Name this SciFi novel
December 15, 2003 6:17 AM Subscribe
I'm looking for the name / author of a science fiction novel I read when I was a child. A brief (and possibly incorrect) synopsis is "man finds radio; radio tells man what happens in the future; there is a car or a truck drive that has a vague relavance to everything; radio ends up being either an alien or an alien artifact which may have the ability to metamorphise." I think the book was printed by Gollanz in the UK, and I probably read it in about 1982. Anybody got any ideas?
I was going to say it sounded like a Clifford Simak or Murray Leinster book, but I can't come up with a title.
posted by rushmc at 7:12 AM on December 15, 2003
posted by rushmc at 7:12 AM on December 15, 2003
Best answer: Aaargh! My bad!
It's not All Flesh is Grass, it's Ring Around The Sun:
When inventors come up with cars, light bulbs, razor blades, and other items that never wear out or break down, the world's biggest industries begin to be squeezed out, and the planet is headed for economic collapse, when people suddenly begin to disappear without a trace.
This is the 1996 cover, but you might remember it as this one.
posted by bonehead at 7:14 AM on December 15, 2003
It's not All Flesh is Grass, it's Ring Around The Sun:
When inventors come up with cars, light bulbs, razor blades, and other items that never wear out or break down, the world's biggest industries begin to be squeezed out, and the planet is headed for economic collapse, when people suddenly begin to disappear without a trace.
This is the 1996 cover, but you might remember it as this one.
posted by bonehead at 7:14 AM on December 15, 2003
Response by poster: I shall have a look at Ring around the Sun. The cover doesn't ring any bells (apart from the generic - "This is a science fiction book" bell), but I'll see if the library can score me a copy. The synopsis you gave me had nothing to do with a transistor radio which tells the future, but it is the best lead I've had for a while. Thanks.
posted by seanyboy at 8:54 AM on December 15, 2003
posted by seanyboy at 8:54 AM on December 15, 2003
Can you remember even a single phrase from the book? Because you know, Amazon.com has that text search feature now..
posted by Hildago at 10:27 AM on December 15, 2003
posted by Hildago at 10:27 AM on December 15, 2003
What about "Jeffty is Five" by Harlan Ellison. It is somewhat different than what you describe but it does involve a boy and his radio. The boy never grows up and neither does the programming on his radio. He continues to pick up radio shows from the fifties(his childhood).
dunno, its the only radio/sci-fi I know.
posted by darkpony at 11:07 AM on December 15, 2003
dunno, its the only radio/sci-fi I know.
posted by darkpony at 11:07 AM on December 15, 2003
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The synopsis from a good fan site:
This book takes place in Millville (carrying the same name of Clifford Simak's home town in Wisconsin). The town is surrounded by a force field bubble which keeps all living material from passing in or out. Brad Carter slips into an alternate world ruled by aliens shaped like purple flowers in search of the solution.
There he discovers a missing mentally retarded boy gifted with high empathy and the ability to communicate with the aliens.
Was this the cover?
posted by bonehead at 7:03 AM on December 15, 2003