Let's say that certain phases of my life were already written in a book 70 - 100 years ago by someone, who was either a futurist of a scifi-writer. Let's also say that there are people, who want to make sure - for some yet unknown reason - that I live through those phases and that my personality gets developed similarly to some character's personality in that book. The book would have been written a long time before I was born. Now, what kind of search engines and what kind of search strategies I should use to become sure that there actually is such a book? There might exists traces of revitalizing of the book, if the original writer didn't make good enough guesses about the future.
posted by spctrm
on Feb 5, 2013 -
13 answers
My first name that book question. It will be a stumper. All I remember is that it was a sci fi or fantasy anthology, I read it in the 1990s (so it might have been older, but not newer), and in one story a woman walked behind the village/city town, between two mountains/hills to a Lake of Tears and cried there for some sort of loss. This is a ridiculously small amount of information, I know, but it haunts me.
posted by Vaike
on Jan 4, 2013 -
11 answers
I'm looking for a sci-fi book about young people who traveled to an alternative universe on multiple occasions. There was something about a power station and the story may also have mentioned a triangular symbol. It turns out that their switching between universes was limited for some reason.
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posted by who squared
on Oct 20, 2012 -
13 answers
[Asking for a friend]: There is some sci-fi book I read at some point which I think was famous enough to be known by lots of folks in which the term "to scree" or "to skry" (or something very similar) was used to see the contents of people's minds (?) or the future (?). Help. Whats the actual term? And, what is the book and or series and or author?
posted by googly
on Jun 28, 2012 -
27 answers
What's this YA/children's book? A boy mysteriously arrives on earth somewhere like Tennesee or West Virginia. He can run fast and jump very far, heals quickly, gets along with animals and has no concept of violence, wars, etc. He's taken in by a family who also has children. Over time, they grow to love him and help him, while some neighbors are afraid of him and grow more and more violent. At the end of the book, his people are dancing in the hills/woods near a portal? and the boy invites the family that has taken care of him to return to his world with them. A few more details are after the jump.
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posted by michaelh
on Jun 13, 2012 -
6 answers
SciFiBookFilter: Looking for a book I read maybe 10 years ago in which a device is developed that renders explosives inert...
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posted by bullox
on Aug 6, 2011 -
15 answers
Please help me recall the title of a young adult novel science fiction that was a favorite of mine as a child
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posted by Poet_Lariat
on Aug 3, 2011 -
7 answers
Where did I read a story that included someone threatening to install DOS 1.0 on a robot/android/uncooperative computer?
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posted by Tesseractive
on Jul 27, 2011 -
3 answers
Science Fiction identification: In high school (the 80s) I read a scifi book in which (I believe) a fat despondent boy's family is wiped out, and he is sent to either a school or a prison. Someone there makes him run around the perimeter for a long time, until he's in great shape. He goes from fat and soft, to lean and hard. He may subsequently become a soldier. That's all I remember. Can you help me find the name of the book?
posted by OmieWise
on Feb 11, 2011 -
10 answers
Identify this Y.A. Sci-fi book from the 1980's - a boy learns how to meditate his way to flying.
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posted by dadici
on Jan 19, 2011 -
4 answers
SF book filter: cyberpunk novel in which a virtual-reality programmer discovers a way to make nerve-induction interfaces write thoughts and feelings to the brain, in addition to merely manipulating sensory perceptions. Powers that be do not like, hilarity ensues...
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posted by lordcorvid
on Dec 6, 2010 -
3 answers
About ten years ago, I read the first two books in a sci-fi trilogy involving a world that had some kind of accelerated decay problem. Also, there were giant, intelligent ants.
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posted by thehmsbeagle
on Oct 16, 2010 -
5 answers
SciMeFi: Strange request here. I heard about a sci-fi book maybe 10 years ago. I remember some general details, but I may be wrong about any one of them. So if I can get any leads from someone here, I’d be most thankful! Keyword: giant artifacts from the future start to appear?
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posted by scamper
on Feb 23, 2010 -
11 answers
What'sThisBook-ForAFriend filter: novel about aliens that are blob-shaped and eventually come in contact with humans?
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posted by jacalata
on Dec 30, 2009 -
6 answers
Bookhunt: What's the name of a sci-fi novel involving giant engines forming in a ring shape around the Earth? I seem to remember the title being a word with four letters in it.
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posted by CrystalDave
on Dec 1, 2009 -
6 answers
I'm trying to remember the title and author of a young adult sci-fi novel from the early '90s (or earlier) with a character named Alana (or Alanna) and a boy who gets taken to another world. Help!
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posted by ilana
on Sep 17, 2009 -
1 answer
Another forgotten book from childhood. Time travel/survival. Dinosaurs. And yes, it vibrates. Help?
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posted by rokusan
on Aug 26, 2009 -
9 answers
I've just finished reading Let The Galaxy Burn, a collection of Warhammer 40k short stories, and I really liked it. What are some other good Warhammer 40k books?
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posted by thewittyname
on Jun 9, 2009 -
11 answers
No more maple syrup candy for you! -- Help me remember this SF novel I read in the 1970s.
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posted by gum
on Mar 22, 2009 -
5 answers
Childhood BookFilter: A sci-fi choose-your-own adventure book with snippets of BASIC code that would be a complete game in the end.
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posted by pravit
on Dec 12, 2008 -
7 answers
Help me identify the name of this science fiction short story or novel about a human child of an interplanetary diplomat.
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posted by shadytrees
on Dec 11, 2008 -
9 answers
Please-help-me-identify-a-book-filter. Trying to track down a young adults hardish sci-fi book from the mid 80s in the UK about a space medic in trouble.
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posted by ArkhanJG
on Jul 1, 2008 -
3 answers
I am trying to find a SciFi book that I read the first couple of chapters of. It involved two companies racing to come up with some kind of genetic cure and in the process creating a monster or something.
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posted by rbs
on Feb 23, 2008 -
6 answers
I remember reading this sci-fi book a long while ago, but I can't remember anything easily googleable. Can anyone help identify it?
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posted by flatluigi
on Feb 10, 2008 -
2 answers
Looking for the name of a sci-fi book. Man is injected with a serum that causes him to shrink forever, eventually discovering there are universes smaller than atoms.
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posted by Gudlyf
on Feb 7, 2008 -
9 answers
Please help find the name of series of sci-fi books. It's about a guy who finds some alien artifact on Europa that helps him save Earth from a meteor.
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posted by marcocampos
on Jan 27, 2008 -
2 answers
I'm looking for a series of hardback science fiction anthologies I dimly remember from childhood (sometime in the mid 80s). I think it had a one word title with a number, and the series went up to at least number five. I remember two stories in particular...
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posted by Artw
on Jan 13, 2008 -
11 answers
I'm looking for a book: read this at least 13 years ago. (in paperback) A teenage boy and girl are making their way through a postapocalyptic America. It was a trilogy, I believe, and I only recall reading two books in the series.
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posted by dubold
on Oct 3, 2007 -
36 answers
BookFilter: When I was a kid (~14 years ago), I read a sci-fi book about the future. I don't know if I'd like it today, but I'd like to go back to it...
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posted by qvtqht
on Feb 11, 2007 -
8 answers
As a kid, I once had a book about a rather detailed tourist trip to Alpha Centauri, with lots of graphics. Help me find it!
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posted by Harry
on Jun 16, 2006 -
4 answers
Once I read a story about people who could give a disease to computers. Or possibly they could catch this disease through the keyboard. Citizens with this disease, I vaguely recall, were not allowed to use computers without rubber gloves. If you had AIDS or HIV you were protected and allowed unrestricted access to computer keyboards. Does this ring a bell for anyone?
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posted by dual_action
on Sep 14, 2005 -
1 answer
Looking for the author/title of a science fiction/fantasy novel read around 1985. Details inside.
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posted by jperkins
on May 24, 2005 -
4 answers
On the "I can't remember what book this was..." kick, I've been trying to find a book from years ago that was so bad that it was phenomenal. It was sci-fi that began with the premise that whales and dolphins could speak human languages. We discovered this when a dolphin being trained for the Russian military finally broke and began speaking to humans as it feared for its life (I think). The book then goes on to silly detail about different cetaceans and how they talk (Blue whales being stupid and inarticulate, orcas talking in something resembling old english saying "Ye of the lande" and such - yes, the extra e was added in on some of those words). The whole thing comes to a head as we attempt to make contact with giant Jovian Space Whales and to do so construct our own gigantic robotic space whale with the brain of a blue whale.
I know this sounds like a crack-trip, but I REALLY want to find this book so that I can give it to a fellow marine ecologist as a gift for christmas. It's the funniest thing EVER.
posted by jearbear
on Dec 13, 2004 -
16 answers
