I read this story ten years ago, and can't find it or remember it's name. It's about two kids who live in a house that spoils them.They have a holo room that turns into Africa when they play in it. I think their parents tell them to stop doing something with the room, so they set lions on their parents.
31238
I read this short story(I believe it was under novella length, but I could be mistaken) a while back, and I am trying to identify the title for a friend.   Plot:      Parents(male and female) get a computer aided/holographic nursery for their children. The mother becomes increasingly agitated as the children withdraw more. The children are barely even featured in the story, and the ending concludes with lions possibly eating the parents.   Publishing date: Years ago.   Tech level: Seemingly functional AI, not much more.
42648
In the early '80s, I read a story about a Terran man on another planet, where the natives develop skin lesions and eventually die, but are happy, as they become part of the planet they live on. I remember that the protagonist is not developing the lesions, because he hates the planet. Once he starts loving the planet, he starts having the lesions as well. In this story, the planet is "alive".  I have read about "" and "". They do not match my memory. Thank you.
17039
I remember a story I have read buy could not remember the author the name or anything apart from the basic plot. The story is about some future where humanity has to fight with some aliens (not 100% sure). The story tells about a guy who was some kind of activist and who was in a prison two or more times and somehow helped humanity by being held in a prison (can't remember details). I think the story starts by saying that there is a statue in his honor that is not very well known but he did more to help humanity than famous politicians.   The story is most likely written by some famous English-speaking author, though I read it in a translation.
106386
A malevolent computer with AI takes over a woman's house with the intent of hybrid computer/human procreation. The evil computer seals off the house with the woman in it and keeps her prisoner while it prepares. I read the tale sometime in the late 80's or the early 90's. It was one of many of my missing books that got yardsaled by my in-laws when I wasn't looking. It may also have been made into a movie, but I didn't see the film.
88992
There was this pocket book, back when I was a teenager (20 years ago), with these two twins discovering a room (it was something like a tool shed) where time flowed slower (1 hour inside was equal to 1 minute outside if i remember correctly).   Inside the shed there was a sink and a strange snake-ish metallic monster was slowly coming out from it.  One of the twins, the one with the "less marked" personality, decides to spend one year (during a whole night) inside the room in order to get out older than his twin.  I don't remember what happens with the monster, I think they destroyed the whole shed in the very end.
29582
I think this story dates from the 1950s, plus or minus a decade - I read it about 30-35 years ago in a (then) fairly old story collection. It involves explorers on a planet falling into a gelatinous object that dissolves most of their bodies except for their brains and nervous systems. About four of them fall in to the same creature, and they discover that by thinking about it they can grow limbs and other body parts. At first they try to fight each other, by growing arms so they can hit each other's brains - and one of them realises that growing a skull would be a good idea - but later they agree to grow legs and move the creature around co-operatively. I would love to identify this story.
3874
I read this about 30/40 years ago. I don't remember if it was a short story or book.  What I remember of it :   Some aliens arrive at earth; they don't find any living humans, just empty cities. They go to one museum and revive an Egyptian mummy. When it's alive, it keeps asking where his servants are. They don't get any information from the mummy so they kill him again. Later on they revive another human, who turns out to be more intelligent than the aliens.   I don't remember much of what happened from this point on, except:   In the end the human starts to revive other humans.   Some one can tell me what story, name of book.
94138
So, I read this story (novel/book) a while ago, but now cannot remember the name. Here is the synopsis, as I remember it (please note that my memory could be faulty): The story begins in London, where two brothers are having an argument, over a girl. Somehow one enters through a portal that opens up in the London Underground. The other eventually follows him, but because the Portals transport through Space/Time, his brother is now a successful interstellar trader (the following brother does not yet know this). The main conflict at this point is the sentient red cloud (that I can't remember the name of) that is encroaching on the area where these people are hanging out,  which is called The Gnarl. Eventually it is figured out that the Gnarl is really an ancient weapon called &quot;The Torch&quot; that only the other brother can operate. The cloud is beaten back, and... That's as much as I can remember.
80722
When I was young, I read a chilling story of astronauts coming to an unknown planet and found to their delight  the occupants were all members of their family who were deceased. Each crew member goes off to their respective childhood homes to relive memories.   One astronaut however in the same bedroom as his brother suddenly wonders if aliens may have searched the memories of himself and fellow crew members and used this to gain power over the intruders. His brother asks suspiciously what he's thinking and doesn't believe the answer. The last scene shows astronauts being buried by aliens whose faces melt from human into something terrifying.   Anyone know the name of the story and author? I thought it might be something like Coming Home, but only a guess.
71559
I'm trying to trace what was probably a short story rather than a full novel from my childhood.  I think it starts in the present day (so the 80s or thereabouts) and there was some kind of alternate reality bleed which meant there were (i think) ghost boars or pigs, they were becoming more physical with time, and so problematic. The family escaped when the family dog led them to and through a portal which they couldn't perceive to a safer place.  In the end, they ended up in some kind of rural community who had a religion / custom that required them to say "Bless the beasts that bless us" but some folk shortened it to BTBTBU which irritated the girl who was the principle character.  I used to read a lot of kids short story sci-fi and fantasy including Nicolas Fisk but I don't know whether this was from a compilation of several authors or a single author's collection.
99887
Basically it's about a boy who accidentally goes to a different universe and he must find words to a spell to kill the dictator guy. He travels with a girl also from Earth who is home-schooled.  More detail if necessary: It's about a boy who is led to a different universe by the sound of music that comes from a band floating down a river. They are protesting something and will fall down a waterfall. The boy saves one of them and makes everyone mad, so he runs away and finds an obscure library. He spends time at the library with an old man and the man's servant. He learns about the world and what he must do to return to Earth. They go multiple places to find parts of the sentences such as on a island in the middle of a weird lake, a tattoo on some guy's arm, on a wall in gold, and lot of places.
27431
I read this set of stories in the 80's.  What I recall is this:  A planet where the ruling caste was made up of humanoid women.  These women would, as almost pubescent girls, go out into the wilderness with only a spear and attempt to kill an animal in a life or death struggle.  When it happened, they would burst open a DNA packet in themselves that caused them to rapidly mature, their skin to become bronze colored, and give them some kinds of other "powers", I think over fire.  They were called "Bahronas", I think.  The population of this planet was primitive, but they were in contact with an advanced humanoid species, I think of actual homo-sapiens, who were there observing and advising them.  The advanced species wasn't allowed to intervene, just advise and watch.  The main character was a castaway boy, crash landed on their planet and stranded.  He became friendly with the ruling family of Bahronas and entered their confidence.  We find out through the course of the story that he's been genetically engineered and is not a normal boy.  At some point, the advanced species notices him and explains that he is a clone of a famous explorer and a spy, and they explain that they won't do anything in front of him.  The central part of the story is something of a blur, but, the final part of the story is told in a dramatically different style and shifts to a planet populated by catlike creatures who live in boughs of silk scarves, some of which sing.  THey are recording devices which play back the songs.  On this planet, there is another silk scarf, a white one, which doesn't play a song at all.  The cat creatures are greatly disturbed by it when they hear it's message, which they don't understand.  The narrator then goes on to say that it's a spoken word recording, made by the explorer which the boy was a clone of, explaining that he is captured and held hostage on the planet which makes the scarves, and forced to help make them (I think.)
30881
I'm looking for a story where a small number of humans and members of alien species are abducted by alien slavers. I believe they had canine or feline characteristics. I don't recall how it happened, maybe the slavers were betrayed by their employers, but in the end the slaves and their captors were thrown into a large arena of sorts and were being hunted. It was very Hunger-Games-esque. The humans slowly formed a kind of friendship with one of their former captors, although I believe he ended up dying. I don't remember how the story ended.   Two very specific things I remember:   The food intended for the slaves aboard the spaceship was color-coded according to species.   The slaver aliens follow some strange code of honor that forbids them from using ranged weaponry in personal combat. When questioned why they carried guns aboard their ship, they explained to the humans that they did not intend to use them to kill, but considered them tools for herding cattle.
59192
I remember reading what I believe is a short story about a brother and sister who somehow come into possession of some toys which turn out to be from aliens. Through playing with them they develop a language their parents can't understand and start to develop mentally far faster than any human.    Does anyone recognize this story, or remember who wrote it or what it's called?
94137
I want to find the name of a book I read many years ago. The story is set in Britain. The weather is controlled by magic. I read it in the 60's or early 70's
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.
74879
I'm trying to find a short story from the 60's(?) about a future society dominated by mutant(?) children who've killed off all the adults except, for sentimental reasons, one. The adult was a man. They kept him out of some kind of respect or gratefulness. It’s told from the children’s perspective. The punchline is something like “...we killed them [the adults] all”. And that’s the last line, nothing after it. It’s not Children of the Corn.