What Was that Book?

Help finding a science fiction short story

feeds@yuku.com (mitchs) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:58:10 GMT

Hello everybody,
I need some help finding the title and author of a science fiction short story.

Here is what I do know:
-Done before 1990, most likely before 1980.
-The main plot is about a world where humanity has developed a global network much like the internet. The main difference is that everyone in the world is "jacked in" like the matrix except that there is no matrix. This is done by implants into the brain to allow people to connect to the...

mental patients escaping through the walls of the asylum

feeds@yuku.com (gard) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:20:26 GMT

Hi, I'm new to the boards and have been driving myself crazy trying to remember the title or author of a book i read in the early 1990s. It was a horror/mystery novel about a detective investigating an old case from the 20s or 30s about a violent and crazy man who was sentenced to life in a hospital for the criminally insane. This villain, plus several other patients/inmates, all vanished one day and the only evidence left behind were a series of mysterious marks and symbols painted or...

Astronomer Falls Into Radio Telescope

feeds@yuku.com (Tomtom) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:53:09 GMT

I read this book about thirty years ago.....a very thin volume....astronomer is working on a radio telescope and falls into the dish...wakes up in some kind of computer...all he can see is an empty room and door....centuries pass...then a man enters the room and talks to the computer.....somehow the astronomer transfers his consciousness from the computer into the visitors brain....visitor runs through a jungle. Can anyone tell me the name and author of this book? Long shot I know. Thanks...

military sci-fi

feeds@yuku.com (lobo) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 05:03:06 GMT

A group of people were captured by a spacecraft. They trained them(I think), then went on to battles for said captors. Unique story, they were like(as if)on a team that no one could best. The last planet was really bad!

Sorry I am not more elloquent with my description of this book, just got up. I have read so many books that I forgot the book.
Nice to have this feature.

Someone must know this book, I hope?

Horror story about...

feeds@yuku.com (Absolute Zilch) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:28:47 GMT

I can't remember the name/author of this horror story i read about a doll that went around killing people...and something to do with people not having to go to sleep... sounds weird, but that's all i remember.

Short story about children's potential being fully reached

feeds@yuku.com (maisieday) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:10:24 GMT

I used to have a science fiction anthology which contained a short story told in the form of letters between a brother and sister. The brother is part of a project that has been obtaining orphan babies from around the world and raising and educating them in a secure enclave where they will never be subjected to negativity or doubt. Over time the children develop telepathy and are able to solve previously unsolvable problems. The military gets wind of what's going on, and the project...

Time Travelling Balls

feeds@yuku.com (timerring) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:45:42 GMT

Hello, I thought this might be the place to ask! There has to be someone else who read this moderately old (at least three decades old) short story; it's about a scientist giving a tour of the facility where they test a time machine. The time machine involves two huge metal balls that bounce off of eachother, and the one into the past can collect data but the one to the future can't. They start off very far apart in time, and come together in the present to bounce off eachother. As...

Was he a traitor or a hero?

feeds@yuku.com (Davtorb) — Wed, 06 May 2009 10:44:19 GMT

About ten years ago I read a story in an Analog or maybe a Sci Fi compilation book that I am dying to read again. The plot is as follows. Please help me if you can.

There is a war going on between Humans and an alien race. The war is not going well for the humans. The protagonist in the book is a strategist that has the unenviable job of reviewing past lost battles and determine what went wrong. He is very good at his job, so good in fact he feels he should be on the front...

about as vague as it gets....

feeds@yuku.com (aroce) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:36:25 GMT

If anyone could help with this one, I would greatly appreciate it:
Part of the story involves an earth simulator "game" -where one of the characters of the book plays as Italy and attempts to take over the world (in the game). I believe there were other aspects of virtual reality in the book as well.
-as the post title says.... pretty vague -but i think this is/was a fairly popular book, and also fairly old. thanks!

Many Hexagons

feeds@yuku.com (gilgamesh) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:47:59 GMT

Hi All...

I read a series in the mid '80s where the protagonist was transported (I think) to a world that has covered in hexagonal biosphere-like areas that represented all the inhabited worlds in the universe. It was a multi-book series (don't remember how many) and our hero was on a quest of some sort, traveling through each hexagon and enduring all the different environments and their inhabitants. I think the whole show was put together by an alien master-race or...

Can anyone help me with this one?

feeds@yuku.com (kwahle) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 18:37:42 GMT

I am hoping that the people in this group can help me find the name of a book that I read and loved as a child. This was about 1968, and it was published in paperback form sometime within the prior 10 years. It was a rather short story about how a government organization went about removing brains from living humans and placed them in some type of jars to harness their intellect....

Forgotten book - when technology breaks and people have to count on themselves

feeds@yuku.com (kadam) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:27:40 GMT

Please help me with recalling the author and/or title of a story I read some time ago. I read it in Polish translation, so not all the names may be right.

Anyway, the story is roughly that in a distant future on Earth our population is very sparse and heavily relies on technology for basic living and for all the fancies they can think of, including extreme body shaping. Some people even...

Time Tavel/Alternate US book

feeds@yuku.com (Grain91) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 23:54:07 GMT

I was trying to remember the name of a book I read 5-10 years back. It was about some people who found a kind of portal that remained in the same place and allowed whatever went through it to go back a few hundred years to the same physical location. It was actually some kind of alternate America, because there were no human inhabitants.They were also able to bring the natural resources back through the portal to "our" world and do things like restore animals which had gone extinct....

crystal teleportors softback series

feeds@yuku.com (Mind Bender) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:27:28 GMT

I had two soft-back science fiction books that I lost in a move. I remember reading them back in the late 80's. The story revolved around a network of crystal teleportors that required a key to operate. The key was a small crystal that contained a pin number identifying your destination. The main character had a special key. It wasn't preprogrammed. It could go to any destination. I remember the character discovering a large terminal with hundreds of these teleporting crystals, long...

back in jr. high again

feeds@yuku.com (JAFOprime8) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:09:34 GMT

This was a short story where the premise was that everyone was required to conform to the lowest common denominator. The lead character was a perfect specimen of a man. So he had to wear glasses, corrective lenses, to mess with his perfect eyesight. He also had to wear sandbags or weights of some kind because he was too strong and athletic. etc. I think these were requirements by the government. Near the end of the story he broke free of all these restraints, perhaps on TV. And...

back in junior high

feeds@yuku.com (JAFOprime8) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:58:33 GMT

That would have been about 1982 to 1985. We read a short story in class. I only have vague recollections but it was a post-apocalyptic story. Prolly nuclear war. Our species had fallen back to primitive tribesmen and the lead character went alone to explore an old overgrown city with skyscrapers and whatnot. I think the lead character went alone but it seems he might have had a dog or something with him. I recall the lead being fascinated with faucets and mundane things like that we now...

tic tac toe with an alien orb

feeds@yuku.com (sculler315) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 20:17:54 GMT

I've been getting back into sci fi, and I've had this nagging tug in the back of my mind trying to find one of the first sci fi books i ever read...

anyway, the only thing I can remember is a meteorite falling to earth, falls to some rural community, it's a small orb/sphere that a child (possibly a young girl) teaches it to play tic tac toe by drawing in the dust on its surface... I think there were other invasion type events occuring during this, but all I remember is...

Help I left this book on a plane in Prague

feeds@yuku.com (bookdumb) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 10:45:47 GMT

Well what can I say. Bought a book at the airport in Seattle. Read the first two chapters. Really liked it. Then left it on the plane on a connecting flight in Prague......

Only know a little of the story no character names so here goes...

The people of earth "in the future" find out about a civilization of aliens who eventually show up and wipe everyone out....except one ship that was sent to another planet to save some of humanity. Years later this new...

A book about immortality

feeds@yuku.com (greygoo) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 16:09:37 GMT

Starting on an ice world - stranded spaceship - defending against beasts - rescue - rebellion in immortal city - Notes/pointers: writes about implications of such an immortal society, read the book maybe 5 years ago, thought it was david gemmel but doesn't seem correct. Thx

Flying in the Moon

feeds@yuku.com (destrath) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 13:02:15 GMT

Been looking for this one for many years. Thought it was by Heinlein, but after plowing through his novels still can't figure it out. Youth in a moon colony develop wing-like articulated attachments for their hands and arms. Recreationally and in competition they ride rising shafts of air in enclosed moon caverns and then launch out to perform acrobatics of various kinds as they slowly descend in the lighter gravity.