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Help!- Looking for sci-fi novel featuring Houston in the future.


marc

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B) Hey all, this has really become an obsession with me and i cannot seem to find this!! So frustrating. i have used Google, Bing, Ask Geeves....etc. and cannot find this book.

Here is all i remember- 1. Written mid- to late 80's (i think) 2. Future Houston is on the cover- sort of an artist's rendition of looking from DT to UT but only 100s of years in the future. The novel was so-so. i really just want it for my collection and the cover art. Please, i am desparate. i have even tried E-bay.....but with no success.

HELP.

m.

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I remember you asked about this some time ago... I've kept an eye out for this also... One place that comes to mind now is "1/4 Books" on Shephard. I hear they specialize in hard-to-find books and such... the owner is usually there too. He might know what you mean...

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I don't know if this is what you were looking for, but I read a series of sci-fi books in the '80s by Daniel Da Cruz about the future of Texas. Seems like the protagonist was a oilman from the Houston area or something like that.

I think august here is on the right path for you.

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I think august here is on the right path for you.

I recall the series (3 books) being fairly entertaining. There was a scene in one of them where they modernized the USS Texas, sailed it out and defeated a Russian armada, or something like that. But, the one thing that has really stuck with me all these years is another scene where they take a statewide vote on something and they did it by dousing all the lights in Texas one night and having everyone who voted 'aye' to go outside and hold up a lighter. A satellite then captured all the 'points of light' and tallied them up. Sort of a Freebird method of voting.

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I recall the series (3 books) being fairly entertaining. There was a scene in one of them where they modernized the USS Texas, sailed it out and defeated a Russian armada, or something like that. But, the one thing that has really stuck with me all these years is another scene where they take a statewide vote on something and they did it by dousing all the lights in Texas one night and having everyone who voted 'aye' to go outside and hold up a lighter. A satellite then captured all the 'points of light' and tallied them up. Sort of a Freebird method of voting.

Captivating. I think I just might go out and get those books. :)

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I recall the series (3 books) being fairly entertaining. There was a scene in one of them where they modernized the USS Texas, sailed it out and defeated a Russian armada, or something like that. But, the one thing that has really stuck with me all these years is another scene where they take a statewide vote on something and they did it by dousing all the lights in Texas one night and having everyone who voted 'aye' to go outside and hold up a lighter. A satellite then captured all the 'points of light' and tallied them up. Sort of a Freebird method of voting.

Then this is DEFINATELY your guy Da Cruz is the guy you are looking for.

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Yes that is one of the books someone mentioned but I dont think it's what the original poster is looking for... I think I might have seen it in the years gone by.

You might be right. All the pieces fit except the one he was looking for...the cover art. I don't think any of them featured the Houston skyline.

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^^ Thanks to all of you for your efforts. Unfortunately, i don't think that is the book. See what i have been going through. One would think in this new Internet Renaissance i could find such a thing. BUT, i won't give up. i was known in college as the research king because i was tenacious and dug and dug until i found what i wanted for either myself or the prof. i was helping to get her doctorate. i ran into much of the same thing. i did a bit of self regression :lol: and here is what i remember of the topic. i really do think it was almost 1000 years in the future- Houston (being the birthplace of NASA and such) had become the leading city in the Western Hemisphere (along with a couple of others which stationed a space elevator) had space ports, etc. i remember being jazzed as a teen about it because they mentioned not just Houston but actual streets in the Inner Loop and some of the outlying areas. In fact, if my memory serves me right, they even predicted the westward expansion of Houston to the point that by the time period in the book, one couldn't tell the difference between San Antonio's suburbs and Houston's. The MagLev triangle was also mentioned along with a genetically altered chimp who could talk, think, etc. A lot of AI references as well.

i really wish i could remember more, but this is all i can come up with. Thank you all for the continued search.

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A couple of off-the-wall sources to check out, if you haven't done so already: the Brazos Bookstore - locally owned, lots of books about Houston and Texas, knowledgeable staff; and Chronicle columnist Leon Hale, who is in his 80's and has probably read every book ever written about Houston or Texas.

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^^ Thanks to all of you for your efforts. Unfortunately, i don't think that is the book. See what i have been going through. One would think in this new Internet Renaissance i could find such a thing. BUT, i won't give up. i was known in college as the research king because i was tenacious and dug and dug until i found what i wanted for either myself or the prof. i was helping to get her doctorate. i ran into much of the same thing. i did a bit of self regression :lol: and here is what i remember of the topic. i really do think it was almost 1000 years in the future- Houston (being the birthplace of NASA and such) had become the leading city in the Western Hemisphere (along with a couple of others which stationed a space elevator) had space ports, etc. i remember being jazzed as a teen about it because they mentioned not just Houston but actual streets in the Inner Loop and some of the outlying areas. In fact, if my memory serves me right, they even predicted the westward expansion of Houston to the point that by the time period in the book, one couldn't tell the difference between San Antonio's suburbs and Houston's. The MagLev triangle was also mentioned along with a genetically altered chimp who could talk, think, etc. A lot of AI references as well.

i really wish i could remember more, but this is all i can come up with. Thank you all for the continued search.

Oh crap now that I think of it, I might have read this when I was a little kid...

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It was the same summer i read Songs of Distant Earth if that helps at all. i read Songs and then went to a bookstore off of Shepherd and browsed until this cover showing Houston caught my eye. As i said before, i don't remember it being a remarkable story- i was just into the cover art.

m. B)

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It was the same summer i read Songs of Distant Earth if that helps at all. i read Songs and then went to a bookstore off of Shepherd and browsed until this cover showing Houston caught my eye. As i said before, i don't remember it being a remarkable story- i was just into the cover art.

m. B)

You were more focused on the "cover art" correct ? Well, I happen to remember in the mid-80's reading a story about a possible future Houston(i think) with the space program involved and stuff, and I am positive that BORIS, yes Boris, the Molly Hatchet record cover artist and many many other fantasy Barbarian art, did the cover art for that book, and it is a picture of a future city. The story was by Isaac Asimov I believe. Lemme look.

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