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

[JMack]

Jmack, does that site include titles or any other info?

Title & author only on the initial list, but with a link for each to give add'l info.

http://www.scifan.com/titles/year.asp?ByYear=1982

But if you go to the home page, there's a theme selection drop down that returns book titles by year if they've been tagged with that theme.

[dylanest]

Excellent, thanks!

[Elfy]

The author wasn't Dennis L. McKiernan by any chance?

[dylanest]

Holy unlooked-for boons from benevolent gods, I think I found it!  No Elfy, it isn't McKiernan, but I'm sure it IS "The Elfin Ship" by James Blaylock.  Everything about it fits: there's a river trip, there's a magic coin, the pace and tone are humorous and dreamy (according to fans on Goodreads)...and when I saw the cover I felt a faint shiver of recognition.  Hip hip hooray! 

Thanks to you guys for your ideas/suggestions!  I found it in the "Overlooked Gems of Sci-fi and Fantasy" section of www.greatsfandf.com, the end-point of the odyssey Jmack set me on.  Below is the wiki on the book.  It's even on Kindle, which means I'll be reading it in about .02 seconds, unless I go whole hog and try to find the original paperback...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elfin_Ship

Appreciate it.
Dylan

[JMack]

That's great! But let us know if it was the right one. And beware the Suck Fairy, who takes our beloved books of the past and makes us realize they actually sucked ;-)


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[ClintACK]

Holy unlooked-for boons from benevolent gods, I think I found it!  No Elfy, it isn't McKiernan, but I'm sure it IS "The Elfin Ship" by James Blaylock.  Everything about it fits: there's a river trip, there's a magic coin, the pace and tone are humorous and dreamy (according to fans on Goodreads)...and when I saw the cover I felt a faint shiver of recognition.  Hip hip hooray! 

Thanks to you guys for your ideas/suggestions!  I found it in the "Overlooked Gems of Sci-fi and Fantasy" section of www.greatsfandf.com, the end-point of the odyssey Jmack set me on.  Below is the wiki on the book.  It's even on Kindle, which means I'll be reading it in about .02 seconds, unless I go whole hog and try to find the original paperback...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elfin_Ship

Appreciate it.
Dylan

Oh My God!  I remember that book.  I remember good things about that book.  It had a much cooler cover once upon an eon ago.  I thought the description sounded familiar, but I couldn't remember it.  There goes my afternoon of writing.  And it's the start of a trilogy -- I'm not sure I ever knew that.  And the author has seventeen other books in ebook format.  (Apologies for the mildly nostalgic fangasm.)

[dylanest]

Jmack - Haha, you mean the fairy who convinced me to re-read "Choose Your Own Adventure - The Third Planet From Altair"?

I'm now certain "The Elfin Ship" is the book I was seeking.  Another tipoff was the Philip K. Dick blurb on the cover, which I actually remember agreeing with as a 12-year-old.  I'll definitely check back in and let you know what I think.

ClintACK - I didn't know it was the first in a trilogy either...so psyched to get back into it all!

[Elfy]

Holy unlooked-for boons from benevolent gods, I think I found it!  No Elfy, it isn't McKiernan, but I'm sure it IS "The Elfin Ship" by James Blaylock.  Everything about it fits: there's a river trip, there's a magic coin, the pace and tone are humorous and dreamy (according to fans on Goodreads)...and when I saw the cover I felt a faint shiver of recognition.  Hip hip hooray! 

Thanks to you guys for your ideas/suggestions!  I found it in the "Overlooked Gems of Sci-fi and Fantasy" section of www.greatsfandf.com, the end-point of the odyssey Jmack set me on.  Below is the wiki on the book.  It's even on Kindle, which means I'll be reading it in about .02 seconds, unless I go whole hog and try to find the original paperback...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elfin_Ship

Appreciate it.
Dylan

I know Blaylock as one of the pioneers of steampunk, which this isn't, so I'm glad you found it, because I never would have thought to suggest him. Does it have a lot of fish mentions in it? What I've read of Blaylock he seems to have a preoccupation with fish.

[ClintACK]

16% of the way into rereading the Elfin Ship.  Just hit the mention of the coins.  It's cool rereading it -- every once in a while something sounds familiar, but I really don't remember the story at all.

It's dated in interesting ways -- 3rd omni and head-hopping freely, zero female characters so far, opens with a whole page of weather and setting and mood. 

[dylanest]

I'm a quarter of the way in and enjoying it. What I liked most as a kid, the ambling pace and cozy humor, is all there.  The world of this book is weirdly comforting: a peaceful land of traders and eccentrics, of homely pleasures (lots of descriptions of food, cooked and uncooked) and modest landscapes, with the threat and promise of astonishing things just beyond the horizon.  And yes, more than the usual number of fish references: characters exclaiming "Why, I'm a codfish", etc, not to mention the whole thing takes place on a river. 

You can feel Blaylock's secret love of steampunk.  The elfin ship of the title is basically an enchanted zeppelin, and the magical items so far are all at least semi-mechanical. 

[elliellie01]

Does anyone remember a series where people had some kind of mental powers, and they were enhanced by saltwater? I think there was a female heroine and at some point she had to stay in the ocean "sending" until she got hypothermia? I do t know that it was a particulRly good series, it might have been for children, but it's definitely bugging me...

[xiagan]

Does anyone remember a series where people had some kind of mental powers, and they were enhanced by saltwater? I think there was a female heroine and at some point she had to stay in the ocean "sending" until she got hypothermia? I do t know that it was a particulRly good series, it might have been for children, but it's definitely bugging me...

Tamora Pierce's Immortals Quartet (young adult).
The main character Daine had wild magic and stayed in salt water (which enhances every kind of magic) to search for/contact whales (and a big kraken) until she got hypothermia.

[Nighteyes]

This book had the word druid in the title I think or maybe shield not sure

I think I read it round about 87 or 88

The main character was from modern times in England and found a gateway accidentally from Stonehenge maybe? and ends up in ancient Britain? and  becomes a berserker.


The size of the book was the same as a hardback but it was a paperback.

Sounds like the Song of Albion series by Stephen Lawhead.  (Printed 1991 though so maybe if you are ayear or three out it could be it.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_Albion

[eclipse]

This book had the word druid in the title I think or maybe shield not sure

I think I read it round about 87 or 88

The main character was from modern times in England and found a gateway accidentally from Stonehenge maybe? and ends up in ancient Britain? and  becomes a berserker.


The size of the book was the same as a hardback but it was a paperback.

Sounds like the Song of Albion series by Stephen Lawhead.  (Printed 1991 though so maybe if you are ayear or three out it could be it.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_Albion

I think that's it thanks, I couldn't remember any Christian themes in them through at the time, the Christian themes properly went over my head at time when I was young. If I read them now I think there would irritate me

[Nighteyes]

This book had the word druid in the title I think or maybe shield not sure

I think I read it round about 87 or 88

The main character was from modern times in England and found a gateway accidentally from Stonehenge maybe? and ends up in ancient Britain? and  becomes a berserker.


The size of the book was the same as a hardback but it was a paperback.

Sounds like the Song of Albion series by Stephen Lawhead.  (Printed 1991 though so maybe if you are ayear or three out it could be it.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_Albion

I think that's it thanks, I couldn't remember any Christian themes in them through at the time, the Christian themes properly went over my head at time when I was young. If I read them now I think there would irritate me

Sorry it took me so long to notice the post! I read quite a lot of Stephen Lawhead as a teenager and don't remember the christian allegories being that heavy handed.