I read this book about ten years ago, I unfortunately don't remember much about the general plot but I do remember some odd specific details. Firstly, although it was definitely a stand-alone book, I read it in a collection titled something along the lines of "Exciting Stories for Boys". I think the first Guardians of Ga'Hoole book was included in this collection but I might be wrong.  The book itself was a YA story about a high school boy who lived on earth shortly before it got struck by a meteor; a lot of the book was him going about normal high school business, but at some point he learns that the world is going to end and only a certain number of important people and their families got to board a ship to another planet (his dad was a VIP for some reason I think). I remember that when he boards, there was a child on the ship who wanted to bring a teddy bear, but wasn't allowed to because they didn't have room. Eventually, they put some tubes in the protagonist to put him in some sort of cryo, and then the book ends giving us a depressing description of most of the characters we met during the book dying to a meteor impact (including the main character's crush who we saw a lot of).  I know this isn't a lot to go off of, but I believe the book was relatively popular and had some sequels (though I didn't read any).
4009
Looking for the name of a book series I read in middle school, 2001-2004 roughly.  All I can remember about it was that there were a handful of teenagers who somehow ended up on an alien planet that they eventually found out to be a ship. They have to fight for survival against multiple different enemies, I think one of the kids could communicate with part of the ship telepathically. Some of the aliens were either blue or I think even transparent. There really isn't too much to work off of, but I figured someone might know what it is.
7143
I'm a huge fan of SF from the golden age of SF, so this could be a fairly old book.  It was a story about a "generation" starship or sublight starship.  I believe most of the story was about their journey and some of the problems and difficulties.  I believe that something strange is observed along the way which later turns out to be them being passed by an FTL starship which was developed, on their long voyage, after they left Earth.  When they arrived at their destination they were amazed and, I believe, disheartened to be greeted by people from Earth.
11461
I'm looking for the name and author of a novel (or possibly novella). I first read this in the seventies, and might be older than that. It might have been written for teenagers.  The story takes place on a planet inhabited by a primitive humanoid race, roughly stone age if I remember rightly. Visiting this planet is a small team from a more advanced race, also humanoid and with spacefaring technology (obviously!). They are either there to help or observe, no nefarious purposes. I think they are avoiding contact with the primitives, at least initially. It's explicitly mentioned that the planet they are visiting is the third one of a medium sized star, just like their own homeworld. Also orbiting round the planet is an even more advanced race, using high tech to remain hidden from both the others. They are observing the whole situation, and again its mentioned that this is a 'third planet', like their own homeworld.  I'm a little bit hazy on the rest of the plot, but I think the super-advanced race end up revealing themselves, even though they are not supposed to.  The story is told from the viewpoints of both the second and third races (maybe also the first, I forget)  EDIT: For the record it turns out my recollection was faulty, and the second race are indeed coming to the planet for nefarious purposes. And the planet is at the medieval stage, not stone age.
31954
There's a book that I read several years ago that I'd like to find.  However, I cannot remember enough about it to find it myself.  Neither the title nor author remain in my mind, nor any keyword or phrase that's unique enough for the Grand Google to nail for me.  Hence my desperate plea here.  In the book, there is an interstellar civilization composed of several power blocks.  The entire civilization did not fill the galaxy, but it did span several stellar systems.  Maybe 10s or 100s.  I seem to remember that one of the civilizations was a decentralized group referred to as the Brotherhood and they seemed to have been keen on preserving old learning and political ideals.  A derelict alien spacecraft from outside all of this had been discovered and at least two of the power blocks sent ships to recover it.  I don't recall if they knew at the time about the power the alien ship had, but they must have had some clue since there was some urgency in capturing this ship.  One of the ships sent to capture the Alien craft was commanded by somebody who was rather shaken up, to say the least.  He had had some big trauma in his past (like... the last ship he captained was annihilated with all hands.) so he was kinda bummed out about things and wasn't really putting his heart into getting this done.  He was assisted by the ship's AI who had a lot of soul-to-soul chats with the captain, and at one point almost relieved him of command because he was just not getting the job done.  I think the ship's name was Boaz.  These were the "good guys".  There was at least one other ship sent from the "bad guys."  The alien craft had some remarkable powers.  The interior volume was apparently infinite and the operators could see and manipulate anything in the universe.  There might have been some example given where all the rats somewhere were found and disposed of.  Whoever had control was tempted by the ole absolute power corrupts absolutely problem, but nobody but nobody could stop them because of their power.  They could eat and multiply within the ship and become real bad-asses.  But alas... (or hurray, depending upon which side you're one) everything fails eventually, and whoever controlled the ship would eventually succumb to some horrible end.  Whereupon the ship became derelict again until some other lucky race found it and repeated the cycle.  The ship had an AI that was real interested in taking the power for itself, but there was some mechanical, spring-loaded, mechanism outside of its control that needed to be worked in order to execute power.  The AI apparently never figured out how to "work the spring" and this made him crazy angry.  The ending is equally foggy for me.  I'm pretty sure the good guys got the ship.  They agonized over what to do with it.  Apparently it was indestructable and nobody wanted to taste the temptation of all that power.  In the end they dumped it on the surface of a neutron star.  There it sat forever more, probably with the crazy AI really pissed off about being there.  If you've read this book, you'll recognize it immediately from these clues.  I'm looking forward to finding out the name of this book.  Thanks!
105109
Looking for a story I read in the early '70's, about an apparent meteorite that hits earth, it is broken up into glowing amber globules. It starts drawing more of itself together, and is exerting a malign influence of some type (don't remember). It gets blown up but the minuscule grains start coalescing again, as the end of the story.
76902
I read this story about five years ago (so make it about 2009) and the book (from the library) was reasonably tattered, but I'd say only 5 to 10 years old (this is just a rough guess). This was a novel, I think about 300 pages, but again I don't recall it very well so that could also be completely wrong.  I do remember it wasn't a huge tome though.  Most importantly: the narrative.  This story involved a teenage boy who was recruited by a man on a motorbike to help in some expedition; I think they were part of a group involved in some sort of missions against an evil group (again I can't recall exactly what).  This man (who I think was his Uncle 'Bob' or something like that) took him to a subway station and they only just made it to a portal to another world.  I think I'm missing a huge portion of the story, but at the end I recall they ended up in another world (through a portal of some description).  It was an ice world with a pre-Industrial civilization.  The key part of this novel that was members of this group trying to thwart the antagonists could only use a dog whistle; nothing else from a different world/time period could be used in that place.  This was emphasized regularly and when the main character went to the ice world, he got into considerable grief with his mentor (the Uncle Bob character) for using a torch from his original time period.  I think it was set about the early 2000s.  One last piece of information I recall was that this guy was regularly going on about three girls who were perfect at everything they touched.  He had a crush on one called Courtney.  Sorry for the vague details at the beginning, but hopefully the narrative description could prove useful.  Thanks ;)
22408
The cover has a large Leviathan type ship on the front.   It is set in deep space as the people on said ship have been living there for generations. They come across an abandoned ship and set out to check it out. There are several traps but it seems to be a human ship and they even find a lone woman. Unfortunately she turns out to be an alien and attacks. They end up on a planet where a factory/warehouse is found to contain bodies, they think were eaten/experimented on by the aliens. I thought the book was called Leviathan but can't seem to find it anywhere. I seemed to be an older book from the golden age maybe even up into the 70's but I haven't had any luck yet. Any help I could get finding this would be great,thanks.
48058
I'm hoping someone can identify this young-adult/children's sci-fi book. I read it in 1996-1997, but I remember thinking it was written in the 1980s.   The main character was a boy (maybe in his early teens) and over the course of the book he gained a female companion of the same age. I think the boy and his father had a vegetable garden growing in their basement, but it was illegal for them to grow their own food so they hid the trapdoor to the basement under their refrigerator. The boy's father was an important scientist (or something of that nature) and he goes missing (taken by the evil government?) and the boy has to find him.   There is a scene where the boy is at school and is sent to the school counselor or doctor to be given an anti-depressant or tranquilizer pill, the counselor (a male) is sympathetic to the boy and tries to help him and the girl to find the boy's father (and possibly the girl's parents too?). There was also a scene where the boy and girl go to an abandoned building/warehouse to meet someone who can give them information on their parents (maybe they meet each other for the first time at the building?). It seems like there was also a mention of golf clubs in relation to the boy's father and a mention of Crackerjack rings in relation to the girl, but I know a Crackerjack ring played a part in another book I read around the same time so I could be confused:).   Sorry this is so long, I only read part of the book and would like to find out how it ends.
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.
81291
I recall a book I read back in middle school (ca. 1981), where humanity had sent an astronaut to check out signs of an intelligent race or something like that, but he disappeared.  Earth then sends his younger brother to see what happened, but using an older spacecraft because the first mission used the only up-to-date one Earth had.  Also they refuse to let him take any weapons, to avoid any possible provocation.  On the way something impacts his windshield, punching a hole through it.  He thinks either it was a meteoroid, or a laser beam--but no Earth laser beam could punch a hole that small from more than 1000 miles away.  He later finds the aliens, who are blobs with tentacles or something like that (my memory's hazy), and he's out in his space suit.  He doesn't have a laser to defend himself with, so he uses his communicator (or something like that), setting it to CODE, its most intense setting.  That seems somehow to disable the alien, and soon it's in trouble.  He comes out to it and tries to pull it away from danger, but of course with nothing to push/pull against, his efforts are in vain--but it turns out that convinces the aliens that humanity really means them no harm, so he returns to Earth a hero.  That's as best I can remember the story.  Does it ring any bells for anyone?
31123
I recall everything about this story except the author and title. Humans have evolved in that women now give birth to six or eight babies in one gestation.   Three couples selected to be colonists by stasis sleep to a known world wake up and find that one girl is dead, (although her six babies survive) and they are on a different planet than the one their ship was aimed.  When the surviving five adults emerge from their spaceship,  they see a multitude of distant floating golden aliens genuflucting to them,  then the aliens form a giant golden double helix in the sky,  then depart in their own spaceship.    The colonists now decide to make the best of this new world,  and populate it.  They call it Viridian,  as it is green and fecund.  There are plenty of dangerous animals on the world. The radiation from the planet seems to indicate the planet is young,  but the presence of vertebrate animal life argues otherwise. There is nothing red on the planet except for the albino girl's eyes,  and  a rare fleeting glimpse of a red mushroom,  that vanishes if anyone tries to get closer. In the end,  everything is explained.    The names of the colonists are Teague,  the Captain,  and Alma (deceased) ; Carl and Moira; Todd (the protagonist) and April (albino girl with red eyes).   They name the three moons as Wynkin, Blynkin, and Nod.   I recall plenty more detail,  but this question seems long enough!  I'll add more detail if anyone thinks it helpful.
11892
I am looking for a novel that I'd love to re-read it with my wife (my 13-year old self must be proud of me I guess). Key Plot points The plot was about humanity finding an alien station on an orbit of Earth. (I'm not sure if it wasn't Moon itself). On this station there were thousands of ships ready to travel so there rose a company that paid people to get on those ships and explore the galaxy. The problem was humans didn't understand how to steer those ships so they had to rely on preset targets. Of course there was no telling where particular ship was to go and fair amount of them never returned. Chronology and other relevant information I read it as an early teenager back in early 2000s. It was Polish translation of a foreign (possibly English) story. I think (not sure) that the book wasn't new at the time. It was just one of those books you dig out in a library and take to see if it's good. I don't recall cover either and even if I did it'd be of the Polish version. Additional information could be that the narration was led along the psychoanalytics of the main protagonists where he relives his memories from inside the station and his journeys.
33074
I woke up the other morning with this story on my mind.  I've tried some googling, but my efforts are coming up with nothing useful.  My memory of the specifics of the material is pretty pathetic, apologies.  What it was: A novella, novel, or series of novels  When I read it/When it was written: I read it between 2000 and 2010; it would have been written no more than 10 years earlier.  The Plot(ish): A group of modern or near future men and women are transported instantaneously to a strange planet by means I can't remember.  It may have been your typical "glowing ball of mysterious light", but I'm not certain.  All future activities occur either on that world or on a shifting series of closely related worlds.    Upon arrival they find wilderness and eventually, while evading Earth-like jungle terrors, they stumble on an encampment of Victorian era Brits.  The Victorians are very much "Dr. Livingston, I presume." types, and we find that they were zapped out of 1800's England in much the same way.  The Victorians (if I recall correctly) keep a Neanderthal or Australopithecene as "servants" and are doing their best to preserve their version of civilization against the barbaric surroundings they've been forced into.  They clearly arrived well before the main characters, but if I recall correctly, they did not arrive 200+ years before, more like 20.  Eventually we meet some slavers who may have been pirates before being taken.  I think that they enslave one of the main characters for a period of time before he is rescued.  There may be some weird religious imagery at this point in the story as well.  The most bizarre bit of the book involves the eventual encounter of the main characters with an extremely advanced race of hominids who have evolved from a completely different ancestor, perhaps Gigantopithecus.  They are huge, gorilla-like people who are peaceful and have technology that is way beyond our lineage.  At one point in the story the humans, perhaps with the help of the Gigantopithecuses, look through what is essentially a catalogue of possible Earths.  They see dozens of different planets, each of which has a slightly different timeline, before moving on to some with wildly different histories, like an Earth that has become completely engulfed in ice, from which the Neanderthals come.  This might have been the explanation for all of the people from various time periods arriving at nearly the same time on the story's Earth.  The next bit is spoilered to avoid giving away the ending:      The main characters and the Gigantopithecus and Neanderthal who have teamed up with them figure out how to manipulate a forcefield protected computer/crystal/teleporter thing of mysterious origin in order to send them home (or perhaps just stop more people from being zapped to this place.)  The Gigantopithecus makes a deal with the main characters, they achieve their goal.  The humans had, at one point, promised the Neanderthal that they would help get it home.  The Gigantopithecus understands that to be an unbreakable contract (it cannot lie) and so the price of its help winds up being transportation of the Neanderthal, along with an unwilling human companion (a woman who has been unpleasant throughout the story, if I remember right) back to the ice world from which the Neanderthal had come.
7148
This is a novel that I think I remember reading somewhere in the 1990s courtesy of my brother (who does not remember the book). Only a few details are coming to mind at the moment. It's a male protagonist. Something was not quite right with his legs, which led to him being nicknamed Frog or Leapfrog due to his usual method of locomotion, which consisted of pushing off from his legs to his hands and vice versa. Something happens and he winds up moving between a number of worlds (I want to say that he fell into a well or a hole in a field). There was a part which stuck with me where he's in a bottomless hole and finds he keeps falling faster and faster without end with the rushing wind becoming actively painful (I don't remember if he actually reaches a terminal velocity or if some aspect of the world prevented it while still allowing the rushing air to affect him physically).  Unfortunately, that's all I can remember. I don't remember whether he eventually gains companions on the voyage or how it ended. The most vivid memory is that of the nonstop falling.
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.
92754
This was the first science fiction novel I completed reading on my own some 36 years ago. Unfortunately the details are very sketchy indeed, but here's what I think I remember:   It was a hard back library book The book was 100 pages long (perhaps exactly or just over) I read it some time pre-1980, possibly in 1979 but it may not have been new then It would've been classified as a "Children's Book" back then, but would be YA or Middle Grade now The POV character was a young boy of about 10-12 years of age It was set on the Moon The boy is rescued by some space gypsies He is befriended by a young space gypsy girl with dark hair When he is returned to his family, his parents are very prejudiced against the gypsies. A scene fragment of transferring from a lunar rover to the entrance tunnel to a lunar base A scene fragment of the boy looking at a computer screen and seeing someone who reminds him of the girl   Like so many here, this is a long term unscratchable itch that I'd love to soothe. Many thanks in advance for any clues or pointers.
83833
As a child, I read a book that I can't seem to remember. All I seem to get from my memories are pictures and scenarios from my imagination while reading the book. I remember the book including Bastet, the cat goddess, a type of tunnel where they went to an underground place (I think), a boy and a girl (possibly) walking in a type of room or something, and a part where there might be an owl involved. I read the book definitely after 2010 but I am more than sure that it was written before that, possibly. In the part where they were in a type of room, I think I remember hieroglyphs floating around in the air. That is kind of all I remember from the book. Some of this information may be wrong and confusing but I think that is all I remember from the book. I really want to read it again because as I remember, it was an amazing book.