I've been trying to remember this book for years. I read it around 2003. It was a fantasy book set in a historical 1800s England type setting. (I think it was England but I'm not sure).  The gypsy inherited her wagon from her grandmother. I believe she made potions and traveled with a group but I don't think she was closely related to the family. The group performed somehow (I'm thinking circus-like but not sure).  She could see visions, I think in fire, a mirror, and possibly dreams. At one point she leaves the group for safety (hers and theirs). She is being hunted for what she sees; I think magic is outlawed and she's trying to keep the group safe as well as escape herself.  I also remember her having to choose a road to travel, I think she was going to the capital city, which is also where the most witch hunters were.  I also think one of her visions was of a couple being attacked by either wolves being controlled by someone else or wolves that are actually demons (or something similar).
121011
I don't have much info about this, I can only remember 2 scenes and I'm not entirely certain they're from the same book (only about 95%).   One scene has a man (possibly with a woman with him) attacked on a hill by what I think was a pack of wolves. I remember them riding the same horse, and he's got a sword. I'm pretty sure that this attack was communicated somehow to another person (telepathically or by some kind of magical viewing) who was trying to reach the man to help.   The other scene is of a young gypsy woman who I think got her wagon from her grandmother. She makes potions and see things (I don't remember how she sees). I think she is somehow in danger but I'm not sure how, it may have been for practicing magic.   The book was set in a historical period, possibly early 1800s or before in a British type area. I think it was part of a series and that the author was female. I read the book around 10 years ago. Also I believe it was a paperback copy.  Thanks for any suggestions, this has been driving me crazy for a couple of years!
40431
I read the story over ten years ago while I was still trying to learn English, so I can only vaguely remember that the story is about a cop trying to track down a criminal who had superhuman abilities. Some of his abilities were pyrokinesis, using his mind to form a golem from earth and roam around while he stays in the room and stopping time. Eventually the cop was able to catch the criminal and shot him dead.   If anyone could identify the book I would be very grateful. I'd love to read it for nostalgic purposes.
90738
I'm looking for a fantasy novel I read in the 90s. Heroine begins the story overweight and has to go on a long quest (don't remember why). Along the way she acquires a group of animal/spirit? sidekicks, including a smartass pig, I think. By the end of her quest she has lost weight - not the main point of the book of course, but it's a detail that sticks out.   I think she developed magical powers during her quest, which she may have been surprised to discover? That's about all I can come up with. Cover was a girl walking in typical fantasy/forest scene with the animals, as I recall.It was a humorous, lighter fantasy. Any ideas?
109612
I am searching for a series of young adult books I read approximately 10 years ago (2010). They were from a library so I assume they can't have come out before 1990.  There are two protagonists: a young girl of around 13-16 and a wizard who is much older (50+).  As a consequence of a ritual performed at the beginning of the first book, the wizard looks permanently in his mid-twenties despite being much older. I think he binds his soul to a book, he may also be missing an arm.  At some point, the girl uses the book to enact another ritual which ages her about 10 years. She then attempts to romantically pursue the wizard. The ritual makes use of a lot of blood.  There is a villain who wears the pelt of a wolf and is able to shapeshift into a wolf. In one of the later books, he wears the skin of a person who can shapeshift into anything and gains this power.
87814
I read this book about 6-8 years ago, and it was already slightly old at that point. The key parts were that the characters were all from Earth (America, if I remember correctly - one character internally monologues about remembering exactly how many steps it takes to get to a specific beach from his house, and while I don't remember the beach name, I remember thinking it was American) and woke up in a fantasy world, scattered about, and not remembering where they come from for quite a while.  Each abductee is wearing a bracelet with (what I remember as) polyhedral dice, although they aren't named that I think I inferred it from the description, and at some point they start using them as a form of magic. They find out that they were all abducted by a wizard so they go to find him. I can't remember what happens next, other than that eventually they find him and in a later book in the series (that I only saw the blurb of) they go back to his castle.  I think the book might be called "______ Keep", and am fairly certain the later book in the series is called "Return to ______ Keep".  I'd really appreciate it if someone who knew the title could tell me - it's like an unscratched itch at the moment, and I'd love to read it again!
80611
I read this novel when I was young. It is probably a children's or young adult novel. I think I read it in 1997 or earlier. I remember very much enjoying it, but the title and most of the details are unfortunately quite hazy for me. Here is what I have:   The main character was a girl in her early teens (I think) She was sent to live with a man who was some sort of master of dragons She may have been related to this man (his niece, perhaps), but I also may have made that up The man wore gloves at all times. When he removed them and touched someone he could see something about them. Their future, I think?   Sound familiar to anyone?   Update: Thinking back on it some more, I think I remember that the dragon lord guy and the heroine ended up in some kind of romantic relationship (making it less likely that he was her uncle). Also, he did at one point take off his gloves and touch her, seeing her future (I think).  'nother Update: It's possible that I'm confusing dragons with volcanos. Or, there may have been both. And I think they lived on an island, or a coastline?
44432
I read this book in 2016, but I remember the cover being torn up, so it couldn't have been a new book. There was a girl's face on the cover. She had lightly colored skin, and beautiful emerald green eyes. Her hair was a dirty blond. This book was first in a trilogy and the cover was illustrated.  The girl's grandmother in the story was actually a phoenix (I think this was revealed in a different book in the trilogy though). The book started out in a small village, and I can't remember exactly where in the village chapters (the chapters that took place in the village) but she sneaked her deceased mother's green dress out of a trunk she wasn't supposed to go in, and I think she wore it to some event.
64144
I read this book probably 10 or 15 years ago. I remember it starting out with a  young woman (I think) talking to a computer and altering her appearance in a mirror. I believe she was making subtle changes that were up-to-date with what was popular for the time and I believe the book explained that other people had chosen to make less subtle changes and go full-on were-animal.   The book follows her and her father who becomes a leader of a new civilization, when the main computer is hit by terrorists or something. They fall into the dark ages and have to resort to surviving like they did in the middle ages. It was very descriptive at one point as the woman was trying to figure out how they used to handle menstrual cycles without technology. I remember there was bad guy, and I believe he was were-tiger or panther man, but he wanted the girl. He started raiding the small settlements that had arose in the aftermath, and became like a warlord wreaking havok, pillaging, and raping. The girls boyfriend fought the last battle with him and lost his arm.   I'm pretty sure the book was written in the 1950s. I remember thinking that it was strangely accurate and advanced for when it was written. I have been trying to remember this book for the last 10 years because it was open-ended and I believe it was part of a series. I remember this book being one of the best I've ever read. It could make you clench your teeth, laugh and cry all at once. Can anyone help me find it?
13287
This was a thick book that I read over fifteen years ago that I never finished reading because someone borrowed it and didn't return it to the school library. I want to find its title.  The story takes place in a kingdom that is preparing for the a cycle of war, where every time the winds changes (50 or 100 years), invaders will try to cross the sea from another continent using airships with air balloons, filled with soldiers and warlocks. The kingdom has made several man-made island fortress along their coastline, filled with soldiers with war machines, sorcerers, and enchanters who act as the main guard/defence for the kingdom, calling lightning and fireballs, and using machines to stop and destroy and bring down as many of the invader airships as possible while countering the warlocks on board.  The book involved a man and a girl whose journey brought them apart in preparing for the imminent war.   The women found herself adept in magic and went to the academy in the capital to learn to be a sorceress.   The man found a different calling. With a good memory, he was sent to learn to become a mnemonic storyteller (to train with battle staff and fighting skill and mnēmonikos skill) who carried the history, literature of the entire culture in their heads. They used their knowledge to convey the kingdom's literature, poetry, history and stories to the people from generation to generation.  Both eventually "graduate". Sadly, and with great emotion, both have to part ways. She was sent to a fortress island and began her role as a sorcerer who will stand guard there. He, as a storyteller, began his own journey without her, going from town to town, village and soldier barrack, across the kingdom, telling stories of great men and their deeds, and courageous heroes who fought the war, to uplift the spirit of the people and bring valor to the soldiers stationed at the border and people in the coming war.   In brief, he meets a dragon (who used to be involved in the war in ages past), long thought to be extinct. He finds himself able to communicate with it and has a "born" friendship with it. The dragon teaches him to become a "dragon rider", a long-lost ability of his people (due to the "extinction" of dragons.)   The wind changes with the dread of war hanging on the kingdom.  Airships start to blacken the sky again with soldiers and war machines battling each other.
75599
Read the book once in the late 90's The only things I can remember are:   Dragons were some sort of war machine (built and maintained, rather then real, living creatures) A bunch of somewhat magical creatures working in a factory. The pilot of the dragon has small needles inserted into their arms. Lastly, I'm associating the color green with the cover.   Anyone got any ideas?
3568
So, this is super vague and I apologize, but something sparked my memory and it's been bothering me, so here goes...  I'm looking for a young-adult book I read probably in the early 2000's.  It was possibly older than that, but I doubt it was earlier than the seventies or so, and was likely somewhere in my elementary school.  I have no information as to what was on the cover.  In terms of plot, I think it involved a haunting of an old house and two (or maybe three) children.  Either the older or middle one was a girl of twelve or fourteen.  When the ghost/spirit/whatever starts moving things and causing havoc in the house, I think the parents call a doctor.  He turns out to be a sinister-type character who wants to take the girl away, believing her to be the source of the disturbances.  I think the ghost or whatever takes a liking to the kids and tries to help, but for some reason I don't think it can talk or manifest, only move things.  I know it's not much to go on, but it's been on my mind all day.  Any help would b great!
47638
I know I've ran across this in one of my 3.5 books recently and I cant remember the book or much about it, and am having trouble re-locating this. There was an entry towards the front of the book for a vial of vampiric blood. It gave similar stats as a barbarians rage but you were also considered under the control of the vampire while its effects lasted.   About the book: If i recall correctly, the book was focused more on monsters; but not the monster manual. I believe the passage where it talked about the vials was also talking about how a vampire could make a human its servant without changing it to a spawn or charming it. I really cant recall much about the book itself...  i believe it was in one of the thinner books ( &lt;250 pages) but i cant be sure as I've spent three days going through these books now and cant locate it.  If it helps my 3.5 collection consists of : Exalted Deeds, Vile darkness and VD more archfiends, Complete adventurer, complete arcane, complete divine, complete warrior, draconomicon, DMG, PHB, Monster Manual, Expanded Psionics, Ghostwalk, and Unearthed Arcana.  And i also have other books, incase I'm wrong about it being a 3.5 thing...  Monster Manual 2, tome and blood, sword and fist, song and silence, oriental adventures, Masters of the wild druids grove and MotW barbariands druids and rangers, manual of the planes, fiend folio, Defenders of the faith, arms and equipment, and... uh..  the book of erotic fantasy.  =)   I know that its a long shot for someone to pin-point this as I'm having issues finding it with my books in front of me or with google...  but I appreciate any information or help on finding this ruling.
69656
I picked up a book a year ago and read the summary at the back(part of a series maybe?) at a airport bookshop but had to stop because of my flight was about to depart. I can't remember the author or the title but I liked the plot and premise. Basically, the summary at the back of the book describes a soldier or marine or was it a unit? that was transported to a different reality that has magic/fantasy element in it. I know it's kinda vague but I hope you can help me out. I just found the plot so cool so anything close will be good enough for me.
27149
I'm trying to remember the name of a novel I read as a pre-teen.  If I recall correctly, it would have come out in the 90s (though it may have been a reprint).  The novel is set in modern times.  I recalled this because I've been reading a lot of urban fantasy lately, and this may be the first 'urban fantasy' book I read - our world, but with a touch of magic.  There's a somewhat clumsy, out of shape teenaged (or almost teenaged) boy who doesn't have a father.  His father had been a stage magician who was constantly frustrated by his son's complete inability to preform stage magic, despite a prediction saying he would have a great or powerful magic.  His father had died before the book started, I don't recall how long before.  The boy does something nice for an old woman (I don't recall what) and she gifts him a magical potion.  A drop of it, rubbed on his shoulder blades, will make him grow wings.  The book follows him for the summer, as he spends his evenings flying.  He makes himself a toga-like shirt out of some old curtains and spends time flying around at night.  I recall one scene where he learns about two children out in the middle of the bay (perhaps the book is set in San Fran?  I don't recall) in a rowboat with one oar.  He saves them (by pulling them back to shore using a rope they had with them) and gets mentioned in the paper as an angel.  At the end of the book, the potion has run out.  There's only a tiny little bit left, and when he rubs it in, it creates only a single feather.  Around that point, the boy realizes that he's no longer getting winded going up several flights of stairs and he's gained a lot of self-confidence.  From what I remember of the copy I read, the cover featured a shirtless boy wearing jeans standing in front of a mirror, looking at the large white feathered wings that had grown from his back.
46074
I read this while up at my grandparents somewhere around 1990ish. Given how many books they had from when my dad was growing up, there's a decent chance that it's older. It was a novel where the government kept pretty strict control of society. They had some sort of mass entertainment covered because I remember a reference to the government giving the citizens "their bread and circuses" as a reference to the Roman practices. The biggish twist is that the resistance isn't so much actively fighting the government as that they're producing a pressure valve by using their hackers to set up telephone relays which act as support lines. Anyone can call and talk about their troubles. The telephone technology was relatively old — I think I remember them talking about mechanical relays — and they advertised the changing numbers (they had to keep going to new ones as the government shut down the old ones) on flyers that they posted all over the place.  The one bit of imagery that really stuck out to me was where a female member of the resistance was explaining to the male protagonist that, no matter how bad things got, they had to stay on the line, and she recounted one of her first calls involving a mother who'd locked her baby into a high-chair and was flinging spoonfuls of vitriol (acid, but they specifically used the word "vitriol") at the baby as she talked.  I don't think I ever got to finish the book, so I have no idea how it ended.
119057
I remember reading this book in the late 80's or early 90's. It was a - sort of - semi SciFi contemporary fairy tale.  It was set in Manhattan in contemporary times, near future and (I think) late 1800's. There was a mist wall round New York that ships could disappear into and arrive out at different times.  There was a man with a white horse, the horse could fly but had forgotten how. The man is brought forward from the past but (like the horse) forgets who he is.  An engineer arrives from the future in a gigantic ocean liner and builds a bridge of light to heaven (possibly at the last millennium turn over).   It was a very involved book with a huge cast of characters that all had some part to play in the story.  In the 1800's story there was a girl suffering from consumption, she slept in a glass room on the roof of her house, open to the freezing winter air, it was what kept her alive. She was rich (the family had made money in whaling) but somehow she and The Man (the guy with the white horse, who was pretty much a nobody) met and fell in love (I think).  Some of the story was set around a lake in upstate NY, and one character started off in San Francisco (contemporary times) and traveled to the lake.  Anyone any idea what I'm talking about?
94523
I'm trying to identify a fantasy fiction (possibly epic fantasy) book I read several years ago, although I'm sure it was out well before then. It may or may not be in a series, but it was a decently thick hardcover book I found in the adult section of my local library. The book was set in medieval times (there were castles and a lord's solar), and the main character is able to perform magic by closing his eyes and concentrating on emptying his mind, kind of like a blackboard, and then mentally writing out the spells or symbols. I think he learns to do this during the book.  I seem to recall part of the plot being an effort to try to free somebody (a woman, perhaps) from an enemy's castle, but I'm not completely sure about that. I do remember the characters ride horses and fight with swords and there were also archers at some point: It's not just magic. I realize this is pretty vague.