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Ha, fair. He's still the protagonist but you're right, there's not really any good guy. The wife I guess, or the daughter?
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Aug 2, 2021 15:15
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gently caress, that story really is going to stay with me for a long time. Longer than you think, dad! Longer than you think!! 
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Aug 2, 2021 16:57
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The one thing about the Jaunt I remember aside from the ending is the icky bit when the dad thinks about his daughter going through puberty and his first thought is of her getting breasts. 
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Aug 2, 2021 17:55
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I thought I’d posted this here before, but maybe not. Science fiction story for kids, probably about 1990. millions and millions of little things like sea urchins come from… space? Or the sea? They just build up in drifts and are a nuisance but a lad realises they’re intelligent in bulk or something. He finds a way to talk to them and asks what they want and they reply “hate us.” He asks do they mean heat us and they say no, hate us. I think the cover had a boy floating in water, maybe unconscious. It is strongly, strongly tied in my mind to another story about a kid getting a job making… a model dinosaur, I think, for a museum. At the end it comes to life and attacks his bully. The two stories might have been a double audio cassette thing but at the time I was reading/listening to 20+ library books a week so I might be falsely conflating them.
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Aug 4, 2021 10:16
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Sanford posted:I thought I’d posted this here before, but maybe not. Science fiction story for kids, probably about 1990. millions and millions of little things like sea urchins come from… space? Or the sea? They just build up in drifts and are a nuisance but a lad realises they’re intelligent in bulk or something. He finds a way to talk to them and asks what they want and they reply “hate us.” He asks do they mean heat us and they say no, hate us. I think the cover had a boy floating in water, maybe unconscious. Trillions?
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Aug 4, 2021 10:41
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Sanford posted:It is strongly, strongly tied in my mind to another story about a kid getting a job making… a model dinosaur, I think, for a museum. At the end it comes to life and attacks his bully. The two stories might have been a double audio cassette thing but at the time I was reading/listening to 20+ library books a week so I might be falsely conflating them.
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Aug 4, 2021 10:48
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ScienceSeagull posted:The Jaunt by Stephen King? Yup that was it, thank you so much!
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Aug 4, 2021 16:06
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The default displayed edition has a different cover, but this one is a match for the description:
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Aug 4, 2021 17:01
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Sham bam bamina! posted:The default displayed edition has a different cover, but this one is a match for the description: The default is pretty floaty-unconscious too:  I read it so long ago I can't remember if the "hate us" thing is in there though.
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Aug 4, 2021 17:58
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quote:“Hate us.” Before he fell into a nightmare sleep, Scott tried everything to change the Trillions answer. Had they meant “Heat,” not “Hate? Looks like that's the one
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Aug 4, 2021 18:38
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Not the person asking, but this Trillions chat stirred an ancient memory of reading it as a kid, so thanks!
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Aug 4, 2021 23:02
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regulargonzalez posted:Have you read King's "Revival"? If not, you should. Thanks for this! Wasn't specifically looking for new Stephen King to read, but the discussion caught my eye and I grabbed the mass market paperback version for old time's sake. Finished it last night and loved it. Rupert Buttermilk posted:Based on what was said about the plotting, I kept trying to guess what was going to happen... Same here! I was of the mind that "Revival" would be a reference to some sort of futuristic simulation of this small 1960s town wherein all the people were AI recreations of maybe someone's dead relatives. Alternatively, after wildly misreading this post I thought maybe I'd seen a spoiler and the story would be some meta thing about the characters only existing in my mind as I read the book. Either way, I figured the premise was the "revived" characters were sapient but without real agency, powerless to avoid the horrors they were being forced through. I was even able to keep that simulation idea up through most of the book, with mention of computers and GIGO, plus electricity being so important. So I was off, and didn't get the Shyamalan-y twist/reveal I was daydreaming about, but the fact that it all turned out to be a full bore Lovecraft-alike made me all warm and fuzzy. This whole story with all the depth, the humanity, the pains of a life lived, and then boom, hey buddy none of that poo poo matters, you'll be tortured forever, good luck have fun. Something I've thought about myself as a What If and that still bothers me as a possibility, vanishingly unlikely as it may be. Exceptional recommendation, thanks again!
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Aug 7, 2021 18:19
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Yeah, I'm still thinking about it, plus since King's said he's had that general idea for a long, long time, I'm now sort of retroactively applying it to literally every single character of his who has died. But I haven't read The Dark Tower books, so I don't know if the beings who hold up "the beam" and all that are meant to be in some sort of afterlife, or maybe THAT'S purgatory? Revival makes The Jaunt even more horrible to think about, since you first have millions of years in a white mental void and then you're tortured forever by ant people and 'Mother' 
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Aug 7, 2021 18:25
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A YA SF book i read in school ages ago. A group of astronauts travel to Mars, which turns out to be inhabited by humanoids living in a perfect socialist utopia. The martians look just like humans. I can't remember if they were supposed to be colonizers or if humanity just evolved on both planets by random coincidence. Most of the book is dedicated to the astronauts being shown around and lectured about how perfect this socialist society is because planned economies are flawless and never fail. The martians only work a couple of months a year, there is no money, and everyone simply receives an annual ration of everything they need. Also, in schools children study one topic at a time, so there is like, six months for math, six months for history, etc. This is clearly the superior teaching method, and the Mars children are shocked to hear that the poor earth children have to study several topics concurrently. Towards the end, the astronauts decide to seize control of Mars, which they do easily because the Martians are peaceful utopians with no weapons. However, a group of plucky Mars children and their teacher manages to trick the astronauts and take back control of Mars. The astronauts are sent home, but a few decide to stay, so they don't have to go back to worrying about mortgages and stuff. The Mars expedition is covered up because the Earth governments don't want people to know how awesome socialism is. The End. I remember so many details about this book, but I cannot find a single trace of it anywhere.
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Aug 8, 2021 18:53
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You guys got me to start reading Revival and it's taking massive amounts of willpower to not read these spoilers 
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Aug 8, 2021 19:28
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Just remembered I posted this like 10 years ago and had no luck, maybe someone has some idea now? I've got one I read when I was a young teenager. I can't remember whether it was a short story or a novel. It was sci-fi and I can really only remember one detail about it. This guy took off from earth on a ship that would be traveling at light speed. At first he would recieve messages from his wife once a week or so, but as he increased up to light speed and time got all screwy he would be getting them every second or something like that. That's really all I can remember. Anyone have any ideas?
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Aug 8, 2021 23:09
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There's a book I read a long time ago that I think about periodically. I'm wondering if I can find it again. It was probably written in the 70s or 80s, I bought it at a used book store. It might have had a mostly-white cover with a picture of some of the characters in the center, a human magican-to-be with blond hair (?) and a lizardy dude that kind of looked like a goomba from the mario brothers movies. There may have been others. The details on this are really hard to recall, and may be imagined. The plot was again about some kid finding out he has the ability to do magic, and falling in with a group to travel the land and do poo poo or something. It was some very typical generic fantasy. The plot detail that I really remember was there was a bit where they get into some trouble, and a village decides to hang the lizard guy. The protagonist is very upset, but then at night the lizard guy wakes up and is like, "nah, I'm fine, my kind has really thick neck muscles and we can just kinda wait a hanging out". It may have been part of a trilogy or something. I don't recall an ending to the story, at least in any climactic sense. It may be because it was so generic, or because I never read the other books. I wanna say the copy I had was a hardcover. EDIT: AHA! I actually found it without too much effort. It's Myth Adventures, which apparently has a lot of books. Lizard guy is names Ahaz and is a "demon" (short for dimensional traveler). 
Fanged Lawn Wormy fucked around with this message at 23:50 on Aug 8, 2021 |
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Aug 8, 2021 23:40
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Retro Futurist posted:You guys got me to start reading Revival and it's taking massive amounts of willpower to not read these spoilers Well, definitely don't check them out until you're done. It all started with someone asking about a story that turned out to be King's short story The Jaunt, which I among others replied to. Then I got into Revival and posted about it a bunch, with many of you replying. My point is, when you're all done, just look up my posts and the replies to it, to read all of the spoilers posted, altogether (more or less).
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Aug 9, 2021 01:47
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Retro Futurist posted:You guys got me to start reading Revival and it's taking massive amounts of willpower to not read these spoilers The spoilers will still be here when you're done, and its a quick read. I'd say it's up there with The Jaunt, Survivor Type, The Dead Zone, and Room 1408 as the King works that pop into my head most often.
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Aug 9, 2021 07:28
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Just remembered I posted this like 10 years ago and had no luck, maybe someone has some idea now? Something kinda like this happens in Variable Star by Spider Robinson (based on an outline from the late Robert Heinlein). Time dilation makes communication difficult between telepaths (one on a lightspeed ship, another on earth)
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Aug 9, 2021 14:05
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While we're sort of still on the Revival discussion (maybe? sorta?), I had a question about something I probably missed. When Jaime states "Something happened", I was waiting to find out what that was. But... We never did get an explanation, did we? Was it that he saw the afterlife and mentally blocked it? Did he maybe say something about the afterlife, like Astrid did?
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Aug 10, 2021 01:57
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Just remembered I posted this like 10 years ago and had no luck, maybe someone has some idea now? If you reverse genders, it sounds just like The Starlight Crystal by Christopher Pike.
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Aug 10, 2021 08:39
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Metaline posted:If you reverse genders, it sounds just like The Starlight Crystal by Christopher Pike. Holy poo poo, I think that's it, I remember the cover! I have no idea why I could have picked this up, 10 year old me probably saw it at the library and thought the cover was cool. Been looking for this for 10+ years, thanks! Booo no ebook available! While we're at, after sharing this freak out with my sister who also freaked out, she asked me this one which I don't really remember- "It's a Illustrated Kids story book but it's kind of creepy, the part I remember is a girl is sent away from a house but they eventually find their way back through the forest but when they get back it's like their mother has aged horribly and they sent them away for a reason." A Proper Uppercut fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Aug 11, 2021 |
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Aug 11, 2021 20:50
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Holy poo poo, I think that's it, I remember the cover! I have no idea why I could have picked this up, 10 year old me probably saw it at the library and thought the cover was cool. Been looking for this for 10+ years, thanks! Dear Mili by Wilhelm Grimm?
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Aug 12, 2021 02:36
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Holy poo poo, I think that's it, I remember the cover! I have no idea why I could have picked this up, 10 year old me probably saw it at the library and thought the cover was cool. Been looking for this for 10+ years, thanks!
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Aug 12, 2021 07:19
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she says that’s absolutely the one! Thank you for letting me impress etc
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Aug 12, 2021 19:09
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This was it, thanks! That led me to Monster Maker by the same author, it’s about a special effects workshop rather than a museum but that’s definitely it. Unfortunately I can’t find any synopses online so I’ll pick up a copy of both at some point. I have another, just a snippet of dialogue that must be sci-fi of some kind. Character one asks if there are any alpha-level psykers, and what can they do? Character 2 responds that they can extinguish and relight suns with a thought, there are two known individuals, and they are kept under heavy guard and heavier sedation. The thing about psykers sounds 40k-ish, but the rest doesn’t.
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Aug 12, 2021 19:58
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Sanford posted:I have another, just a snippet of dialogue that must be sci-fi of some kind. Character one asks if there are any alpha-level psykers, and what can they do? Character 2 responds that they can extinguish and relight suns with a thought, there are two known individuals, and they are kept under heavy guard and heavier sedation. The thing about psykers sounds 40k-ish, but the rest doesn’t. Alan Moore's Top Ten - the issue with the crazy level 2 guy who thinks he's Santa Claus. ETA here:  vvv  vvv
Runcible Cat fucked around with this message at 12:26 on Aug 14, 2021 |
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Aug 12, 2021 20:50
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Aah that’s exactly it. Surprised I didn’t remember that - I love Top 10. Thank you!
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Aug 13, 2021 21:24
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I recently did a big post in the white whale thread, which was able to help me solve my longstanding mystery series mystery in this thread:hexwren posted:So here's one the internet has not been able to help me with thus far. These are the Chip Mitchell books by Fred D'Ignazio. However, I've posted two additional books over there that I haven't been able to pin down yet, so I'm coming back over here to see if this end of the hivemind has the specialization to pin down what I'm thinking about. I'm going to post my queries and also some useful material from replies: quote:• A children's book either for a toyetic franchise or made in the style of one. Extant circa 1985-6. A series of brightly monocolored futuristic vehicles leave their snowy base even though the weather is bad. The large yellow one (the order/size of these may be wrong), the middle-size green one and the smaller blue one all go out into the storm and get stuck. They are then rescued by the tiny red member of the team who all the others were bullying because red is a tow truck. I seem to recall the front cover having one of those titles where the middle letters are huge and in front of you and the beginning and the end stretch off in two point perspective to the sides of the cover (and then an action shot of the action jeeps or tanks or whatever the gently caress they were driving at you over the top edge of the title) Dr_Amazing posted:I can't help much but I definitely read this book in the early 90s some time. I think the tow truck wasn't getting bullied, he was just "younger" and the older vehicles thought it was too dangerous to bring him. The only other thing that sticks out is I think the book had like blueprints or wire frame pictures of the different vehicles thay explained their strengths and weaknesses. that's the first one. the next I may take over to tradgames, if they have a useful thread for something like this. quote:• A game book, published before 1994. Your standard sort of dungeon crawler. I don't recall the title, obviously enough, or much of the actual game mechanics, though there were mechanics. The setting was some kind of harbor town where unpleasant things were happening. You could pick up a wine bottle fairly early on in your adventure. If you drank from it, you died, because it had turned to vinegar. I want to say there were unpleasant humanoid seaweed monsters about. The winning path definitely led through the sewers. we've essentially concluded it's not fighting fantasy (as ff's system is far crunchier than anything I would have played at the time) and I'm dubious that it's grailquest (doesn't feel right, can't put my finger on why)
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Aug 13, 2021 23:50
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hexwren posted:we've essentially concluded it's not fighting fantasy (as ff's system is far crunchier than anything I would have played at the time) and I'm dubious that it's grailquest (doesn't feel right, can't put my finger on why) Are you sure it's not "Kharé: Cityport of Traps"?  Maybe the Sorcery! system wasn't as crunchy as the rest of Fighting Fantasy?
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Aug 14, 2021 00:02
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Shadow of the Sand from Lone Wolf has a sewer section.
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Aug 14, 2021 00:06
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Absurd Alhazred posted:Are you sure it's not "Kharé: Cityport of Traps"? My fiancee has the sorcery books, and I'm certain it's not those. wizzardstaff posted:Shadow of the Sand from Lone Wolf has a sewer section. It's definitely not in a desert.
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Aug 14, 2021 00:09
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You could have a look at https://gamebooks.org/ and see if anything rings a bell?Absurd Alhazred posted:Maybe the Sorcery! system wasn't as crunchy as the rest of Fighting Fantasy? It was the standard Fighting Fantasy system with added spells (3-letter codes to remember or look up). Runcible Cat fucked around with this message at 12:32 on Aug 14, 2021 |
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Aug 14, 2021 12:30
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q!=e
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Aug 14, 2021 12:31
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Retro Futurist posted:You guys got me to start reading Revival and it's taking massive amounts of willpower to not read these spoilers Finished it thanks for the suggestion. I had the usual King phase in my teens but I don't think I've read anything of his in nearly a decade, still a great storytellerAnyways, I'm going to go for a jog now
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Aug 15, 2021 07:03
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Retro Futurist posted:Finished it Be safe and holy poo poo, don't die.
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Aug 16, 2021 02:26
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hexwren posted:we've essentially concluded it's not fighting fantasy (as ff's system is far crunchier than anything I would have played at the time) and I'm dubious that it's grailquest (doesn't feel right, can't put my finger on why) fwiw this definitely isn't Grailquest (they're all available on archive.org if you're curious). When you say crunchy, fighting fantasy's system is kind of barebones - do you mean something like a CYOA without any combat?
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Aug 16, 2021 03:15
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I'm trying to find a children's picture book that I half remember. The characters were little creatures that looked like moomin or buster from the Arthur cartoons. There was a good side that was trying to end winter and bring in spring/summer. The bad creatures were trying to make it always winter. I remember one page had a good creature hooking up wires so that a crocus flower could bloom through snow. The cover was black with coloured pictures on it. Thanks for any help
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Aug 19, 2021 23:07
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Short story, Silver Age I think, Sturgeon or Kuttner or someone from that era. Little boy on a farm bragging to a little girl called Precious that he can wish for things and they come true, but the wish wears off in a few hours. He proves it by turning a pig into a giant piggy bank and dropping a coin in. Then he turns himself into a giant insect to frighten her and she stamps on him. The last line is about the shock Precious' mother's going to get when she sees what stuck to Precious' shoe in the morning.
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Aug 21, 2021 19:41
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