During the whole transition between high school and university period (grade 12 - 4th year university or so), I had very little spending money, so I picked up a lot of really cheap used books at a local used book store. I didn't really consider quality, just genre and price. Now, a few years later, I can't think of the names of three of the ones I actually thought were kind of alright.
One is easy to describe. It was basically Predator in Greece or Rome (I don't remember which). Some kind of awesome killing monster thing was released on, I think, Earth during the time of gladiators probably.
A second one was about a guy who was sent to prison in a huge underground cave. I believe he tried to go to prison to look for something. In the prison they had to mine gems of some kind, and he managed to force the prisoners to try to escape by making the people in charge believe the prisoners had a secret stash of incredibly valuable gems, so that the people in charge tried to starve the prisoners out in order to get the gems (I believe that was the idea). There was something about Sirens (the living kind). I remember not liking the story a lot, but finding the world it was set in interesting. (Man, that description is very poorly worded, but I don't know how to make a series of loose memories sound more coherent; sorry."
A third one was about a group of humanoids who could travel in time (and I believe to different locations in space). I think they were constantly rewriting history, and I seem to remember some kind of Big Brother storyline, where the leaders made people afraid of some long dead enemy. Also, I think the species varied in ability, such that some could go back further than others. I can't even remember the main conflict in the novel, just that it appealed to me for the same reason Dr. Who does, as stories about changing time are always interesting and full of paradoxes. I also remember one scene where one of the time travelers ends up going to a world that has great security that actually manages to shoot him the second he materializes.
Anyway, if anyone can give me the name to one or all of these, it'd make that nagging "tip of the tongue" feeling go away for me. Thanks.
One is easy to describe. It was basically Predator in Greece or Rome (I don't remember which). Some kind of awesome killing monster thing was released on, I think, Earth during the time of gladiators probably.
A second one was about a guy who was sent to prison in a huge underground cave. I believe he tried to go to prison to look for something. In the prison they had to mine gems of some kind, and he managed to force the prisoners to try to escape by making the people in charge believe the prisoners had a secret stash of incredibly valuable gems, so that the people in charge tried to starve the prisoners out in order to get the gems (I believe that was the idea). There was something about Sirens (the living kind). I remember not liking the story a lot, but finding the world it was set in interesting. (Man, that description is very poorly worded, but I don't know how to make a series of loose memories sound more coherent; sorry."
A third one was about a group of humanoids who could travel in time (and I believe to different locations in space). I think they were constantly rewriting history, and I seem to remember some kind of Big Brother storyline, where the leaders made people afraid of some long dead enemy. Also, I think the species varied in ability, such that some could go back further than others. I can't even remember the main conflict in the novel, just that it appealed to me for the same reason Dr. Who does, as stories about changing time are always interesting and full of paradoxes. I also remember one scene where one of the time travelers ends up going to a world that has great security that actually manages to shoot him the second he materializes.
Anyway, if anyone can give me the name to one or all of these, it'd make that nagging "tip of the tongue" feeling go away for me. Thanks.
