heddleston said:

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Discworld has been a hoot!

In the last couple weeks I've read
The Color of Magic
The Light Fantastic
Equal Rights
About a third of the way thru Mort. I could just sit and read Terry Pratchett similes all day long.

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So glad to hear you're enjoying Discworld - one of my all-time favorite fantasy series.

Claude! said:

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heddleston said:

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Discworld has been a hoot!

In the last couple weeks I've read
The Color of Magic
The Light Fantastic
Equal Rights
About a third of the way thru Mort. I could just sit and read Terry Pratchett similes all day long.

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So glad to hear you're enjoying Discworld - one of my all-time favorite fantasy series.

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He hasn't even gotten to the really good ones!

Haha yeah I can tell he's still figuring it out. Huge jump from the first two to the next ones.

The List by Mick Herron. This book was a short story very simple story but still well written & worth a read.

King Lear by William Shakespeare. And today just so happens to be the day Shakespeare was born as well as the day he died.

When People are Big and God is Small by Edward T Welch

Castle of the Noobs: Noobtown Book 3 by Ryan Rimmel -- still entertaining, again, akin to Dungeon Crawler Carl "Lite"; would be my favorite LitRpg if not for DCC.

I just finished reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. Can't recommend enough.

Knocked out a couple quick reads last night.

Reread of Andromeda Strain. Recently learned there is a sequel I missed that I will dive into soon. Always loved this book.

Breath Becomes Air. Just another reminder, as always, **** cancer

13B said:

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Castle of the Noobs: Noobtown Book 3 by Ryan Rimmel -- still entertaining, again, akin to Dungeon Crawler Carl "Lite"; would be my favorite LitRpg if not for DCC.

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Finished the newest Mage Tank coupla days ago. In terms of party dynamics and just weird character interactions that is somehow ridiculous enough to stand out but not copy DCC somehow, it's pretty good. My vote so far as the closest to DCC I have found in terms of writing and overall vibes. Give it a check if you haven't already.

Eliminatus said:

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Reread of Andromeda Strain. Recently learned there is a sequel I missed that I will dive into soon. Always loved this book.

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I read this for the first time last year and loved it. What's the sequel?!

Andromeda Relief?

GIF Reactor said:

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Andromeda Relief?

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Wolfpac 08 said:

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Eliminatus said:

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Reread of Andromeda Strain. Recently learned there is a sequel I missed that I will dive into soon. Always loved this book.

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I read this for the first time last year and loved it. What's the sequel?!

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The Andromeda Evolution! Written in 2019. I had no idea either until it randomly popped up on a "Suggested Reads" list out of nowhere. I think I read Strain the first time when I was like 10? Have reread it at least 3-4 times now since. Just learned of the sequel myself.

If you remember how the first one ended, you can probably guess the premise of the new one...

How close to the book does the movie stay? I've only seen the movie, and that is when it came out in the '70s. Although I really like Crichton's books, I never got to Andromeda Strain.

The andromeda strain sequel is…interesting.

Just looked it up. Apparently I purchased in 2019 and promptly forgot it.

Read the first years and years ago when working through all of his books. Guess now I need to buy the first to reread.

Oh, Evolution is now on unlimited if you have it.

Eliminatus said:

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13B said:

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Castle of the Noobs: Noobtown Book 3 by Ryan Rimmel -- still entertaining, again, akin to Dungeon Crawler Carl "Lite"; would be my favorite LitRpg if not for DCC.

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Finished the newest Mage Tank coupla days ago. In terms of party dynamics and just weird character interactions that is somehow ridiculous enough to stand out but not copy DCC somehow, it's pretty good. My vote so far as the closest to DCC I have found in terms of writing and overall vibes. Give it a check if you haven't already.

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I have not heard of it. I will keep an eye on it. Thanks!

Wolfpac 08 said:

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GIF Reactor said:

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Andromeda Relief?

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13B said:

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Castle of the Noobs: Noobtown Book 3 by Ryan Rimmel -- still entertaining, again, akin to Dungeon Crawler Carl "Lite"; would be my favorite LitRpg if not for DCC.

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I've enjoyed the Noobtown books more than DCC, honestly.

lurker76 said:

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How close to the book does the movie stay? I've only seen the movie, and that is when it came out in the '70s. Although I really like Crichton's books, I never got to Andromeda Strain.

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Honestly could not tell ya. Have never seen the movie. I'd say it's worth giving Strain a shot regardless though. I have a used copy I think I got on Bargain Bin sale for like a quarter years and years ago and it's a pretty fast read.

Think I need to hunt down the movie now and see for myself.

Fever House

Enjoyed this one. Cool alt take on the zombie apocalypse. It's like Steven King if he wanted to write SCP stuff.

This one sounds interesting I just wishlisted it thanks

What does "SCP" mean?

Book: The Breach (2009)
Author: Patrick Lee
(Book 1 of 3 in the Travis Chase series)

Summary (4*) Airplane-quality adventure thriller with a chunk of sci-fi; Fast paced page turner. You know the type. I love stories like this, and if you do too, you'll probably enjoy this a lot. Probably took me 5 hours to read. Easy to recommend.

Plot (4*) There's a thing called "The Breach" that spits out supernatural/unexplainable artifacts that seemingly defy physics, science, logic, and everything else we take for granted (such as an invisibility suit). One group's protecting a really powerful artifact called the "Whisper"; another guy, a former colleague, is trying to steal it to gain a ton of power. Actually really unique content and totally enjoyable in the realm of airplane paperbacks.

Characters (2*) Two main characters who fall in love. Nothing unique or really interesting about them, other than the strong woman character (Paige Campbell) graduated from Texas A&M (whoop!) in "Nanosystems Engineering" (huh?). The guy, Travis Chase, is an ex-cop/ex-con with an interesting past, and seems like an interesting future as well.

Re-readability (4*) For sure. Super easy to read, neither time- nor brain-demanding, and I will forget most of the details pretty quickly.

Who It's For If you enjoyed X-Files and the Kingsman movies, this might be right up your alley.

Book: Ghost Country (2010)
Author: Patrick Lee
(Book 2 of 3 in the Travis Chase series)

Summary (4*) Building on the world from The Breach, this story focuses on traveling across space and time to stop a future extinction-level event that looks super creepy and unpleasant. This one lays into the sci-fi just a little more than the thriller vibes from the earlier book. Another unique and good story, easy to read.

Plot (4*) One of the breach's artifacts, called "The Window," lets you go to a point in time about 70 years in the future. When the good guys go through, they see a desolate, post-apocalyptic world. They have to figure out what happened, and then how to stop it. Lots of twists and turns. You know there's a good conspiracy in here too: the President's in on it!

Characters (2*) The same two from the earlier book, with a new sidekick named Bethany (young nerd). Not much to report here. Very little character development the minimal build from the first book gives about 10x the background as this book.

Re-readability (3*) Not as original as the first book, but it's not like it's a big investment of time or analysis. Would reread only as a follow up to the first book, if I'm in the mood.

Who It's For Same airplane-thriller aficionados as The Breach, but if you're into sci-fi, post-apocalypse, or horror, there's plenty of that too.

Book: Deep Sky (2011)
Author: Patrick Lee
(Book 3 of 3 in the Travis Chase series)

Summary (3*) Conclusion to the series about the Breach and its effects on the world. This novel focuses on answering stuff like "where did it come from," "who sent it," and "why is it here?" Not sure if it's because I read all three back-to-back but this one was a little tougher to finish, didn't have quite the urgency of reading that the others had. And like book 2, if you have a problem with time-travel paradoxes, then this book might trigger you.

Plot (3*) Now we're figuring out why the Breach is here. The government conspiracy is going full-bore, as there's a secret war that has been going on since the Breach's discovery with no single person having complete knowledge of what is going on, or why. This book is about the closure of that war, in the hopes of preventing something truly catastrophic sometime in the future. Lots of your standard chases, evasions, fights, discoveries, etc but still done well.

Characters (2*) The same main characters. Really no development to speak of in terms of disposition, goodness, or knowledge, they are kind of along for the ride on this one. There is an interesting time-travel wrinkle with the main guy, though, which is probably a little predictable as you work your way through the books.

Re-readabiliity (2*) This one for whatever reason is the weakest in the series to me. Again, because it's easy, I might reread the series again in a couple of years…but I wouldn't return to this book as a standalone.

Who It's For Readers of the first two in the series. If you enjoyed them, then spend a few hours on this one to close the full story.

M.C. Swag said:

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What does "SCP" mean?

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Per wiki:

Quote:

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The SCP Foundation is a fictional organization featured in stories created by contributors on the SCP Wiki, a wiki-based collaborative writing project, launched in 2008. Within the project's shared universe, the SCP (Special Containment Procedures) Foundation[c] is a secret organization that is responsible for capturing, containing, and studying various paranormal, supernatural, and other mysterious phenomena (known as "anomalies" or "SCPs"), while also keeping their existence hidden from the rest of society.

The collaborative writing project includes elements of many genres such as horror, science fiction, and urban fantasy. The majority of works on the SCP Wiki are SCP files: mock confidential scientific reports that document various SCPs and associated containment procedures.

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Per me:

It's a setting of a secret government organization tasked with dealing with dealing anomalous creatures, events, and items and keeping it from the public. It allows for people to explore all sorts of ideas in the eldritch, alien, cosmic, Lovecraftian style realms. Think of it as a setting set up for fan fiction writers to pursue their X-Files fantasies turned up to 11. As such, of course, the depth and ability of the contributors is extremely varied but as a whole, it is pretty awesome and some really cool ideas have come from it. It's been around for a long while and it is pretty huge at this point. There is an official website dedicated to it and a Youtube channel called the Exploring Series that does dives in it if interested.

This morning I finished A Narrow Grave, by Larry McMurtry. It is a collection of essays written in 1968, He admits he's better at fiction than non-fiction, and I have to agree with him.

After reading about The Andromeda Strain yesterday, I started it this morning.

Is anyone familiar with a series by C. J. Box about a character called Joe Pickett? My daughter recommended it to me and I picked up book 1 today, to read after The Andromeda Strain. Apparently, there is a series streaming on Paramount+, but she didn't think it was that good.

TheGifGuy said:

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The andromeda strain sequel is…interesting.

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Man, you weren't kidding.

Andromeda Evolution is definitely that. Not what I was expecting, at all. Wild ride. Cool premise but the Dirk Pitt-esque approach especially in the latter half was a little jarring a couple of times. Glad I read it, extremely doubtful I'll revisit again. Unless there is a third perhaps. Didn't love it, didn't hate it.

BenFiasco14 said:

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This one sounds interesting I just wishlisted it thanks

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In.

That sounds cool. Will check it out.

Didn't they make some short films on YouTube based on the SCP?

TheGifGuy said:

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Didn't they make some short films on YouTube based on the SCP?

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There's a bunch now. Of varied production value of course. That's one of the coolest things about the whole SCP setting. It's "open source" if you will. Anyone can create anything in it, just dependent on your imagination, talent and budget. The most watched one is honestly pretty damn good for a pure indie group and completely self-funded/donations.

This one is Overlord but the group has done a couple others. Dollhouse was pretty neat too.



There is another mini series style one called There Is No Anti-memetics Division that is great too. I literally just picked up the book version of it this morning on a whim. One of the first ones to go traditional publishing I believe. Pretty cool hallmark for the setting if so.