calling all scifi lit experts (once again)

Cafe Society
1

First of all -thanks for helping me out a couple of days ago.

Now I have a slightly more difficult that has been bothering me…

I’m looking for a book title, possibly by Jack Vance but I could be mistaken. I wish I could give the story in a nutshell but een that is eluding me, so here’s some things I do remember:
abandoned spaceship, floating in asteroid field ??), man with amnesia covered in tattoos, trying to recover his life and who tried to destroy it…I know it isn’t much but so far this board has never let me down.

There’s also another book I’m looking for;
the only thing I remember is the way of transportation - people ‘step’ from one to another. The ‘stepping’ works by making a mental photograph of the place you wish to go to, and then your mind ‘steps’ through space/time folds to get you there (kind of like the gates in Hyperion but not exactly). I realize that this last one might be pushing my luck, but I thought I might give it a try…

As usual I thank the teeming millions in advance…

2

For the second, are you sure you don’t mean “jaunte”? In that case, it’s Alfred Bester’s “The Stars My Destination.”

3

RealityChuck - thanks for your reply.

I must confess that I read the second book a couple of years (appr. 10) ago in Dutch…The titel you mentioned though and the process ‘jaunte’ do not ring a bell at all.

I will however check this book out, just to make sure.

Thanks,

4

Certaionly sounds like The Stars my Destination, although slightly misremembered. The guy in the broken spaceship acquires his tattoos after he gets out of that fix, and a lot of the book does involve teleportation.

5

And it’s the same answer for the first book. Also known as Tiger Tiger.

6

Thank you all very much…I’ve done some internet researchin g on the book and it is truly the book I was trying to remember. Makes me now wonder why I was thinking about 2 seperate books - I also think that whoever translated/published the book in the Netherlands must have come up with his own title since this one absolutely didn’t ring a bell.

Once again - you guys are awesome…