What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
UNSOLVED: One specific book
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A traditional medieval-style fantasy novel in which a popular King, ruling a kingdom which is one amongst many within an archipelago. His port city is besieged. Good deal of intrigue between nations. Spoiler ahead.
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Was the books aimed at kids, YA, adult? Do you know if it was a new book at the time you read it? Recall any other characters -- did the king have a wife, siblings, children? Do you recall if the book was shortish, longish, a doorstop? Anything at all about the cover? When you say fantasy I assume that means there was magic; can you remember anything about the magic?
I think it was adult, although from memory it was pretty lowbrow writing, Kevin Anderson sort of stuff (although not by him, I've checked).I believe it was new.
Can't recall other characters, apart from the suspicion I mentioned that in parallel to the King's story there was some other group travelling about the various kingdoms. I presume the King had a full complement of family but I couldn't swear to it.
I would hazard a guess that it was of middlish length.
Cover? Nothing.
I am not sure about the magic - it could easily have not featured.
Not very helpful, eh?
Maybe something by Dave Duncan? Not sure why but that description brought his name to mind. I haven't read any of his stuff in a long time though so I don't remember anything about a king being killed by a rock.
That sounds like something that happened in The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner. First of a trilogy and the other details work. But it's been quite q while since I read it.
Teri-k wrote: "That sounds like something that happened in The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner. First of a trilogy and the other details work. But it's been quite q while since I read it."Thanks, but I don't think that's it.
Michele wrote: "Maybe something by Dave Duncan? Not sure why but that description brought his name to mind. I haven't read any of his stuff in a long time though so I don't remember anything about a king being kil..."I have had a browse through his stuff. I don't think so. But thanks for trying...
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Are there fantasy creatures such as dragons?
The scene where the king is killed is the last one in the book. I think it was a cliffhanger for subsequent books.Could have been dragons but I couldn't be sure either way.
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This is a new thing, is it? The 'don't put too much detail in the title' concept?I am afraid that makes this forum pretty much unusable for me. I only occasionally browse through the list and I don't have time to open each message. If I don't think 'that sounds familiar' just from the title, I move on. Less detail means less chance of identifying the book. I always thought that there must be loads of books I probably knew lost behind titles like 'A book I can't remember' and 'help me find this book' and with less detail there will be more lost books that don't get found.
'Yeah, but spoilers...' I am really not so terrified of finding out a few plot points about a book. You only have to go back to some of the older threads to see how many times there are comments like 'that sounds interesting, I' m going to read that'. I did it myself and do you know what? It didn't lessen my subsequent enjoyment of the book that I knew some plot elements or how one scene panned out.
And to be specific about this book, the fact that the king dies is precisely the bit that will identify the book. Removing it from the title makes the book sound like any one of thousands of generic fantasy novels. No-one is going to read the new title and think 'oh, I know what that is - I'll click through and have a look'. Chances of identifying the book just dropped to near zero.
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General headers like "help me find this book" are not helpful, and we ask the poster to change it (or we do so).
However, in this group, spoilers are not allowed in the topic header. Other members may want to read and enjoy the book. A number of members have expressed a strong dislike for reading spoilers, so a spoiler alert is required.
Here are the general guidelines for posting book requests:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Fine, but my infrequent visits will become even more infrequent. Less detail (spoilers or not) equals less chance of finding the book.
I always thought spoilers were welcome anywhere in this forum - headers, summary, discussion, whatever. Like Rob, that's how I know whether I have a chance of solving one.
That was my understanding too, Michele. The purpose of this part of the site is to identify books. That requires detail. Surely it's not too difficult to understand that if you come into this part of the site you will see detail about books.And, to be frank, the point of these threads is that you don't know the book. So how is anything being spoiled? If you read this thread under its original title you would know that somewhere there is a book where a king dies. That's hardly revelatory - I could name ten like that off the top of my head. Even if by some miracle you end up reading this specific book in the future you won't know that's what you are doing. Even when you get to the recognisable bit you might possibly remember this thread but what's the thought process at that point? Surely it's no more than 'Oh, this might be that book I read about in that thread, I'll go back and answer the query'. Are there really people whose response would be to throw the book to the ground and storm off in a temper? Because they recognised a book after they had read it?
And from the detailed instructions on how to use this group, one of the very first points... This is one group where spoilers are not only requested, but almost required.
"Spoilers are OK in the body of your post, but keep them out of your topic header." is one of the topics in the "How this group works" folder and I personally like the rule.
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The use of spoilers has been debated for many years. Here is part of the discussion -- https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
The current rule of not allowing spoilers in the topic header seems to strike a fair balance for most members. Rules, of course, do evolve. I would suggest adding to the spoiler discussion above, if you wish.
As mentioned above, details including spoilers are encouraged to help solve requests. Just give others a fair warning before revealing a spoiler.
As a reminder, the Spoiler html link (click "(some html is ok)" above the Comment box) is great for hiding text -- but this text cannot be viewed on the mobile app.
Bump. Despite the nonsense around spoilers. 'Cos I was reminded of this book the other day.
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If it's a big spoiler, you can always announce it beforehand or use the HTML spoiler tags.
We tell people to pack as much plot info (and of course genre) in the title/topic header as will fit - just not major spoilers.
I'm one of those people who buys books after reading about them here. If someone recalled the book enough to try and locate it later (and doesn't have a perfect memory), then the book had to have something of significance about it. That really pushes a book's relevance, imho.The group's rules on having a required descriptive subject are good. I no longer read or click-thru on anything that doesn't give me some clue as to what type of book it is. (how NOT to do it) I don't read very much romance, so knowing the thread is a romance book, or an ebook - helps me enormously on cutting back which ones I actually need to look at. I end up only clicking thru 1-3 posts per page of results on average, so that's not too bad.
However, putting spoilers in subject lines - or the first line of the post; ruins it for *anyone* on the internet, who does a search, that turns your post up as a result. Which includes a lot more people than who've 'signed up for spoilers, by being a member of this group'.
I have removed a spoiler from one of my subject lines:
scifi/horror: (GN?) post-apocalypse?, underground dictatorial human authorities... but [spoiler removed] live on the surface
Because that was an important plot element, as a number of underground society stories have nobody on the surface at all - or no plot-twist involving who is on the surface.
Some people have argued that even descriptions shouldn't include spoilers - which is unacceptable to me. I'm for making people get ahold of a desktop browser, and using the spoiler tags. I'm kinda okay with people just capitalizing SPOILER / giving a couple lines of space, and then having at it. You were warned (well, except people on the internet).
EDIT: according to Kris's following technical note, I should probably redo my spoiler tags to include spoiler text, since mobile people won't be able to tell when the spoiler starts (or otherwise have an option to miss it).
Regarding search results:
Google: novel "uncle sugar" asteroid aliens
And you'll come up with my post. Editing the original description I gave the immediate answer in the first line, so a rando internet searcher can get on with their lives, without having to process through the whole history of the search, and various wrong suggestions until they get to the end to the correct solution.
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Currently, the spoiler tag doesn't work on the Mobile App -- you automatically see the "hidden" text. However, the spoiler tag does work on the Mobile Website and full Desktop Website. This may change in the future. (At one time, the spoiler tag couldn't be viewed on the App.)
Back to Rob's request...
It's your traditional medieval-style fantasy, the king is a hero-type, loved by all. I think he's been away, clearly there's a conflict and he gets killed when a great big rock that has been launched by an attacking ship which is besieging his port city comes crashing through the building he's in.
I think that's the cliffhanger at the end of the book.
I think it was the first book of a series. Would have been some 15 years ago when I read it, I reckon.
There is a good deal of intriguing between the nations in the book. I have a nasty suspicion that some other characters are on a journey across the whole geographical area during the course of the book. No cliches in fantasy, eh?