What's the name of that book? - Lost and Found for novels

[EricaDakin]

There is a short story by Jack Vance which I absolutely loved, but can't for the life of me remember the name of. It's about a man whose mind is transferred into the body of an alien of a race that humans are at war with. The alien is insectoid, or at least chitinous, and while undercover he rescues a human woman. Does this ring a bell with anyone?

[Doctor_Chill]

Okay, YA readers. I have a book I read a while back that I can't for the life of me remember the name or author.

It was about a guy who, at a temple, gets blinded by a vision. He is helped awake by an old guy. (in a wheelchair, I think. But this was Middle Ages Time, I think) Somehow, he had to go to a city where the people throw prisoners or other such people down from a tower to the bottom at sundown to make a sacrifice for the sun, so it would rise the next day.

The second perspective was by a girl who could see the auras of people, and I remember she got kidnapped in the city by an oil merchant and was almost sacrificed. The name of the book is I think the religion or god. It's YA and I think, or at least felt, that it had a sequel.

Thanks for the help!

[evolkening]

OK.  Back in the late 80s/early 90s I read a great book with the following plot line: 

Race of short people (not exactly hobbits, more like short elves or something) were living in peace in their little village.  Their village was surrounded by a wall made of thorns.  One night a bunch of evil wolves attack the village, the little folks man the walls and fight off the wolves.  The main character is a really good archer.  One thing leads to another and the main character and his friends in up in a castle,  because evil is sweeping over the land and that is where the forces of good make their stand.  Anyway the castle is overrun, the main character and some sort of human princess type and maybe a few others escape. The next  book seems like it covers the escapees adventures.  Ring any bells?

It was on the shelves of book stores (remember those???) around the same time that the dragonlance books were coming out.  I started the 1st book and never got a chance to read the other 2 in the trilogy, but I always wanted to.   Thanks in advance for your help.

[j2starshine]

This is an awesome idea! I've been meaning to ask you all about a couple of stories I read when I was in MG and there's only fragments of the story left.

but first:

I'm trying to remember the name of a book I read when I was a kid which was fantastic, but it's driving me nuts. I think it was set in post-reformation england, I'm sure it was an alternate history fantasy and the main character was a priest who made deals with various devils to increase his powers of sorcery and increase his standing in the church. I think the faerie were involved too. It was quite dark. Can anyone tell me what the name of this book might be?

Could that be G.P. Taylor's Shadowmancer?

The two story fragments:

first book was about a woman who is severely burned in a forest fire, but then wakes up in special operating room, under water. They had operated on her body to make her able to breath underwater without her consent. She had gill slits in her neck and her hands had fingers that were like long tentacles with sharp claws/talons/nails on the ends and was able to manipulate them to slide them under a windowsill. or something. They secretly operated on her because they needed someone, maybe a spy, or something in this other world involving water or something. Hazy details there.

This next one is even worse. All I remember is a band of misfit type characters that involved a gay unicorn. I can't remember anything else about it, except it was kind of a comedy/dry humor or something. But I was YOUNG. ha!

Does anyone know anything about these?

Thanks!

[AddisonCrow]

This next one is even worse. All I remember is a band of misfit type characters that involved a gay unicorn. I can't remember anything else about it, except it was kind of a comedy/dry humor or something. But I was YOUNG. ha!

Does anyone know anything about these?

Thanks!

Could it be one of the Ballad of Wuntvor trilogy by Craig Shaw Gardner? There's a hapless apprentice trying to save his master from a curse and he has a ragtag band of misfits including a tapdancing dragon, a ferret, a Brownie obsessed with shoes, and a demon who is allergic to rhyming. And another demon who sells used weaponry. The unicorn isn't necessarily gay but is very determined to put his head in Wuntvor's lap because he's a virgin.

Turns up in A Difficulty with Dwarves, An Excess of Enchantments, and A Disagreement with Death. They're humour/farce fantasy, like a slapstick Pratchett, with covers similar to the Kirby illustrations on the Discworld paperbacks.

Only books I can think of with an even remotely sexual unicorn, regardless of orientation.

You're on your own with the other one!

[Sindran]

Hey there, just posted in the intro thread...Anyway XD

So I've been looking for a book I saw on the internet about half a year ago. I can't remember whether it was under sci-fi or fantasy. The story was something like a boy or young man was cast out into the wastelands or some desolated place amongst monsters. It turns out the monsters aren't really that bad and they befriend him or something.

I clearly remember what the cover looked like. It featured the guy backing away from two monsters. The one in the foreground had four long legs, a cat like face, and was grabbing the guy's legs as if inspecting him. The other monster was standing above them both. I can't remember whether it was looking at the guy or somewhere else.

The four legged monster on the cover had a body like a maned wolf, which is what I remembered the best. Its basically in the exact same pose as the picture, only facing right, not left.

http://i1310.photobucket.com/albums/s653/XenRane/maned-wolf-chrysocyon-brachyurus_zpsd011ff50.jpg

I'd greatly appreciate it if someone could find this book. I'm going crazy trying to find it.

[Poppa Fred]

There is one story that's been bothering me for a few years now. I read it back in middle school, and I can't remember a whole lot of it but the main characters were a boy and a girl. I don't exactly remember their details.

I believe this took place on a jungle island of some sorts, at some point in the story they were stranded in the wilderness.

There was also a large mansion-like building, owned by a character named Wolfe.

I want to say the title of the book was Raptor, but I don't think that was it as I haven't been able to find anything on it.

If I can remember anything else, I'll be sure to edit this.

Even if this post is almost a year old...
I think the book you're looking for is Cryptid Hunters by Roland Smith.

[AzWingsFan]

I had this book when I was near my teens. So it was over 15 yrs ago now. It was a
Great book and I seem to remember sequels were in the works. What I can remember

Focus on same old tree that seemed to be the center of power/magic
Quite an array of different creatures, many were on the cover.

Books been out at least 15 years.

Different cities vied for power and the tree had to be protected.



Any thoughts at all? If I see the cover I'll remember it.


Thanks
John

[Arakasi]

This is a long shot since I have never actually read the book or remember the title, the author or the basic plot! Let me explain... about a few weeks ago I went into the local book store during my lunch hour and began to browse the shelves. I picked up this particular book and I read that the author loves making maps. To reinforce the point, the next few pages had some wonderfully detailed maps. But I only brought enough money with me for my lunch and didn't take my bank card. So I decided to leave it for another time. Well today I went into the store and the book had been sold.

Thanks for any help for those who can think of the writer of fantasy who likes cartography.

[Isaac]

Hi, I'm pretty new to online forum stuff like this, but i was wondering if you could help me out. There's this series (a trilogy I think but I can't really remember) I read a while ago that I really liked but can't seem to remember. They're set in a world with a kind of weird form of magic in that most or all (I think all but I'm not sure) of it comes from summoning and controlling these otherworldly creatures (I think they're called genie) to do their bidding. The first book is about this kid (I think he's an orphan) who is being taught about how to summon and control the genie. He's frustrated though because he feels like he can do a lot more than he's being aloud to. so he summons this at least kind of high ranking guy (his name starts with a B I think) to go and steal something for him.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[ACSmyth]

That one sounds like the Amulet of Samarkand, which is the first of the Bartimaeus trilogy.

http://www.bartimaeusbooks.com/amulet.html

[Isaac]

Yes that's it! thank you so much. I've been looking for these for so long. I'm really glad I found this forum. big thanks again to both you and the creator of this thread.

[animal74]

Hey, so this has been bugging me for over a year now. I long ago read in the library a book of short stories. I believe there was one anthology of fantasy short stories and one of scifi, with the same sort of cover and such.

The short story I'm trying to remember was about a young boy who wasn't aware he was a clone, and plays what seems to be some kind of futuristic sport sim game all day long. He wakes up one day with a leg missing, and learns that he was a clone of some rich guy's son, who had an accident playing some kind of sport and lost a leg, and it's revealed the clone is a Never Let Me Go style insurance policy for such an event.

It was a short story, at least 10 years old I think, and I've never been able to find it again. When I first heard of Never Let Me Go, I thought, that reminds me of a short story I read years ago, and it's been bothering me ever since.

Sounds similar to the 2005 movie, The Island, but it apparently wasn't based on any stories although (according to Wikipedia) the plot is similar to Michael Marshall Smith's 1996 novel Spares and Philip K. Dick's 1964 novel, The Penultimate Truth.

[j2starshine]

This next one is even worse. All I remember is a band of misfit type characters that involved a gay unicorn. I can't remember anything else about it, except it was kind of a comedy/dry humor or something. But I was YOUNG. ha!

Does anyone know anything about these?

Thanks!

Could it be one of the Ballad of Wuntvor trilogy by Craig Shaw Gardner? There's a hapless apprentice trying to save his master from a curse and he has a ragtag band of misfits including a tapdancing dragon, a ferret, a Brownie obsessed with shoes, and a demon who is allergic to rhyming. And another demon who sells used weaponry. The unicorn isn't necessarily gay but is very determined to put his head in Wuntvor's lap because he's a virgin.

Turns up in A Difficulty with Dwarves, An Excess of Enchantments, and A Disagreement with Death. They're humour/farce fantasy, like a slapstick Pratchett, with covers similar to the Kirby illustrations on the Discworld paperbacks.

Only books I can think of with an even remotely sexual unicorn, regardless of orientation.

You're on your own with the other one!

Thanks! It kind of sounds like what I've read. I'll have to do some more digging. There's no telling what I remembered from the actual books back in middle school. Thanks!

[AzWingsFan]

Any ideas on my book ?