Is there a good site for searching books based on plot?

[TB]

I was trying to find a good site that had implemented something like a
plot search, but have had no luck. Perhaps someone knows of one.

In any case, I'm trying to remember the author and title of a book (or
it may have been a trilogy)... The basic plot is that there is a
little girl who is a precognitive and, seeing all future paths from
any moment can force one path or another by seemingly innocuous
actions (e.g. raising her hand since that action is common in all
paths that she would want to take). An agent of some sort is sent to
capture her since she is considered dangerous by the government (or
the government of some world).

[Wayne Throop]

: TB <***@yahoo.com>
: In any case, I'm trying to remember the author and title of a book (or
: it may have been a trilogy)... The basic plot is that there is a
: little girl who is a precognitive and, seeing all future paths from
: any moment can force one path or another by seemingly innocuous
: actions (e.g. raising her hand since that action is common in all
: paths that she would want to take). An agent of some sort is sent to
: capture her since she is considered dangerous by the government (or
: the government of some world).

Possibly you mean Mike Resnick's trilogy, "Soothsayer", "Oracle", "Prophet".


Wayne Throop ***@sheol.org http://sheol.org/throopw

[TB]

Post by Wayne Throop
: In any case, I'm trying to remember the author and title of a book (or
: it may have been a trilogy)...  The basic plot is that there is a
: little girl who is a precognitive and, seeing all future paths from
: any moment can force one path or another by seemingly innocuous
: actions (e.g. raising her hand since that action is common in all
: paths that she would want to take).  An agent of some sort is sent to
: capture her since she is considered dangerous by the government (or
: the government of some world).
Possibly you mean Mike Resnick's trilogy, "Soothsayer", "Oracle", "Prophet".

Sounds promising -- those titles ring a bell!

Many thanks!

[Dorothy J Heydt]

Post by TB

Post by Wayne Throop
: In any case, I'm trying to remember the author and title of a book (or
: it may have been a trilogy)...  The basic plot is that there is a
: little girl who is a precognitive and, seeing all future paths from
: any moment can force one path or another by seemingly innocuous
: actions (e.g. raising her hand since that action is common in all
: paths that she would want to take).  An agent of some sort is sent to
: capture her since she is considered dangerous by the government (or
: the government of some world).
Possibly you mean Mike Resnick's trilogy, "Soothsayer", "Oracle", "Prophet".

Sounds promising -- those titles ring a bell!
Many thanks!

Heh. RASFW wins again.

Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
***@kithrup.com

[David DeLaney]

Post by Dorothy J Heydt

Post by TB

Post by Wayne Throop
: In any case, I'm trying to remember the author and title of a book (or
: it may have been a trilogy)...  The basic plot is that there is a
: little girl who is a precognitive and, seeing all future paths from
: any moment can force one path or another by seemingly innocuous
: actions (e.g. raising her hand since that action is common in all
: paths that she would want to take).  An agent of some sort is sent to
: capture her since she is considered dangerous by the government (or
: the government of some world).
Possibly you mean Mike Resnick's trilogy, "Soothsayer", "Oracle", "Prophet".

Sounds promising -- those titles ring a bell!
Many thanks!

Heh. RASFW wins again.

I'm gonna believe Wayne has nailed it, having read those myself. But if anyone
wants to read a related vision, also try M.A. Foster's _Morphodite_,
_Transformer_, _Preserver_ trilogy.

Dave

[Dorothy J Heydt]

Post by David DeLaney

Post by Dorothy J Heydt

Post by TB

Post by Wayne Throop
: In any case, I'm trying to remember the author and title of a book (or
: it may have been a trilogy)...  The basic plot is that there is a
: little girl who is a precognitive and, seeing all future paths from
: any moment can force one path or another by seemingly innocuous
: actions (e.g. raising her hand since that action is common in all
: paths that she would want to take).  An agent of some sort is sent to
: capture her since she is considered dangerous by the government (or
: the government of some world).
Possibly you mean Mike Resnick's trilogy, "Soothsayer", "Oracle", "Prophet".

Sounds promising -- those titles ring a bell!
Many thanks!

Heh. RASFW wins again.

I'm gonna believe Wayne has nailed it, having read those myself. But if anyone
wants to read a related vision, also try M.A. Foster's _Morphodite_,
_Transformer_, _Preserver_ trilogy.

I have just bought a copy of _Morphodite_ (ten cents plus s/h),
intrigued by a comment someone once made about history being
changed by a time-traveler moving something a few inches to left
or right. But I'm having trouble getting into it: a few pages
in, the really nasty oligarchic rulers of the world are preparing
to entrap the leaders of a rebel underground. I looked at the
last few pages too, and *some*body survives, which is nice; but I
fear there's going to be a lot of solitary, poor, nasty, brutish,
and short before they get there. Should I continue?

Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
***@kithrup.com

[Dan Goodman]

Post by David DeLaney

Post by Dorothy J Heydt

Post by TB

Post by Wayne Throop
: In any case, I'm trying to remember the author and title of a

book (or >>>> : it may have been a trilogy)...  The basic plot is
that there is a >>>> : little girl who is a precognitive and, seeing
all future paths from >>>> : any moment can force one path or another
by seemingly innocuous >>>> : actions (e.g. raising her hand since
that action is common in all >>>> : paths that she would want to
take).  An agent of some sort is sent to >>>> : capture her since she
is considered dangerous by the government (or >>>> : the government
of some world).

Post by David DeLaney

Post by Dorothy J Heydt

Post by TB

Post by Wayne Throop
Possibly you mean Mike Resnick's trilogy, "Soothsayer",

"Oracle", "Prophet".

Post by David DeLaney

Post by Dorothy J Heydt

Post by TB
Sounds promising -- those titles ring a bell!
Many thanks!

Heh. RASFW wins again.

I'm gonna believe Wayne has nailed it, having read those myself.
But if anyone wants to read a related vision, also try M.A.
Foster's Morphodite, _Transformer_, Preserver trilogy.

I have just bought a copy of Morphodite (ten cents plus s/h),
intrigued by a comment someone once made about history being
changed by a time-traveler moving something a few inches to left
or right. But I'm having trouble getting into it: a few pages
in, the really nasty oligarchic rulers of the world are preparing
to entrap the leaders of a rebel underground. I looked at the
last few pages too, and *some*body survives, which is nice; but I
fear there's going to be a lot of solitary, poor, nasty, brutish,
and short before they get there. Should I continue?

If you're having trouble getting into it, probably not.

Note: No time travellers. The protagonist has been taught the theory
that in every society/group, one seemingly ordinary person is the
linchpin. Remove that person, and the group falls apart.

The theory is supposed to be pure hokum. Unfortunately for the rulers
-- and for the people behind the scenes who keep them in power -- it
happens to be true.

[Dorothy J Heydt]

Post by Dan Goodman

I have just bought a copy of Morphodite (ten cents plus s/h),
intrigued by a comment someone once made about history being
changed by a time-traveler moving something a few inches to left
or right. But I'm having trouble getting into it: a few pages
in, the really nasty oligarchic rulers of the world are preparing
to entrap the leaders of a rebel underground. I looked at the
last few pages too, and *some*body survives, which is nice; but I
fear there's going to be a lot of solitary, poor, nasty, brutish,
and short before they get there. Should I continue?

If you're having trouble getting into it, probably not.
Note: No time travellers. The protagonist has been taught the theory
that in every society/group, one seemingly ordinary person is the
linchpin. Remove that person, and the group falls apart.
The theory is supposed to be pure hokum. Unfortunately for the rulers
-- and for the people behind the scenes who keep them in power -- it
happens to be true.

Hm. That squares with the last couple of pages.

I'll give it one more shot and if I can't finish chapter 1, I'll
give it a miss.

Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
***@kithrup.com

[wjtingle]

Post by Dorothy J Heydt

Post by Dan Goodman

I have just bought a copy of Morphodite (ten cents plus s/h),
intrigued by a comment someone once made about history being
changed by a time-traveler moving something a few inches to left
or right. But I'm having trouble getting into it: a few pages
in, the really nasty oligarchic rulers of the world are preparing
to entrap the leaders of a rebel underground. I looked at the
last few pages too, and *some*body survives, which is nice; but I
fear there's going to be a lot of solitary, poor, nasty, brutish,
and short before they get there. Should I continue?

If you're having trouble getting into it, probably not.
Note: No time travellers. The protagonist has been taught the theory
that in every society/group, one seemingly ordinary person is the
linchpin. Remove that person, and the group falls apart.
The theory is supposed to be pure hokum. Unfortunately for the rulers
-- and for the people behind the scenes who keep them in power -- it
happens to be true.

Hm. That squares with the last couple of pages.
I'll give it one more shot and if I can't finish chapter 1, I'll
give it a miss.

Foster's great talent (and great liability in some respects) is his
ability to do humans as weird and alien better than anyone else. The
Morphodite trilogy is pretty dense, and somewhat unpleasant, but if you
want that little bit of absinthe in your whiskey, he has it.

Regards,
Jack Tingle

[Wayne Throop]

::: But if anyone wants to read a related vision, also try M.A.
::: Foster's Morphodite, _Transformer_, Preserver trilogy.

Yes, I thought of that one, too, since the title charachter at one point
(in the third book) drastically changed the future by moving a small
object (pencil? cup? something like that) on a desktop a few centimeters
to one side. But "little girl"... not so much. For the "little" part, I
mean. Though also I think most of the time the protagonist's male, right?


Wayne Throop ***@sheol.org http://sheol.org/throopw

[David DeLaney]

Post by Wayne Throop
::: But if anyone wants to read a related vision, also try M.A.
::: Foster's Morphodite, _Transformer_, Preserver trilogy.
Yes, I thought of that one, too, since the title charachter at one point
(in the third book) drastically changed the future by moving a small
object (pencil? cup? something like that) on a desktop a few centimeters
to one side. But "little girl"... not so much. For the "little" part, I
mean. Though also I think most of the time the protagonist's male, right?

Half the time, approximately. And yes, he's male when he does that bit.

The Evil Villainous Shadowy Villains, since Dorothy is looking for reasons
to continue, also managed to program into him (her) a means of biological
reconfiguration beyond anything else their culture had ever seen ... cuz every
good murderer needs a way to get away tracelessly afterwards, right? But, as
with the remove-the-pivotal-figure part, they didn't expect the side effects.

Dave

[David DeLaney]

Post by Dorothy J Heydt

Post by David DeLaney
I'm gonna believe Wayne has nailed it, having read those myself. But if anyone
wants to read a related vision, also try M.A. Foster's _Morphodite_,
_Transformer_, _Preserver_ trilogy.

I have just bought a copy of _Morphodite_ (ten cents plus s/h),
intrigued by a comment someone once made about history being
changed by a time-traveler moving something a few inches to left
or right.

That actually doesn't show up until the third volume. The Morphodite's
predictive system gets refined over the trilogy, along with its changes.

Post by Dorothy J Heydt
But I'm having trouble getting into it: a few pages
in, the really nasty oligarchic rulers of the world are preparing
to entrap the leaders of a rebel underground. I looked at the
last few pages too, and *some*body survives, which is nice; but I
fear there's going to be a lot of solitary, poor, nasty, brutish,
and short before they get there. Should I continue?

There is, yes, a nasty oligarchy full of semi-clueless-about-real-people
manager-types that sets this whole thing off. And he has to set up the
setting... because the trilogy's actually about the tool they CREATE to
do the entrapment and murdering and dissolution, who they make it out of,
what it can do that they didn't expect, and how it evolves. The original
Morphodite is very close to being truly alien... and the final version in
Preserver is about as close to human as one can get given his differences.

It does have some icky bits in, and I recall you're fairly allergic to those.
But nowhere near even your average horror novel, and no cat-related ones that
I recall. But yes, there are Villains, and they are Evil, partly through not
caring much at all about the culture they're interacting with.

If you don't continue, you'll miss some stuff that I found really fascinating
and reread every so often. :)

Dave

[Gary R. Schmidt]

David DeLaney wrote:
[SNIP]

Post by David DeLaney
If you don't continue, you'll miss some stuff that I found really fascinating
and reread every so often. :)

Agreed. The trilogy is not for light reading, but when it gets cold and
dark and you turn the heater up high[1] it's a good dense read.

Cheers,
Gary B-)

1 - Yes, I know Dorothy lives in California.

[Dorothy J Heydt]

Post by Gary R. Schmidt
[SNIP]

Post by David DeLaney
If you don't continue, you'll miss some stuff that I found really fascinating
and reread every so often. :)

Agreed. The trilogy is not for light reading, but when it gets cold and
dark and you turn the heater up high[1] it's a good dense read.
1 - Yes, I know Dorothy lives in California.

True. Still, it gets cold here, for local values of "cold".
When it gets down to forty or fifty (that's above, Fahrenheit)
outside, when it gets down to sixty inside, then I'm going to
turn on the heat.


Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
***@kithrup.com

[Kai Henningsen]

Am Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:09:08 -0500

Post by David DeLaney

Post by Dorothy J Heydt

Post by David DeLaney
I'm gonna believe Wayne has nailed it, having read those myself.
But if anyone wants to read a related vision, also try M.A.
Foster's _Morphodite_, _Transformer_, _Preserver_ trilogy.

I have just bought a copy of _Morphodite_ (ten cents plus s/h),
intrigued by a comment someone once made about history being
changed by a time-traveler moving something a few inches to left
or right.

That actually doesn't show up until the third volume. The Morphodite's
predictive system gets refined over the trilogy, along with its changes.

Post by Dorothy J Heydt
But I'm having trouble getting into it: a few pages
in, the really nasty oligarchic rulers of the world are preparing
to entrap the leaders of a rebel underground. I looked at the
last few pages too, and *some*body survives, which is nice; but I
fear there's going to be a lot of solitary, poor, nasty, brutish,
and short before they get there. Should I continue?

There is, yes, a nasty oligarchy full of
semi-clueless-about-real-people manager-types that sets this whole
thing off. And he has to set up the setting... because the trilogy's
actually about the tool they CREATE to do the entrapment and
murdering and dissolution, who they make it out of, what it can do
that they didn't expect, and how it evolves. The original Morphodite
is very close to being truly alien... and the final version in
Preserver is about as close to human as one can get given his
differences.
It does have some icky bits in, and I recall you're fairly allergic
to those. But nowhere near even your average horror novel, and no
cat-related ones that I recall. But yes, there are Villains, and they
are Evil, partly through not caring much at all about the culture
they're interacting with.
If you don't continue, you'll miss some stuff that I found really
fascinating and reread every so often. :)

I seem to recall that I found it progressively harder to get into the
stuff, and finally stuck somewhere in the third one. It's been many
years ... and I don't think I've re-read then since.

And I do remember there were some icky bits. I'm not as allergic to
them as Dorothy, but I do prefer my reading to not have them, no matter
how realistic.

But what I remember most was that the first one seemed neat, and the
neatness got progressively less; while the third was (in my memory)
weirder than the first, it wasn't particularly neat, and I arrived at
the seven deadly words.

[Default User]

Post by TB
I was trying to find a good site that had implemented something like a
plot search, but have had no luck. Perhaps someone knows of one.

The best thing for SF is to post here, with YASID (yet another story
ID) in the subject line.




Brian

[Ken from Chicago]

Post by Default User

Post by TB
I was trying to find a good site that had implemented something like a
plot search, but have had no luck. Perhaps someone knows of one.

The best thing for SF is to post here, with YASID (yet another story
ID) in the subject line.
Brian

GMTA.

-- Ken from Chicago

[Default User]

Post by Default User
The best thing for SF is to post here, with YASID (yet another story
ID) in the subject line.

GMTA.

Yeah, but what's our excuse?




Brian

[Ken from Chicago]

Post by Default User

Post by Default User
The best thing for SF is to post here, with YASID (yet another story
ID) in the subject line.

GMTA.

Yeah, but what's our excuse?
Brian

Experience.

-- Ken from Chicago (still awed over how little is needed for RASW posters
to ... Name That Tun-er Story)

[Kay Shapero]

Post by Ken from Chicago
-- Ken from Chicago (still awed over how little is needed for RASW posters
to ... Name That Tun-er Story)

And how fast... seems like the only time I see a YASID with no answers,
I don't know what it is EITHER... :/

[Ken from Chicago]

Post by TB
I was trying to find a good site that had implemented something like a
plot search, but have had no luck. Perhaps someone knows of one.

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written/topics?hl=en%3Fhl%3Fhl%3Fhl&lnk

Post by TB
In any case, I'm trying to remember the author and title of a book (or
it may have been a trilogy)... The basic plot is that there is a
little girl who is a precognitive and, seeing all future paths from
any moment can force one path or another by seemingly innocuous
actions (e.g. raising her hand since that action is common in all
paths that she would want to take). An agent of some sort is sent to
capture her since she is considered dangerous by the government (or
the government of some world).

-- Ken from Chicago