Questions tagged [story-identification]
Use for identifying a work of SF or Fantasy, including novels, movies, comic books, fanfic, TV series, video games, etc. Use with other tags to specify the type of media, eg. [short-stories]. Use [episode-identification] for identifying a single episode of a known series, whether TV, book, or comic. Use [actor-identification], [character-identification], [music-identification], or [object-identification] for those specific ID requests instead.
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What fantasy story elicited this quote?
I've read this description of a fantasy story. I suspect that it's written (or said) either derogatorily or tongue-in-cheek, but what story does it refer to?
Transported to a surreal landscape, a ...
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Identify series of books about a kid and older man who fight supernatural creatures
I originally read these books in the late-80s. I believe, but am not sure, that new novels in the series were still coming out at that time.
They were full novels, and there was a series of them. At ...
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Identifying a story with a portal that only organic tissue can pass through
I'm looking for a book that I read when I was young (~1985). My guess is that it was published in the 70s or 80s.
In this story, a scientist (or more) created some sort of portal. Only organic tissue ...
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1
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Identify book about fighting tournament with the opponent wearing gold armor, plus rulers being mind-controlled by tentacled being
I'm trying to find a book I read in the late eighties but I can't remember the name of it at all.
The plot centered around a man coming to a fighting tournament. He wears a sort of gray/silver ...
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Is South Park episode 11x3 based on any sci fi film?
The plot of the show shows all the kids in the 4th grade getting head lice.
There's a subplot of the show where the lice on Clyde's have developed into a thriving culture and they discover their ...
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Can someone help me figure out the name of a sci-fi book about space travel at the speed of light? [duplicate]
I read this book when I was much younger and can't remember the name of it but I remember it's one of the best books I've ever read.
It starts with this young girl that bumps into an older lady, the ...
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What was the name of the 80s scifi show that had ewoks?
It is possible they weren't ewoks, but as a kid I identified them as being the same as ewoks..
Basic plot:
A family (husband, wife, couple of kids) crash land their spaceship on a planet. They meet ...
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Story about a man who has alternating streaks of good luck and bad luck
I remember reading a story, I think in the early nineties though it's probably a lot older than that, about a man who would have streaks of good luck, alternated with equal streaks of bad luck. So ...
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70s or 80s scifi TV show with people travelling between sections of large spaceship
I am trying to remember the name of a TV show in the late 70s, perhaps early 80s, in which a group of two or three people (there was a man and a woman) travelled between different sections of a large ...
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Robert Heinlein story that begins with a card game followed by an alarm and a shelter
The story begins with a group of people playing a card game of some sort, I can't recall what it was exactly, but it had some sort of team aspect to it. There were three or four players. One of them ...
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Identifying a short story about advertising
I remember reading a short story at least twenty years ago about a man who spends a lot of money to rent a hovel because there is no advertising in it. During any normal day everything advertises to ...
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Book from the 70s: Battle/Balance between Light/Sun and Moon/Dark?
I remember reading a book in the 70s, so it could be YA. It is set on modern-day Earth, and the story is about a boy. His mother is sick (maybe cancer?) and he is socially awkward, so he doesn't ...
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Generation starship with kids raised by robots
There's a book I remember reading sometime around 1981 or 1982 about a colony/generation starship where kids were raised by robots who gave them something in their food that kept the kids from ...
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Looking for an old German book about a journey to another planet (approx. from the 30ies)
I am looking for a book which I read as a teenager once, and now can not find anymore. I don't recall the title. I would be very grateful for ideas on how I might find it somehow.
A brief description:...
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Looking for an old story about genetically engineering humans to live on a methane planet [duplicate]
In the story it is easier to "terraform" humans to live on this planet than to change the planet.
The humans end up looking like the local life forms...crablike creatures.
None of the converted ...
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Looking for old scifi story about an athlete sent from earth to another dimension
I am looking for an old scifi story about an athlete that killed an opponent and was sent/escaped to another dimension/planet inhabited by strange human-type creatures with wings. Our hero fights the ...
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1
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Hair changes color with emotion and able to change sex
Decades ago I read a book set in a school of different races of people. One was called the jiniri or some such. Their hair changed color with their emotion and they were able to change their sex...I ...
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Looking for an anthology of horror short stories from the late 1970s or early 1980s
The story I am looking for involves a little girl who thinks she is hideously ugly. Her foster mother tells her that she is as well. The girl gazes out a window at the gardener who is a perfect ...
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1
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1980s/1990s SF novel about space marines from a heavy gravity planet?
I'm trying to remember the title of a hard SF novel I read in the early 1990s.
The story featured space marines from a heavy gravity planet. Because of the environment they grew up and trained in, ...
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Story where scientist communicates with cities directly
In the story, a scientist discovers that cities have more or less a gestalt consciousness, and that they communicate with each other indirectly through people. He decodes this communication, and ...
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1
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Help me find a Late 80s, Western, Sci-fi, novel/novella, where a gunslinger stalks an alien presence?
I came to this forum searching out a book I read in the late 80s when I was a student. It was about about a gunslinger who comes across an alien that I think was killing farmers and townsfolk.
It ...
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1
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TV series with some sort of whale / tsunami story element
This is a television series which I saw around 5 years ago, probably shown on the Sky network in Europe. From the effects and so on I wouldn't say it was much older than that. I only caught snatches ...
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1
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516
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generation spaceship with kids and rats
I am looking for a book for my son to read that I read when I was about his age. I cannot remember the name of it but I think it was a trilogy (or at least a book in three acts). I read it in the late ...
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2
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A comic about a heavenly avenger in leather and with claws, might be called Macabre
Some time ago I read a comic set in modern days or nihilistic future a la cyberpunk. It could be kind of British like 2000AD or Toxic, where a heavenly avenger was depicted. He had an "ancient leather"...
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1
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695
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Short film series about a human crew with a doomsday weapon aimed at Earth
Looking this up for a friend:
I watched this perhaps 15 years ago on TV. It was a series of short films like Twilight Zone.
One of the episodes was about a war between Earth (I think it was Earth)...
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1
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What was that Sci-fi book mixing classic art and book excerpts to build a timeline of the universe?
I was 12 years old in 1988 and, that year, I spent most of my savings on a large format hardcover book where the authors attempted to tell the story of mankind's expansion in the universe.
They did ...
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1
answer
930
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Novel series with a half-cyborg hero with two left arms
I read a novel quite a few years ago (around 2007). It was a series of funny novels set in the future, and most probably another planet also. The hero was a half-cyborg, with a robotic left arm ...
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1
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Story about demons in the ethernet
This was a story about a skilled thief (and I think he was also a dog...but a humanoid dog) out to steal some quality jewelery from some castle residents. He decided to trick them with a modem; ...
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1
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SF TV show about a war between humans and aliens?
I remember watching this TV show in the early- or mid-nineties (I think) that was about a war between humans and a mysterious alien race. At least some of the episodes focused on learning new things ...
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1
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SF story where man must answer questions to get to untold treasure
There was a great SF story I read some time ago (probably 25+ years ago) where there was a well known treasure trove, guarded by a killer robot that would ask all comers a series of difficult ...
- 1,331
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1
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Book about a dog who protects his family from a werewolf
I'm trying to remember the title and author of a book I read years ago. It's about a dog, something like a German Shepherd with a name like "Thor", who lives with a normal family. When a friend/cousin/...
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1
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Short story about a highly intelligent species without any technology [duplicate]
The story describes the society of the species in question and how advanced they are in subjects such as mathematics, but toward the end of the story, it is revealed that
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Books with a technological citizen/slave world having a tournament for citizenship and a parallel magical realm [duplicate]
Looking for a book title where character lives in a futuristic world divided between citizens and slaves. Winning a tournament grants citizenship. People can pass to a tech-free magic realm where ...
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Dome (or force field) appeared over a city (not Stephen King's Under The Dome)
Short story of a dome (or at least a barrier) that appeared over a city overnight - it may have been New York or Manhattan. There was not any explanation or claim of responsibility. An engineer could ...
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2
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1980s movie/series on PBS about a man & his psychiatrist in a post-apocalyptic world
First, a word about the format - I don't know whether this was a movie or a TV series, b/c I saw it aired in pieces on PBS back in the 1980s. I don't even recall if it was originally voiced in english,...
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1
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In which book was an anagram of Aldebaran used?
I can't remember the story line of the book but the cover was a uniform yellow and I distinctly remember the main character figuring out that the name of a company was the anagram of Aldebaran [star], ...
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A series of books that came out around 1990 about psychic Native Americans living on another planet
I read a series of books around 1990 that delt with a group of Native Americans that have moved to another planet on the outskirts of known space. If I remember correctly, they had psychic powers and ...
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1
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Movie with crystal spike travelling up an arm? [duplicate]
I have this childhood memory of a fairly cheesy SF movie where a person comes into contact with some kind of crystal, and it goes into his arm near the wrist. You can then see the triangular shape ...
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1
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What movies are associated with "2046"?
There is a Chinese movie called "2046" that takes place (partially) in 2046. But I think that there are also one or two movies that are associated with this one. Not sure if they're in the future or ...
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Who talked about "the delicious smell of magic"?
I have a memory of a story or novel in which a character talked about "the delicious smell of magic", but I've never been able to find it again.
This would have been something I read no later than ...
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Book from the late 1980's about an abandoned space station [duplicate]
I read this book about 1988-89.
Sci fi, dealt with an alien space station (out in deep space) that humans stumble upon, long abandoned by a possibly insect-like race, human sized (they can tell from ...
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What is this medieval fantasy TV show? [duplicate]
I remember seeing a TV show in the 90s (I am not sure when it was first aired). It...:
Has a medieval setting
Has a handful of heroes, all young men and women (ie: mid to high teens) à la Power ...
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1
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80s TV movie: ship with child crew [duplicate]
Question regarding a TV movie from the 80s with a ship crewed entirely by children. These children were geniuses who were specifically chosen because it was the only way a crew could make it all the ...
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1
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Looking for YA horror anthology from late 80s/early 90s
It was a collection of short stories. I can't remember how many.
The first one I remember quite clearly. It was about a family who goes to the seashore for summer vacation and the brother and sister ...
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2
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Old TV mini-series with a living brain in a lab
Some years ago I saw part of an episode of a sci-fi miniseries (maybe British) with a brain in some research laboratory. It was the brain of a man who died many years ago.
The time is in the future (...
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1
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Movie about some cowboys who travel into the future (to our time)
I watch this film several times when I was a kid but now I can only remember a few details.
I know it was about some cowboys who travel into the future. I think it happens because the thunder hits ...
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1
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Show about a man who is held prisoner in a secret place where very peculiar things happen
I remember there was a Simpsons episode that mocked it, I don't know what episode or what season. I do know the show aired in the 60's or 70's.
It's basic premise is:
A man, probably a spy, was ...
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1
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Short story of a race who discovered primitive but subtle interstellar travel [duplicate]
Many years (20+?) ago in Analog SF magazine I read a short story where a culture discovered interstellar travel shortly after the start of their iron age. They could construct air-tight ships and ...
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4
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Movie/show with people with life countdowns on their foreheads
My wife was telling me about a movie or tv shows she saw a long time ago...but can't remember what it was.
A group of people have numbers on their foreheads, which is atypical. They don't know what ...
- 1,331
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2
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Story about a crystal radio able to pick up broadcasts from WWII; man tries to save his father/uncle
I'm pretty sure this was a visual story, on TV, but I could have read it and just imagined strong images to go with it. If I saw it on TV, it'd have been an anthology show, but I've searched and I'm ...
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