Category Archives: Science Fiction

342Z: Science Fiction Banks Hacked

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-science fiction, young adult

-main character was a male

-someone had made some kind of system where everyone had their own personal code - could be a bank password, savings code, etc. - but it was extremely private and considered unhackable. I think it was based on polynomials or factorials

-The conflict is that someone figures out how to hack everyone’s password, data is exposed

-main character has some kind of relationship to either the person that created the code or the person that hacked it. I think there’s a rivalry between the main character and another male

-there’s a really big twist in the middle of the book!

-might turn into a heist book? but also maybe not

-I *think* the original hardcover is blue/green, has overlayed code in the background, one modern-looking symbol. Possibly a key

-read in 2013/2014, and I had at least 2 books in the series out at the time, I’m only describing the first one. I was in 8th grade - 12 or 13 at the time. The book was age-appropriate

342W: An Out of This World Glowing Garden

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This is a book that I read when I was a preteen, so early 90’s. I am starting to think I made it up! I remember there was a girl who lived in a cabin and is an orphan (I think) and she finds these seeds that glow so she plants them. Then they grow into a garden that shines at night and works to call her family to her because it turns out she is not from earth and her family was looking for her.

342H: A Moon Boy’s Android Brother

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I am hoping you can help me find a book from my childhood. I think it was from the early 80s to mid 90s. It was about a boy that gets an Android robot for a brother. I think they live on the moon in the future. I think one of them has red hair. I believe it was a kid’s series, I was between 10-14 when I read it. I could be totally wrong on how old it was. I think I read the book in 2000 so it could be 1990s too. But I remember the two kids are climbing a tree in it, and I think they were around 12, and lived in a dome on the moon. Again, not sure about this one. I think there were 2 or 3 books in the series.
Thanks for the help!

341Z: UFO Light Causes Boy to Grow Third Arm

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As you might expect, I’m searching for a book.  I probably read it in the 1978 to 1980 time frame, so publishing occurred before that.  It is possible I read the book as late as 1982, but I don’t think so.
The book may have been a Scholastic publication, but they didn’t find anything matching the rest of the description.
The book was a short story collection.  I do not remember the title or author or authors or editor.  I think the version I read was a trade paperback, borrowed from the school library.  During 1978 to 1980 I was in 5th and 6th grade.  I suppose I could write to the librarians in those schools and ask if they still have books matching the descriptions.
The story I remember from the book had a boy in probably 5th or 6th grade walking alone in the woods one evening.  A UFO appeared through the trees (maybe he was in a clearing?) and shone a blue light through the center of his chest.  Not long afterwards a third arm started growing where the light struck the boy.  He was teased at school for being different, and he thought of having the arm surgically removed.  But the arm proved to be useful when the bullies in his school started a fight with him.  He elected to keep it.  He finished the story by saying other people around the world were getting struck by the same blue light and were growing arms as well.
I do not remember the remainder of the stories in the book.  I’m not sure I actually read them; I may have had to return the book to the library.

341F: Human Sterilization for Health Care

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It's not a children's book. I probably read this book 20 years ago and it was not a new book then. I'm guessing it was written some time between the 40s and 60s, but that's just a guess. The book takes place in a society where there have been lots of treatments for genetic diseases, so people who used to die before child-bearing age weren't, passing the diseases along, and health of the population was therefore less robust. (Plus possibly the cost of treatment.) So people were only allowed to get medical treatments, vaccinations, etc. if they were sterilized. I seem to recall people living in a sort of health-care ghetto and many people being anti-health care.

340T: Philosophical Conversation All The Rage On Worldwide Network

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Looking for a science fiction novel which starts with an older man on a park bench having a conversation with two or three youths (I think young men, teens). It is a philosophical conversation, mostly about economics and society. The interaction is recorded via a smart device, and uploaded to the worldwide network; it becomes enormously popular, the old man becomes quite wealthy and the teens are viewed as somewhat famous (infamous?) for their part in the conversation as foils, even decades later. This may have been a novella or short story, as well, and may have been by Vernor Vinge or David Brin; it would have come out after 1990 or thereabouts.

339N: Who is the author? Begins with Stephen…not King or Crane (Solved!)

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I am recalling an early short story writer, from the 1930s and 1940s, he wasn’t known as a science fiction author but wrote a piece of science fiction about a take over of the world by machines. They weren’t AI or anything that sophisticated. No microprocessors. The takeover included automobiles and even irons and vacuum cleaners. The machines just revolted. I think that the story was told by a person in an enclosed room waiting to die, telling his tale. The writer’s first name was Stephen. My parents had a copy of “The Complete Works of Stephen….” or “The Collected Works of Stephen….” but I can’t remember his last name. Does anyone who it might be? I believe he also wrote some poetry included in the set.  I think there were two volumes.

337M: Girl Escapes Dystopian World Through Sewer To Find Mother

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In the mid- 90s we had a college student come to my class for a project on the impact of sci-fi/fantasy novels on kids.  We had a selection of books to choose from, like “Girl with the Silver Eyes” and the Tripod trilogy.  There was one I started, but had to give back the next day as the project ended earlier for some reason.
I think the title had something to do with “moon” or had the word “moon” in it.  It started with a girl escaping a city through the sewer (I think she lived there with extended family?) to go find her mother.  I think it was kind-of in the dystopian genre.  The mom was presumed dead, or shunned from society in some way.

337G: Fear of Being Crushed in the Crowd was Unfounded

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Please help me.  This is driving me crazy.  I believe this book was written in the 60’s, possibly.

Around 1980 I read a book in middle school English class about a boy who lived in a large city but no one was allowed to go outside for fear of being crushed.  Everyone had a tv/internet-like machine in their home where they ordered things and they were sent into the home via a chute.

There were warnings from the “government” via tv to stay inside or they would be crushed by the mass of people on the streets outside.

The boy decided to go outside and found there was actually no one on the streets at all.