Questions tagged [novel]
For questions about a book of long narrative in literary prose, in order to distinguish it from other types of story. Do NOT use this tag for every question which happens to be about a novel. Use to either identify the media on a [story-identification] question or disambiguate works where the tag covers the novel and its form in other media.
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Looking for sci-fi novel I read about humanity finding alien station on orbit of Earth
I am looking for a novel that I'd love to re-read it with my wife (my 13-year old self must be proud of me I guess).
Key Plot points
The plot was about humanity finding an alien station on an orbit of ...
- 453
31
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1
answer
858
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Process management and high technology weapon. Novel name and author?
I am looking for help to point me out at a very old novel (likely from the '60s) about two empires at interstellar war. When it comes to starships, one is technologically very advanced, and the other ...
- 405
15
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2
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2k
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Novel about a dragon lord who has to wear gloves at all times
I read this novel when I was young. It is probably a children's or young adult novel. I think I read it in 1997 or earlier. I remember very much enjoying it, but the title and most of the details are ...
- 7,850
12
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1
answer
621
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Tiny lifeforms on planetoid that live at accelerated time rate
A book I once owned and read back in late-80's or early-90's that I have not been able to identify title & author for: It was a SF story concerning tiny native lifeforms, living on either a ...
- 195
16
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1
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Looking for book: contact with aliens, five different races, mismatched claws, biological imperative to breed
I read this book when I was a teenager, or in my early twenties, so that puts it no later than 1979. My favorite authors at the time were (of course) Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Heinlein, and a few ...
- 163
7
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1
answer
723
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VR arcade game teaches teenagers to live on another planet
I'm trying to recall the title of a young adult-targeted book. It was probably published by Scholastic, or at least sold through their take-home pamphlets, which means it was probably published before ...
- 295
11
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1
answer
672
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Story with multiple 'third planet' races
I'm looking for the name and author of a novel (or possibly novella). I first read this in the seventies, and might be older than that. It might have been written for teenagers.
The story takes place ...
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17
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2
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2k
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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 ...
- 173
15
votes
1
answer
838
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Distant aliens receive signal with instructions on how to construct humans, long after Earth is extinct
I'm looking for a specific scifi book that I read years ago, I only partially remember the story, and I don't remember the author or the title.
What I remember of the story is:
An alien race picks ...
- 503
13
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1
answer
342
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novel identification: alien scientists must save their civilization from future destruction
I'm looking for the title of a SF novel that follows an alien civilization through technological eras as it tries to find a way to prevent the destruction of its sun. I believe the novel was published ...
- 133
11
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1
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342
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Novel with a class of "Lords" with external databank-type neural implants
I need an ID on a (probably young adult) sci-fi novel I don't remember finishing.
I read it sometime in the late nineties or early noughties. The library book didn't show any obvious indications of ...
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18
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1
answer
4k
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Sci-fi series: humans are immune to telepathy, become soldiers for an alien group fighting against invertebrate telepaths
The series involves two groups of aliens who have been fighting an interstellar war for many years before the first book. The war is started by a race of jellyfish-like telepaths who have used their ...
- 945
12
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2
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407
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Space Opera Novel Series ID - Probably Read in 2003-2010
I'm looking for the name of a series of space opera novels I read some time ago, probably between 2003 and 2010.
It may have been published quite a few years before I read it, I don't think it was ...
- 123
11
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1
answer
810
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Identify this YA book series about dragons, acid blood, and dangerously cold nights
I'm trying to remember the name of a series of books about a boy who works with dragons. Dragon's blood (or maybe it was slobber?) is acidic, and the children who wrangle these dragons often end up ...
- 213
11
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3
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1k
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Can someone identify this book, where children are bred for specific jobs?
Things I remember about this book:
Every child was selected for a certain job/career;
If twins were born, one was always killed;
Seeing colors for the first time (describing the color of an apple);
...
- 312
7
votes
1
answer
712
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Trying to remember a book involving a girl from a distrusted race becoming a mage and a dragon
I read it as a paperback around 2009ish. There are at least two books in the series. In the first book, we learn that the protagonist lives up in the mountains. Her people are distrusted by the people ...
- 216k
4
votes
4
answers
326
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Book identification: technologically-enhanced man (1970s/80s YA)
I have very vague impressions of a book I must have read as a child/teenager in the 1980s (so probably published in the UK in the 1970s or early 1980s).
It featured a man who had been technologically ...
- 707
46
votes
2
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7k
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Pre-1972 sci-fi short story or novel: alien(?) tunnel where people try new moves and get destroyed if they're not the correct ones
It might be a short story or it might be a novel. It must be before 1972 because I read it in my youth and I am OLD.
The following is very impressionistic.
There is a multidimensional/not of this ...
- 563
12
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1
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2k
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Teenage girl in life-sustaining valley on poisoned Earth visited by another survivor
I'm trying to identify a book I read in school, though I can't recall at what grade level; let's say it had to have been published before I graduated high school in 2000. Despite being required ...
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20
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1
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2k
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Novel about a replica of earth where history happened slightly differently after the ~1940s
I'm trying to find a novel I read a long time ago and it's driving me nuts - all Google searches result in failure..it's been 10-15 years since I've read it I think, here's some details I remember:
...
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18
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1
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3k
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A novel (or maybe a whole series) where a weird disease infects men and machines
I just got an answer to one of my question that sent me refresh my memory about Vernon Vinge’s “Zones of Thought” Universe. There I saw the word “Blight”, and this reminded me of something which might ...
- 11.8k
15
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1
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787
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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 ...
- 730
15
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4
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3k
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What Sci-Fi book (1987 or older) had Aliens conquer earth and made Humans their slaves?
I have been trying to recall the title of a book I read about 25 years ago (1987), I have tried to find it again a couple of times over the years without any luck.
The story takes place on earth, ...
- 161
8
votes
1
answer
649
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A gateway to a new world/future where things can be improved with use
This book is about an explorer (with robot companion) who walks through a "gateway" into the future/parallel world. In this world, things that are created do not fall into disrepair, instead things ...
- 425
7
votes
1
answer
404
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Book series where there is an AI born on the Solar System-wide network
There was an AI, female I think, who was born on the internet, or the Solar System-wide network, maybe?
She was connected/friends with a person, and at one point in the book, she is being sarcastic ...
- 580
6
votes
1
answer
639
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A book where a man inhabits the body of a dying man and befriends a telepathic cat
Some time around 1998 I read a book (which is surely older) suggested by one of my friends. Since this is the first time posting for me I'll do my best to give all the details I can recall.
The main ...
- 63
21
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1
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1k
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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 ...
- 13.4k
20
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1
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3k
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Looking for a book about the moon being a spaceship with an AI
I read this in the late 90's if I recall correctly. Can't remember title or author.
American astronaut is doing a survey of back side of the Moon. He is shot down and captured by the AI that controls ...
- 3,118
17
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1
answer
3k
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A post apocalyptic story about a father and daughter who survive an alien attack that wipes out humanity
A father has a job checking the bunker reserved for important government figures in the middle of nowhere. He brings his daughter along to spend some quality time with her. They stay in the lavish ...
- 181
14
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1
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824
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Old Sci-Fi Novel where man uses horn to enter another world, learns he is a "god" of sorts?
I read this one in the very early 1980s, but I believe the story is much older – 50’s or 60’s. It’s very “pulp novel” in its themes and style – lots of action and adventure, little in the way of ...
- 13.4k
13
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2
answers
773
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Science fiction/fantasy novel about a god returning to Earth to reclaim his powers
I am looking for a book that I read back in the 90's about a guy who's lost his memory and figures out, eventually, that he's a god and part of the universal battle between good and evil, or maybe ...
- 1,392
13
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1
answer
723
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60s/70s science fiction novel where a man (after years of trying) finally succeeds to make a coin levitate by sheer concentration
I am looking for an old (about sixties or seventies I believe) science fiction novel beginning with a man that after a lot of time trying finally succeeds in levitating a coin or some other small ...
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13
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1
answer
520
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Novel where bands of humans roamed a world controlled by intelligent machines
I'm trying to figure out the name of a science fiction novel. In it there were bands of humans which roamed a world. The world was controlled by intelligent robots or mechanized creatures I think. ...
- 133
12
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1
answer
901
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Book where human thoughts are affecting the universe
Basically our thoughts are ruining everything. Like when humans are taught stars are giant balls of gas. To the rest of the universe they aren't but humans think it and destroy alien planets. I think ...
- 139
12
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1
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506
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Trying to remember a book that had people (I think they turned white?) segregated into a compound
I think the main character was a prince or high born person, who one day wakes up and looks in the mirror and his hair is turning white, I think his skin bleaches out too... His servants notice and ...
- 3,736
12
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1
answer
757
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Novel where a group of scientists in a spaceship encounter various aliens
I read this novel long back, possibly 2 decades ago. The story is narrated from one scientist's (male) POV. The team is on an exploration mission, and come across threats like:
an alien which looks ...
- 123
11
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1
answer
509
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A novel with a dream world and possibly time travel
I read this adult fantasy/horror novel as a kid in the mid-90s in Bulgarian, but I'm 90% sure it was translated from the English language. I don't think it was written by an author I've heard since ...
- 213
11
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1
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1k
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Book about a town that is transported by an explosion into a freezing desert
It starts with a town that was hit by a mysterious explosion which transports that town into a desert. The weather is cold and people burn coal but they soon run out and send out an expedition to look ...
- 213
11
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1
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688
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YA novel from pre-1980 set on the moon in which a boy is rescued by space gypsies
This was the first science fiction novel I completed reading on my own some 36 years ago. Unfortunately the details are very sketchy indeed, but here's what I think I remember:
It was a hard back ...
- 393
10
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1
answer
700
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Trying to find a novel about a multigenerational ship crossing space
Looking for a story I read years ago about a multigenerational ship traveling across space and about to cross a huge expanse of emptiness, in a nutshell part of the crew takes over the ship and forces ...
- 101
9
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1
answer
483
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Story (series) identification: Mind controlling satellite, a return to Earth, and two warring alien species
I'm trying to find a series of stories (a trilogy, I think) with a slew of distinctive features. I can't remember when the books were written (I read them about a year and a half ago), but I can ...
- 523
8
votes
1
answer
531
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Novel with replaceable eyes that store memory
I vaguely remember this novel that I read when I was a teen, and would love if you can help me find it, for some reason I cannot stop thinking about it for the last couple of weeks.
The premise was ...
- 332
7
votes
1
answer
1k
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ID a book about a mirror world and 4th dimension
I read a book about 10-15 years ago about a boy and a girl who find a mirror. What made the mirror special was, they were able to enter the reflection and be a part of the reverse image world. They ...
- 478
6
votes
1
answer
189
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Story ID - ruthless criminal; legal/illegal citizen ranks
Novel written before 2000.
The story begins on a planet which has been so environmentally damaged that the atmosphere is too toxic to breathe, forcing the population to live in air-tight domes or ...
- 700
23
votes
1
answer
852
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Novel in which the protagonist fades out is forgotten by, and can't interact with, the rest of the world
Trying to identify a novel I read years ago (probably in the '80s) in which the protagonist (late teens, early 20s?) is gradually forgotten by and ceases to be able to interact with the rest of the ...
- 535
17
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1
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2k
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'80s sci-fi novel about about an astronaut returning to Earth to find it devoid of human life
I read this as hardcover from the library back in the 80's.
The story involves an astronaut who returns to Earth from a long mission (50 years, 100?) and discovers everyone is missing. The only ...
- 558
17
votes
3
answers
4k
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Late 90's or early 00's graphic novel with a girl and an airship
I'm trying to remember the name of a graphic novel from the late 90's or early 00's. I've done a bunch of searching online but can't find anything. I don't have much to go off of. It was beautifully ...
- 181
16
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1
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3k
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Book about a magic blacksmith
I read a trilogy of books 5-10 years ago (it could have been an old story by then though) and went to recommend to a friend - but I can't for the life of my remember the author/titles.
In this world, ...
- 263
14
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2
answers
3k
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Looking for a story about a new Ice Age. Explorers crossing the glaciers between New York and some other city
Along about ten or fifteen years ago I read an intriguing young adult novel with the premise that a second Ice Age had come, and buried the various cities of North America beneath a mile or so of ice. ...
- 293
14
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1
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1k
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SF novel about one-way scientific expedition to inhabited planet, where telepathic aliens "talk" sort of ++like this++ and ~*~this~*~
I'm looking for a novel I read in the mid-to-late 1990s. It was a science fiction novel about an expedition of scientists sent at sub-light-speed (maybe in cryo-sleep?) to investigate a star system. ...
- 608