Skip to main content

story identification - Main character can "manipulate" his own time


I read a book while in the US for a few months back in the early 1990s.


I remember liking the book, and only have loose bits and pieces in my head.


The main character was a male. I believe it started with him being horribly disfigured and was thrown of a ship. He discovered he could regenerate if seriously hurt. On his journeys he picked up new abilities (He learnt how to speed up and slow down time, just for himself). He could also travel through earth.


I remember a passage where he was with the people that could control time, there was a "statue" of a woman, but it was really a woman who lost someone and slowed down time so much that she appeared to be a statue for years..


I seem to remember some sort of twist with a spaceship at the end, but I might be mixing it up with something else.


I've been looking for this book for over 15 years now without any luck. Any idea what it is?




Answer



If you are crossing a few details and getting the sequence a little off, you might be talking about 'Treason' by Orson Scott Card. [See also: Orson Scott Card's page on Treason]


The main character (Lanik Mueller) is from a family that regenerates at an unbelievable rate, and, during the course of his story is horribly injured when escaping from an arboreal village, resulting in his already out of control over-regeneration eventually turning him into something monstrous. (He does then travel by ship for a while.)


Later, he



gains the ability to manipulate his personal time [via the Ku Kuei family] (which is where the Frozen Woman comes in) and gains the ability to 'become one' with the planet somewhat [via the Schwartz family], which involves him sinking into the earth. (This allows him to do some genetic manipulation, and he cures himself of the monstrous over-healing issue.)



There is plan to build a spaceship, but



the spaceship is meant to be an impossible goal to keep the inhabitants in control and producing.




Eventually he discovers that one group [the Brittons] is using an ability to



generate illusions / false memories



to attempt to take over the world, and chooses to fight them.


Afterwards, realizing the real purpose of the metals->Spaceship idea, he takes action to sever the planet from the outside.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there good canon evidence for the "Nightmare Matrix"?

On the Matrix wiki, there's an article about the Nightmare Matrix which says: The Nightmare Matrix was the second prototype Matrix, designed by The Architect after the massive failure of the Paradise Matrix in the hope that human minds would more readily accept an imperfect world with suffering. Unlike the first version, this Matrix instituted a basic cause-and-effect programming and forcibly made those connected to it accept the program. Vamp Prime, a possible remnant of the Nightmare Matrix. It also featured programs that resembled mythical evil creatures in various human mythologies such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, etc. It also failed, but many of the programs who were designed for it survived deletion in exile. The Merovingian and his wife, Persephone may have had their roots in this version of the Matrix. Upon its failure, the Merovingian started a smuggling ring of programs and information to provide a haven for exiles that would last for 6 cycles in the final ...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Anime with a boy hiring a creature from a stone, meets a man named Dante and starts a journey to collect crystals

I am from India, this anime or animated series (I can't remember this was made by the Japan or other countries) was aired between 2009 and 2012 probably in Jetix/Disney XD (but I'm not sure). This anime starts with a boy (the main character, I forgot his name) who find a stone (or crystal like thing) in his dad's property, his dad was missing that time. Some day he accidentally hire a creature/monster from that stone. Other day some creature attack him and he was saved by his creature and the story begins. In his journey to solve the mystery he meets a middle aged man 'Dante' (probably that was the name; this is the only character name I can remember). He had also some stone. After that they meet with one girl and a women (one of the girls is same age with the main boy character and probably will become his partner as the story goes on). Another women probably Dante's partner. Four of them started their journey to collect all the stone/crystal. They are collecti...
Post a Comment
Read more