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#1 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 23,086
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Trying to find a sci-fi book I read as a kid
Unfortunately, I can't remember a great deal about it, so I'm hoping someone here is familiar enough with it to recognise it from very sparse information.
The premise, as I remember it, has a contemporary man (I'm thinking 80s, but maybe 70s) killed in some unique way and then being resurrected in the future in an also unique robot body that looks and feels like a human body, but has all the advantages (like strength) of a robot. The only other things I can remember are that he pilots a spaceship at some point; that he has the companionship of a couple of women, and that he sleeps with both of them simultaneously; and that there's a scene where he realises that he can sit comfortably without the use of a chair by locking his legs in a sitting position. That's all I can remember, which I know isn't a lot to go on at all. It's possible that the title has the word "sun" in it, and that maybe the plot revolves around him having to save the Earth from some sun-related disaster or something, but I say both of those things with a very low percentage estimate of certainty. I don't remember it being particularly good, but I do remember it being quite fun, and I think I'd enjoy revisiting it. I am trying to think of another one, but I may have recalled it. There was a novel which felt "old-fashioned" to me in which the protagonist had to travel through lots of different worlds by stepping on numbered steps, as if disconnected stairs from a staircase. I think this is probably James Blish's The Jack Of Eagles. Does that sound right to anybody who knows that story well? |
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I don't trust atoms. They make up everything. |
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#2 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Nelson, New Zealand
Posts: 10,343
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Man Plus (Frederick Pohl)?
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As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. - Henry Louis Mencken - Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920 |
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#3 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 23,086
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Not that, no. Thanks for the suggestion, though.
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I don't trust atoms. They make up everything. |
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#4 |
Thinker
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 158
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Quote:
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#5 |
Illuminator
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 3,117
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The second one does sound like Jack of Eagles, where the protagonist is going through the "sigma sequence" - basically parallel worlds which for some reason (explained n the story, but long forgotten) he needs to physically step up between each. They weren't explicitly numbered, though, IIRC.
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#6 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 23,086
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I could well be misremembering the numbers thing from what I think is probably Jack Of Eagles.
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I don't trust atoms. They make up everything. |
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#7 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 5,705
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I'm fairly sure I've read this, but I have no idea what the title is or who wrote it.
As I recall, the opening was set in the future and the guy was on a space flight when there was some accident and he was frozen in space. They had to wait decades until the technology to revive him became available. And meanwhile he was not declared to be legally dead, and his money was managed by trustees - and thanks to some cool inventions he'd come up with, his estate became colossally valuable. Unfortunately for him, his return thus triggered some kind of political shenanigans. He also woke in something of a dystopian world in which most people lived pretty miserable lives - and this was at least partly the fault of his company, which dominated the economy and government. That's what made the trustees nervous, that he might want to "correct" things. Does that sound familiar to you? |
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Promise of diamonds in eyes of coal She carries beauty in her soul |
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#8 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 5,024
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Heaven forbid someone reads these words and claims to be adversely affected by them, thus ensuring a barrage of lawsuits filed under the guise of protecting the unknowing victims who were stupid enough to read this and believe it! - Kevin Trudeau |
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#9 |
Embarrasingly illiterate
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 14,565
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Have no idea, but just because it bears the flimsiest similarity to Buck Rogers I can manage it gives me a chance to post the greatest scene rom the show ever filmed
It's cringeness is flawless Buck Gets Funky! |
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I generally oppose gun control, but I support the ban on assault weapons and I support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun. With today’s Internet technology we should be able to tell within 72-hours if a potential gun owner has a record. Source: The America We Deserve, by Donald Trump, p.102 , Jul 2, 2000 |
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#10 |
Uncritical "thinker"
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 19,945
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Or Today We Choose Faces by Roger Zelazny.
The protagonist is a Mafia hitman who is resurrected by the future Mob for a job as they are now another corporation and have lost most experience of illegality - part of the conceit is that the businesses from the laundered money are more profitable and less risky than criminal enterprises. |
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OECD healthcare spending Expenditure on healthcare http://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/health-data.htm link is 2015 data (2013 Data below): UK 8.5% of GDP of which 83.3% is public expenditure - 7.1% of GDP is public spending US 16.4% of GDP of which 48.2% is public expenditure - 7.9% of GDP is public spending |
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#11 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 23,086
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Seismosaurus' suggestion doesn't ring a bell, but my memories are vague enough that I can't actually say that that isn't it. I am reasonably certain he was a contemporary man, though.
I'm sure it's not the Zelazny one. |
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I don't trust atoms. They make up everything. |
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#12 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: The Great Northwet
Posts: 19,966
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There's a Niven "corpsicle" one that seems similar, but not similar enough.
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Cum catapultae proscribeantur tum soli proscripti catapultas habeant. |
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#13 |
Uncritical "thinker"
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 19,945
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OECD healthcare spending Expenditure on healthcare http://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/health-data.htm link is 2015 data (2013 Data below): UK 8.5% of GDP of which 83.3% is public expenditure - 7.1% of GDP is public spending US 16.4% of GDP of which 48.2% is public expenditure - 7.9% of GDP is public spending |
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#14 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,467
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Visit rationalvetmed.net and rationalvetmed.org - because nothing is as good as homeopathy... ![]() 'No Way to Treat a Friend: Lifting the Lid on Complementary and Alternative Veterinary Medicine' book now available to order. |
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#15 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: The Great Northwet
Posts: 19,966
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Cum catapultae proscribeantur tum soli proscripti catapultas habeant. |
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#16 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 23,086
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I don't trust atoms. They make up everything. |
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#17 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Arizona
Posts: 1,743
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https://www.goodreads.com/group/show...e-of-that-book
This is a group on Goodreads dedicated to answering these sorts of questions. Give it a shot, maybe they can find it. |
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#18 |
Not a doctor.
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Texas
Posts: 17,780
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I'm pretty sure that was a Hardy Boys book. Maybe Encyclopedia Brown, but I'm leaning more towards the Hardy Boys.
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#19 |
Uncritical "thinker"
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 19,945
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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...is_the_Hangman
Some similar themes. Until I googled the name, I hadn't realised it was also Roger Zelazny. |
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OECD healthcare spending Expenditure on healthcare http://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/health-data.htm link is 2015 data (2013 Data below): UK 8.5% of GDP of which 83.3% is public expenditure - 7.1% of GDP is public spending US 16.4% of GDP of which 48.2% is public expenditure - 7.9% of GDP is public spending |
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#20 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 23,086
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I don't trust atoms. They make up everything. |
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