# Science Fiction in your neighborhood



## Tau Zero (Jun 19, 2007)

I am currently reading "*Dies the Fire*" by S. M. Stirling.  I am enjoying the book very much and Stirling is an author i also like very much.

The curious thing is that the book takes place in my neighborhood, i.e., the Willamette Valey of northwest Oregon.  It's odd (to me) to have a book take place in your town and the environs you're familiar with.  The map in the book is simply a map or the area around Salem (where i live) and north to Portland.

Has this ever happened to you?  Other writers have used real locations for their stories.  It just strikes me in an odd way; maybe it's just me...


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## Briareus Delta (Jun 19, 2007)

Must be an odd feeling. I can't say I've ever experienced it as far as books are concerned. But I do live in Cardiff where Doctor Who and Torchwood are filmed. It's good fun trying to spot the locations - especially when they're pretending that Cardiff is London!!


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## The Ace (Jun 19, 2007)

Yeah, when I lived in Glasgow we used to do the same with, "Taggart."


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## that old guy (Jun 19, 2007)

The town I grew up in in Massachusetts (Natick) is mentioned several times in Zodiac by Neal Stephenson. He gets just about everything wrong.


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## Ian Whates (Jun 19, 2007)

I remember reading Christopher Priest's _Fugue for a Darkening Island _only to discover that much of it is set around the area in Hertfordshire where I grew up, which was an odd feeling. More recently, Peter F. Hamilton's 'Greg Mandel' novels (_Mindstar Rising _etc) are set in an area close to where I live presently, though I didn't have the same reaction to reading these as with Chris Priest's book for some reason.


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## Vladd67 (Jun 19, 2007)

I used to live in Milton Keynes and watching Superman 4 was distracting as a lot of 'Metropolis' looked very local.


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## suupaabaka (Jun 20, 2007)

Not exactly science fiction, but I got some kicks out of watching Jackie Chan run around in some of my old favourite hangouts here in Melbourne. 

*Mr. Nice Guy* was the name of the movie.


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## dustinzgirl (Jun 20, 2007)

Tau Zero said:


> I am currently reading "*Dies the Fire*" by S. M. Stirling.  I am enjoying the book very much and Stirling is an author i also like very much.
> 
> The curious thing is that the book takes place in my neighborhood, i.e., the Willamette Valey of northwest Oregon.  It's odd (to me) to have a book take place in your town and the environs you're familiar with.  The map in the book is simply a map or the area around Salem (where i live) and north to Portland.
> 
> Has this ever happened to you?  Other writers have used real locations for their stories.  It just strikes me in an odd way; maybe it's just me...



Yay OREGON! WHOOO HOOOO

There is someone else on the planet from OREGON!

Um, but there are few books that take place in Douglas County that I've heard of, which is sad because the Umpqua Forest has a rich history.


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## littlemissattitude (Jun 20, 2007)

Oh, sure.  One of Clive Barker's books uses the place where I grew up as one of its locales (although he got the geography all wrong, so much so that I couldn't read the book).

One of the locations of Greg Bear's _The Forge of God_ is about is about ten minutes' drive from where I sit as I type this.

Part of one of Tim Powers's books takes place about three blocks from where I used to live in L.A. County.  His research was so good that I could picture the area in my mind as I read.

Those are just the novels; I can think of several non-fiction books that are related to places I know well.

Oh, and the big funny-looking glass and metal building in _The Puppet Masters_?  That's the city hall here in Fresno.

The list would be even longer if you wanted to expand beyond science fiction and fantasy.


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## Lenny (Jun 21, 2007)

Can't really say there's any SFF references to my area... there are a couple of interesting things, however:

- The town in *The League of Gentlemen* is based on the town a mile from where I live: _Bacup_.
- Tim Burton considered using streets in Bacup to film parts of the new *Charlie and the Chocolate Factory* film (Johnny Depp), but decided against it as it was far too dirty and realistic for what he had in mind. 

I suppose *Lancashire *is famous for its witches, which feature in many books, if that counts?


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## Who's Wee Dug (Jun 21, 2007)

Robert Rankin's Brentford series is in West London, although post code wise it's Middlesex. And he only changed the name of one pub.


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## chrispenycate (Jun 21, 2007)

Over in _"critiques"_, Phil Brown has been posting excerpts of a story set in CERN. on the other end of the number nine bus route. I have to hold myself back from commenting on the setting rather than the writing.
But he's not intending to blow me up until 2012 (and then he's doing the rest of the universe, as well)


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## The Ace (Jun 21, 2007)

Lenny said:


> I suppose *Lancashire *is famous for its witches, which feature in many books, if that counts?




 Including Magrat Garlick.


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## steve12553 (Jun 22, 2007)

I've never seen a genre story that I could relate to in that way but the comedy *A Christmas Story* is based on Jean Sheperd's book of short stories , *In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash*. The stories and the movies were centered in Northwest Indiana where I was born and grew up although it took place a decade or so before I was born. The feel of the area was similar and some of the landmarks were still there when I was growing up. He intentionally changed some names and left some the same. Just enough to be irritating.


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## Rawled Demha (Jun 22, 2007)

i could say we londoners are famous throughout the world, but then id say the we south londoners are unknown throughout the world....i know, my book'll be set in south london!


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## Culhwch (Jun 22, 2007)

On the movie front, such masterpieces as _The Phantom_ and _Inspector Gadget 2_ were filmed in and around Brisbane, sadly. Possibly the best parts of either film.


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## Tau Zero (Jun 22, 2007)

dustinzgirl said:


> Yay OREGON! WHOOO HOOOO
> 
> There is someone else on the planet from OREGON!


 
Yes, the Country Faire is less than a month away!  I WILL be there, with my horns and wings...


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## Anthony G Williams (Jun 22, 2007)

It is interesting to read books set in places you know. A couple of detective series I follow (Rankin's Inspector Rebus books, set in Edinburgh, and Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti books, set in Venice) are in places I have explored on holidays, which adds to the enjoyment of reading them.

I find it very hard to understand authors who write about real places and get them wrong: you should either do your research, or be sufficiently vague about the location that it can't be identified (or simply make all the places up, as in the last crime novel I read). I don't live in London (although I visit frequently) but I set several scenes of my novel *Scales* there. So on one of my visits, I checked out all of the locations I intended to use, including taking a bus trip along a route I wanted to include. 

One point for aspiring writers to bear in mind; it can be a good move to set your stories at least partly in your own area if you can. Not only because you know it, but because it is far more likely that local booksellers will stock a book by a local author featuring the local area, and will be willing to host signing sessions - local papers/radio are also likely to feature it. So it can help to get sales off the ground...


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## K. Riehl (Jun 26, 2007)

I lived in L.A. for, thankfully, a short time and was able to watch a couple of movie productions being shot just down the street. The motorcycle/semi chase from Terminator 2 was in the concrete lined river basin next to my apartment in Reseda. Waking up to fireball explosions is always fun. It's a part of living in L.A. that everyone just kind of takes in stride. 

LittleMiss- I remember the City Hall in Fresno.We used to call it the chrome Darth Vader helmet.

I enjoy reading the books by David Brin where he uses Oregon as a background for several stories.

There is a large group of Northwestern authors that often set their stories in the Northwest area. Damon Knight, Kate Wilhelm, Ursula LeGuin, Kelly Link, Neil Stephenson, John Varley, Octavia Butler, Greg Bear, and several others.


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## lin robinson (Jun 27, 2007)

I used to live a block from Frank Herbert's house in Seattle and the area has a few footnotes.
Nearby Enumclaw, with it's cheese company, was a model for Santaroga, according to Herbert.

And Dune, he said,  was inspired by his excrusions on the Olympic Peninsula.  As in "Olympic Rain Forest National Park".  I always thought was kind of interesting.


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## dustinzgirl (Jun 27, 2007)

Tau Zero said:


> Yes, the Country Faire is less than a month away!  I WILL be there, with my horns and wings...



I will probably have to miss this year, but I plan on trying to get up there sometimes this summer for the Saturday Market at least.


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## sanityassassin (Jun 27, 2007)

As another Glaswegian(although I am not really I'm a Portonian(Port Glasgow) and proud. I agree with Ace and Taggart but as for books I remember a supernatural thriller I read was set across the river Clyde from me on the Roseneath peninsular and mentions the sinking of the Sugar boat which still lies in the river and can be seen at low tide. I also read a thriller called Garrowhill set in Glasgow and part of it was set just down the road from where I lived at the time in Maryhill.


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## UltraCulture (Jun 27, 2007)

Linda Buckley Archer set some of her Gideon Trilogy books in Derbyshire, I'd never heard of her till yesterday when she was interviewed on local radio.

You live and learn.

As far as i know they are a Time Travelling trilogy set in the present and the 18th century, and aimed at younger readers.


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## Ru Pringle (Jun 27, 2007)

Hmm. Can't think of anything based in the Western Isles. The closest I can come to is film, The Wicker Man (which I think was one of the Inner Hebrides?)


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## Ragnar (Jun 27, 2007)

Lenny said:


> - The town in *The League of Gentlemen* is based on the town a mile from where I live: _Bacup_.


 
Many years ago I went out with a lass from Hadfield where most of it was filmed. I only live about 20 miles away myself now & drive through it a couple of times a week. The place has never seemed the same since.


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## Ragnar (Jun 27, 2007)

that old guy said:


> The town I grew up in in Massachusetts (Natick) is mentioned several times in Zodiac by Neal Stephenson. He gets just about everything wrong.


 
Is there a huge Twinkie factory in Natick? or did Family Guy get it wrong too?


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## littlemissattitude (Jun 27, 2007)

K. Riehl said:


> LittleMiss- I remember the City Hall in Fresno.We used to call it the chrome Darth Vader helmet.




That makes sense.  I've always called it "the crashed Klingon battle cruiser" myself.  And, you know, from the back it actually looks a lot more like the backside of a plumber at work, "cleaveage" and all. 

You've spent time in Fresno, K?

Oh, and you're right about location filming being an occupational hazard in L.A. and environs.  Once when we went to visit my dad's grave in Chatsworth, they were filming part of an episode of _Dark Skies_.  That was a little weird.  And way back when, when we lived in Norwalk, I remember the neighbor kid coming charging up the driveway, yelling "Luke Skywalker is over at (insert name of department store, which I've forgotten now).  He's there.  Right now."  Turned out, they were a couple of blocks away from my house, filming _Corvette Summer_.  I wasn't excited enough to go see for myself.

But I have lots of fun pointing out places in movies and tv shows that I know from growing up down there.  There's the Golf'N'Stuff in Norwalk, which was in _The Karate Kid_.  There's _Grease 2_: the football field that's in that move is where my high school graduation was held.  And there are so many more.


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## Steve Jordan (Jul 15, 2007)

I live outside of Washington, D.C., so _waaay_ too many movies and shows are based around my neighborhood.

The funniest thing about that, is spotting the movies and programs that say they are in Washington, but use sets or other cities to stand in for DC that don't even look close!  So many times have I watched a scene set in Washington's Metro subway, only to see trains and stations that look nothing like our subway!  

Makes you appreciate the movies that honestly go on location, and make it look authentic.


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## Kostmayer (Jul 15, 2007)

Lenny said:


> I suppose *Lancashire *is famous for its witches, which feature in many books, if that counts?



Am a Lanc also  Wigan to be precise. Didn't know we had witches here.

Not sure if it counts, but Sir Ian McKellen, he of Gandalf and Magneto fame, was born here.


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## Anthony G Williams (Jul 15, 2007)

Just finished re-reading (for the first time in decades) Alan Garner's *The Weirdstone of Brisingamen*.  Written for children, but written well enough to grip adults too. It's a fantasy with some vaguely Tolkienesque echoes, but the heroes are two normal children and it's set in Cheshire - it describes a lot of the physical features around Alderley Edge. 

I like stories which start off with normal people in a real location and then you find there's a lot more going on than meets the eye...


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## Dave (Jul 15, 2007)

Rawled Demha said:


> i could say we londoners are famous throughout the world, but then id say the we south londoners are unknown throughout the world....i know, my book'll be set in south london!


There is a young adult/children's book called 'The Secret Shelter' by Sandi LeFaucheur that is set in a school near Kent House Station in Penge.

HG Wells once lived in Penge/Anerley (he was born in Bromley) and has descriptions of the area in his books such as 'The New Machiavelli'. 'The War of the Worlds' has good desciptions of Surrey; Maybury Hill and Horsell Common actually exist.


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## clovis-man (Sep 29, 2007)

littlemissattitude said:


> Oh, and the big funny-looking glass and metal building in _The Puppet Masters_? That's the city hall here in Fresno.


 
Sure looks funny as you view it to the west from the Amtrack station.

And not too far away, Kage Baker uses her own stomping grounds of Pismo Beach as a point of departure in her short story about granting immortality to William Randolph Hearst. Not to mention the castle itself. 

Regards,

Jim


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## quidscribis (Sep 29, 2007)

I lived in Vancouver, BC, Canada - Hollywood North - where many a science fiction television series was shot.  XFiles, Dark Angel, Viper, Stargate, Millennium, Smallville, Supernatural, and so on and so forth.  It was fun spotting locations I recognized.    It also helped that one neighborhood I lived in was used - a lot - for a lot of movies & television series.

Of course, now I live where Indiana Jones was filmed.  Not that I'd be able to recognize anything from that...


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## gully_foyle (Sep 29, 2007)

I grew up in outer suburban Melbourne, where Nevil Shute's *On the Beach* was set and filmed. My parents used to drive me through a nearby suburb called Berwick and tell me it was set there. Ava Gardner was credited with saying that Melbourne was an appropriate place to make a film about the end of the world. It has improved since then.


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## littlemissattitude (Sep 29, 2007)

clovis-man said:


> Sure looks funny as you view it to the west from the Amtrack station.



That it does.


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## Daenerys (Sep 30, 2007)

Plenty of books have been set in Amsterdam, none scifi themed though, as far as I know. And none of the fictional books, usually written by 'foreigners' have ever struck me as particularly accurate. Maybe they got the places right, but never the atmosphere. To people who don't live here Amsterdam is either the city where anything is possible (except maybe anything scifi related) or the sodom and gommora of its day. And neither of those places is where I live.

Bearing that in mind, I don't take realistic settings in books that serious. I know that the author's view on a place is just one view, often tainted with theneed for the storyline. Which is great! But to go on a touristy tour with a book in my hand, like they did for books like that one with the Da Vinci stuff, nah. 

However, it always warms my heart to see bits and pieces of Amsterdam in films. And I dont think it is likely that we'll ever see a spaceship hovering over Dam Square in any film. Though that would be cool.


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## mandy86 (Oct 2, 2007)

Daenerys said:


> Plenty of books have been set in Amsterdam, none scifi themed though, as far as I know.



The sci-fi novel Accelerando by Charles Stross takes place in Amsterdam. Or the first chapter does anyway, I have no idea about the rest of the book because I haven't read it.


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## Ice fyre (Oct 3, 2007)

I think it was Ian Mcloed wrote a book set in part in a near future Edinburgh, he had a flea market where there is a posh shopping centre now. Also in another book "Moonseed" Edinburgh is destroyed by Lava........Hmmmm


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## gully_foyle (Nov 20, 2007)

Had to unearth this thread. I was reading Bester's *Tiger, Tiger* last night and Gully Foyle attended a new years eve party at Government House in Canberra, just down the road from me. I new I picked this handle for a good reason (apart from Gully being one of the greatest SF characters of all time).


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## tangaloomababe (Nov 21, 2007)

Sadly where I live is known for its apples and market gardens and nothing even remotely sci fi.  Although they did film a couple of scenes for a movie here once, what was it again, oh yes Ghost Rider withe Nicholas Cage, never seen the movie myself and I don't think it did to well at the cinema.  But thats it!


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## Kissmequick (Nov 21, 2007)

A small market town in Sussex doesn't have much written about it, no Sci fi or fantasy as far as I'm aware. 

Though Ruth Rendell's Wexford detected from a fictional town just to the south, so I recognised quite a few places in that series.


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## bruno-1012 (Nov 21, 2007)

sanityassassin said:


> As another Glaswegian(although I am not really I'm a Portonian(Port Glasgow) and proud. I agree with Ace and Taggart but as for books I remember a supernatural thriller I read was set across the river Clyde from me on the Roseneath peninsular and mentions the sinking of the Sugar boat which still lies in the river and can be seen at low tide. I also read a thriller called Garrowhill set in Glasgow and part of it was set just down the road from where I lived at the time in Maryhill.




Just picked up on this thread due to the new postings.

Think you actually mean Garnethill which is where I live.

I took great delight in passing the book to some relatives to read before they came to stay.

My favourite references are in 'The Bogie Man' comics.  The bit where there is a Sierra flying through the arches from Royal Exchange Square is particularily memorable.


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## white_wanderer (Nov 26, 2007)

I'm currently developing a storyline mixing fantasy and comtemporary fiction, and basing it around my home town / area.  I also have a world that I am developing where the major continent is a scaled up version of the UK.

I read a book when I was at school about a caveman type person, and that was based around the Humberside area of England, but i can't remember the author or the title.


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## Stormflame (Dec 10, 2007)

My city has been featured on the show, "Cops" like two times in the last few years.  Does that mean anything!?


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## Steve Jordan (Dec 10, 2007)

Citadel said:


> My city has been featured on the show, "Cops" like two times in the last few years.  Does that mean anything!?



Yeah... it means you should probably keep your head down.


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## Who's Wee Dug (Dec 11, 2007)

Ru Pringle said:


> Hmm. Can't think of anything based in the Western Isles. The closest I can come to is film, The Wicker Man (which I think was one of the Inner Hebrides?)


The film Whisky Galore was filmed in and around Barra ,adapted from the the sinking of the SS Politician which ran aground on the rocks of Eriskay in 1941 laden with Whisky and not a dram to be had on the Island. (which is in the Outer Hebrides.)Slainte


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## Sassee (Jan 4, 2008)

Not Sci-Fi, but Carrie Vaughn's "Kitty and the Midnight Hour" (urban fantasy) is based in Denver.  I'm about 10 minutes outside of the city so it's fun reading about an area that's familiar to me.


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## Montero (Feb 3, 2008)

Simon R Green "Drinking Midnight Wine" is set in Bradford-on-Avon where he lives.  I went to school there for a few years and he really captures the feel and look of the place.  I found it rather funny that the train station where I used to arrive every morning gets totally trashed.  Bradford-on-Avon certainly at the centre is a very pretty place - Bath stone houses up a hillside, small park beside a river, medieval shopping street, medieval stone bridge, all rather neat, middle class look, conservation areas and the idea of it being the surreptitious home of all these dark fantasy characters is gorgeous.

Jasper Fforde's The Big Over Easy is set in Reading and he partially cites real places and also adds on bits.  He doesn't go in for much description of place, but what he mentions is accurate (where not made up).  Having lived in Reading I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more description of Reading in the book.

On holiday in Yorkshire years ago came to Asygarth Falls (think I'm getting the name right) and suddenly recognised it as where Little John fights Robin of Loxley in Kevin Costner's version.  Very careful camera angles were used to leave out the picnic area


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## Pyan (Feb 3, 2008)

Montero said:


> On holiday in Yorkshire years ago came to Asygarth Falls (think I'm getting the name right) and suddenly recognised it as where Little John fights Robin of Loxley in Kevin Costner's version.  Very careful camera angles were used to leave out the picnic area



Yes, that's the film where he lands on the South Coast, and travels to Nottingham via Hadrian's Wall......


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## Montero (Feb 3, 2008)

Mind you, I do like that film - its a right romp, especially the extras - seems to me when all the merry men and women are sounding forth saying fruity things in country accents that Costner has problems keeping a straight face.

I thought of another book in a place I know - Paul Cornell, British Summer Time is set in Bath.  Does a very good job of giving the feel and look of the city and there is a key plot point that is partially revealed by the architecture of the west front of Bath Abbey - full points there.   Great book all round that one.  Couldn't help wondering if he thought of said plot point while sitting in the square out the front of the Abbey.


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## UltraCulture (Feb 5, 2008)

I'm sure that in British Summertime they visited a cave in Derbyshire albeit briefly, could be wrong though.


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## Montero (Feb 5, 2008)

Yes - the best friend of the female main character is working in a cave excavation in Derbyshire at the start of the book.  The cave also makes an appearance later in the book.  

The book is approximately 80% in Bath, with surrounding countryside, the Derbyshire cave and flashbacks to Biblical period Israel accounting for the rest.


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## Sire Of Dragons (Feb 20, 2008)

I used to live in a town up in Northern NY.

The closest thing that came to me was when the new Star Wars were being made one of our factories was called upon with a contract for building the new R2D2 model.

One of the Sleepy Hollow movies was based in a town not far from there as well.

Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) is from another town not but a few minutes outside the area.

I was surprised more sci-fi or military mysteries didn't hit our area since the military base there has seemingly been used more in the last 20 years than any other.

We also have a lot of old American war history up that way.


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## lin robinson (Feb 21, 2008)

I'm still waiting for somebody who has a hotdog stand on Zanzibar.


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