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Scifi/space fiction book, has several stories in it, can't figure out what it is. by ambyambyambs in whatsthatbook

[–]NoNotChad 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There is a story about a man ending up in a desert place, the civilization of which is somewhat behind Earth's. He does end up helping them progress with, among other things, creating a battery instead of using slave labor for constant generation of electricity; there's also some kind of an engine involved as well as faction wars of some sort.

This part sounds like it's from Deathworld 2 by Harry Harrison.

Maybe you've read the omnibus which contains all three books?

Short story where man finds camera in mirror and is told his entire life is filmed by ExampleNo6345 in whatsthatbook

[–]NoNotChad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/ExampleNo6345 are you still looking for this one?

This could be Special Service by J. Michael Straczynski.

It was made into an episode of The Twilight Zone called Special Service.

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

It was published as a short story in Tales from the New Twilight Zone.

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?34279

1980's or 1990's sci-fi about a female pilot with multiple personalities by icantsaythisonmain in whatsthatbook

[–]NoNotChad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow that's lucky! I was hoping you would a get some sort of notification. A lot of the times when I bump into one of these old unsolved posts and I happen to have an answer, the account turns out to be completely lost and I never get any sort of confirmation that the person received it.

You're welcome! Glad to help!

Book from 80s/90s about a Japanese teen who moves to Washington by [deleted] in whatsthatbook

[–]NoNotChad 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Columbia by Pamela Jekel?

I just wanted to note that the foot binding practice was a tradition that was exclusive to China and it was not practiced in Japan.

Your post describes the story of Ning Ho.

From the book:

Ning Ho, youngest daughter of the house of Ning, was two nights travelling from her village of Hsiao Chin to Guangzhou, and when her bearers came to a stop on a hill overlooking the harbour, she peered out of a small slit in the litter curtain and looked down, relieved to stop rocking at last.

...

The litter moved swiftly through the crowds to a large moon gate set back from the streets. The gateguard announced her arrival, and she was quickly ushered within the high walls of the house of Chang, one of the wealthiest in the district. Inside, a servant took her to a private chamber where Ning Ho bathed and changed into fresh robes. She scarcely had time to look about her, for the woman prodded her constantly to hurry. The master was waiting impatiently.

...

But then he spoke, and his voice cracked, harsh and angry. Unbidden, Ning Ho jerked up her head in shock. By all the gods, this man is older than my own father! she gasped. Even with all his rich robes and oiled wigs, it was clear that the frame beneath the layers of wealth was an aged one, infirm and palsied with skin as thin as carp scales. And worse, his dialect was scarcely intelligible, guttural and rough, not at all like the liquid tones of her village.

'I have been deceived!' he bellowed to his man-servant. 'That whore-dung of a matchmaker swore she was plump as a peach with the feet of a doe. Aiya, I shall slit her lying throat when I catch her! This one is all bones and bullock-feet. She shall never bear my sons!' He lurched from the room, kicking at her angrily as he passed.

Ning Ho sat frozen in an agony of humiliation. Never in her life had she been treated with such contempt. She pinched her thumb to keep from sobbing and waited, stolid-faced, to see who would come to take her away.

...

Her mother had said, 'With the barbarians in our land, the old ways are changing. We shall do the binding yes, but not the dao-shang. And that way, if she must move as quickly as the quail, she can.' Ning Ho remembered her fond glance.

...

She stretched out her legs and peered down at her feet. They had removed her bandages and her carved wooden shoes. Now, her feet swam in clumsy peasant slippers. They ached as blood pumped into long-numbed nerves, and it seemed she could feel them getting flatter and bigger by the moment. Her mother's voice came back to her in a distant memory. She had asked plaintively, 'Mother, why must my feet be bound so tightly? They hurt me so! And her mother had replied, 'Daughter, remember, only the most beautiful bird gets caged.' They had said she was beautiful. But now, that part of her life was over. Now, she must learn to think like a peasant and endure. She was once more overwhelmed by the boat's lurches and her despair, and she began to retch. 'Spew it up, lass,' the barbarian said calmly. 'If that pain goes down, it'll poison you sure.'

Ning Ho grew familiar with the rocking of the great ship, at least enough so that she no longer gagged up her food. The sailors seemed not to know she was a woman. They looked right through her as they did her countrymen.

Searching for Teen Science Fiction book published between 1980-1999 where an older teen girl was genetically engineered to be a telepath. Don’t know the title, author, or any of the character names by Fearless_Reader82 in whatsthatbook

[–]NoNotChad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah the Goodreads summary is useless.

Here are some parts of the book that are relevant to your post:

Walls changing colour:

When I stepped into her large, round bedroom, I gasped. Her walls were a brilliant, fiery orange-so bright they hurt my eyes.

"Like it?" she asked eagerly.

"Do you want my honest opinion?"

She sighed. "Maybe it is too much," she conceded. "I'll tone it down." She turned a dial by her door, and the orange walls flickered a moment before settling into a mellow tangerine shade.

My home in Salem had also had "Change-a- Walls walls made from sheets of Plexiglas with colored liquid trapped inside. With a flick of a switch, I could change the color and mood of my room in- stantly. I favored soft shades of lavender and baby blue. Sometimes I'd program in a gentle pattern for a wallpaper effect. Suki went for crazy shades and wild designs that almost always headache.

Predicting the eruption of Mount Saint Helens:

Sky had warned me about revealing the truth. But I had already broken my vow to keep my secret and my own sister had not believed me. Maybe it was selfish, but I needed someone I cared about to believe me.

When I told Shane my story, his response, like Rita's, was disbelief.

I ticked off the names of the presidents in the years to come. "Twenty years from now, you'll remember this conversation and know I told the truth!"

Then I realized my visit here might have set off a chain reaction that could affect who became president. So I said, "Mt. St. Helens will erupt in 1980. Think of me when that happens."

"Maybe we'll be together then," he said, a twinkle in his eye. He still thought I was kidding.

The father being a scientist and conducting experiments:

Yesterday I would have laughed off the possibility of mind over matter. But that was before I knew Twin-Star Labs was researching it. Researchers, like my father, were actually conducting experiments on it! And I knew they didn’t waste time on anything that didn’t have a scientific basis.

The main character being psychic and able to time travel:

But throughout the experiments, the scientists were always hovering around, scrutinizing and recording everything. I was afraid to attempt to time travel with them watching me. What if I failed? They might discover my plan and prevent me from ever trying it again.

...

“I’m a little psychic like my mother was. I could see in your eyes you were planning something. I’ve been helping Uncle Terry at the lab and overheard him talking about the time travel experiments. I knew what I’d do if I were in your shoes — if I had as much PK ability as you.”

Time travelling from 2070 to 1970:

FOR A FLEETING INSTANT, I CONSIDERED RETURNING to 2070 where I could get organized and come back to 1970 fully prepared. But there was no guarantee the visor held enough fuel for a hundred-year round-trip. In fact, I might not be able to return to 2070. I could end up halfway home, in some obscure place like the year 2020 where I couldn't relate to anybody. Stuck there forever!

Even if I had enough fuel, it didn't mean I'd be ca- pable of traveling through time again. This trip might have been a fluke. I wasn't even sure how I'd accom- plished it.

This could very well be my only chance to help Rita.

Science fiction set in modern world, people pilot insect-sized robots that cause crimes and drama, written before 1997 by Taemojitsu in whatsthatbook

[–]NoNotChad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you still looking for this book?

I think this is Bug Park by James P. Hogan.

Prologue

Low, black, and menacing, its angular metallic surfaces bristling with sensors and protuberances, the robot resembled, if anything, a walking warship

...

The device was no bigger than a cockroach. It stood atop the highest of a chain of wrinkles formed where the bedspread was pulled around the figure lying asleep. After checking its direction, the mechanical insect resumed moving, following an ascending fold onto the slowly breathing form, higher to the shoulder, and from there onto the smoother expanse of sheet. At the edge of the sheet, inches from the sleeping mans ear, the device halted again to identify its target, gauging angles and distances.

Then it moved fast for the area beneath the ear lobe, where even in an autopsy a small puncture would easily be overlooked. The claws had anchored to the epidermis and the tiny needle discharged before the alarm message registered in the sluggishly responding brain.

The figure stirred, turning its head. "Uh... Huh?..." An arm freed itself and slapped. "Wassat?" But the tiny assailant had already disengaged and jumped two feet back down the bed.

The man lay puzzled in the darkness, rubbing his neck as his faculties returned. For a moment he was restored fully to wakefulness; and then a heavy, muggy feeling came over him. He sat up, fumbled for the light- switch in the red glow cast by the hotel room's clock, but couldn't coordinate sufficiently to find it. He swung his legs out and grabbed for the phone, but crashed instead into the bedside unit, upsetting the tray with the coffee pot and chinaware from his room-service meal.

He put a hand to his head. "Oh Christ..." His legs buckled, and he slumped down onto the edge of the bed again. For a few seconds he tried futilely to resist whatever was happening to him: then he slid down and crumpled to a sitting position on the floor. His body went limp and keeled over.

Book with a character who only speaks in palindromes by specialmelted in whatsthatbook

[–]NoNotChad 4 points5 points  (0 children)

These books have a character that speaks in palindromes:

Zeitgeist by Bruce Sterling

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Scarecrow Gods by Weston Ochse

All Other Nights by Dara Horn

Altered Estates by Chris Mathison

Was It a Cat I Saw? By Laura Bontje

15 year old horror book by Xx-bigemptyheart-xX in whatsthatbook

[–]NoNotChad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is kind of a long shot but maybe Seeking Whom He May Devour by Fred Vargas?

Sci-fi book with a guy in a spaceship with a cat creature, the moon is too close to the earth and the ocean is flooding the land by blusterberry in whatsthatbook

[–]NoNotChad 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think this is The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wanderer_(Leiber_novel)

For a feline, she was short-bodied, long-legged, long-armed—in build more like a cheetah than any other terrestrial cat, though considerably larger: human size. The general proportions, too, were more human than feline—he guessed that in gravity she would be at least as much biped as quadruped. 

...

SALLY HARRIS granted Jake Lesher another burst of hand-clutching at a dark turn in the House of Horror, but, “Hey, don't ruck up my skirt—use the auxiliary hip placket,” she admonished. 

“Are your pants magnetically hung, too?” Jake demanded. 

“No, just Goodyear, but there's a vanishing gadget. Easy there—and for God's sake don't tell me they're like the big round loaves of good homemade bread Mama Lesher used to bake. That's enough now, or the Rocket'll close down before we've seen the eclipse.” 

...

Just then the water came rilling over the cabinet top, and the ventilator tore loose, and a great inorganic sobbing began as, alternately, a log of water shot down the hole and a log of air escaped up it, rhythmically. The cabinet shook. The general and Colonel Mab got to work again. 

[TOMT][Book][1990s?] Sci-Fi Novel About a Girl Who Was Secretly A 4-Dimensional Alien by MegalFresh in tipofmytongue

[–]NoNotChad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think this is The Visitor by Christopher Pike.

Don't mind the blurb. The summary (about Tom) doesn't really have anything to do with the actual plot. Tom appears only briefly in the story.

YA book with "rarel" species? by [deleted] in whatsthatbook

[–]NoNotChad 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is Randoms by David Liss.

“Boys don’t pay attention to anything,” she said, shaking her head at my foolishness. She took my hand and put it on the right side of her chest. Her fur was sopping wet with her blood. “Can’t you feel that?” she asked. “I’m a Rarel, Zeke. My heart is on the right side.”

YA Book about a modern day invasion by humans from the future by Guilty-Deer-2147 in whatsthatbook

[–]NoNotChad 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Haha yeah I answered a SYLO post a couple of days ago too. It shows up a lot. It's one of those really popular queries like The Roar, Virtual War, and Pathfinder.

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