Looking for a fantasy book probably published before 1995, with a female protagonist, some form of princess I think. Early in the book she is caught in some sort of maze and manages to get out with some sort of dimensional (vorpal) sword? But the thing I definitely remember is that in the end she slays a dragon and collects the last drop of its heart’s blood as some sort of magical stone. Thanks!
Science Fiction / Fantasy
Originally read in ebook format on a nook or kindle around 2010 or 2011. The book was free. No history on services.
Man Travels the Universe using software
The book starts off on a ship with a team of people headed to Mars (it is possible the book started with them there). The team is given or find a box which they find has symbols and words inside it. The entire team studies the item. They find they can replicate items by putting it in the box. The main character discovers how to manipulate the symbols and words, which he relates to programming BASIC, to do different things. Together with a female teammate they decide to terraform Mars by opening a path to earths atmosphere. They then head back to earth using the device (instant transport).
They are a couple for a while on earth where they figure out how to duplicate money and do some other fun things. At some point they are discovered by someone. A “creator” who invites them to their place somewhere in time / space. The creator has traveled time and space and acquired all sorts of historical documents and brought interesting people to his home. He talks about an experiment with sports players and taking Babe Ruth out of his era and putting him in the current era and Babe Ruth still excels in the current era. He also talks about viewings of history through a pinhole in time which allows him to see but the people he is viewing in history to not know.
Up to this point the main character has been traveling with the female companion. The “creator” breaks them up by introducing the man to an actress that had died in the 1930’s to 1950’s but he pulled her out of one of the realities and brought her to his home. He ends up sleeping with the actress. The woman companion knows what happened. They then break up. The “creator” says it was for the best as it would never have lasted. Tells him he can go wherever, whenever he wants and if the actress wants to go, she can. While here the creator also transfers his brain to a younger body of his using the “syntax”. The ‘creator” gives the man a pda (older style tablet) device that has pre-loaded code written to accomplish specific tasks, like duplication, portals. The man and the actress travel back to his current time and create a movie with the actress as the lead role (even through in this reality she has been dead for years). Can’t remember much after this.
There was a sequel to the book where a different man finds a pda in a bar bathroom and figures out how to use it and goes on some epic quests. The original owner of the pda was placed in a coma and was hospitalized. in the second book was trying to have the universe re-written with his DNA encoded but a programmer said it was not possible.
I don’t know how you guys do with a series compared to single books, as this may be memory of the plot being tied to all the books, but I will try to order what I can remember as I go. If I were to guess I’d say there’s between 3 and 6 books.
I’m trying to find a book that I read when I was in elementary school. Unfortunately, I don’t recall many helpful details about the book—including its title and author—but I do remember loving the book and recommending it to a non-reading friend who also loved it. I would very much like to find it so that I can buy it for my daughter.
The following is all I can remember about the book:
–It is a portal fantasy novel about a boy and possibly also a girl who somehow enter another world in order to help save a troubled kingdom or land (not very unique, I know).
–The plot involves a castle, mountains, wolves, and a race against time. Magical/mystical talking(?) wolves play a role in the book, from what I remember. I believe they were either the antagonists or the servants of the antagonist.
–From what I remember of the cover, it has a white border or partial border around it with a colorful collage of images from the book against a dark background. I believe that a castle, mountains, and wolves were all present in this cover collage.
–I checked out the book from my elementary school library when I was in either third or fourth grade, but I believe the target audience of the book is late elementary readers (4th to 6th grade?).
–I read this book in the mid-1980s (between 1983 and 1985?), so it was published prior to that.
–I do not think that it was recent publication at that time, though it wasn’t a very old book either. My guess is that it was published between 1950 and 1985—probably in the 1970s.
–It is a fairly long chapter book (perhaps 200 to 300 pgs?).
–The copy I checked out from my library had a small trim size, but was fairly thick with small type.
–It was written and published in English, probably either from the U.S. or England.
–It is a stand-alone novel, not part of a longer series.
–I do not believe it is a well-known or famous book. I have not, for example, run across it on lists of best fantasy novels of the 20th century.
–The title is strange, or, at the very least, not particularly appealing to an elementary school reader because I remember telling my non-reading friend to read it despite the odd title.
–I think the title might have the words in it like “nowhere,” “other,” “land,” or “world.”
–The letter “O” also stands out in my memory as an important part of the title.
This was a children’s fantasy book from the 1990s for older children about a group of human explorers on a submarine or other exploring vehicle who become wrecked in underwater caverns with lush vegetation and waterfalls which are inhabited by an advanced society of intelligent dolphin people with three fingered hands instead of flippers. In one memorable scene, a dolphin doctor works with octopi on his hands to perform a delicate medical procedure. It had a bit of a “Journey to the Center of the Earth” vibe and plotline. The cover of the book had an image of people and dolphins against a lush jungle and water backdrop, maybe with a submarine on it too.
This was a wide format, 30-50 page hardcover children’s fantasy book illustrated with full-page and full-color realistic style acrylic or oil paintings. The book was in the exact same dimensions, thickness, and rectangular format as the original hardcover Dinotopia books, and purchased around the same time in the 1990s. However, it does not appear to be by Dinotopia author James Gurney – instead someone else creating a book in the same style and perhaps for the original publisher, Turner Publishing?
Edit: Oh gosh, with a bit more sleuthing I actually solved this one myself! In case anyone else ever asks, the solution was The Secret Oceans by Betty Ballantine, as noted in the description “in the tradition of Dinotopia”
This is a high fantasy trilogy that I read in the early 90’s where the magic system had a very unique requirement that required a person that was sensitive to magic power, who would dedicate his life not to casting/making magic but only with the ability to absorb the magic power around him like a battery and then was able to give that power to an actual mage that could then use it to make magic. The mage would be useless without having access to this other person who would feed them magic power.
Also by the third book the magical world gets invaded by a world/reality that has modern technology like tanks and guns.
This is for a fantasy novel. I had it in 96 for sure, but it was older than that. The only thing I remember is the cover art. A group of people around a campfire, surprised by the sudden appearance of someone in a dark cloak, I think holding a staff. He may have been standing in the fire.
The only thing I remember from the beginning of the book is that one of the people in the adventuring party was complaining that women would not sleep with outsiders, unless they had a magic amulet or bracer that worked like birth control. These came in varying qualities. The narrating character could only afford a cheap one that expired, but a fellow party member had an expensive one that didn’t expire.
This book is about a traveling young fiddler (female?). She encounters friendly fairies, plays better and better, goes to different venues, sometimes ends up in another realm. I read it in the late 1990s, but it could be older than that. Beautifully and whimsically written. Probably YA.
I read the book in the late 1970’s early 1980’s. It would have been a fiction/science fiction paperback book from the local library (Manchester, Georgia). I remember a female protagonist child (and her brother) who were lost members of technologically advanced race studying the planet but were members of private tribe? She was being called back (dreams). She had to run away from her tribe. While in route her brother stepped on something in the sea (perhaps a sea urchin) (Spoiler alert! ………. and died.)