Tour: WHAT BRANCHES GROW by T S. Beier

One of the greatest pleasures in a long life devoted to Reading is opening a book to discover a STRONG female protagonist, one molded through life and trauma, sorrow and pain, yet who is "more than," a persona not just a personality, one with ethics and Integrity, a character I'll be willing to trail into the desert; or in this case, into the all-but-deserted feral wasteland remaining after the Great Apocalypse. Unfortunately, that kind of character isn't common enough, and when paired with a self-analytical, hard-lived, male secondary character as a foil, in a well-thought-out and severely Dystopian [yet all too human] post-apocalypse, well I'm going to jump on that wagon train.

Thank you, T. S. Beier! You've brought me a Thinking Person's Post-Apocalypse, a terrifyingly bland but dangerous attempt at Society in which human frailties and missteps are all too well showcased, and provided hours of entertainment, adrenaline, and years of thought and philosophizing!

Review: AUTONOMOUS by Richard Beauchamp

Science Fiction and Horror have been my two favorite genres over a long lifetime. At first glance they seem to have nothing in common; but look again. What is NOT TERRIFYING about Space? From the very factual Challenger, Columbia, and Apollo 1 multi-tragedies (all Horrifying and unforgettable) and Dr. Who floating gently toward the Sun, to the possibilities in Space: the Void, the Cold, Systems Failures, Meteorites, Asteroids, Comets, Solar Eruptions, Terrific Planet-spanning storms; psychotic break in a crew member; sociopathic artificial intelligence; unsuspected aliens! What in Space is NOT MIND-BOGGLINGLY TERRIFYING??? WHY ARE WE EVEN IN SPACE????

If I haven't already proffered sufficient food for thought (and premises for Nightmares), I now offer you Richard Beauchamp's brand new "REASON TO AVOID SPACE EXPLORATION," titled intriguingly AUTONOMOUS. Oh my: a story does not have to exceed Proustian length to blow readers out of the water and onto an unscheduled EVA tour without a tether [yet another potential Space Terror!] I don't suppose Mr. Beauchamp has ever traveled on a Space Exploration mission, but reading AUTONOMOUS, you would never know: I swear he's traveled to Space and brought back the tale.

Do not overlook AUTONOMOUS! [And do remember: In Space, no one can hear you scream!]

TBRYear10

TBR Pile Challenge Turns 10! I signed up for this a few years ago; unfortunately, I chose randomly, and at the end of the year, all 12 + 2 were still unread!

Alternates (2):
Alternate #1 AEGYPT 2018/GODS OF LOVECRAFT 2017/ THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO 2012/ GROWING THINGS 2019 /
Alternate #2 THE LABYRINTH OF THE SPIRITS 2019/DREAMS FROM THE WITCH HOUSE 2018/

1. JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR (A. TCHAIKOVSKY, et. al.) 2014 READ 8/01 ✅
2. REDEMPTION'S BLADE 2019
3. BLOOD OF THE MANTIS
4. SURVIVOR'S SONG 2020 ✅ READ 3/23
5. ANTARCTICA (KSR) 2017. READ 1/23-1/25✅
6. EVOLUTION 2014
7. SUNSTORM 2014 ✅ READ 8/06
8. RED MOON 2018
9. ICEHENGE 2012 ✅ READ 8/07
10. URANUS 2020 READ 3/19-3/20✅
11. FROZEN SOLID (HALLIE LELAND #2) 2013 READ 1/28-29✅
12. VOSTOK STATION 2017. READ 1/17-1/18/2023.✅

YULETIDE SPIRIT READATHON

Yuletide Spirit

Goal: 1. Read 6+ = 8 Christmas/Christmastide/Christmas settings

Christmas Films:#

Children's Christmas: #2

YULETIDE SPIRIT READATHON: (Nov. 21-Jan. 23)

1. ALL THE BLOOD WE SHARE NG ARC
2. THE HIDDEN SPACE Author ARC
3. A QUIET RETREAT KU VIRTUAL
4. BLACKWATER FALLS LIBBY VIRTUAL
5. HOW TO SELL A HAUNTED HOUSE NG ARC
6. A SNAKE FALLS TO EARTH
7. I CHOOSE DARKNESS
8. THE UNSOLVED CASE OF THE CHRISTMAS BABY NG ARC Christmas #1
9. Christmas Land Christmas#2 CHILDREN'S #1
10. CHALICE OF DARKNESS
11. YULETIDE INVASION Christmas #3
12. SACCULINA
13. EPISODE THIRTEEN NG ARC
14. MONICA ADAMS SKIPS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS #4
15. DANGEROUS DEEDS (Cozy)
16. SECRET SANTA FOR GRUMPY ELVES CHRISTMAS #5 LGBT Christmas Romance
17. BRIARCLIFF PREP
18. SECRET SANTA MURDER Christmas #6
19. AUTONOMOUS by Richard Beauchamp
20. NO GODS TO DROWN
21. COLD WOODS CHRISTMAS #7
21. FROSTY THE SNOWMAN CHRISTMAS #8 CHILDREN'S #2
22. THE DEVIL'S SHALLOWS
23. THE DINNER GUESTS KU VIRTUAL
24. DEVIL BOARD
25. WHAT BRANCHES GROW HRPR
26. MONSTERS CLP ARC
27. FOR MY GOOD A CHRISTMAS SHORT STORY Christmas #9
28. KRAMPUS' TREE FARM KU VIRTUAL Christmas #10
29. DIVISION X
30. HELLFIRE (SCARE STREET)
31. WISHES AND HORSES
32. FURY
33. KRAE
34. THE GHOSTS OF A COVEN PAST
35. THE CHRISTMAS CUCUY Christmas #11
36. NOT A CREATURE WAS PURRING Christmas #12
37. THE SNOWMAN KILLER Christmas #13
38. FIND HER
39. SNOWMAN AMUCK CHILDREN'S #3 Christmas #14
40. ROOK: SNOWMAN Christmas #15
41. ALL ROADS LEAD TO SOUTH WALES
42. THE LINGERING
43. IT LOOKS LIKE US
44. QUEEN OF TEETH
45. CAN YOU SPOT THE LEOPARD?
46. QUANTUM OF NIGHTMARES
47. CHRISTMAS AT WHEELDALE INN Christmas #17
48. EQUOID
48 TOTAL, 17 CHRISTMAS/WINTER CHRISTMAS 🎄 CHILDREN'S BOOKS: 1. CHRISTMAS LAND

2. FROSTY THE SNOWMAN 3. SNOWMAN AMUCK

NOVEMBER SCIFI MONTH!!

Scifi Month

All of November's Reads:

1. SUGAR SKULL by Manuel Ruiz. Horror, Paranormal, Dio de Muertos
2. IT LIVES IN THE WOODS Horror
3. **THE PILLARS OF IDRAPHA SF, Space Opera
4. A HEART FULL OF HEADSTONES Police Procedural, Scotland, Crime
5. LAKER'S WORLD Children, Bigfoot
6. THE DOLLHOUSE: A HALLOWEEN HAUNTING Horror, Halloween

Review: GRIMOIRE

A fascinating compendium to delight aficionados of Horror and Dark Fantasy, GRIMOIRE ranges from subtle to outright frightening , investing readers in the lives of the (often feckless) characters . Delve in, but keep all the lights shining brightly!

FRIGHTFALL 2022

ALL OCTOBER LONG!!!

My reading choices will be:

Horror
SF Horror
Alternative History & Fantasy

FRIGHTFALL:

1.EVIL TRUST
2.THE SCARECROW SNUFF OUT [COZY]
3.BLAME IT ON THE PUMPKIN [Anthology]
4. HALLOWEEN PARTY IDEAS Non-fiction
5. THE GHOSTLY GROUNDS: MURDER AND BREAKFAST
6.THEIR GHOULISH REPUTATION [Anthology]
7. GRIMOIRE
8. OBSERVER
9. TAVERN OF TERROR VOL 2
10. THE FURIES
11. OCTOBER'S END (DARK TIDE VOL 3)
12. THE MISSING
13. BABEL: OR THE NECESSITY OF VIOLENCE, AN ARCANE HISTORY OF THE OXFORD TRANSLATORS REVOLUTION
14. THE HOUSE AT PHANTOM PARK
15. HALLOWEEN BEYOND (DARK TIDE 4)
16. NIGHT TERRORS VOL. 22 (SCARE STREET)
17. HIDDEN PICTURES
18.SECLUDED CABIN SLEEPS SIX
19.Christmas in The Forgotten Jungle
20.The Roll-Away Pumpkin
21.Jane Bakes a Pumpkin Pie: Pumpkin Pie Recipe Rhyming Book
22.You Are My Pumpkin
23.Pumpkin Smile Hard
24.The Realms
25. The Haunting of Abney Heights
26. The Sequel
27.THE MOTHER NEXT DOOR
28.GOOSEBUMPS MOST WANTED THE HAUNTER
29. BURN THE NEGATIVE
30. DUEL OF THE DAMNED
31. THE DARK ROOM
32. BISHOP
33. THE NIGHTMARE HOUR TV TIE-IN EDITION
34. LITERALLY DEAD: TALES OF HALLOWEEN HAUNTINGS
35. THE VESSEL

Review: ALIEN GENESIS

ALIEN GENESIS is a creatively imagined and wide-ranging Science Fiction tale with an unforgettable, engrossing, reader's hook. In addition to its far-ranging Science Fiction explorations, ALIEN GENESIS has appeal to those interested in Metaphysics, the evolution of Civilization, and similar phenomena.

Review: THREE MILES DOWN by Harry Turtledove

Release July 26 2022 Tor Books

Without a doubt, one of my Best Books of 2022, and not just of this year! Harry Turtledove is an exceptionally talented author, thinker, imaginer, science-oriented, and historian. What he does with the concept of First Contact in THREE MILES DOWN is beyond belief and "out of this world." Couched in the rampant political paranoia of the mid-1970's, as Nixon and Watergate polarized the Vietnam War-divided American populace even further, Mr. Turtledove also manages to peel his characters like onions and riff on Academia, father-son conflicts, friendship, marriage, World War II, Stalin...and the CIA. Jerry Stieglitz immediately rose to the small pantheon of my favorite fictional characters--he is at all times a delight--and the Ending! Mind-boggling and so thought-provokingly unforgettable. I am now racing off to read the entire Turtledove Oeuvre as soon as possible.

HIGH SUMMER READATHON 2022

1.THE CASE OF THE TOXIC SPELL DUMP 2.THE EIDOLA PROJECT author 3.PEN PALS HOOPLA VIRTUAL 4.THE UNIVERSE ATE MY HOMEWORK HOOPLA VIRTUAL 5.MOONLIGHT BECOMES YOU Author and NG 6.THE PLEDGE 7.I LEFT MY BACK DOOR OPEN 8.SOUL COLLECTOR SCARE STREET ARC 9.A DARK AND STORMY TEA NG ARC 10.FROM BEYOND: SIGNAL 11.CLAWS OF DEATH 12.THE FACE YOU WEAR CLP ARC 13.DARK TIDE VOL. 2 WEST OF HELL CLP ARC 14.THE CROW'S VENGEANCE BOOKSIRENS ARC 15.CAMP SCARE 16.THE GUEST HOUSE 17.THE EVIL INSIDE: A HORROR NOVEL 18.MINE (Delilah S. Dawson) 19.CAMP SLASHER 20.FRENZY ISLAND NG ARC 21.THE NEW NEIGHBOR Libby Virtual 22.YOU CAN RUN Libby Virtual 23.BENNY THE BRAVE IN THE FIRST DAY JITTERS [children] 24.BUZZ KILL NG ARC 25.DAISY DARKER 26.FEAR AND OTHER STORIES HOOPLA VIRTUAL 27.SALLOW BEND KU VIRTUAL 28. DARK TIDE VOL. 1 WOUNDS TO WISHES 29.THE STELLAR SNOW JOB 30.STINETINGLERS AUDIO 31.BLACK HAMPTONS AUDIO 32.PLEASE JOIN US NG ARC 33.ROUGH COUNTRY AUDIO NG ARC 34.NIGHT TERRORS VOL. 21 SCARE STREET ARC 35.[book:The Keeper|61437558] 36.[book:Hotel California|59691853] AUDIO ARC 37.LIGHT AS A FEATHER 38.SOUL DESTROYER SCARE STREET ARC 39.39.FUNERAL GIRL AUDIO ARC NG 40.THE NEIGHBOR'S SECRET LIBBY VIRTUAL 41.[In Progress] Beneath the Maize Author ARC

Review: GOLIATH FALLEN

GOLIATH FALLEN is a complicated Science Fiction, Far Future, novel, with keen world-building accompanying an explosive reader's hook. A trio of Generation Ships have traveled a century and a half from an exhausted and debilitated Earth. When they reach the Alpha Centauri System, a distress signal summons them to a crashed alien vessel, with tragic consequences and a bizarre personalized warning from a "dying" AI.

Review: UPGRADE by Blake Crouch

Release July 12 2022 Blake Crouch has a particular flair for presenting very-near-future we're-almost-at-this-stage couldn't-it-be-possible Science Fiction. Whenever I read his work, I ask myself, "What if this actually is fact?" Then I think of the world we live in and realize, "Whyever not?" UPGRADE is a novel of Evolution-gone-wild, not over eons of gradual adaptations, but over months, weeks, days. It will blow your mind as you too ponder, "How soon will this be "real life"?

Review: LOVECRAFT IN THE TIME OF MADNESS (Anthology)

An entertaining and illuminating collection, 21 of which are composed by modern authors toiling in the fields of the scintillating Lovecraft Cosmos, plus three stories from the Master of Cosmic Horror himself, H. P. Lovecraft. Delving into the always fertile soil of Cosmicism and the Great Unknowable, these authors shine their individual lights on the mysteries of Beyond and what might exist there, in the microcosm; and in the interior landscapes of their protagonists and secondary characters, wherein may exist horrors of Cosmic quantity as well.

2022 SCIFI READATHON

http://seasonsreading.blogspot.com/2022/05/sci-fi-summer-readathon-2022-boldly-go.html

1. CABIN TERROR. COSMIC HORROR SF 2. *SILVERWOOD COSMIC HORROR SF 3. *THE COMPLEX COSMIC HORROR SF 4. *THE EXO PROJECT 5. IN THE HOUSE OF FLETCHER 6. *AURORA 7. TELL US NO SECRETS 8. MEAT 9. *PLANET B 10. YOU BETTER RUN 11. *THE FALL OF METROPOLIS 7 12. *ECHOGENESIS 13. STATE OF EMERGENCY 14. FIREPLAY 15. *HELL DIVERS 16. *HELL DIVERS II GHOSTS 17. *THE ENVIOUS NOTHING 18. *HELL DIVERS III DELIVERANCE 19. *HELL DIVERS IV WOLVES 20. NEVER COMING HOME 21. *GAME CHANGERS OF THE APOCALYPSE 22. THE DAY WE DIED 23. THE BEAST OF BROMWICH [Fantasy] 24. RENOVATED TO DEATH 25. *SMOKE AND OTHER STORMS 26. *ARK STORM 27. CLOWN IN THE DARK 28. *SANDS OF DUNE 29. EVASIVE SPECIES 30. *MOBIUS: THE TIMELESS ARTIFACT 31. *EXTINCTION ISLAND