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Author Topic: Looking for a book (series?)  (Read 1628 times)

Idiom

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Looking for a book (series?)
« on: October 10, 2009, 01:08:09 am »

I borrowed this "Best Scifi short stories of [year]". One of of them said it was based on/influenced by another actual book or book series. There was a particular name for the cannon/universe it was based on, I just can't remember what it was and I don't have that book the short story was in anymore.

Way forward in the future, so far it's even past the twilight years, when mankind is burning out in a dark and inhospitable land where the only light is burning on what little fuel is left. They bunkered up in giant pyramid fortresses of essentially adamantium masterwork scattered about the land, but even those are ancient history. All the other forts the character comes across have been all destroyed by various untold horrors and lay in varying degrees of ruins. No one (or maybe it was very few) even remember there being other fortresses let alone refuge outside the walls. As he travels, he scurries low and tries to make himself small and invisible to hide from the incomprehensibly surreal horrors and monsters of all conceivable and inconceivable shapes and sizes lurking and waiting out in the murky gloom to preform horror that is implied to be > lovecraftian. While he's gone, what will probably be the last surviving generation of man clings to the dwindling supplies that are left as they have they all have their backs into a corner and the darkness presses in on all fronts.

There was the "word" which the monsters could not speak or understand, and it serves as the only way to catch doppelgangers. I can't really remember any other specific details.
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Capntastic

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Re: Looking for a book (series?)
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2009, 02:24:55 am »

It sounds like something Michael Moorcock might do, but then again he wrote a million books in varied genres.

Try to remember proper nouns and google those bad boys.
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DJ

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Re: Looking for a book (series?)
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2009, 08:34:33 am »

The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson. You can read it on Wikisource.
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Idiom

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Re: Looking for a book (series?)
« Reply #3 on: October 10, 2009, 04:29:13 pm »

The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson. You can read it on Wikisource.
That's the one! Thanks! I've been wanting to read the original but I could never find anything on it.

Hey, there's a wikipedia article for the genre. The Dying Earth.
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Vester

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Re: Looking for a book (series?)
« Reply #4 on: October 10, 2009, 11:07:06 pm »

Speaking of which, Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories were excellent. Especially Lian the Wayfarer.
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Huesoo

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Re: Looking for a book (series?)
« Reply #5 on: October 11, 2009, 07:43:02 pm »

If you want a good apocaliptyc series you can read the dark tower series by stephen king.
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Vester

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Re: Looking for a book (series?)
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2009, 08:34:05 pm »

If you want a good apocaliptyc series you can read the dark tower series by stephen king.

Seconded.
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Duke 2.0

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Re: Looking for a book (series?)
« Reply #7 on: October 11, 2009, 08:36:39 pm »

 Am I the only guy who found the first Dark Tower book bad? It kinda killed my enthusiasm to read the others, unless this is a series that gets better as it goes on.
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Vester

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Re: Looking for a book (series?)
« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2009, 08:43:56 pm »

No, no, the first and seventh were awful. The stuff in between is pure excellence.
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Capntastic

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Re: Looking for a book (series?)
« Reply #9 on: October 11, 2009, 09:36:13 pm »

Too bad the latter-day Dark Tower series is marred by Stephen King self-inserting himself, 'hilarious' pop-culture references, and the worst climax of anything ever.
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Duke 2.0

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Re: Looking for a book (series?)
« Reply #10 on: October 11, 2009, 09:36:42 pm »

 To the Library!
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Mr Tk

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Re: Looking for a book (series?)
« Reply #11 on: October 11, 2009, 11:06:32 pm »

No, no, the first and seventh were awful. The stuff in between is pure excellence.

I read the second book and third books first, and then read the first book. Yeah the second and third are much better.
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Vester

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Re: Looking for a book (series?)
« Reply #12 on: October 12, 2009, 02:55:25 am »

Have you read the fourth? It's also pretty good in my opinion.

Too bad the latter-day Dark Tower series is marred by Stephen King self-inserting himself, 'hilarious' pop-culture references, and the worst climax of anything ever.

BOOK FRAGGING SEVEN. Also it wasn't a climax. It was an epic anti-climax. It was so epic it almost broke my hips.

Actually, a lot of his books have pop-culture references. In things like Dreamcatcher, it makes sense. In Dark Tower... well, it helps underscore that it's a world that's 'moved on', but sometimes it doesn't work.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2009, 09:27:42 pm by Vester »
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Gorjo MacGrymm

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Re: Looking for a book (series?)
« Reply #13 on: October 16, 2009, 08:35:34 pm »

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Re: Looking for a book (series?)
« Reply #14 on: October 16, 2009, 11:10:57 pm »

No, no, the first and seventh were awful. The stuff in between is pure excellence.

Sounds like the exact opposite of the Elric books, since Moorcock was mentioned.

Well, except replace "pure excellence" with "passable."
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