What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
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ABANDONED. Sci-Fi YA with Bird Planet
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Boo on your teacher!Do you recall how old the main character was? Male or female? Was he or she a scientist or just an average person? Do you recall how he got to this planet? Anything about the cover? At the time you read it, do you have any sense of whether it was new at the time, or older?
Unfortunately, I don't remember much else, but I'll try.I think the character living on the planet was male, in his 20s or 30s, and either a scientist or maybe even military. I believe it was some kind of exchange program. I seem to recall he was living in the side of a cliff face.
I don't remember the cover.
I had the impression the book wasn't that old. I'd guess published between 1985 to 1992.
Sketchy, I know. Wish I had more to give.
The People of the Wind?Were they definitely bird-like people or could they have been a dragon-like species?
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People of the Sky by Clare Bell has flying creatures. The main character is a woman, however. It's a bit of a stretch. But, there may be something in the book's description that triggers a memory about your book.
While not YA and a bigger stretch, A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg does have bird-like creatures in the story. The main character is, if I remember correctly, (view spoiler) commentating on the society he lives in.
Sam wrote: "This was an assignment for our 7th grade sci-fi unit in 1992 or so. The other choice was one of the tripod books.I assume it was YA but it could have been more advanced. Unfortunately I don't rem..."
This sounds a lot like a short story by Ted Reynolds called "Trial Sample" originally published in an issue of Isaac Asimov's SF magazine, but republished several times (see here) http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cg... - in this story, a man is selected at random to live for one year on an alien (avian) planet, living (as much as possible) as if he was an alien - which is a problem, since he can't fly. I wonder if you read one of the collections that included this story, such as Isaac Asimov's Wonders of the World.
Thank you everyone for the input. I think I will check out a couple of the books and see if anything is familiar. This was honestly much more than I was expecting so I appreciate it.
Great. Here's a link to Asimov's Wonders of the World, by the way Isaac Asimov's Wonders of the World
Could it have been Poul Anderson's The People of the Wind, about a race of bird-like aliens called the Ythrians? I think he had one or two other books about them besides the people of the wind.
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Here's a link to my suggested story at the Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/Asimovs_v... - I think it's clear that the story matches the description well
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Sam (OP) was last active on the site in June 2016.
What's the Name of That Book???
Books mentioned in this topic
The People of the Wind (other topics)Isaac Asimov's Wonders of the World (other topics)
People of the Sky (other topics)
A Time of Changes (other topics)
The People of the Wind (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Clare Bell (other topics)Robert Silverberg (other topics)
James White (other topics)
A.C. Crispin (other topics)
I assume it was YA but it could have been more advanced. Unfortunately I don't remember a lot about it.
I believe there was a human that was living on an alien planet that was avian in some way. He was examining their culture or at least commenting about it throughout the text.
I remember loving it and binge reading about half the book over the weekend until I was forced to return the book. I was the only one to choose it and my teacher decided to make me change to the Martian Chronicles or something.
Thanks in advance.