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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questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
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Novel about an immortal man exposed by world government relates his life through history
I read the book from my local library in the early- to mid- seventies. It was hardcover (library bound) and the dust jacket had a printed burlap or canvas background. The back flap mentioned that the ...
- 13.9k
41
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0
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2k
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Humorous sci-fi book with a quirky space captain where everyone is turning into "glass"
I posted this question on another website, but I've yet to find the name of the book. I remember some very specific details, but nothing I can type into a search engine (I've tried).
Here are the ...
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37
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0
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1k
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Futuristic world where reality is humanity's plaything and God is in a zoo
This is a novel I read in 2015. It was an older book. The cover was black and hardcover. Don't remember any specific details. The book was in English. I believe it was from the 1980s or ‘90s.
It was ...
- 3,200
27
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0
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1k
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Old SF novel about Earth as a prison planet; newly arrived convict has a secret agenda
I think I read this no later than the year 1986. English language, hardback, available in a public library in Indiana in the mid-1980s. I don't think it was by any of the Big Names of 20th Century ...
- 27.6k
27
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0
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491
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Novel about a spacewoman who needs help finding a holographic recording to defend herself in court
This was a science fiction novel, written in English, which I read in hardcover. I checked it out from a public library around the late 1980s. I don't know how old this book was at the time, but it ...
- 27.6k
20
votes
0
answers
392
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Sci-fi novel about a group of astronauts who discover a cylindrical world
In primary school there was a sci-fi novel that scared me into remembering it, I'm now looking to revisit it. This was about 19 years ago, and I estimate it to have been written in the 80's or very ...
20
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0
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408
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WW2 airman is thawed out, and saves Earth from interplanetary invasion
I am trying to find the title and author of an extremely pulpy science fiction yarn. Unfortunately I do not know how the cover was - the version I had was secondhand, and in the vicissitudes of its ...
- 68.9k
19
votes
0
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179
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A SF novel about high-tech gladiators-slaves turning against their masters
I read this novel about 20-25 years ago. I read it in French. Of course it might have been a translation, but for some reason I cannot put my finger on, I think it was a French original. I also have a ...
- 22.1k
18
votes
1
answer
940
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Fantasy novel with two dream-like worlds, one good and one bad
I am searching for an adult (urban) fantasy novel I read a few years ago, but can't remember the title and author.
It takes place in a (17-18th century-like or late medieval) world in which there ...
- 181
18
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0
answers
558
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Space battle fleets, intergalactic elfs
This again from long ago, i think I read it in the seventies but maybe later.
It was one of the first times I came across the concept of motherships and star carriers, before that space battles in ...
- 28.1k
17
votes
0
answers
621
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Looking for an erotic novel featuring a woman who is reborn over and over again until she can save her soulmate?
I'm looking for a book that I read maybe 2 years ago that I really enjoyed but have forgotten the title of.
Here's what I remember:
the initial romance takes place between a man and a woman in the ...
- 179
16
votes
0
answers
175
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Old science fiction book about mutants / space opera
I'm looking for a novel series that I read in the end of 1990s.
There are several novels in the series. Humanity left the Earth because of nuclear apocalypse. Humans inhabited several planets, but ...
- 161
16
votes
0
answers
255
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Anthropologist and blind passenger investigate ancient temple on first manned expedition to alien planet
I read a sci-fi book about 4-6 years back, when I was about 15, and I'd like to reread it, but it was from the library and I can't remember the author or title, only pretty vague pieces of the plot.
...
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16
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0
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542
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Book about wooden sailing ships with FTL
I read this book in the 1990s; I'm trying to remember the name. It seems like a the start of a series I'd like to read the rest of now.
It's a space opera about humans traveling our galaxy with giant ...
- 161
16
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0
answers
591
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Sci-fi novel where humans have a first encounter with 2 different alien species
Read this story many years ago in high school (around 2009), and it's been bugging me since. I can't say for sure when the book was published, but it feels recent (so the 90's or 00's). In the story, ...
- 262
15
votes
0
answers
203
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Book about a boy whose loved ones are possessed by a demon
About 8 years ago I read a book whose protagonist was an only child to a very poor but loving family. I think the setting was semi-modern, as the boy went to school and had school supplies like ...
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15
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0
answers
499
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Science fiction novel that had an authoritarian society with rigid eugenics based on intelligence and artificial blood
I read this back in 1992-93.
I'm trying to recall a novel that had an authoritarian society with rigid eugenics based on intelligence. I can't recall a great deal more except that the main male ...
- 177
14
votes
0
answers
186
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Sci-fi story with time-lagged senses
I remember details from a sci-fi book I read years ago, but haven’t been able to identify it by searching on my own. Hopefully someone out there has better recall than I do! The main points I remember:...
- 211
14
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0
answers
219
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Horror novel from the 1990s involving vampires, the cult of Kali, and thuggees
I purchased this book second-hand in the late 90's, so it was probably published somewhere between 1989-1998. I'm basing this on the fact that the book was near new condition when I bought it. The ...
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14
votes
0
answers
99
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Post-alien war story about a young man searching for his younger siblings and some kind of fanatical Doomsday cult planning to end the world
I read this book in my school library a very long time back. Like around 2004 or something like that. Didn't get to finish the whole book through. But from what I could remember,
Story takes place in ...
- 141
14
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0
answers
279
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Late 90s/Early 00s SF novel: android uprising, gay male protagonist recruited by his mother for a mission
I'm looking for a SF novel I started to read around 2004 (borrowed from a library in London). It might have been written in the late 90s or early 2000s. Can't remember anything about the title nor the ...
- 141
14
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0
answers
964
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SF Book about a princess from a magic world
I am trying to find a book I read many, many years ago.
The book starts with a princess, from a world with magic, coming through a rift into our world, without magic. She discovers, however, that one ...
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13
votes
0
answers
149
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Mankind fighting AI coming on asteroid from outer space
I would like to ask you for help identifying a rather short story or novel (maybe short series).
I believe I was reading it somewhere on internet and it may have been an amateur author publication or ...
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13
votes
0
answers
293
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Dystopic Fiction with massive divide between rich and poor, kids are medicated to not rebel
I read a great SF novel about a future city where the divide between rich and poor and education was very stark, even more so than now.
Kids in this high school took meals in pill form, were almost a ...
- 131
13
votes
0
answers
205
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Paperback YA novel where protagonists assume ghost's unfinished business is charity clothes drive
I read this somewhere in the 1990s, almost certainly as a Young Adult paperback, in English and in the United States. I might have gotten it from the library. There was a ghost that the main ...
- 233k
13
votes
0
answers
467
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Children raised collectively, girl taken to be translator for aliens
I read this book somewhere around 1996/97, probably on the earlier side, and I'd like to track it down. It was in the school library (Durban High School, South Africa), but for the policies of that ...
- 231
12
votes
0
answers
161
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Story ID: Pre-1985 non-adventure novel, I think with light in title
[This is going to be a hard one. I will strain to give every tiny detail that I remember. Some of which may be incorrect--y'all know how that goes.]
Trying to remember the name of an SF novel that I ...
12
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0
answers
166
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Searching for a sci Fi story with demon summoning
So I'm not sure if this is one story or I'm conflating two stories, but:
A demon describes hell, and says that they can conjure anything they want there. Someone once conjured a gold rectangular prism ...
- 2,220
12
votes
0
answers
139
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Sci-fi novel with Aristocrats who own Soldiers, and a lead character named 3R1CK
I'm looking for a sci-fi book I read in 2013–2016. I think it was published in the 70s.
It's about this one dude who was born as a Soldier, but gets bought by a beautiful young Aristocrat. (...
- 121
12
votes
0
answers
193
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Novel where single-atom blades bounce off from each other
A long while ago (5-10 years) I read a science fiction novel in which characters dueled with nanotechnology blades that are Sharpened to a Single Atom.
One aspect I found interesting was that the ...
- 221
12
votes
0
answers
175
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Sci-fi novel (c2000±10) of time differential universes
Trans-solar human society, consciousness download to mini-bots fighting bugs, a scientist & an autist in an asteroid (Ceres?), and alien invasion foiled by travel to a time differential universe. ...
12
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0
answers
275
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Looking for a novel about humans abducted into simulation to solve alien problem
I read a novel between 8 and 15 years ago (2003 - 2010) which was probably at least ten years old at that point.
It was about a small group of humans who were captured by an advanced race that put ...
- 329
12
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0
answers
337
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Young boy dreams of alien planet that's drying up and its princess
The novel centers around many characters, the main one is a young boy, who when he dreams can see into another planet. On this planet is a princess, a young alien girl who he states has features that ...
- 121
12
votes
1
answer
348
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Short story or novel set in a simulacrum of Christian Hell, populated by humans and non-human creatures
Identify the following short story or novel.
I read the book in the 1990s in the German language. Very likely the book was published one or more decades earlier, a typical softcover Heyne or Bastei-...
- 551
11
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0
answers
117
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Sci-fi book set on a primitive alien planet where the non-human inhabitants are born in the ocean, then transition to land after maturing
I'm looking for a sci-fi book I read more than 30 years ago.
It takes place on a primitive alien planet where the non-human inhabitants are born in the ocean, then transition to land after maturing. ...
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11
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0
answers
121
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SciFi story about random teleportation to frozen alien planet
Can anyone help me identify what novel this might be?
From what I can remember it was about a group of human colonists who leave earth using some kind of teleportation technology with their ship. Some ...
- 111
11
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0
answers
116
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Science fiction book in which the Earth was moved and humans are clustered in ghettos throughout the galaxy
My memories are quite vague, but the big central premise is that while humans comprise the majority of the population of the galaxy, they are clustered in ghettos and are not the dominant species. I ...
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11
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0
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406
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Boy goes on a space mission with an anthropomorphic dog/wolf partner and encounters a lizard planet
This book was part of a series. It was aimed towards children or young adults. Nothing violent or gory. My assumption is that it was written somewhere around 2010 as it is not an old book. It's ...
11
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0
answers
154
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Trying to remember an older planetary romance novel
I am trying to remember a book that I read fairly recently, although it was much older (from the 1970s at the latest). I probably found a copy of it online somewhere like the Internet Archive. It ...
- 99k
11
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0
answers
250
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Story Identification - Boy invites in a female ghost who was standing under a tree outside his house
This is probably a book (or story in an anthology) from the 80s (or very early 90s).
The gist that I recall is that there's a brother and sister who see a woman standing under a tree outside their ...
- 488
11
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0
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285
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Sci-fi novel where mankind participates in combat that's like Ender's Game to prevent full scale war in a distant section of the galaxy
It's between 20 and 25 years ago that I read this hardback sci fi story. No cover details come to mind.
Story details:
Generations earlier, mankind made it to part of the galaxy many light years away....
- 28.1k
11
votes
0
answers
150
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Looking for title about people trying to fix machinery on a planet or they die out
I'm looking for a science fiction book that I read back in high school during the 1980's. There was an alien race that colonized a planet and drove the natives away. The alien race constructed ...
- 111
11
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0
answers
169
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Identifying a Wizard of Oz-esque children's novel
I read this (English, medium-length) novel about 8 or so years ago, though the copy I received seemed a good few years older. I am Australian, so there is a higher likelihood that it was an Australian ...
- 111
11
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0
answers
709
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Book about humans fighting a losing war with aliens and setting a trap for them
In the stand-alone novel I read 1-2 years ago on Amazon, a young soldier (White) in armor (full body and super expensive) fights aliens on a planet. I think it is his home planet and he is familiar ...
- 111
10
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0
answers
193
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A story about robot children looking for spare parts
I'm pretty desperate to find this story. I read a few pages from the middle of the book in 2022 and I'm pretty desperate to finish the book. I think the cover was dark blue and black with white text ...
- 101
10
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0
answers
97
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A short novel in French about a computer able to analyse a text to extract its essential meaning. Not Asimov's "Foundation"
I read this rather short novel more than 40 years ago. It was in French, in a slim paperback, definitely the original, not a translation.
It was about a computer that was able to analyse written text (...
- 22.1k
10
votes
0
answers
98
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I am looking for sci-fi story/novel, where some sort birds convinced inhabitants they can see only through their eyes and used this to control them
The story is set on a rather developed planet, where inhabitants can space travel but they are fully controlled by bird-like creatures they have to carry on their head to be able to see. The ...
- 101
10
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0
answers
148
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Post-apocalyptic book involving a protagonist who needs antibiotics, and an underground colony
I read an excerpt of a book in one of those edited collections that pops up in school libraries, and I've been trying to find the book. It's been years and I've searched every forum, best of list, and ...
- 101
10
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0
answers
145
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Sci-fi novel about a highly self-destructive race
I read a novel ~10-20 years ago, but it could be written many decades earlier. Since it was so long, I don't remember if it was a standalone book or a novel in a collection. I read a non-English ...
- 201
10
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0
answers
102
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Book about a boy in a world where people lived underground and were ruled by a lizard god
I remember it was set in a world where people lived underground and were ruled by some lizard god, I think. There was this boy who was from this cursed family or something and they would have to send ...
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