Searching for Books

February 4, 2005 11:32 AM

BookFinderFilter – Actually I’m going to try to make this relevant to more than just me. Is there a resource wherein one can submit parts of a book plot and get reasonable recommendations as to what I’m searching for? [+]

If not, or if people care to try to take a crack at it. I read a Scifi/fantasy book in the mid-eighties that took place in maze. The main protagonist was a young wizard type person, male, he had at least one companion (female). There seemed to be either magic body parts or body part accessories (mask, gloves etc) his adversary would lose in confrontations. There may have been robots. It was a series of books. The whole thing may have been very juvenile and/or stupid but like a popcorn-hull in the teeth has been stuck in my brain for awhile and I would very much like to exorcise it. Suggestions?

posted by edgeways to Media & Arts (11 answers total)

My librarian friend suggests Jinian Star-Eye by Sheri S. Tepper. There is a good site where you can submit plot details of a kids' book, pitch in two bucks and people will try to figure out what the book was. Its name is on the tip of my tongue [something to do with berries...] but I can't place it at the moment.
posted by jessamyn at 12:03 PM on February 4, 2005

I'm afraid I don't recognize your particular book, but I do have an answer for your more general question. Though people at Ask Metafilter have a very good track record with them, there is indeed a resource devoted explicitly to this kind of query: Stump the Bookseller at Loganberry Books. The collection of open and solved stumpers is also really fun to read through and may prompt you to remember old beloved books that you've forgotten about completely.
posted by redfoxtail at 12:04 PM on February 4, 2005

Response by poster: huh, well if it is Tepper it might actually be a decent book. Merci, to you both
posted by edgeways at 12:06 PM on February 4, 2005

I think you're thinking of Loganberry Books' Stump the Bookseller, Jessamyn. It's a useful site, if sort of scary looking. (I've been thinking about doing a free, Ask MetaFilter-esque version of that site for a while, if anyone wants to help me get it started!)
posted by bcwinters at 12:07 PM on February 4, 2005

Oops, redfoxtail beat me to it!
posted by bcwinters at 12:08 PM on February 4, 2005

I'm wondering if it was the Young Wizards series by Diane Dunne... in the Jinian series, Jinian (female) is really the main protagonist although the maze element is there....
posted by gnat at 12:12 PM on February 4, 2005

Our public library subscribes to NoveList, by EBSCO publishing. It's a great resource in helping patrons find titles which they can only remember certain items to.

In this case, a search for "maze, wizard, robots" didn't give me anything which sounds like the plot you described. Jinian Star-Eye was in the results list as well.
posted by icontemplate at 12:27 PM on February 4, 2005

You might try this amazing book search site.
posted by icetaco at 12:36 PM on February 4, 2005

BTW, all my various search results seem to include Dorothy Gilman's The Maze in the Heart of the Castle.
posted by icontemplate at 12:39 PM on February 4, 2005

The best place I know of to ask these "story identification" questions is on rec.arts.sf.written. Usenet isn't dead yet. They almost never fail to come up with an ID as long as you remember something more than "there was this story with some people in it, and they did stuff".
posted by Justinian at 2:22 PM on February 4, 2005

Response by poster: thanks all, i should have the resources to find it now. Oh else go in for some intensive ect therpy to erase remembering it.
posted by edgeways at 4:11 PM on February 4, 2005