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openBook thingy Literature
i was browsing this very wiki, and i found this book series i really liked. it was something like a future colony being cut off or something, and regressing to a feudal era, and then a ship with people in stasis wake up and see this dutur, and try to make it right. Thanks!
openSci-fi CYOA Book Literature
A Choose Your Own adventure knock-off from the 80's. All I remember is that one ending involved a bunch of bat-aliens cornering you and asking you what you think of bats, and when you choose to tell them you love them they're so happy they turn YOU into a bat, and another involved you being exposed to some sort of energy that basically turned you into a superhero/He-Man ripoff and easily beating the Big Bad.
Edited by CivanfanopenShort historical fantasy story with a larval phoenix preserved in amber (solved) Literature
I ran across this story years ago on what I think was an online speculative fiction zine - I clearly remember the short story Wikihistory
on the same site, but that hasn't exactly helped me find it again (it's all over the internet now). :P
- The protagonist is an archetypal Loveable Rogue, and one of a number of immortals wandering the earth, who rejuvenate themselves by draining prehistoric magic from insects encased in amber.
- The protagonist magically contracts Wolbachia
from the insect he last used, begins slowly turning into a woman, and sets out to try to find a cure. (Among his contacts are another immortal who was previously infected but has long since accepted her transformation.)
- He uncovers an artefact in the possession of another immortal - a larval phoenix, in the form of the maggot which first hatches from the phoenix egg and consumes its parent's body, encased in amber yet still slightly alive, which has a dangerous amount of magic which should be able to restore him if properly used.
- (I think the lost panels from the Amber Room
are mentioned too?)
- Ultimately the protagonist realises an alternative plan and embraces her new form and identity, instead seizing the opportunity to steal the phoenix from its current owner and reincarnate it.
openWhat is the name of this YA book about a romance that doesn't work out? Literature
I remember reading the book in high school (2004-2008) so it's either published during that time frame or before. I remember a passage a having a country girl who drives a truck goes out with a unique boy who I think ignores her at one point to get drunk and hangs out/dances with a older lady/groups of older woman. The girl washes her hands of him and is angry by the betrayal and takes a truck to buy ice cream to drown her sorrows out. The boy finds her again and tries to apologize and grabs her arm to keep her from leaving but she is still holding a grudge so she wrenches her arm free, throws the ice cream in the trucks seat, gets in, and slams the truck door in his face. That's all I remember. Does anyone have any idea as to the books title?
openA book about neo nazi werewolves Literature
I read in the early 90s. IIRC, the protagonist was a pastor who was kidnapped? by a group of neonazis because he also had some kind of biological/medical expertise. The original werewolf is thousands of years old, and was Barabbas at the Crucifixion (the guy who was let off instead of Jesus). He was cursed because he'd betrayed his god(s), so a werewolf bit him instead of killing him, and now he can't die until he bites someone who betrayed their faith as badly as he did. But he turns into a murderous wolfman under the full moon and can't stop it. So the nazi people get hold of him so they can inject his saliva into their people and take over the world with invulberable werewolf nazis, and need the protagonist's help with this. And he helps them, but the new werewolves aren't quite as badass. The original werewolf bites him, because he betrayed his faith by helping nazis, and then the two of them kill all the nazi werewolves and the original one dies. There's an epilogue where the protagonist is in jail on a distant planet, with a defence attorney asking why he killed all those people, and he says "This planet has 3 moons right, one of them is full every night?" "Yeah?" "Well, in a couple hours you'll find out, and until then you won't believe me."
resolved Fantasy YA Book With Contagious Turned-to-Stone Paralysis Literature
I'm trying to find the title of a fantasy YA book I read about a decade ago. The basic premise is this: a young teenager somehow gains the ability to travel to a magical alternate world and bring people and items back and forth. I remember three scenes from the book:
- The teenager meets and befriends a girl from the magical world and brings her back to their home in the mundane world, where they show her all the cool modern conveniences that the magical world doesn't have. The girl amuses herself by typing up magical incantations (either on a computer or with a typewriter) and comments on how it's the neater than any calligraphy she's ever seen, but she leaves a sheet with the spells sitting out on a desk.
- At another point in the book, the mundane teenager's mother is cursed/ magically turned to stone while outside in the garden of their family house, and any creature that touches the mother also turns to stone [eventually she's surrounded by a little pile of birds and insects that have landed on her, thinking she's a statue]. Later, an "evil corporate scientist" passes their house and notices a bumblebee that has turned to stone. She wonders if it's been exposed to a new type of pesticide, and collects it for testing. After examining the bee, the scientist returns and snoops around inside the house, only to find the typed out spells. She reads out the incantations and accidentally performs magic.
- Near the end of the book, the scientist uses the typed out spells to blackmail the teenage protagonist.
I'm pretty sure I read the book between 2004 and 2011, and that it was written at some point after 1990. I have no clue if it's part of a series or a standalone novel. Any clue as to what this might be?
openA collection of short horror stories Literature
I can remember reading a collection of about five short stories in school of 2008 and I can remember what two of them were about. The first was about a disembodied hand trying to strangle someone and the second was about a werewolf that turns out to be the protagonist's wife. That's really all I can remember about the stories. Can anyone help me find this book?
openFantasy: rocks were magical Literature
So rocks gave different powers. Cats eyes have night vision (surprise surprise) others gave enhanced strength and stuff like that. Don't remember much of the plot, one of the side characters was an aspiring friar or something like that. Don't have much else sorry
openDragon, Princess(es), and wizards? Literature
Looking for what I think was a children's book. It featured two princesses, one of which who might have been turning to stone, a dragon that was described as having a voice like a bell, and the not-stoned princess had to go on an adventure to save the other despite being told not to because she is a princess. I think she ended up being the dragon's maid at some point as part of a bargain at some point? Also, it might have been a different book or the same, but I remember something about a wizard being able to see the laylines of energy that control magic- most wizards twisted these magic lines around their staves and he had to subtly redirect the leylines whenever another normal wizard came to visit?
openChildren's book about fairies empowered by seasonal stars Literature
Each fairy 'belongs' to a particular season and manifests powers related to it as they grow up. Naturally, the protagonist doesn't know what season she is until the end of the book, when she creates fire to scare away a snake and realizes she's a summer fairy.
openA book about a genius bruiser Rhino (or pig) like alien? Literature
it's a scifi series I think the alien is rhino like or possibly hog I remember it had it's own tvtropes page and wikipedia page
open70s children's book about animals & a garden Literature
No clue about the title, but I remember reading this short paperback book as a kid. It was about wild animals in a town - squirrels, rabbits, birds, maybe deer - and their suspicions about the big elaborate garden that some new human arrivals had cultivated. The animals were used to being trapped and fenced out and chased off, and were wary of coming into the garden, even though it was full of all the plants and cool water and sunny patches they liked. They were especially wary of a strange covered object that had been placed in the center of the garden ... one that, at the end, was revealed to be a statue of St. Francis. Realizing these humans genuinely loved animals, the various creatures happily visited the garden without harming it, and in the last scene, a neighbor who's been spraying and trapping and fencing in vain for years marvels at how nice the newcomers' garden looks, despite having no such precautions.
openSearching for a book Literature
I'm looking for a book the cover had 2 children being held by giant hands cupped together with disembodied eyes in the upper background. one of the side characters has alopecia universalis that he got after murdering his mother also some plot to do with Armenians
Edited by chimera1openA Book From Childhood- Cant Remember Title Literature
I don't remember much, but:
A boy lives with his father, something happens (an altercation between the two, pretty sure father was abusive in some way...... I think he was a drunk?) and he accidentally kills his father when he pushed him and the father bashed his head on the mantle. He doesn't know what to do, doesn't tell anyone until he befriends a new neighbor girl. When he finally admits to her what he's done, (this part I'm hazy on) I'm fairly certain she convinces him to get rid of the body. Something happens something happens and the girl and her mother end up stealing everything of value from the boy and disappearing, and it's implied they've done this before, at hints on their 'acting abilities'.
If I remember the book cover correctly (and I could be wrong on this), it was a photograph of a boy, dark hair and dark clothes, lying in the middle of a street, arms out to his sides, head turned to the side. Thanks for any help!!
openurban fantasy FBI type series Literature
So years back I read one book i a literature series where an FBI (BAU more specifically I think) team led by some female character whose name I cant remember investigated supernatural mythological monsters. One of the cases involved a thunderbird monster which was killing young women under the orders of a high schooler getting back at her classmates.
openChildren's Book About Elderly Black Man Literature
I'm looking for a book about a little black girl, and her relationship with an older man who was a grandfather figure and family friend.
It was a children's picture book in beautiful painted detail (vaguely reminiscent of the 'Amazing Grace' series) and covered the relationship between the man and the little girl's family from her childhood to young adulthood. The old man is mentioned to smoke cigars.
The book ends with the man's death and the recollection of the girl, now an adult with dreads. I think in the end of the book she was an artist, or painting a portrait. I think there was a rainbow motif or theme through the book.
openSpacefaring dragon overlords (Found it!) Literature
Humans live in fear. Earth is placed under the control/jurisdiction of a dragon who is the equivalent of a spoiled rich kid noble. Meanwhile, there are dragons who bop around in massive space ships and brutally enforce their monopoly/dominion. I remember distinctly one scene where an ancient black dragon military commander returned to a part of space where she had one of her greatest victories and was gazing out the window to look upon the wreckage of ships she defeated. I believe she had spend ages towing the... corpses(?) of the biggest/strongest ships of her adversaries. Every dragon has their hoard, and that was hers
I found it. It's titled Magik Online. The author dropped it back in September, leaving an outline of how the rest of the series was supposed to go.
Edited by Epicsakura101openShort sci-fi stories (1 UNSOLVED) Literature
As a kid with no internet in the 2000s, I was a frequent library visitor. I especially liked sci-fi anthologies, some of them probably relatively old. Some stories I remember to this day and they bug me to no end.
1 story: The protagonist lands on another planet. There are human-like aliens there who implant some kind of gemstones into their foreheads which gives them telepathy/mind control powers. They do the same to the protagonist. They use those stones to control animals (I remember somebody controlling a bird and looking through its eyes) but turns out there is another species of aliens that can do the same to humans. I think this was actually their planet originally, and the human-like ones are descendants of those who crash-landed there like the protagonist. The other aliens are giants with very long lifespan, but as they grow older, they start turning to stone. Almost all of them are dead now, only one is still alive, but he's mostly stone, so he can't even move. In the end, the protagonist escapes the planet. While he's on a spaceship that's about to destroy the alien, the protagonist telepathically contacts him, half-expecting the alien to try to mind-control him to stop the countdown. But the alien is almost glad because he's been so lonely, he'd rather die than remain the last of his species.
2 story (SOLVED): There is a city that's surrounded by a huge wall and no one knows what's behind it. Eventually, people manage to climb to the top. The wall continues to the horizon and an expedition sets out to see where it ends. They walk for a very long time. As they walk, the sun doesn't set, but it looks like it's dimming and everything is getting darker. Then the sun starts to brighten again and they see the end of the wall. But when they reach it, they see their own city. It's stated that the wall is like a Mobius strip: it doesn't have other side. (But for some reason I thought that the expedition didn't end up in their city, but in some parallel reality version of it.)
3 story (SOLVED):
The protagonist gets a job as an assistant for a Houdini-type escape artist stage magician. He falls in love with a woman who is another assistant and in relationship with the magician. Except the magician is a jerkass who treats her badly, and the protagonist wants to get rid of him. There is a big show being planned where the magician is going to get inside a Klein bottle
, but getting out of it is supposed to be impossible. The magician knows he can't do it for real, so he is planning to surreptitiously replace the Klein bottle with a replica while on the stage, but when the show starts, the protagonist doesn't switch bottles. The magician realizes this only when he's already half-way inside the bottle. He can't get out and breaking the bottle would kill him, so he is stuck there forever.
openTwo teenagers and piggy bank Literature
In eighth grade, my class read a book about two teenagers who befriended a man after they prank call him. The man has a room in his house full of piggy banks, I think. The teenagers throw a party at his home and that results in the man having a heart attack.

There's a book i remember reading at the school library when i was a kid. It was about this princess who was supposed to be offered to a local vampire (who i think turned out to be her uncle or something) for some reason, but the parents don't want to give her up, and end up finding a poor girl who looks really similar and tries to send her instead. I remember the poor girl being super excited over the princess's toys,before she got sent off. I think she ended up being bitten, but i can't remember well enough to say for sure. I also vaguely remember a green cover, but covers change all the time (and i could be mixing it up with a different book) so i don't know if that would be any help. I think it probably took place in transalvania too, but again not sure.