salty

Help me out here guys... I saw a review of this book a couple of years back and thought it sounded smart, forgot the title and never saw anything else about it.

The basic premise is that this guy suddenly finds out that he has the ability to 'pause' time, (might get hit on the head or something) predictably he uses this talent to perve out for a bit, including the excerpt I remember reading set in a tube station somewhere. Then he gets a conscience and trys to do good with it all wrapped up in some larger plot. Pretty vague I know but this has been bugging me for ages.

Anyone know it..?

CKMorpheus

The Fermata
by Nicholson Baker

???

The Fermata is the most risky of Nicholson Baker's emotional histories. His narrator, Arno Strine, is a 35-year-old office temp who is writing his autobiography. "It's harder than I thought!" he admits. His "Fold-powers" are easier; he can stop the world and use it as his own pleasure ground. Arno uses this gift not for evil or material gain (he would feel guilty about stealing), though he does undress a good number of women and momentarily place them in compromising positions--always, in his view, with respect and love. Anyone who can stop time and refer in self-delight to his "chronanisms" can't be all bad! Like Baker's other books, The Fermata gains little from synopsis. The pleasure is literally in the text. What's memorable is less the sex and the sex toys (including the "Monasticon," in the shape of a monk holding a vibrating manuscript) than Arno's wistful recollections of intimacy: the noise, for instance, of his ex-girlfriend's nail clipper, "which I listened to in bed as some listen to real birdsong."

salty

Thanks mate, thats the one, you have no idea how long this has been bugging me for! Cheers.

CKMorpheus

No problemo.

J-Dubya

I have one. The setting is the near-future or present and electricity has ceased to exist. I seem to recall mountains on the blue/black paperback cover.

Dr. Dean

California 2001?

David_M

I've been trying to remember the title of this book for ages, please help if you can.

What I remember is this man comes to a planet where his father died to find out what happened to him. When he gets there he inherits his dads clothes and gun, when he wears the gloves and picks up the gun time slows and he gets a cross-hair in front of his eyes.

Thats all I really remember, I know its not much

benedict

Although the original poster may be long gone, perhaps this should have another chance?

Does anyone have a favourite newsgroup for posting this type of query?

tasha1

http://speculations.com/rumormill/ has a board entitled "Looking for a Story" if you scroll down in the "Networking section."

Or you could try going to http://www.critters.org, clicking on the "newsgroups" link and posting the question on their writing newsgroup or on the Volcano-Bar-and-Grill (flames allowed, doesn't have to be sf writing related board.)

tasha

datagirl7

I read a short story in a compilation book that I think was by Larry Niven. The basic plot of the story is that earth somehow became un-inhabitable and the humans all got on really slow ships (non-light speed) and just left. They run into aliens who can't believe that humans would try to cross the stars at sub-light speed. At the end they were talking about what a silly race humans were to try such a thing, and I think the last line was something like "a few years later when the human ran the [something major] they weren't laughing anymore".

Anyone have any clue what short story this is, or if it is or isn't one of Larry Nivens?

Thanks so much.

Nick Danger

That's an Arthur C Clarke short story. I don't remember the title. I don't remember the collection.

I remember that, in the introduction, he was complaining that it was his first story, and a lot of people thought it was his best. So look for early Clarke.

Kevin M. Dean

That would probably be Rescue Party, written in 1945 by Clarke. You can find it in More Than One Universe: The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke.

The last lines seem to match up:

"Something tells me they'll be very determined people," he added. "We had better be polite to them. After all, we only outnumber them about a thousand million to one."

Rugon laughed at his captain's little joke.

Twenty years afterward, the remark didn't seem funny.

datagirl7

Thanks so much. THat's definitely the story I was trying to find. Yay!

Nick Danger

I read this book some twenty five years ago, and don't remember the author or the title. It may have been old then.

In a rural economy, people's chief goal is to acheive a zen transcendance. When they reach that state, they physically vanish. Poof. There are a few people, called wolves, who haven't the interest or the capability.

A wolf achieves the statea. He awakes to find himself plugged into a huge memory bank. The aliens want human minds in that state for their own nefarious purposes.

Still attached to the computer, and in a non-human mindset, he decides the best way to destroy the operation is to awaken and unplug other people, who will as a matter of course break things as they try to survive inside the machine.

Does anyone have an idea what book this was?

KCathcart

The book is Wolfbane by Frederick Pohl, and C.M. Kornbluth

Nick Danger

Cool! Thanks!

I think of that book every time I see The Matrix.

solipsta

It's a book set in the future world where people are able to plug into a Matrix type system where they download their consciousness into a computer and live in that world.

A young man is reluctant to go into the computer completely but outsiders can take visits into there for a few days at a time. On one of his visits, he meets and falls in love with a girl that wants him to come in full time. The outside world is slowly growing into ruin and barely inhabitable anymore.

This is all I remember about it. I originally read it about 5-6 years ago in paperback. Ring a bell for anyone?

benedict

Nick Danger

In the near future, genetic manipulation is possible for rich countries. The International Olympic Committee has disallowed genetically manipulated athletes.

The US water polo team shows up with a 7 foot goalie with flipper feet, which the US team claims is a birt defect. The Soviet team files a protest. The Soviet high jumper has porous bones like a bird. The US team files a protest. By the end of the games, every event has a protest.

I read this years ago in Omni magazine, but don't remember who wrote it or what it was called.

benedict

Nick Danger

Damn, you're good. How'd you get that so fast, and find the cover?

benedict

....

Funnily enough I'm pretty sure I have that very issue of Omni in a box somewhere together with several years worth of copies although I don't recall the story off-hand! On clicking the thread my expectation from the title was that the question was going to relate to Ian MacDonald's "Winning"; a tale I do remember.

When I realised it was something else you were after - Winning featured in the anthology Zenith 2 in around 1990 - into Google I typed

omni
olympics
gene*

Almost immediately that gave me the author and title [2nd hit] with the magazine cover closely behind at the seventh hit. Click the pic above to arrive at the page!

I bet composing this answer took longer than the whole process I've just described!

Alien Redrum

50 cents at Amazon.

Cameron

I read this online a few years back and not sure if it ever got published. Anyone know anything about it.

Cool scence describing the alternate cut of star wars where Luke turns to the dark side.

can't find it...hope you can help

DARTH GAMER

I once had to read this short story in english class and it was an awesome story but for the life of me can not find a copy of it again. I believe it is called "The Survivor". It is about the future and how countries go about solving their differences. Instead of WAR, each party would gather up their best 100 solders and put them in an arena filled with various terrain and sorts. The last side to have any survivors would be the winner obviously. What made this unique was that it was all televised with commentary. It was like John madden and Dick Vitall (spelling) giving a play by play with slow motion and every one that was killed fighting for their country would get a tape of their death mailed to their family as a souveneir. Anyway, the survivor would be granted imunity in their country and would be able to do anything they wanted as compenstion for their term. Great story and I would love to find out the auther or where I might find this story again. Any help would be wonderful!!!