I remember the story, not the title... or author...

Mark Lawrence

Mark Lawrence

The New ... MARK LAWRENCE
Joined
May 21, 2010
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671
I'm sure this kind of post crops up regularly. I hope somebody will recognise the scraps of this story I can recall and point me at the author/book.

It's definitely science fiction.

The main character gets taken over by some kind of parasite/controlling life-form. Completely taken over, all he can do is watch - I seem to recall it grows something out of his eye also.


The 'gods of axon/neuron' are mentioned a lot.

One of the modes the parasite uses cause several victims to move together (the pain increases with separation) so it can then use their combined bio-mass to build one of its life forms.

There are quite a few scenes in space-ships...

That's it!

Help!

Mark
 
It does somewhat resemble the socalled 'Primes' from Pandora's Star (Peter F. Hamilton); where "immotiles breed and control vast armies of sub-sentient 'motiles' via electronically extended neural interfaces".

Cheers,

Sfinx.
 
Is it this one?

Christopher Rowley's books Starhammer, The Vang: The Military Form, and The Vang: The Battlemaster. In these, the Vang refer to themselves as "The Gods of Axon and Neuron".
 
KatG said:
Is it this one?

Christopher Rowley's books Starhammer, The Vang: The Military Form, and The Vang: The Battlemaster. In these, the Vang refer to themselves as "The Gods of Axon and Neuron".
Click to expand...

Excellent! That sounds like it. I remember the term 'military form' now you mention it.

I'll go look him up.

Many thanks,
Mark
 
Hi, first post here!

Hope you don't mind my adding my own request for identification of a SF short story. The plot has vague similarities to original post, but is definitely a different story. It has been bugging me for quite awhile that I can't remember the title or author.

Here's what I remember of the story: A married couple, who are anthropologists, go to another planet and study a religion there which worships something like a blob that lives in a cave. At some point in this religion, a devotee becomes a sort of a monk, and puts a little of the blob on his head, and as it grows there, he slowly merges into the collective consciousness of the blob. The husband eventually decides to join them. Does that sound familiar at all?

Thanks for any help identifying this story, and apologies for veering off track from original post!

joebee
 
Yes, that's it! I found a copy yesterday at my local library in a collection by George R. R. Martin titled "A Song for Lya". It includes nine short stories plus the longer title story, which I see won the Hugo for novella in 1974. I also found the same book available as a Kindle download at Amazon for only $2, so will probably get it there.

Thank you so much for the help!! :)

joebee

(edit)--I bought the $2 Kindle edition at Amazon, but it was only the novelette; none of the short stories were included. Amazon did refund my money and deleted the book from my Kindle library, so no harm done. Still, I wish they would clearly indicate it is a different version before buying.
 
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So is the initial poster of this thread (from 2010) the actual Mark Lawrence, fantasy writer?
 
When they get big and busy enough, they tend to run out of time to come over here and chat instead of on big social media or their own websites, except if they're doing an author interview for the front page of the site, but we still wave to Mark as he passes by. I still remember fondly him talking about how he and the other grimdark authors didn't really get why they were being called a grimdark movement and me explaining to him that he and Joe Abercrombie, another past forum visitor, didn't really have any choice in the matter. Fans had decided that that's what they were.
 
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