Skip to main content

story identification - A book with two twins and a difficult relation, a room where time flows slower than the outside and a mysterious monster coming from a sink


There was this pocket book, back when I was a teenager (20 years ago), with these two twins discovering a room (it was something like a tool shed) where time flowed slower (1 hour inside was equal to 1 minute outside if i remember correctly).


Inside the shed there was a sink and a strange snake-ish metallic monster was slowly coming out from it.


One of the twins, the one with the "less marked" personality, decides to spend one year (during a whole night) inside the room in order to get out older than his twin.


I don't remember what happens with the monster, I think they destroyed the whole shed in the very end.



Answer



This is "Singularity" by William Sleator, written in 1985.


Plot Synopsis:




Barry and Harry Krasner are identical twins, but that's where the resemblance stops. Barry's more athletic, more aggressive - and he's the one who suggests that they house-sit their great-uncle's farm. Harry hopes that it will bring the two of them closer. And it does - because there's something chilling about the farmhouse, something that makes the locals stay far away. The twins are sure that the locked shed on the property is the reason why - but what they find inside is far more horrible than their worst nightmare.



I don't recall the monster in the sink, but I definitely remember the one twin's motivation was to become older than his brother (and a year of exercising made him buff). I believe it was 1 second = 1 hour as well because they discovered it when one of the brothers left the other inside the room for 30 seconds. The one inside the room had to eat some of the MREs that the uncle had left in there since he was in there for an entire day from his perspective.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...

game of thrones - Who were the Kingsguard escorting Cersei?

Now to the question... During the scene where Cersei sits on the Iron Throne and is "sworn in" we see her escorted by seven members of the Kingsguard. Now this is what I would expect as that is the correct number. However, I have no idea who they are ! [embedded content] The books pay more attention to detail in this area, but the show is also diverging and outpacing in this regard. We can see that a few of the names are not possible on the show. I have listed the names from the books and given why the reason they could not be members on the show in bold. Ser Jaime Lannister, Lord Commander - Stripped of title Ser Loras Tyrell - Dead and also was never a KG on the show. Ser Osmund Kettleblack - Possible, but not mentioned by name Ser Balon Swann - Possible, but not mentioned by name Ser Meryn Trant - Dead Ser Boros Blount - Possible, but not mentioned by name Ser Robert Strong (aka Zombie Mountain) - Confirmed I know it can be confusing mixing the books and shows, but the qu...