(Found) What was that scifi book?

T

TomMazanec

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2020
Messages
465
A book I read a couple decades or so ago is on my mind, and I can't remember what it was.
The protagonist is caught in a time warp where he speeds a thousand centuries or more into the future. Civilization rises and falls (five times over IIRC) in ice ages and wars with telepathic mutants during this time. At the peak he can see radio broadcast stations blue-shifted into visible light.
Another detail I remember of the book is that the future had some kind of sidewise in time viewer, and they were looking at a timeline where "Mlart the Conquerer" (funny I remember that name) was never born and a nuclear war occurs.
I actually had a couple copies of that book (from garage sales, etc.) so I know it was fairly popular at the time. Anyone know what I am talking about?
ADDITION: It was paperback...I think the cover was mostly a dark blue or purple, but I am not sure about that.
It was not a Big Name author...and may have been (or was intended to be) the first in a series.
 
Last edited:
I don't know if this will help, but in the sidewise-in-time-viewing scene, the protagonist (male) tells them to view from ten thousand "manheights" and says "the city's gone". He says something like "You've been twitting me about First Era 'superstition'. This is what such superstition is. This is the greatest weapon in probably any Era. We found a way to turn a small amount of matter, perhaps a handweight, into energy. The change must have been just after Mlart. Your science is not on the path to such weapons now. In a day the Fifth Era was ended. In ten thousand years the descendants of any survivors may start building a Sixth Era. Maybe."
 
AND THAT'S IT!
OK, what do I do now that I have the answer? How do I make the title say found, for example?
 
Understand, I used to live in a large house stuffed with (thousands of) books...I pretty much devoted my time and money to buying and reading them. Then in 2005 I had to move to a small apartment. So I advertised a book sale to my cyberfriends. A man I met on a cryonics forum came with a truck and bought half of them for $100. Then another man I met on the Transformation Story Archive came with another truck and bought the rest for another $100. Each sale took a whole day.
The book(s) are older than I thought...just sorry they are not available on the Kindle (I'll try to ask Amazon to get them). Maybe interlibrary loan?
 
Danny McG said:
Is that the stone head that 'gulped a flier' story?
Click to expand...
Yes!
Most stories I forget or lose come around again, but this one was so bizarre, and I read it so many years ago.

Everyone remembers - and rediscovers - "The Star" and "Rain, Rain, Go Away", and "Enchanted Village" and "By His Bootstraps".

I'll be haunted all my life by disappearing and reappearing stone domes and bright green circles seen from the air, and the word-for-word ending that the stone heads opened their mouths and . . . gulped.

It may be a pulpy unknown. Maybe the writing or the author was less. . . famous.

But, even if it is not like the enduring works of the masters, it is, like them, impossible to forget!

As is a blurb of a story in which the human narrator says that "the alien's powerful mind was forcing me to do an act that had always been a saying that I had thought anatomically impossible. Then its message came clearly into my mind: 'If you do not cooperate, I can have you doing that in the downtown Macy's window at high noon.''

I'm not even posting that as a new question, because that's all I remember of that story.
And you can see why I never forgot it.
 
Last edited:
Ravensquawk said:
As is a blurb of a story in which the human narrator says that "the alien's powerful mind was forcing me to do an act that had always been a saying that I had thought anatomically impossible. Then its message came clearly into my mind: 'If you do not cooperate, I can have you doing that in the downtown Macy's window at high noon.''

I'm not even posting that as a new question, because that's all I remember of that story
Click to expand...
Something about the alien has an unpleasant reaction when the human tastes whisky?
 
But you downright know that bit just sounds like something Robert Sheckley would have written.

The search is on.
 
Last edited:
Well, the library got back to me...can't get the books through interlibrary loan. I wasn't surprised the Venus mold book (and others in the series) was unavailable, but I had hopes for this one. Amazon has copies third hand, but they are expensive, I don't have room for many books in my condo and most of all I have had bad experiences getting third party books over Amazon.
Sigh...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
A (Found)Has anyone heard of this Awesome SciFi book?? Book Search 3
S (Found) Scifi book (drug called "slip;" travel between parallel universes) Book Search 4
H (Found) seeking SciFi book/story; a person who has periodic fits and increases intelligence each time Book Search 7
D (Found) SciFi - The premise of the book is that intelligence is a two edged blade and will destroy itself. Book Search 2
A (Found) Searching for SciFi Book re another dimension and traveling baby Book Search 3

Similar threads


Back
Top