The Sword and Laser discussion

We all have moments in books that follow us about, that we keep with us, even when we've forgotten the major plot points, and characters of the books we find them in. Scenes that where so cool or poignant that we will remember them long after we've forgotten the name of the book.

I know you probably have many. But choose one, maybe your earliest, or latest, or the one that you think of most often.

For me it is the death of Sturm Brightblade at the High Clerists tower. The whole of the thing, the sense of unrequited love with Alhana even though she did love him, his death at the hand of another previous lover... oh man. I'm tearing up stupid allergies.

Far too many to mention them all but the first that came to mind was a fight between Silk and one of the main enemies in the last book of the Belgariad. It took place on the wall of the evil fortress and as the bad guy punched out, Silk grabbed his arm, fell back and threw him off the wall to his doom. I read that over 30 years ago and can still picture it.

You're right Phil. I've edited the OP to make clear what i was talking about, but you seem to have grocked it clear enough.

Phil wrote: "Far too many to mention them all but the first that came to mind was a fight between Silk and one of the main enemies in the last book of the Belgariad. It took place on the wall of the evil fortr..."

I generally only remember those moments when the book itself is mentioned, but I can think of two right now. Both were assigned reading in school, but that's not to say I wouldn't have read them on my own.

#1: 7th grade, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. I didn't like TJ for most of the book, but then he was found with the s*** beat outta him. Broken jaw, a broken arm(?), broken ribs, and his chest one big bruise. No one deserves that, not even a bully.

#2: 10th/11th grade, AP English, Madame Bovary. If I wasn't reading it for a book report, I would have skipped the 2-page surgery scene which......is not how you fix a club foot. I read the passage with one hand clamped over my mouth. Why the f*** would a doctor take directions on a surgery from a pharmacist?! They have completely different training!

Its a bit obvious but it has to be Gandalf confronting the Balrog in Fellowship of the Ring. I was about 11 or 12 when I first read LOTR & that scene just blew me away. It still gives me the shivers now.

For me it's that moment in Simak's City when all the people became Jupiterian creatures and only sentient dogs and a robot were left on Earth to bear its history.

In Roger Zelazny's Damnation Alley, when they're just starting out and experience a massive storm that drops boulders on them and the lightning comes down in sheets as flood waters hammer their vehicles and they have to skirt pockets of radiation while dodging giant monsters:

"To the squares, this was Damnation Alley. To Hell Tanner, this was just the parking lot."

Oohh... dis gon' be good!

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The ending of Jack L. Chalker's Midnight at the Well of Souls where, after all their epic adventures, we come back to Nathan Brazil on the bridge of his interstellar freighter:

"Still waiting.
Still caring.
Still alone."

Ow. Didn't hurt that the first printing of the book was 360 pages, so it wasn't hard to interpret that as 360 degrees and Nathan, savior of mankind and the Well World, is right back where he started.

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In Anne McCaffrey's second Pern book, Dragonflight, they have a small problem with what to do with Jaxom, who is the bastard child of Fax, Pern's version of Napoleon (who was killed in the first book), because he's just a little kid who is a pawn in the political machinations of pretty much everyone. They need him to legitimize control over one of the most prosperous Holds that supports the predominant dragon weyr, so they can't just shove him off somewhere. The kid is also a target for assassination and whatnot. Basically they let him hang around the various dragonriders for his own protection and political expediency.

Then, during one of the dragon hatchings, there's a tiny egg that everyone thinks is stillborn, but Jaxom is sure there's a dragon in it. As the hatching ritual is over and all the dragons have paired up with their juvenile riders, everyone starts leaving the hatching ground. Jaxom notices that the littlest egg has started rocking as the tiny dragon within struggles to break free.

Without thinking, Jaxom leaps into the hatching grounds and breaks the thicker-than-normal shell, crying because he knows the little dragon didn't ask to be born and just wants a chance, the same as anyone else -- the same as him -- and just as they try to stop him, Jaxom makes an Impression with the little white dragon and he looks up with wonder:

"He says his name is Ruth!"

I don't mind saying that scene made me tear up a little... and cackle with glee, because with one fell swoop young Jaxom has completely wrecked all the plans that everyone has made for him, and he now occupies a unique place in society: an underage ruler who is also a dragonrider.

Gosh, I know there have been so many scenes like this, yet it is super hard to think of any, and the ones that do occur to me are half book, half imagination. I think the scenes that stay with me are the ones my mind builds on, so they become something else entirely, because they are moments I linger in, and then its hard to remember what came from the book, and what I made up.

When I was a teenager I read The Forbidden Game by L J Smith in which a Shadow Man called Julian forces a group of friends to face their nightmares, all so he can get to the girl he loves, Jenny. There was a scene where Jenny and Audrey were kidnapped by dark elves, and Jenny was taken to meet the Erlking, who turns out to be Julian. The rules of the game he is playing prevent Julian from touching Jenny, but he gives her a silver rose, and when she brushes it against her cheek, he is able to touch her there. The creepy stalker romance of the scene appealed more to teenage me than present me and I have not read the book in a very long time, but I can still clearly picture the cavern they met in, which I see being bathed in a silvery light, surrounded by underground lakes. I can picture clearly the gleam of the silver rose, and the hungry look in Julian's eyes when Jenny brushes the rose against her cheek. I guess it will always seem a little magical to me. I always used to wonder what might have happened if she had given him that kiss he so badly wanted.

The first one that comes to mind is the climatic scene in Beloved by Toni Morrison where Beloved's origins are explained. It's the most heartbreaking and horrifying thing I have ever read. I bawled my eyes out.

There's also the scene in The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood where it describes how the handmaids are impregnated. Harrowing.

The ones that are coming to mind right now are all Pratchett:

Granny Weatherwax vs. the mirrors in Witches Abroad
The Guarding Dark defeating the Summoning Dark
And a whole bunch of others, but those two in particular.


Oh! Probably the earliest one, and from a book that I credit with shaping the person I am today:

Roger's death in The Golden Compass (or Northern Lights, for the UK people). It was the first time I'd read something where the hero straight-up fails, in a horrible way, despite doing everything she could. It was a revelation to 10-year-old me. (And I had no idea that it was part of a trilogy, so I honestly thought the story ended there. Which made it even more impacting.)

The opening chapter of The Ghost Brigades sticks with me for his choice in narrator.

There's a few to choose from, but I'd have to go with the death of Wolf (Wolf! Right here and now!) in The Talisman. One of only two character deaths that have ever brought me to tears. I had already read many books by both Stephen King and Peter Straub, but had never grown so attached to any of their characters. I felt blindsided by this one. Maybe it was prepping me for when I'd later read A Song Of Ice And Fire.

Two parts from the Pern series -

1.Dragonsong (view spoiler)[ When Menolly's in the cave with the fire lizards hatching (hide spoiler)]

2. All the Weyrs of Pern (view spoiler)[ When AIVIS first speaks and when Masterharper Robinton dies. Aw, I always cry at this part (hide spoiler)]

Ender's Game when he (view spoiler)[ fights that boy in the shower and kills him (hide spoiler)]

Lots of scenes from Dune but - (view spoiler)[ when Kynes is wandering in the desert, hallucinating his father's lectures, right before he dies (hide spoiler)]

Then there's that scene in Wheel of Time where Nynaeve tugs her braid while Egwene smooth's her skirts and Thom twirls his mustache and Matt fingers his dagger hilt...

Michele wrote: "Then there's that scene in Wheel of Time where Nynaeve tugs her braid while Egwene smooth's her skirts and Thom twirls his mustache and Matt fingers his dagger hilt... "

That made me laugh, thanks! :)

The trial in Fuzzy Nation, mainly because it was so entertaining. Then there was the first time Thursday Next gets a call on the footernoter phone in The Eyre Affair. Oh, and when Harry Potter finally gets to read his acceptance letter to Hogwarts.

99.99% of Nine Princes in Amber. That first scene in he hospital. The Tarot cards. The chase though shadow. Rebma. I'll stop there, but it rocks.

Trike wrote: "The ending of Jack L. Chalker's Midnight at the Well of Souls where, after all their epic adventures, we come back to Nathan Brazil on the bridge of his interstellar freighter: "

One of the scenes that's always stuck with me is from the same book. The various characters have journeyed across and been transformed by the Wellworld and they're gathered in the control room.

Then there's the big reveal.

And there's nothing but silence and a thumping that sounds like the beating of a giant heart.