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eating only apples
Dec 12, 2009

Shall we dance?

If it is, it's The Intergalactic Bus Trip, I remember a puzzle about tunnels and cameras, heat detectors and sound sensors.

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Harvey TWH
Sep 6, 2005

Want some peanuts?

NinjaDebugger posted:

This sounds suspiciously like it's part of the "Microkid" series, the one I had was him, a friend, and his ai solving a mystery of a mysterious disease popping up in kids in his hometown, caused by someone dumping chemicals in the reservoir, which kids would sometimes go swimming in.

Ahhhh, that's got to be it! It's got all the plot pieces spot on, and I can't imagine they'd coincide elsewhere. I'm glad I put my faith in you lot!

Now that I've got a name, I'm going to want to check out this whole series. As far as I can tell, this is it... anyone aware of any more?
The Great Gradepoint Mystery (series originated by another author?)
Fox's Lair
Lake Fear (yours)
Lost Forest (mine)

The author of the last three apparently also wrote something by the name of "ESP McGee and the Ghost Ship", and good lord, what a title.

...and if I am not mistaking who this is, my uncle-in-law apparently wrote a magazine review of Lost Forest in 1985. I could have asked him!


As for the puzzle books, I'm going to have to dig a little deeper on those suggestions. I can't see what they look like inside on Amazon, so I might need to pester sellers or see if I can find any at a library (once libraries are, you know, open again). I think the one I saw was full-page illustrations, little text, and probably bigger than a standard paperback (I want to say about the size of a Highlights Puzzlemania, maybe 8×10, though I know those definitely came later and also might be tainting my memory).

wizzardstaff
Apr 6, 2018

Zorch! Splat! Pow!

Harvey TWH posted:

As for the puzzle books, I'm going to have to dig a little deeper on those suggestions. I can't see what they look like inside on Amazon, so I might need to pester sellers or see if I can find any at a library (once libraries are, you know, open again). I think the one I saw was full-page illustrations, little text, and probably bigger than a standard paperback (I want to say about the size of a Highlights Puzzlemania, maybe 8×10, though I know those definitely came later and also might be tainting my memory).

Does this look familiar?

Take the plunge! Okay!
Feb 24, 2007



Yes it does

Harvey TWH
Sep 6, 2005

Want some peanuts?

Oh man, I can't tell. I imagined it a little bigger in my mind, more first-person perspective, perhaps as if the whole book were renderings from different parts of the maze. But maybe this is exactly what I saw and I invented everything else I thought I knew, including multiple pages of tunnels. So either this is it, or it's not quite it but is still a neat puzzle.

Stupid_Sexy_Flander
Mar 14, 2007

Is a man not entitled to the haw of his maw?
Grimey Drawer
Posting one I saw on reddit cause it sounds neat, but damned if I can find it.

A boy is born in ancient times and discovers he is immortal and becomes a great warrior, living throughout history. Most of the plot takes place in or before the time of Jesus (I think), with an ancient Greece feel to it. He meets important historical characters.

At one point his hand is cut off and it regrows slowly. I remember it was an itchy experience for him and he had to retrain it with a sword to restore strength (weird thing to remember I know).

At another point he has a swimming competition against the village swimming champion and wins easily, demonstrating his superior abilities.

There is a section where it describes how once he hits puberty he becomes a sexual god, and he is described as a favourite in his local brothel.

He can drink more than anyone else, is taller, bigger stronger, etc etc. Godlike basically.

From memory it ends with the earth ending, with him alone on earth waiting for the sun to kill him, having outlived humanity.

The description and world-building was vivid.

It was epic, a really long read. Similar in tone and length to Wilbur Smith (I may have read River God at a similar time).

Written in English, paperback.

I read this in the mid/late 90's, but don't know when it was written. I was in my late teens, but it was an 'adult' read and graphic in some instances.

It did not seem an old book at the time, but it could have been. I remember it may have been a male author, but not certain.

cda
Jan 2, 2010

by Hand Knit
I'm looking for a science fiction short story. The premise is that because of overpopulation or something, people only live on alternate days and they get put in stasis on the other days, so for example one person would live Monday Wednesday and Friday, and the other one would live Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and then maybe every other Sunday or something like that. My memory is hazy and Google hasn't helped.

Sri.Theo
Apr 16, 2008

cda posted:

I'm looking for a science fiction short story. The premise is that because of overpopulation or something, people only live on alternate days and they get put in stasis on the other days, so for example one person would live Monday Wednesday and Friday, and the other one would live Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and then maybe every other Sunday or something like that. My memory is hazy and Google hasn't helped.

It sounds like a recent novel from a famous Chinese author- is it set in a city that changes shape?

Runcible Cat
May 28, 2007

Ignoring this post

The Sliced-Crosswise Only-On-Tuesday World by Philip Jose Farmer?

A Proper Uppercut
Sep 30, 2008

Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:

Posting one I saw on reddit cause it sounds neat, but damned if I can find it.

A boy is born in ancient times and discovers he is immortal and becomes a great warrior, living throughout history. Most of the plot takes place in or before the time of Jesus (I think), with an ancient Greece feel to it. He meets important historical characters.

At one point his hand is cut off and it regrows slowly. I remember it was an itchy experience for him and he had to retrain it with a sword to restore strength (weird thing to remember I know).

At another point he has a swimming competition against the village swimming champion and wins easily, demonstrating his superior abilities.

There is a section where it describes how once he hits puberty he becomes a sexual god, and he is described as a favourite in his local brothel.

He can drink more than anyone else, is taller, bigger stronger, etc etc. Godlike basically.

From memory it ends with the earth ending, with him alone on earth waiting for the sun to kill him, having outlived humanity.

The description and world-building was vivid.

It was epic, a really long read. Similar in tone and length to Wilbur Smith (I may have read River God at a similar time).

Written in English, paperback.

I read this in the mid/late 90's, but don't know when it was written. I was in my late teens, but it was an 'adult' read and graphic in some instances.

It did not seem an old book at the time, but it could have been. I remember it may have been a male author, but not certain.

Man this sounds pretty cool, I hope someone can figure it out. I just looked for a bit and couldnt find anything that fits.

navyjack
Jul 15, 2006



cda posted:

I'm looking for a science fiction short story. The premise is that because of overpopulation or something, people only live on alternate days and they get put in stasis on the other days, so for example one person would live Monday Wednesday and Friday, and the other one would live Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and then maybe every other Sunday or something like that. My memory is hazy and Google hasn't helped.

I remember something like this. Is it possible that everyone had a “split personality” so the alts took turns on what days they were active?

Tree Goat
May 24, 2009

argania spinosa
what is the relatively famous horror short story about the british guy whose car breaks down and he is coerced to spending the night at a hotel where everything is slightly too warm and you have to eat and eat and eat (because leaving food insults the chef) and there is potentially a murder or doppelgänger etc.

Carthag Tuek
Oct 15, 2005

Tider skal komme,
tider skal henrulle,
slægt skal følge slægters gang



Tree Goat posted:

what is the relatively famous horror short story about the british guy whose car breaks down and he is coerced to spending the night at a hotel where everything is slightly too warm and you have to eat and eat and eat (because leaving food insults the chef) and there is potentially a murder or doppelgänger etc.

Could it be The Hospice by Robert Aickman?

Take the plunge! Okay!
Feb 24, 2007



Tree Goat posted:

what is the relatively famous horror short story about the british guy whose car breaks down and he is coerced to spending the night at a hotel where everything is slightly too warm and you have to eat and eat and eat (because leaving food insults the chef) and there is potentially a murder or doppelgänger etc.

The Hospice by Robert Aickman?

e: fb

Carthag Tuek
Oct 15, 2005

Tider skal komme,
tider skal henrulle,
slægt skal følge slægters gang



:c00lbert:

Tree Goat
May 24, 2009

argania spinosa
Yes, it's that one. Thanks.

wizzardstaff
Apr 6, 2018

Zorch! Splat! Pow!

Runcible Cat posted:

The Sliced-Crosswise Only-On-Tuesday World by Philip Jose Farmer?

There was also a series of books based on this story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayworld_(novel_series)

Remulak
Jun 8, 2001
I can't count to four.
Yams Fan
Looking for some late-50's to early-70's scifi novel, paperback, wherein there is some horrible nixon/reagan style dictator that's incredibly guarded because something like 'even shaking hands could allow an assassin with poisoned fingernails' could assassinate him.

Ironically the protagonist gets involved with the resistance, which replaces his dick with a dick-shaped gun with ammo in his balls, so he's running around crying because he has no more dick and shooting people with his non-dick in his hand.

Carthag Tuek
Oct 15, 2005

Tider skal komme,
tider skal henrulle,
slægt skal følge slægters gang



Remulak posted:

Looking for some late-50's to early-70's scifi novel, paperback, wherein there is some horrible nixon/reagan style dictator that's incredibly guarded because something like 'even shaking hands could allow an assassin with poisoned fingernails' could assassinate him.

Ironically the protagonist gets involved with the resistance, which replaces his dick with a dick-shaped gun with ammo in his balls, so he's running around crying because he has no more dick and shooting people with his non-dick in his hand.

drat i gotta read this

Yngwie Mangosteen
Aug 23, 2007
Is Dick Shaped Gun With Ammo Balls too long for a username because if not, mods??

Camo Guitar
Jul 15, 2009
Strange one that I just remembered last night and I reckon it's been over 25 years ago since I read it but can recall some points:

-The hero of the story is some kind of space detective and one of his hobbies is playing some kind of tabletop gambling game. He's average at it but one day wins a servant off another player.

-This servant is some kind of strong alien race with scars on his arms. I think he's some kind of pacifist but also manages to bear hug a giant worm to death to protect both of them out in the sands.

-During an autopsy the doctor is surprised by the weight of the head on a body (this is linked to the ending which I won't ruin here)

-The detective ends up investigating another alien race that can't be touched or else they explode/melt.

-One of the last scenes is the detective playing the game again because he feels lucky.

Applewhite
Aug 16, 2014

by vyelkin
Nap Ghost
I read a short story anthology like a decade ago and I've been trying to find the author's name.

Two stories I remember:

A story where the perspective character falls in love with a beautiful woman, but the woman is married to another man. The other man is a fat, ugly man covered in horrible, black curly hair. The protag and the woman conspire to murder her husband and live together.
After the husband is dead, they keep finding the husband's awful black hairs in their mattress. No matter how many times they sweep the hairs away, they always reappear.
The protag and the woman begin to waste away. It appears they've been cursed by the ghost of the murdered husband.
In the end it turns out the "black hairs" were parasitic worms living in the mattress and they were actually wasting away because the worms were drinking their blood every night.

The other story has the perspective character trying to cross a futuristic barrier that keeps striking them down whenever they step onto it. Then the perspective zooms out and the character is a dog trying to cross a road.

Safety Biscuits
Oct 21, 2010

Remulak posted:

Ironically the protagonist gets involved with the resistance, which replaces his dick with a dick-shaped gun with ammo in his balls, so he's running around crying because he has no more dick and shooting people with his non-dick in his hand.

Clips is stored in the balls

E:

Tree Goat posted:

what is the relatively famous horror short story about the british guy whose car breaks down and he is coerced to spending the night at a hotel where everything is slightly too warm and you have to eat and eat and eat (because leaving food insults the chef) and there is potentially a murder or doppelgänger etc.

I was convinced this was going to be Roald Dahl.

Jazz Marimba
Jan 4, 2012

Camo Guitar posted:

-During an autopsy the doctor is surprised by the weight of the head on a body (this is linked to the ending which I won't ruin here)

I’m never gonna read this, can you spoiler the ending/head weight thing? also something something it might help someone find it just tell me dammit

Splicer
Oct 16, 2006

from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

Remulak posted:

Looking for some late-50's to early-70's scifi novel, paperback, wherein there is some horrible nixon/reagan style dictator that's incredibly guarded because something like 'even shaking hands could allow an assassin with poisoned fingernails' could assassinate him.

Ironically the protagonist gets involved with the resistance, which replaces his dick with a dick-shaped gun with ammo in his balls, so he's running around crying because he has no more dick and shooting people with his non-dick in his hand.
This cannot live up to the summary

Take the plunge! Okay!
Feb 24, 2007



Goons! We need the dickgun story title, seriously. Someone bring in one of the thread wizards to solve this mystery.

Sham bam bamina!
Nov 6, 2012

ƨtupid cat

Remulak posted:

Looking for some late-50's to early-70's scifi novel, paperback, wherein there is some horrible nixon/reagan style dictator that's incredibly guarded because something like 'even shaking hands could allow an assassin with poisoned fingernails' could assassinate him.

Ironically the protagonist gets involved with the resistance, which replaces his dick with a dick-shaped gun with ammo in his balls, so he's running around crying because he has no more dick and shooting people with his non-dick in his hand.
This feels like something that Barry Malzberg would write, but I'm not finding anything by him that lines up. :sigh:

Selachian
Oct 9, 2012

Sham bam bamina! posted:

This feels like something that Barry Malzberg would write, but I'm not finding anything by him that lines up. :sigh:

I was thinking, "Hey, that sounds like a Ron Goulart sort of book," but I haven't found anything of his that fits either.

Hillary 2024
Nov 13, 2016

by vyelkin
I've probably mixed up my memories now but I remember reading a sci-fi book about a dude who gets conscripted into a space war as some sort of armored trooper, catch is that the humans have been enslaved by some sort of alien race which uses them as cannon fodder. It ends with the alien entity controlling his particular ship being killed in a battle and the remaining human troops on the ship mutiny and kill their officer corps who turn out to have been some sort of alien-human hybrid anyway. Then the troops decide to take the ship and head out to go colonize a planet somewhere out of the way. I can't remember what it was called or who the author might have been.

I also seem to remember that the armored suits start as a puddle of T1000 type glop that the troops step into and the suit forms around them before battle. After the alien dies the suits won't form any more.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't a Joe Haldeman book but I don't seem to be able to get any other hits.

Stupid_Sexy_Flander
Mar 14, 2007

Is a man not entitled to the haw of his maw?
Grimey Drawer

A Proper Uppercut posted:

Man this sounds pretty cool, I hope someone can figure it out. I just looked for a bit and couldnt find anything that fits.

Guy updated his post. He thinks it's a book called Era by Phillip Boast. Downside is it was never released as an ebook, and apparently the only copies of the paper ones are in the UK/Ireland/Europe.

He's getting a copy in eventually to let everyone know if that's the book or not. A friend got impatient and decided to go ahead and order a copy as well, so he should have it in by the end of the month.

If it ends up being the book, I'll update the thread on it, cause like you said, it sounds awesome.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Hillary 2020 posted:

I've probably mixed up my memories now but I remember reading a sci-fi book about a dude who gets conscripted into a space war as some sort of armored trooper, catch is that the humans have been enslaved by some sort of alien race which uses them as cannon fodder. It ends with the alien entity controlling his particular ship being killed in a battle and the remaining human troops on the ship mutiny and kill their officer corps who turn out to have been some sort of alien-human hybrid anyway. Then the troops decide to take the ship and head out to go colonize a planet somewhere out of the way. I can't remember what it was called or who the author might have been.

I also seem to remember that the armored suits start as a puddle of T1000 type glop that the troops step into and the suit forms around them before battle. After the alien dies the suits won't form any more.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't a Joe Haldeman book but I don't seem to be able to get any other hits.

I've read that book, but the only line I remember clearly is, 'You need to make friends with your suit'. I was thinking Christopher Anvil was the author maybe?

Veni Vidi Ameche!
Nov 2, 2017

by Fluffdaddy
I think this is a reasonably recent story, but I can’t swear to it.

It’s a steampunky story about a rich homegrown genius type who commissions parts to build an airship. He has come into possession of a lady-creature who is listless and sickly. He has a theory about her, so he puts her into the airship and starts into the sky. As the ship gets higher and the air gets thinner, the lady begins to come alive. Eventually, she’s beaming images into his head, and it turns out she’s like a rebel queen in exile, and I think the story ends with the implication that she is going to use the main character to help regain her throne.

Camo Guitar
Jul 15, 2009

Jazz Marimba posted:

I’m never gonna read this, can you spoiler the ending/head weight thing? also something something it might help someone find it just tell me dammit

from memory: The aliens who can't be touched actually don't exist, the local fauna has grown the levels where it can make us believe we're seeing them. They even create the illusion of a man jumping out and touching them and then something horrible happening to show 'hey don't do that'. This mind control actually starts to add a gradual weight to the inside of your skull which surprises a morgue doctor when he accidentally drops a head because it weighs more than usual. I can't for the life of me remember what happens when they work out it's the plants though.

cda
Jan 2, 2010

by Hand Knit

Runcible Cat posted:

The Sliced-Crosswise Only-On-Tuesday World by Philip Jose Farmer?

Yep! This was it. Thank you very much.

Davros1
Jul 19, 2007

You've got to admit, you are kind of implausible



Veni Vidi Ameche! posted:

I think this is a reasonably recent story, but I can’t swear to it.

It’s a steampunky story about a rich homegrown genius type who commissions parts to build an airship. He has come into possession of a lady-creature who is listless and sickly. He has a theory about her, so he puts her into the airship and starts into the sky. As the ship gets higher and the air gets thinner, the lady begins to come alive. Eventually, she’s beaming images into his head, and it turns out she’s like a rebel queen in exile, and I think the story ends with the implication that she is going to use the main character to help regain her throne.


Doubt it's this, but it sounds similar to the Doctor Who story "Storm Warning"

Veni Vidi Ameche!
Nov 2, 2017

by Fluffdaddy

Davros1 posted:

Doubt it's this, but it sounds similar to the Doctor Who story "Storm Warning"

Thanks for taking a shot, but I’m certain it isn’t a Doctor Who plot. Well, if it is, it wasn’t in a Doctor Who book, and didn’t have the Doctor in it. I guess it could have been adapted for television.

I’ll see if I can remember anything else to add to the description.

- Rich adventurer/engineer type
- Designs/commissions design and construction of a bigass balloon (I think) to lift him to very high heights
- Takes listless woman or woman-creature with him
- As they ascend, she starts to wake up, and begins to beam images into his brain
- She’s an exiled alien queen hell-bent on regaining her throne
- She enlists/conscripts him (I think) to achieve this goal, but the story ends before this happens

Nope. I guess that’s about it.

Isolationist
Oct 18, 2005

The implication.
I've read this, but my memory is vague- it wasn't part of or an offshoot of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom/John Carter series, was it? The rich adventurer dude was a dick, and pre-launch got into a racist scuffle in a tavern of some description with the main character involved?

Could be memories of Barsoom mixed with Stephen Baxter's The Long Earth series on my part though, I'm an old.

branedotorg
Jun 19, 2009

Veni Vidi Ameche! posted:

Thanks for taking a shot, but I’m certain it isn’t a Doctor Who plot. Well, if it is, it wasn’t in a Doctor Who book, and didn’t have the Doctor in it. I guess it could have been adapted for television.

I’ll see if I can remember anything else to add to the description.

- Rich adventurer/engineer type
- Designs/commissions design and construction of a bigass balloon (I think) to lift him to very high heights
- Takes listless woman or woman-creature with him
- As they ascend, she starts to wake up, and begins to beam images into his brain
- She’s an exiled alien queen hell-bent on regaining her throne
- She enlists/conscripts him (I think) to achieve this goal, but the story ends before this happens

Nope. I guess that’s about it.

It's reminding me off a story i read in one of the Old Venus / Old Mars compilations I think.

Which also ties into Isolationist's post as those compilations were love letters to the barsoom etc books

KittyEmpress
Dec 30, 2012

Jam Buddies

When I was working in a FEMA call center 4-5ish years ago I picked up a book at barnes and noble to read between calls since I worked 8pm to 8am, the slowest shift of the day.

All I remember about it was that one of the two protagonists was a girl from a (from what I remember) vaguely arabic society that hated/viewed magic as demonic and wrong, who ended up running away with a thief or something briefly, before being captured and being taken through the desert to a mountain temple to be contained.

I'm curious what the name of that book was.


I think the other (male) protagonist was a more typical western type mage??? And I recall the end of the book being a portal introducing them to each other as they crossed into the same world.

Sorry if this is all very vague, I was not actually all that coherent in those days.

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uvar
Jul 25, 2011

Avoid breathing
radioactive dust.
College Slice
There are parts of your description that definitely don't match up, but other parts sound a bit like Northern Lights/The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, or maybe the sequel.

Pros: there's a girl who is technically from another universe, not quite like ours, who is running away, gets captured and taken somewhere to be, well, more experimented on than contained. The boy is from England. The girl travels through a portal thing into our universe, and there's more going back and forth in the second book.

Cons: I don't recall anything particularly arabic, or a desert - a lot is set in a tundra zone, pretty much the opposite, and instead of a mountain temple it's more like a frozen bunker. There's fantastic elements like talking bears and mystical objects and witches, but not really any magic. The boy doesn't turn up at all until the second book, which has a different plot and doesn't really match your description. Also, they were published like twenty years ago, though I'm sure they've kept getting releases especially with the recent adaptations.

:shrug:

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