Name that book?

[Witty Username]

Originally Posted by Star_Eagle

Thanks for the suggestion but I was using my laptop and I've unfortunately changed machines since then.

Your browsing history is on your amazon account, not your device.

[Star_Eagle]

Well that would be a problem, I have checked my amazon browsing history and its blank.

I don't normally sign into my account except to place an order and I have the privacy settings ect set very high on my browser, so I can only conclude that combination prevented the site linking the things I've looked at with my account.

Thanks again for the suggestion though.

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by Star_Eagle

Hi everyone

I've been trying to find a kindle space sci-fi book I can faintly remember from browsing through the site in the last year or two, I haven't read the book but I do recall the write-up.

From what I remember of the synopsis the book was a space sci-fi set in the far future. Humans have been almost wiped out by an alien race and the story focused on one of the last, possibly only remaining ships.

An old, dilapidated (I think prison) vessel commanded by a woman captain desperately trying to keep every thing from falling apart as the equipment fails and their hunted down by the aliens.

I hope this is enough detail for someone to recognise the book.

Many thanks in advance.

I believe Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky involves a ship/fleet of human survivors, but I haven't actually read it yet, so I don't know how it fits the rest of your description. It won the Clarke Award a few years ago.

[Star_Eagle]

Thank you for the suggestion DrNefario, unfortunately The Children of Time is not the book I was looking.

Hopefully it might give me a starting point to look for similar books.

[Mare of Earth]

I read a book around 20 years ago, and have not been able to identify it so I can re-read it. Maybe someone here knows it - I have tried other places and no luck.
Third book in a trilogy set on a world with just islands - I believe the setting was referred to as the Archipelago.

The part that haunts me is a "prophesy" referred to that goes something like:
Circle's center at it's edge,
Serpents head upon it's tail.
Evil's heir in chains set free,
Will chain the sun to break the link.

The general plot is about a massive spiral fogbank consuming the islands and killing\sucking the life out of them - male lead is the prince of the islands, who lives in a castle in the eye of the fog, while the female lead is from a tiny island outside the edge of the spiral.

I have been trying to identify this book for over 20 years - any ideas would be awesome.

[Dazrin]

This sounds a lot like The Farthest Shore by Ursula LeGuin, book 3 of the Earthsea Cycle.

Over 20 years old, check (1972)
Third book in a trilogy, check (books 4 and 5 were added much later than the original 3 books in 1990 and 2001.)
World of islands referred to as the Archipelego, check. (Also called Earthsea.)
"Something" consuming/sucking the life out of the islands/people from the edges and working toward the center, check.
Prince from the center island, check.

Female lead from island at the edge of the archipelego, well, that's book 2, The Tombs of Atuan, and book 4, Tehanu.

I don't remember that prophecy at all.

[Mare of Earth]

Thank you for the guess, but nope.
I *think* the author was male - the cover was on a black background. At one point, the female lead manacles(?) the male lead but magic-wise the chains are venemous snakes that bite into his wrists...

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Fiat_Lux

All:

A couple of days ago I read a history of a bookstore, that mentioned one of their prize books. It didn't provide any bibliographic data for the book. Nor any contact information on their website. The bookstore itself is out of business.

The book was originally published in Russian, for the use of officers of the Soviet Army. (Given its content, I'd assume Special Forces, not regular army.) If an officer lost the book, he was instantly executed. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was smuggled to the west, where it was translated into English, and sold on the specialty market.

It was written to help officers ensure that their troops survive in urban/semi-urban combat. It lists things such as distance that a match can be seen at night, distance that a cigarette can be seen at night (8 miles), distance that one can hear somebody walking (40 feet). Distance that one can hear a rifle being chambered (120 feet). Distance that one can hear a trigger being pulled (10 feet), etc.

It struck me as a very useful book, for somebody who writes stories about combat, but hasn't been in the military. Or maybe even if they had been in the military. The article said that its most popular audience appeared to members of the officers of the US Marine Corp.

I missed this when you first posted. I am not sure if it is the right one but this sounds similar:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MG1GNPH/

Spetsnaz Scout Physical Training Manual

If you search for "spetsnaz training manual" or similar you can see several options come up. Some have PDFs, etc.

[Dr. Drib]

Back between 1965-67, a teenage writer (17 years old?) had a science fiction novel published by Doubleday. The author chose a career in journalism. I remember it was selected in the Science Fiction Bookclub at that time (which is how I obtained a very fat Asimov trilogy).

Obviously, I can't remember the author or the title, but after 50-odd years, I would like to read it.

Thanks!

[BenG]

The ISFDB has a list of books published by the Science Fiction Bookclub.
http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/...SFBC_1960-1964

You should be able to see it without logging in.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by BenG

The ISFDB has a list of books published by the Science Fiction Bookclub.
http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/...SFBC_1960-1964

You should be able to see it without logging in.

I actually found that list after I posted. (Thank you, however.) Unfortunately, I may have been mistaken about that aspect of this book, since none of the titles listed is what I remember.

So, I'm back at square one.

[haertig]

Answering my own post from this thread over a year ago...

I finally remembered, the short story was "Alien Earth" by Edmond Hamilton, copyright 1949

Originally Posted by haertig

I'm trying to remember a sci-fi/fantasy short story.

[ spoilers ahead ]

It took place in a remote forest, and one of the characters was moving about in extreme slow motion. At this slow speed, all the plants and trees were "alive" and moving about with purpose. e.g., tree branches would be reaching out and swatting at things, vines would shoot out to grab things. To reach this slow motion state, the character drank some kind of potion, and the extreme slow state was called "hunati" or something similar. In the end of the story, some biological plague was introduced and as it spread through the forest, in the slow state, the character could observe it rapidly spreading through the forest, tress were screaming in pain, etc.

Any ideas what this short story was? I probably read it in some large sci-fi collection book.

[purplepeacock186]

Originally Posted by haertig

Answering my own post from this thread over a year ago...

I finally remembered, the short story was "Alien Earth" by Edmond Hamilton, copyright 1949

I am currently reading this. My wife read this first, and then she told me about this story.

[Pulpmeister]

Does anybody know the original (or book) title of a serial by Carolyn Wells called "The Honeymoon Murder"?

I am preparing an ebook from the newspaper serial, but it is not listed in any Wells Biblio. It appears to have been written in the early or mid 1930s (there's a passing reference to the crash of 29, though not a specific one, and which appears to have occurred some three years or so ago.

The nearest I can come up with is "The Clue of the Eyelash". There are two references to a 'flickering eyelash" in the story. It is a Fleming Stone case.

The characters are Perilla Fairfax, who marries Corey Malden, a very wealthy southern gentleman from Richmond Virginia, several years her senior. He dies on their honeymoon, and not from natural causes, although the exact cause is mysterious.

Other key characters are Bob Stone, Tony Gaskell, Madame Malden, and Malcolm Lovell.

At 52,000 words, it was probably shortened up for serial publication.

[Pulpmeister]

Finally found it. "The Broken O", 1933