What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
This topic is about
A Touch of Chill
SOLVED: Children's/YA
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SOLVED. short story - aliens that can detect metal [s]
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Were the aliens just robot bugs, or were they larger? Alien robot bugs who eat metal are the basis for Steven Gould's book 7th Sigma, and he wrote two short stories in the same setting. The novel just came out a year or two ago, though, and I'm pretty sure the stories are also too recent.
I found some details on the stories online, and they're definitely too recent -- though a sort of similar idea. Thanks, though!
153 views and nobody knows it - yet... keep bumping!
I too am on the hunt for this story (it's how I found this thread).I don't know it's name but I might be able to shed some more light on it.
As I remember it's not actually the invading aliens that are the metal eaters, but rather their snail/slug like pets. And yes, they are afraid of water and so the protagonist(s?) have set their hopes on an island, which have an old monastery or some such on it, anyway buildings with as little metal in them as possible.
There might be brothers involved some way, perhaps the protagonist and his brother is on the run and the protagonists brother has a couple of iron nails in his leg from an old injury.
That's all I can remember.
As it turns out, I remembered some more, about the ending.As I recall it ends with the protagonist, on his/her way out to the island, I believe just after an alien pet attack that ate his/her brother, sees in the distant strange lights on the island. It's on fire, and it's alluded to that the island has already fallen before the aliens.
Andreas, if you ever figure it out, please let me know! I've been looking for this story for over a year now.
Hi Miriam,
It sounds like something Joan Aiken wrote. Try her short story collection "A Touch of Chill".
Hope this helps!
It sounds like something Joan Aiken wrote. Try her short story collection "A Touch of Chill".
Hope this helps!
Angie wrote: "Hi Miriam,It sounds like something Joan Aiken wrote. Try her short story collection "A Touch of Chill".
Hope this helps!"
Hmm, that book contains a story named "A long way to swim". That sounds alot like what I remember the ending of the story to be.
http://www.joanaiken.com/pages/supern...
If you're right, you got my eternal gratitude!
Aiken is worth reading in any case. I'd love to hear confirmation from Miriam and Andreas, both.A Touch of Chill for the link to the book. (And now I'm off to track down a copy to read. ;)
I only just saw these responses and I am so excited! I read a lot of Aiken growing up, so it's very likely the book. In any case, I have ordered a copy of A Touch of Chill and will update this thread when it arrives.Thank you all so much
If you think there's a good chance that this is your book, you can put this request in the "Possibly Solved" folder, by clicking the 'edit' link next to the subject line / title.If this turns out to be the book you're looking for, come back and tell us that we were successful in our guesses. We keep the old requests (please don't delete it), so new people who're using a search function can easily find the same book, based on your keywords/description. We move these finished requests to one of the "Solved" folders, the same way as above. (In addition, I like to edit my requests to show the title and author at the top of the original post, so it shows up in google results easily).
If it turns out that this wasn't your book, or you want more suggestions - you can put this query back into the "Unsolved" folder at any time, and bump it (although we ask you to not bump it more than once a month) to put it back to the head of the queue, so it doesn't get buried in the older requests.
It WAS the right story. So happy. Thanks for all your help!
Mod
This has been bothering me for a while, so any help would be very much appreciated!