Between 2005-2008, I entered a Barnes and Noble and came across a book in the New Releases section that I regretted not purchasing. I remember only the following from the back-panel summary of the book:   Humanity was more or less wiped out. The remains of humanity were put into a deep sleep on one (or more) large spaceship(s). When they arrived a new planet, they had a society where religion was/wasn't outlawed (can't remember anymore). A lot of bad stuff went down after humanity rebuilt itself on this new planet.
63701
Shortly before his death, my father spoke to me about a series of novels that he had just finished reading which had a fascinating concept.  However I soon forgot the title(s) and author and I've been absolutely desperate to find out what they were.  The premise (as I understood) was that humanity had expanded out from the solar system into the local star systems before coming into contact with an incredibly aggressive species which was focused on wiping out the entire species.  Earth and her colonies were lost as remnants of the species fled.  Eventually it was decided by the military leadership to set up a colony in order to rebuild the human race.  However, in order for this colony to escape detection and to keep humanity from going back out into space and thus potentially running into this hostile alien race again, a series of satellites were set up around the planet chosen that would lock onto and destroy any form of technology (and usually the surrounding city) that went beyond pre-industrial standards.    One of the series protagonist is a long living android who possesses the consciousness of a human who was present at the original founding of the colony (and who seems shielded from detection) which observes as civilization is repeatedly regrown and torn down again and who attempts to try and reverse humanities self imposed lot in life.      From what I understood this was a series of novels, but I could be wrong. I've been trying to find this for years on my own with only a rough plot line as a guide and it's gotten me nowhere.
90952
I read a book once where an agent of a futuristic multi-planet government was sent on a mission, and in doing so, used a machine to impress copies of his mind on other people to send them. I remember no names, of people or locations, but I can describe what I do remember. The place the copies of this man were sent was a planetary system that was used as a prison. The planets were used as a prison because of a unique type of bacteria or virus that lived there. Whenever that bacteria would go too far from the planet, it'd die, and take any organism that it was inside with it. There were 4 planets in the system, and copies of this man were sent to each one. Each planet granted the copy one &quot;power&quot;, unique to the planet, through the bacterium.  In one world the bacteria would break down everything man-made remarkably quick, but some people could control them enough to stop, and even create things for you. Another gave people the ability to swap minds during sleep, waaking up into a different body altogether. A third gave the man &quot;adaptive DNA&quot;, so to speak. He subconsciously would change his DNA to match the environment, which could've meant a sex change, if he lived in an all-male environment. And sadly, I dont remember the 4th well at all. I just know someone became a dragon at some point, and that someone was blind.  Anyway, I read this book at my high school library. That copy was a plain brown cover, no title or anything, and although the name was inside, I have forgotten it. I have forgotten it and the author and  all the unique names to search for, and all my searching for the things in this description have yielded nothing. If anyone knows this book, please tell me its name, or anything that could lead to me finding this book again.
28185
The Book is about an earthship exploring the frontiers that I read as a kid (80's). All the stories are told by the same character but different encounters and events.    The first story is about the crew exploring the planet in a number of separate ships when one of them is taken over by a telepathic alien. As the ship returns however the surprise is sprung on the alien that the Mother ship is Computer controlled. Another is the ship shrinking and then finding after its shrunk beyond the atom that it comes back in as gigantic compared to the Universe in a closed loop.   Hopefully that's enough to trigger a memory.
66600
After spending some time reading  I was convinced to buy the book.  I've ordered what I think is the  in my local bookstore (yay local) and it seems to relate to the first one or two years of of web content, but I can't be sure.  My question is: "how does the book series line up with the Web comic?"  Does it contain specific episodes/adventures, relate to strips from a specific time-span or is it simply an assortment of episodes?  UPDATE: They are amazing.  It is interplanetary war in the introduction!!!!  Yes!
34536
Looking for the name of a series of novels I read a two or three years ago. I think the books where relatively new (no older then 10-15 years) as the tech in the books where not outdated scifi.  The series was at least 3 books, but I think there may have been more.  A brutal species of alien determined to be the quickest, strongest, most brutal... individuals possible, takes a group of humans from their colony ship(?) and places them on the aliens "sacred" planet. "Sacred" because of the local fauna being the only threat the aliens have found in the galaxy that surpasses their own prowess.   After a period of time the aliens leave and forget about the weak humans, thinking they will die anyways. The humans do not die, but instead take genes and inspiration from the local fauna (carbon nano tube bones, superhuman reactions, speed, strength and so on).  Think one of the books are named the same as the aliens named the planet.
33217
It was written in English and likely a young adult series. I believe it was a hardcover book and possibly from an Australian author, though I could easily be wrong. I have a feeling it was a series, but I'm not sure if I'm confusing it with other books from the author (see below). I believe it has been out for at least 10 years, probably longer, because I read it in middle school.  The book begins with a school boy seemingly hallucinating seeing a futuristic, armed girl. I think she might have been on the cover of the book, but again I could easily be wrong. The boy is later pulled into the space ship she is on (the school scenes were not real, I believe).  As I remember there was no real adults on the ship, although it might have been because they had all been killed off previously. I realise this seem similar to . Later in the book, or perhaps it was a later book in the series, other children joined the crew.  At the end of the book/series, it is revealed that Earth had been ecologically devastated (possibly by industrial pollution). The cloned (I think) children were on a return trip in space, so that by the time they get back to Earth, the planet is ready for human habitation again.  I recall reading in the afterwords that the author was writing some books set in the same universe, but about early space colonisation of the solar system.  I think it was set before the above scheme to recolonise Earth was enacted. The author said we'll see "familiar names", presumably because the characters were later cloned for the recolonisation mission.   I read a couple of these "prequels" (or at least other books from the same author) but don't recall seeing such names. One of the books mentioned the Earth's oceans had turned toxic, though.
43968
I read the story many years ago. The solar system was being invaded by insectoid aliens who greatly outnumbered Earth's population. All available people were involved in the war effort and all women were encouraged to have as many children as possible. The story centers around an officer who must command a war ship crewed by artificial people. The protagonist was sterile, I think. The crew's bodies were made up of the bodies of corpses of war dead.
70795
I read a book back in middle school. Can't remember the name of the book or the author or anything. Tried googling all the stuff I remember, but nothing ever fit it. It had a biohazard symbol on the cover, and it was sort of holographic, a bunch of whites and blues, looked kind of like how people interpret dream sequences or warp jumps in sci-fi animation or film. The book involved three kids, and they got a message one day or something, and they eventually decoded it to be lottery numbers, and they were told to buy a submarine with it and some other things. Some weird fog starts appearing all over the place, and these white creatures start beating up on everybody else. When they lose pretty much everybody, they're just kind of sitting in the submarine, and they send a message back in time, I think. It's been a few years. Anybody know what the book is or have any hints on it? Thank you~
53801
I really want to reread a book I read years ago. I can't remember the title, but I remember that for most of the book it just appears to be a classic fantasy book, but part way through the main character finds a ruined city and a robot, and it turns out it is a post-apocalyptic future several millennia after a nuclear war. Does anyone know what book this is? I really want to read it again.  As a side note, it could be by Philip K. Dick, but I'm not positive on that one.
36998
For some reason I've been off and on trying to remember for this for some years now.  In short: The protagonist wakes up to discover his body has been replaced by a tank and is being forced to fight to in a war for his alien enemy against some other enemy.  I read this most likely in the mid/late 1980's. I'm fairly certain it was a paperback and was probably a few years old by then. I think it may have had an outline of a tank on the cover. I'm fairly sure I had read "Armor" by John Steakley in the same general time frame.  More detail: The protagonist was on Earth as part of a resistance against an alien invasion.  Near the beginning of the book they had augmented his strength, reflexes, etc.  After going through all of that, he was immediately killed in his first encounter.  Eventually he wakes up again to discover that he is now a brain in a box and his body is now a tank fighting some other war.  He was likely able to break free and regain consciousness because of the augmentations he received.  I believe that from there he went about waking up the other human brains and leading a revolt.  Not sure why it stuck in my head but there was a scene when they were testing his augmentations.  They had him in a weight machine and he was complaining that the shoulder padding was too soft because the bar was digging in his shoulders.  The comment back was that the pads were made out of oak or some such.  Does anyone recall the name of the book, author, etc so I can track it down again?
86284
Unique short SF story where aliens being invaded by other aliens, went looking for allies (to help save their galactic empire).  While being chased by the antagonistic aliens, they encountered a barrier surrounding a solar system. They somehow managed to disable it and found a solar system where the third planet from the Sun showed signs of life. When they landed, they were received by a human girl who greeted them. The enemy ship which followed them also landed, but were destroyed by the humans easily.  Upon learning of the aliens request, the humans decided to help the aliens, and moved their entire world to follow the aliens' ship. Too late the aliens realized that these humans were the ancient war mongering race which was sealed up eons ago and they had accidentally released them.  Could someone please help to identify this title for me. Thanks.
1856
I can't stop thinking about this book but my memory won't come up with a title, author, or even character names. Help? :)  The cover had a large seamless cube sitting in a circle of sand on an alien planet. The plot involved several humanoids (maybe 5?) including a male and female from Earth and an android. There was also a military commander from a planet of war. They all just appear with no explanation of how they got there. Over the course of the book they are killed off one by one until only the male and female remain. (I was most sad to see the android go) The couple finds their way back to the cube and they solve the riddle of how to get across the sand. They are transported inside and are told that they have been chosen to travel to a new world and repopulate.   Sorry I don't remember much more than that. Thank you for any help you can give.
115760
I was 12 years old in 1988 and, that year, I spent most of my savings on a large format hardcover book where the authors attempted to tell the story of mankind's expansion in the universe.  They did that by taking characters, settings, technologies and plot devices from famous novels or pulps and juxtapose it with more or less random cover art. The result was extremelly well put together and -- at least to my young mind -- very convincing.  Needless to say, this book has been a kind of gateway drug for me.  Unfortunately, I lost this book about 15 years ago. I have no idea who were the author(s) or the editor(s).  Here is what I remember:   the book was written in French but I kind of remember that it was translated from the American the book measured about 30 cm x 40 cm it had one of those removable jacket that I lost quickly so I have no idea what it looked like the actual covers were blue-gray and off-white and represented a two tone space scene with no title all the art was in full colour most of the art came from sci-fi books but there was also Conan-type fantasy when they needed to illustrate a planet returned to barbary or whatever   That's it.  Do you know this book?
22637
I read this story/novella at least 15 years ago, probably 20 or more. It is about a ship, travelling through the universe, looking for habitable planets. Why, I can't remember. People are held in Cryo Stasis and I think they are wearing nothing in the chamber but some kind of mesh. Every time the ship gets close to a planet it wakes one or two of the people (one woman, one man?) to check it out but they never find anything good. I think in the end they wake up and discover, that they have arrived back at Earth. Other details are very vague but I seem to recall there was lots of stuff about a (blue?) light, dreaming/dreams and something about the cold, or cold blue lights or similar. Does that ring a bell for anyone?
97188
One of whom destroys the Earth, perhaps accidentally, while fighting another... the plot also involves a human colony ship or planet that loses contact with the Earth; I think a small boy is also involved with the plot, although it's been 20-30 years since I read this story.  Any help would be appreciated!  It's driving my brother and me a bit batty.  Here's the batty brother's take: the main being has created others who are now at war, exploding stars. To escape, the main being accelerates the star of the human colony as a decoy. However, most of the story centers on some guy who winds up living forever, as they keep sticking him in cryogenic sleep and reawakening him. If memory serves me right, they abandon the colony planet for a while and move to asteroids as the star is weakening because it is using it's energy to accelerate. When it decelerates, it is the only star left in the universe. The one "being" was almost reduced to living off the energy of a black hole when it appears, and he sees it and sets off to go there, with a cryptic ending that the humans very well might fight him off.
41575
I remember this book from 15+ years ago about a normal boy who was working on his computer (replacing the motherboard maybe?) and he touched something and got zapped. When he came to he came to realize that the computer shocked itself into his head.   Cut to being the hero sometime down the line and maybe saving someone who was kidnapped? Or was kidnapped himself and had to get out of it using the computer?  I don't know why it's in my head all of the sudden but Google isn't helping me at all!
13224
I have been looking for a book that I read in the 80's but it's probably older. It was about a spaceship from Earth in a very long mission to discover life? I don't remember, but they had been far too long in space without any results, so the crew was on the verge of mutiny.  They land on a planet, home of two super-computers called...? Alpha? Beta? One seemed more advanced than the other, the planet was void of any other life, and supposedly it was forseen that the planet would be struck by a comet, and the computers see the ship as a way to save or abandon the planet before the impact.  At some point one member of the crew is captured by the computers, and it's vivisected in an attempt to get data about humans. Then they "reassemble" the crew member before returning it to the ship, hoping that the humans could "reactivate it" since the computers were unable to do so. Which of course enrages the ship's crew.  The ship was unable to take off for reason that I don't remember and they must fight the computers to save themselves.  Does anyone know what this is?  Thanks, as soon as I read the names, they did ring a bell on my memory. The case it's closed then.