Author Topic: What was that book?  (Read 5798 times)

Zathras

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on: November 19, 2008, 03:54:36 PM
I didn't find a thread covering this, and thought other people might have similar problems.

1.  A man is drugged (in a drink?) and Shanghaied shortly before his wedding.  He ends up on a merchant spaceship, and due to time dilation, can't "go home".  They return 80 years or so later, Earth time.  His fiance is still alive, and nver married.  The political/religious norms have changed, and his life is in danger.  He returns to the ship, and they continue their voyages through space and time.  He eventually discovers that he was not picked at random.

2.  A short story about an author who is being plagerised by a time traveller from the past.  The author is the one accused of plagerism.  I believe the story was written as a series of letters.

On a side note. what's the best way to include more details that might spoil the books for someone who hasn't read them?



wintermute

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Reply #1 on: November 19, 2008, 04:07:02 PM
Quote
On a side note. what's the best way to include more details that might spoil the books for someone who hasn't read them?
I favour wrapping them in {glow=black,99}{/glow} tags. That way, people can highlight it to read, if they want to, and (unlike setting the text colour to white) it doesn't break and become just legible to be annoying (whether you want to read it or not) in odd-numbered posts, or if quoted.

Replace curly braces with square brackets, naturally.

EDIT: Just checked this in IE (I normally use FireFox), and it turns out that some of the spoilers I've previously posted might not have been as well hidden as I'd thought. Huh. Sorry about that.
« Last Edit: November 19, 2008, 04:09:54 PM by wintermute »

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deflective

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Reply #2 on: November 19, 2008, 05:50:47 PM
use {glow=black,100,300}

the extra dispersion makes it illegible in explorer.



Zathras

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Reply #3 on: November 26, 2008, 03:49:49 AM
The first book I was trying to remember was, "To the Stars" by L. Ron Hubbard.  Been a while since I read it, but I enjoyed it.

Still no luck on the short story.



Zathras

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Reply #4 on: November 26, 2008, 04:13:31 AM
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/003195.html  I believe this book, "Time Machines" edited by Bill Adler has the time travel story, although it is not the book I read it in.  It's a collection of short stories, and the specific story I was thinking of appears to be "Who's Cribbing?" by Jack Lewis, written in 1953.



Zathras

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Reply #5 on: November 26, 2008, 04:19:32 AM
Actually, it seems I have read most of the stories in Time Machines. 

Reading the review brings forth another memory, there was a story where a man had a ring that he could flick his finger against and go back to relive the last 5 minutes or so.  He uses the ring to take advantage of almost every situation.  His ending is a good and proper one...



stePH

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Reply #6 on: November 26, 2008, 05:29:44 AM
The first book I was trying to remember was, "To the Stars" by L. Ron Hubbard.  Been a while since I read it, but I enjoyed it.

Haven't read that one, but I admit to enjoying Hubbard's fiction (at least, the stuff that's actually acknowledged as fiction, as opposed to the stuff that's packaged as "religious" texts  ;)).  Battlefield Earth is still one of my top five favorite novels (and there has never been a film of it.)

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Raving_Lunatic

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Reply #7 on: December 02, 2008, 07:02:02 PM
Battlefield Earth I liked.