What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
► UNSOLVED: One specific book
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Adult SciFi. Toilet used as Meditative/ Religious Device. Heroine/ hero is born as rare normal human. Several human based lifeforms. Set on space station or large spaceship. Possibly C.J. Cherryh? (but it's looking like probably not). Read 1980s.
Julie wrote: "I see C.J. Cherryh has been added to the thread.... I was going to suggest that if you want to rule her books out for sure, maybe you could try emailing her. Many years ago a friend and I were reading the Chanur series and having disputes over name pronunciation. She answered our questions over email and we were able to settle the debate once and for all. :) "I did try that a while back, but got no answer. I don't know if I used an out-of-date address or what, but nothing came of it.
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Did you go to her GR Author page to see if she is allowing incoming messages?
Yes and she apparently isn't unless you're a 'friend'.
I'm bumping this because I'm curious about which book this was :)
Bargle wrote: "Yes and she apparently isn't unless you're a 'friend'."Are you sure? I looked at her profile and the send message option is there and works, they've just changed the way to find it, you have to click on the little grey hard-to-see arrow next to the follow author button below the profile pic and select 'send message' from the menu that appears.
Of course, it looks like she's not done much (or anything) on GR in the last couple years, so she may not see the message if you do send it.
Aerulan wrote: "Are you sure? I looked at her profile and the send message option is there and works, they've just changed the way to find it, you have to click on the little grey hard-to-see arrow next to the follow author button below the profile pic and select 'send message' from the menu that appears."Thank you, I did miss that. I've sent her a message, but as you say, she hasn't been active here for a good while. We'll see what happens.
No reply from Cherryh, so time for another bump.
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Lobstergirl wrote: "Why do you think this was by Cherryh, because it was near the C's in the library, or because of stylistic reasons?"Because I did read one of hers around that time. She was well known by then and I hadn't read anything by her, so I thought I'd try out one of hers.
Definitely not "The Cool War". Thanks for trying.
I finally got the book that had one of my solveds in it, and ran across "No Connections", which is a Foundation pastiche/homage. Ceramics are the only thing to survive so long after an atomic war.edit: Forgot to mention that this is definitely not a proposed solution (but I've been deliberately vague, so-as to not ruin the story), but something that's in the same theme of this question; so somebody looking for something similar can find it.
I don't think that's my story, but it sounds interesting. I'll try and run down a copy.
Bargle wrote: "No reply from Cherryh, so time for another bump."I keep hoping that this one gets identified because it sounds intriguing. So ...... Bump!
Just want to see if you remember anything more at all about the plot of the book? What was the conflict in the story? Was there a war? Some sort of personal conflict? Was there romance? Was there a lot of action? Humor? Any details may be able to jog someone's memory. Does sound like a possibly interesting read. Hope you find it.
I want to think there was some sort of intrigue going on, but I'm not even sure of that. It wasn't a humorous story, though one character had a mental snicker about the toilet thing because the characters using them had no idea what their original use was.
I re-read the Chanur books a few months ago. I don't think it could be them. No toilet-like items, and the humans are a totally separate species from the Hani (the cats). C.J. Cherryh left FB sometime ago, but she has her own website:
http://www.cherryh.com/WaveWithoutASh... and she's active on it.
I haven't read her "Alternate Realities" stories recently: Voyager in the Night, Port Eternity, Wave without a Shore. So no idea if it's one of those.
Has this been posted here already? I didn't see it in the comments:my link text
It is a list of scifi books with cats or catlike characters...and a lot of them date back to the 80's.
I don't think that's been mentioned. I'll give it a good look through as time allows.Thanks.
Possibly the Chanur Saga which has the novels The Pride of Chanur, Chanur's Venture, The Kif Strike Back, and Chanur's legacy, and Chanur's Home-Coming
Robert wrote: "Possibly the Chanur Saga which has the novels The Pride of Chanur, Chanur's Venture, The Kif Strike Back, and Chanur's legacy, and Chanur's Home-Coming"No, I don't think so. From reading the descriptions, the human character is just a plain human. In my book, the human is a result of cross breeding of 2 or more slightly different species, one of them feline.
Megan Doreen wrote: "Has this been posted here already? I didn't see it in the comments:my link text
It is a list of scifi books with cats or catlike characters...and a lot of them date back to the 80's."
Finally got around to looking through them all. No luck.
C.J. Cherryh thread.
I've added this to the SciFi Stack Exchange questions board. Maybe that will turn something up.
Bargle wrote: "I've added this to the SciFi Stack Exchange questions board. Maybe that will turn something up."It hasn't. C.J. Cherryh thread.
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Look through this Abandoned thread to see if any of the suggestions might be relevant.
Nothing there, unfortunately. Thanks for trying. :-)C. J. Cherryh thread.
Bargle, what sorts of ways was the toilet used for religious purposes? Did they pray to it, wear it on their heads (lol), something else?
IIRC (and I'm not sure I do) they used it as a sort of Holy water container and cleaned themselves in it or something of a similar nature.
I've read almost all of Cherryh's novels and unfortunately this doesn't sound familiar to me. The only thing that seems even close is Cuckoo's Egg, just because it has a human being raised on an alien planet.
Joseph wrote: "I've read almost all of Cherryh's novels and unfortunately this doesn't sound familiar to me. The only thing that seems even close is Cuckoo's Egg, just because it has a human being r..."I've read Cuckoo's Egg and it isn't it. I suspect it may be a book I read at around the same time as a Cherryh book, but not one of hers.
You know, I really don't want to set a new record for longest time before solved with this one.C. J. Cherryh thread.
I'm guessing that this is not your thread even though you said you made one on SciFi Stack Exchange... thought I'd throw it in the mix because it focuses on the toilet angle instead of the feline-person angle.Toilets as meditative/religious elements
I can't imagine how many people you have out there who think of this thread anytime they see something at all related!
Hey Bargle, maybe you want to edit the original post?Maybe add in this:
[deleted list: 2021-09-23]
Julie wrote: "I'm guessing that this is not your thread even though you said you made one on SciFi Stack Exchange... thought I'd throw it in the mix because it focuses on the toilet angle instead of the feline-p..."No, that one isn't mine. I didn't get enough upvotes to stay near the top of the queries. My toilet incident was part of a full novel.
Justanotherbiblophile wrote: "Hey Bargle, maybe you want to edit the original post?"Yes, it's been a good while. I'll do it tonight.
Bargle wrote: "Yes, it's been a good while. I'll do it tonight."If you include the things it's not (and maybe update with why each is not), then you'll (hopefully) quit getting them as suggestions.
I had someone not read the 2nd message in one of my entries, so I've tried to keep mine more up-to-date, if they're only reading the post itself. I put the 'NOT' in front of each, because sometimes they only read the search results. I'll delete my list (above), because you ought to be confirming that I compiled it correctly. One of those is from the SE thread (because it was about Venusian reptiloids discovering a Disney movie on the last un-glaciated mountain of Earth).
I was recently going thru her oeuvre:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._J._C...
I've yet to check the short fiction collections, however (but you're pretty sure it's a novel, so...).
Just a side note, I did attempt to reread the whole thread and didn't see most of the books mentioned in the SciFi Stack Exchange posts. I was using the phone app to do it and it is possible it didn't actually show me all the previous posts - I know this is a very long thread.
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Kris wrote: "Bargle, I added a few details to the header/ topic title. Feel free to edit it."OK.
Something possibly useful from over at LibraryThing. Member pjfarm remembers a book with multiple human derived types. Here's his/her description."Don't know how helpful this is going to be. I read a library book (hardcover) in the US back in the early 80's, probably 82-84. No memory of title, author, or cover. Honestly, I don't remember the plot either. But I do remember that the human race had split into a number of different sub-species and for some reason they needed specific representatives of each sub-species to breed so they could produce the final offspring who would be what we would consider a fairly normal human of our day. I never read much John Varley, but that is sort of the 70's SF vibe with a fair bit of sex I remember.
Bits I remember which are hopefully helpful. I think there were between 8 and 12 sub-species. About the only vivid memory I have of it is one branch has emphasized the mind. One of their women is described as hairless except for short hair on her head and she's described as small and slender. All her branch has done for generations is artificial breeding including artificial wombs. She is required to physically breed with a male from a branch which has emphasized brawn. He apparently looks more like a Neanderthal. Before going to see him she is studying a book on human reproduction to learn how it's done and actually reads something along the line of "then you insert tab A into slot B." I don't believe her branch even engaged in recreational intercourse."
While I don't recognize the description, I can't eliminate it either. I'm hoping it's the same book and this will jog someone's memory.
Old C. J. Cherryh bump. Sigh, nothing new in a year.
Sophia's thread (https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... ) reminded me of this one, and I noticed Sheri S. Tepper wasn't mentioned previously. I had a quick look at Grass (1989) on OpenLibrary, but wasn't able to pull up a toilet scene by keyword (though now I wonder how they described it - bowl didn't work, either).
Anyway, free bump if it isn't helpful. It just reminded me a little of yours. :)
Hmmm, I'll take a look, but I don't think that's it. Still, it was already on my 'to read' list so I won't be sorry for knocking it out.
Sigh, turns out I read it several years ago, but somehow it disappeared from my read list here. Definitely not it. Recognized it from the first few pages.
I will offer two suggestions, maybe these will be helpful. First The Lathe of Heaven by Le Guin does not feature feline characters or using toilets as meditative devices, but does have a scene of intense reflection in a bathroom. Second, there is a book of science fiction short stories about cats and cat-like creatures in space that might prove helpful, Cats in Space and Other Places. It was published in 1992 but has stories by prominent SF authors likely written well before that.
Bobby wrote: "I will offer two suggestions, maybe these will be helpful. First The Lathe of Heaven by Le Guin does not feature feline characters or using toilets as meditative devices, but does have..."I have "The Lathe of Heaven" so I know that's not it. I'll take a look at "Cats in Space". Thanks for the suggestions.
No luck with Cats in Space. None of the stories are an excerpt or related to the book I'm looking for. The search goes on.
Bobby wrote: "Have you looked at Strata by Terry Pratchett?"I don't think that's it, but I'll give it a look.
What's the Name of That Book???
Books mentioned in this topic
The Child Garden (other topics)The Child Garden (other topics)
Strata (other topics)
Strata (other topics)
Strata (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Sheri S. Tepper (other topics)Lisanne Norman (other topics)
David Macaulay (other topics)
Octavia E. Butler (other topics)
C.J. Cherryh (other topics)
More...
Which still doesn't find Bargle's book, but I am still looking.