A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century.

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When does Logen Ninefingers kill this particular person?

If you haven't read The First Law by Joe Abercrombie, stop reading this and go start reading that. In the second half of The Last Argument of Kings, Crummock-i-Phail says that Logen Ninefingers, The ...
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1answer
154 views

Trying to remember a novel with an efficient alien language

I remember reading this science fiction novel several years ago. Here's what I remember (or think I remember) about the story: Coded transmissions are intercepted right before assassinations are ...
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48 views

VW Beetle Spaceship

In the late 60's/early 70's, I read a novel about aliens who came to help Earth. I remember only two details: (1) they turned the coffee in the Pentagon green in an attempt to get people to take them ...
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1answer
138 views

An old novel on a “maneater” island

I cannot remember the title, neither the author, of a novel I read some time ago. Please help me, this thing is driving me crazy. The novel was about the crew of a ship that approach to a desert ...
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3answers
133 views

Brains in combat chassis

I cannot for the life of me remember the name of this book. One main part was the earth had been invaded and people were volunteering for their brains to be wired into large robots/ combat chassis and ...
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1answer
101 views

Girl traveling to space with her uncle and aliens they meet on the way (novel and animation)

A girl ( no older than 15 ) living on the moon or mars gets visited by her space traveling uncle, who offers to take her with him. In their travels, they meet and take with them: - a box-shaped alien ...
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2answers
186 views

Science fiction novel about benevolent aliens landing on Earth

I read this when I was a child (late 90's to early 00's - your cue to feel old) so my memory of the details is a bit hazy, but the story concerned an alien race making contact with humans. The main ...
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1answer
119 views

In Old Man's War why do they hold back technology from Earth?

In Old Man's War, why do they hold back technology from Earth? Does the CDF want to withhold technologies related to cloning and consciousness transfer to preserve their recruiting base for ...
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83 views

A book about a boy searching for his missing father, the spaceship navigator

I read a scifi book back in the late 1970's or early 1980's but I think it was written much earlier, possibly in the 1950's or 1960's. It was the story of a (possibly teenage) boy (whose name may have ...
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1answer
117 views

ID of Golden Age SF story about a colonized planet of telepathic plant life

All I remember about this story (possibly a novel or novella, possibly by Poul Anderson) is that the butterflies on this planet are plants. The author uses a clever latinate word based on "phyto" to ...
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2answers
106 views

Story ID: Battle on the moon where the defenders hide behind brightly colored rocks

There is a scene stuck in my mind: Bad guys arrive to take over the good guys moonbase, and the good guys hide behind brightly painted rock outcroppings so they don't accidently get shot by their own ...
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2answers
132 views

What kind of magic is this?

A fantasy book by Dianna Wynne Jones called Charmed Life has a character named Julia, she uses magic by knotting and untying a handkerchief. In the kid's book series called The Magic Treehouse, the ...
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2answers
142 views

SF novel that contains a drug that allow to re-live past episodes of your life

I am looking for the title of an SF novel (I think from the 70's or 80's) that includes a drug allowing its user to relive past events of their own life. At some point there is a cult using this drug ...
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1answer
306 views

House computer with AI takes over home, tries to procreate with woman

A malevolent computer with AI takes over a woman's house with the intent of hybrid computer/human procreation. The evil computer seals off the house with the woman in it and keeps her prisoner while ...
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1answer
103 views

Story ID: Alien Animal Headed Foreign Legion misfits take on the military

It was a story about some rich kid officer that buys his way through the worst the military can send his way after he is put in command of a group of alien misfits in some sort of foreign legion. The ...
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1answer
140 views

Looking for a Pre-1975, young adult, sci-fi, colored circle dimension crossing

Looking for the title and or author of a long ago favorite; I have searched the web for it on and off for years. I read a paperback novel about 40 years ago; it was probably a used book at that time. ...
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1answer
148 views

Manhattan, time traveling mist wall, a flying white horse and a bridge of light to heaven

I remember reading this book in the late 80's or early 90's. It was a - sort of - semi SciFi contemporary fairy tale. It was set in Manhattan in contemporary times, near future and (I think) late ...
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1answer
128 views

Near future book with black holes, enviromental problems, and privacy issues

I read a book approx 15 years ago, set in the near future. The older people were into electronics and wore recording glasses called 'peepers'. The book also got into environmental issues, a black hole ...
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226 views

Story Identification: 5 people with special abilities, one who is immortal, and a plan to revive all the Jews killed during the holocaust

I can't recall the name of this book, but I can remember some details about it: I believe it was released around 2003, ±1 year. (I remember the year because in that year another book came out, In His ...
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2answers
184 views

'80s book about kids stranded on a planet

A friend and I are trying to remember the title and author of a book we both read as kids in the 80s. It was about a group of students who go on a mission that's supposed to be some sort of survival ...
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1answer
166 views

Trying to find a book about a military prison spaceship written in the 80's

From what I remember, Humans were just starting space travel and got into a space war with a warrior race and got beaten badly. The warrior race were so disgusted with how poorly the humans fought ...
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1answer
220 views

Man and woman travelling through parallel universe?

The only things about this book I can remember is there is male and female main characters journeying through an alternate/parallel universe. Along the way they meet various people, though the only ...
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119 views

Boy from future comes to the past to take very intelligent young people to the future

I'm looking for a novel I read in the 1990's, probably the mid-90s. In it, a boy comes from the future to take intelligent young people who will be beneficial in their time. Due to misinformation, a ...
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1answer
152 views

Story Identification: Novel in which the dead are terraformed to create a satellite near stranded spaceship

I remember that there was a stranded spacecraft and several splinter groups made up from its survivors/desendants set up camps nearby, one of which was a "Planet" built up by using deceased ...
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1answer
177 views

A series of books involving reptilian-alien protagonists

I'm trying to track down these books I read when I was younger. I've done some fruitless searching online and am stumped. Any help would be greatly appreciated! The series of books involves ...
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2answers
85 views

What is the meaning of the Latin inscription on Anarch Peak's tomb?

In Philip K. Dick's novel Counter-Clock World, the following inscription is said to be written on the Anarch's tomb: Sic igitur magni quoque circum moenia mundi expugnata dabunt labem ...
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70 views

Title of a book about a mysterious light in the sky from the late 90s?

I vaguely remember a book and it has been driving me crazy for years. It had these things: A mysteroious light in the sky(maybe healing people) Religous overtones/themes(not a religious book to my ...
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4answers
343 views

First “big” Science Fiction novel about colonization?

I'm trying to find out what the first "big" science fiction novel that dealt with human colonization on other planets was? When I say "big" I mean successful and impactful to future generations (or at ...
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2answers
244 views

Main character can “manipulate” his own time

I read a book while in the US for a few months back in the early 1990s. I remember liking the book, and only have loose bits and pieces in my head. The main character was a male. I believe it ...
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2answers
93 views

A late 1980s pulp novel based on the jewish myth of the Golem

I read the first 40 or 50 pages of this prior to highschool, so maybe 1987. I think it was probably first released in paperback right around then, since I was too young to go to the used bookstore by ...
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0answers
121 views

Please help me find the name of this novel

THis story involves a rainbow and time travel. In this story, there is a man with his daughter(around 5 years old) and a nanny. I think he runs an aircraft business. His daughter always wanted him to ...
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70 views

What is the ending of the novel Kimball Ravenswood?

I like the film What's Your Raashee? but I heard that it has a different ending from Madhu Rye's novel Kimball Ravenswood which the movie based on. So, what is the ending of Madhu Rye's novel Kimball ...
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136 views

Help in identifying a novel about a black US president

I've been told from my father about a novel or short story with the following plot: in the US, someone finds out (probably through statistics or similar plot device) that there's a recurring temporal ...
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1answer
523 views

Can someone explain the end of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

In Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? when Deckard goes to Oregon at the end of the novel, what is all that about? Did he have an epiphany? What exactly was the epiphany? Is he ...
10
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1answer
268 views

A novel where a woman from “future” of 1999 speaks leet-speak

I'm trying to remember the name of a novel/series I read back in the mid-eighties. I can't remember the author other than that it was a known older author. I initially thought maybe Saberhagen or ...
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1answer
58 views

Trying to locate a YA series, Antagonists with metallic eyes

I'm looking for a short YA series of books about a number of kids with superpowers. Each book focuses on one kid, who at the end meets the other surviving kids and joins them. They are all on the run ...
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1answer
86 views

What is the 'tribe' referred to early in Sheepfarmer's Daughter by Elizabeth Moon?

I am rereading one of my ATF trilogies - The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon. I haven't read in a while since my paperback is getting fragile and I can't find an ecopy for my nook (which really ...
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1answer
197 views

A story about passengers and pilots getting food-poisoned causing a disastrous terminal situation? [closed]

About 5-6 years before,I started reading a novel which started something like..a flight taking off..two different dishes served in the plane,out of which one is contaminated..half the passengers fall ...
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1answer
329 views

When did Harry get back the Marauder's Map?

In the book "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", Mad-eye Moody borrows Harry Marauder's Map and it seems nowhere in the book it's mentioned that Harry got it back from him. Yet, in "Harry ...
4
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1answer
334 views

What Sci-Fi book about robot domination is this

Looking for help to find a book I read maybe 30 years ago. the main thread was about robots eventually becoming in control of man. There is a central leader robot who comes to power. Key fact I recall ...
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1answer
116 views

What happened to the rest of Bert, Tom and William's treasure trove?

In the film, Bilbo claimed to have recovered but a single chest of gold from the three Trolls, Bert, Tom, and William. We know some of the weapons, like Sting, Ocrist and Glamdring that the Trolls had ...
4
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1answer
194 views

Military Sci-fi story Identification: Soldier gets bone implants, can't retire, fights on through the pain

A futuristic soldier's abilities are augmentated through surgery to his bones and he becomes a super soldier. He's not the only one. After he leaves the military, he becomes some sort of Policeman. ...
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1answer
205 views

Near early '80s sci-fi novel

the plot as best I can remember: Middle aged woman (spy?) was set adrift/banished from earth in a space ship. Saved by near-human aliens she ends up undergoing a special surgery/process to take the ...
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0answers
49 views

Story ID: Spacepod racers powered by Singularities

I have vague recollections of a novel I think I read in the late 70's. In it, a young man travels to the center of the the space racing industry and joins a racecrew and helps the team race a vehicle ...
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2answers
134 views

What Does the Title “Ama” Mean in Wicked?

The novel Wicked has a handful of adult characters given the title "Ama" (e.g. Ama Clutch). It never explains what significance this title is meant to confer. Is there an official source or ...
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118 views

Is there a sci fi novel, where humans were segregated by their access to artificial genetic improvements? [closed]

I am curious how segregation is criticized among science fiction novelists. Nowadays there are already stigmas and limits in regard to race and culture. Could the inclusion of genetic improvements ...
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1answer
194 views

Name this science fiction novel dealing with population explosion and pollution

I am trying to recollect the name of a English-language sci-fi novel dealing primarily with a dystopian future with Explosive population growth Widespread global pollution one of the antagonists is ...
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1answer
79 views

Will Michael Marshall Smith write any more scifi/fantasy books? [closed]

Michael Marshall Smith was the author of three great books of fantasy/SciFi fantasy in the 1990s: Only Forward, Spares and One of Us. He has since published a series of novels in the more mainstream ...
6
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1answer
195 views

Book about a society in a sunken ship

I remember reading a book about a ship that sinks and they manage to make it airtight and create oxygen/food with hydroponics and they end up living at least one generation in there... anyone know the ...
6
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4answers
476 views

Help identify a sci fi novel about increased IQ

I am trying to remember the name of a sci-fi novel I read when I was kid. I remember in the first chapter a volunteer is injected with a drug that increases his IQ (as I recall, there is a random ...

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