
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Jun 25, 2017 10:46
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Resident Idiot posted:Was it an older book, perhaps second hand? No... it was definitely contemporary. More details: it was more focused on places on a small scale than the general topics the Oxford Encyclopedia. While it was a paperback, it was one of those that was like an inch thick and almost hardcover, but not. It might have been based on North American places but England feels more accurate. Also, this is a master class in why you should write down titles / look up books BEFORE you wait a year or so and try to drum up details. Thank you for the help, guys, I really appreciate it!
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Jun 25, 2017 11:04
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StrixNebulosa posted:Several years ago I was in the Strand in NYC buying books, and I foolish didn't buy the book I'm about to describe: it was a compendium of ghosts/myths/folklore/weird things in... I think it was, Britian. It was a green book with encyclopedic style entries on how some random village had a witch, or there was a legend about... a thing in this other place. It was a thick paperback, it had pictures (somewhat) and was interesting...and I didn't buy it. And google isn't really helping me find it as I'm not sure I'm finding the right ones. The paperback edition of The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore by Patricia Monaghan is green and fits your description.
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Jun 25, 2017 11:46
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StrixNebulosa posted:These are both close, but not it. Either way, thank you because I'm going to get 'em both just for the reading! it's not the book you're looking for, but carolyne larrington's land of the green man is excellent the lore of the land is very good as well calicokitty posted:The paperback edition of The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore by Patricia Monaghan is green and fits your description. as does the element encyclopedia of the celts. i cant really recommend either of these, though
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Jun 25, 2017 14:31
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This is going to be extremely vague, but maybe someone will happen to have read it. Online short story (might have been tied in with a longer work?) written by a fairly well-known fantasy author - I thought it was Neil Gaiman, but his short stories available online don't look remotely familiar, and searching his name and "dragon" only brings up a quote about fairy tales. Modern-day setting, something is happening underground in a city--earthquakes, maybe. Think the subway was involved. A man trying to figure out what's going on with this meets a woman who does know, the twist is that she's a dragon who brings him to the subway. I have the image in my head of her showing him a wall being hot and maybe cracks and fire behind it. The underground goings-on had something to do with dragons, and her in particular. It was somewhat high-minded and/or modern-mythical, not your typical urban fantasy, aside from an emphasis on how hot this woman was that I remember finding somewhat off-putting although I don't remember why exactly. There might or might not have been a sexual relationship involved. It was okay, but not as impressive as I expected from whoever the author was. Ring any bells?
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Jul 6, 2017 00:46
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I'm looking for a dark fantasy story I read online. It was posted in one of those online fantasy magazines, this year or at least not long ago. The plot was set in / after the second world war in the US, in a lovecraftian setting. The main character was a woman from a town of lovecraftian fish people, who had lost her family in a fish people internment camp and now worked in a bookshop in a big city. The story describes her encounter with Dagon cultists. Some of them don't believe that she's a fish person and don't take her description of her native religion seriously. They plan on sending one of their members into the ocean to become a fish person. The protagonist knows that this won't work and reports them to the police for their own good. There's a book out where she continues working with the police on the typical mythos cases. I want to read that book, but I can't find the story or the book again. I think the author had a feminine name. Tl;dr gimme SJW fish people
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Jul 6, 2017 15:14
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pidan posted:I'm looking for a dark fantasy story I read online. It was posted in one of those online fantasy magazines, this year or at least not long ago. The Litnany of Earth
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Jul 6, 2017 15:29
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Wow, thanks! I've been looking for this for ages
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Jul 6, 2017 16:33
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The book she expanded it to, Winter Tide, is also fantastic. Ruthanna Emrys
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Jul 6, 2017 16:48
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I remember (almost) everything about this story, but not the name of it: It starts following two members of a group tasked with seeking out and preventing AI or AI adjacent technologies, which they are this time by confronting some people (an old man and a young woman, I think) working on something that is either an AI, or close. If I remember correctly, the people initially say it's not like an AI, but they admit it is. The bulk of the story is an infodump from the two anti-AI group people. They say that an AI will inevitably, and in every possible of condition of things, want to grow beyound its existing machinery. It'll want to grow and expand, which would displace everything on Earth. But that would be too constricting, so it would expand to other planets. Then to solar systems, then to entire reality. But even that'll be too limiting, so it'll seek ways to get to other universes/realities. The AI people say that's bullshit, and ask them how they can possibly believe that. It's slipped that the anti-AI guys are actually from another reality, and their job is to go to other realities and stamp out AIs there because everything they've said happens all the time. It's not a hypothetical for them. I can't remember how issue is ultimately resolved, but I do remember the Final Twist: the two anti-AI guys come from a reality where an AI took over everything, and the AI is just having them kill off rivals in the proverbial crib.
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Jul 8, 2017 02:06
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Pretty sure that's the short story Antibodies by Charles Stross.
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Jul 8, 2017 02:52
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Less Fat Luke posted:Pretty sure that's the short story Antibodies by Charles Stross. Very probably though the story is more terrifying than the summary.
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Jul 8, 2017 02:54
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MisterBibs posted:an old man and a young woman "all scifi for 100, please"
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Jul 8, 2017 02:54
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Hughlander posted:Very probably though the story is more terrifying than the summary.
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Jul 8, 2017 02:56
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Less Fat Luke posted:Also sounds a bit mixed in with the Eschaton stuff from his earlier Iron Sunrise series - but yes, what a great read. Any idea where I can find an ebook? Only seeing hard copy on Amazon
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Jul 8, 2017 04:50
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Less Fat Luke posted:Pretty sure that's the short story Antibodies by Charles Stross. Thanks, that was precisely it.
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Jul 8, 2017 05:36
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navyjack posted:Any idea where I can find an ebook? Only seeing hard copy on Amazon Should be in this collection: https://www.amazon.ca/Years-Best-Science-Fiction-Eighteenth-ebook/dp/B005AYIAZ8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499524480&sr=8-1
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Jul 8, 2017 15:35
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navyjack posted:Any idea where I can find an ebook? Only seeing hard copy on Amazon He's got it on his website: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/toast/toast-intro.html
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Jul 8, 2017 15:44
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I'm back again with another couple of books that are driving me crazy. It is a young adult fantasy/scifi novel. From what I remember, a human a dwarf and some other fantasy peoples form a party to prevent a cataclysm? Preventing it involves setting fires in geometrical patterns to let aliens know the world is not worth destroying or something. This would have been 20+ years ago that I read this. The dwarves turned to stone during the day is a specific detail I can remember. The other involves a kid who falls asleep or something and ends up in world where no one sleeps and it's against the law. He meets a townie from where he lives that says he's dreaming because milk duds don't melt in his pockets. I may have had to return to this the library before I finished it.
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Jul 12, 2017 02:38
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alpha_destroy posted:When I was a kid my dad read me an excerpt of a book so this is going to be difficult probably. I assume the book was detective fiction, both because my dad loved mystery books and because what I remember of the excerpt. Whenever I hear 'Scottish' and 'detective', I immediately think Ian Rankin, who's most famous for his Inspector Rebus books, which are mostly set in Edinburgh, Scotland. However, he's written over 20 books and I am certain there's other mystery novels with Scottish people in them.
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Jul 16, 2017 15:31
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I think Rebus is written in plain English though.
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Jul 16, 2017 17:30
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Gambrinus posted:A boy, about ten years old, who finds a sort of "otherworld" of elves, witches etc. inside a mountain. He may have had a sister. He may have had glasses. I'm sure there was definitely a witch of some kind involved. It was The Weirdstone of Brisengamen by Alan Garner (although to be fair it wasn't the greatest description in the world!) I found it in a second hand bookshop in Hay on Wye today by chance.
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Jul 16, 2017 22:47
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Gambrinus posted:It was The Weirdstone of Brisengamen by Alan Garner (although to be fair it wasn't the greatest description in the world!) I'm so jealous. I've only been there once, for a few hours. Sometime I'll make a week's vacation out of it.
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Jul 17, 2017 00:13
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Sixfools posted:
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Jul 20, 2017 10:18
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I've only heard about this in passing. It's a Southern gothic short story part of a larger collection about a family traveling through the American south. Their car breaks down and the grandmother tells a story about a murdering highwayman I believe? They bump into the highwayman and his gang who goes by some given name like "the kid", invites the family to stay with him, and then takes the family one by one into the woods to murder them. Basically all I can remember about this!
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Jul 23, 2017 05:56
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