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Q-no @ChronophobianQ

603 books  

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The Selfish Gene [Book] Goodreads
author: Richard Dawkins Oxford University Press 2006 - 1
"The Selfish Gene" caused a wave of excitement among biologists and the general public when it was first published in 1976. Its vivid rendering of a gene's eye view of life, in lucid prose, gathered together the strands of thought about the nature of natural selection into a conceptual framework with far-reaching implications for our understanding of evolution. Time has confirmed its significance. Intellectually rigorous, yet written in non-technical language, "The Selfish Gene" is widely regarded as a masterpiece of science writing, and its insights remain as relevant today as on the day it was published.

Chapters:
1. Why are people?
2. The replicators
3. Immortal coils
4. The gene machine
5. Aggression stability and the selfish machine
6. Genesmanship
7. Family planning
8. Battle of the generations
9. Battle of the sexes
10. You scratch my back, I'll ride on yours
11. Memes: the new replicators
12. Nice guys finish first
13. The long reach of the gene
The Andromeda Strain [Book] Goodreads
author: Michael Crichton Avon 2003 - 10
The United States government is given a warning by the pre-eminent biophysicists in the country: current sterilization procedures applied to returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere.

Two years later, seventeen satellites are sent into the outer fringes of space to collect organisms and dust for study. One of them falls to earth, landing in a desolate area of Arizona.

Twelve miles from the landing site, in the town of Piedmont, a shocking discovery is made: the streets are littered with the dead bodies of the town's inhabitants, as if they dropped dead in their tracks.
--back cover
Hell Divers [Book] Goodreads
author: Nicholas Sansbury Smith / R.C. Bray Blackstone Pub 2016 - 7
More than two centuries after World War III poisoned the planet, the final bastion of humanity lives on massive airships circling the globe in search of a habitable area to call home. Aging and outdated, most of the ships plummeted back to earth long ago. The only thing keeping the two surviving lifeboats in the sky are Hell Divers—men and women who risk their lives by skydiving to the surface to scavenge for parts the ships desperately need.

When one of the remaining airships is damaged in an electrical storm, a Hell Diver team is deployed to a hostile zone called Hades. But there’s something down there far worse than the mutated creatures discovered on dives in the past—something that threatens the fragile future of humanity.
Dark World [Book] Goodreads
author: B.V. Larson 2018 - 3
Two expanding interstellar powers are about to meet in battle. After the collapse of the Cephalopod Kingdom, Humanity claimed the three hundred rebellious worlds they left behind. But many light years away on the far side of the disputed region, a rival power has begun to move. They're stealing our planets, one at a time. Earth Command decides to invade the center of the frontier to set up an advanced base. The mission to DARK WORLD is highly classified and deadly. Legion Varus spearhead’s the effort, and James McGill journeys to the stars again. How many ships do they have? How advanced is their tech? No one knows, but the campaign takes an unexpected turn immediately. What was supposed to be a snatch-and-grab turns into a bloodbath. McGill dies over and over again, but some battles must be won, even if it means perma-death. DARK WORLD is the ninth book in the Undying Mercenaries Series.
Blood World [Book] Goodreads
author: B.V. Larson 2017 - 11
A dirty deal was struck. Humanity was allowed to keep three hundred rebellious worlds. In return, we declared war on a powerful enemy from beyond the frontier.

A frantic build-up of forces has begun, but the task is hopeless. Seeking allies, Earth’s legions are sent to BLOOD WORLD. A planet on the fringe of known space, where the people only respect masters of combat.

Earth’s Legions must impress them, but other alien powers have been invited to join the contest. The prize consists of billions of loyal troops—Earth must win.

Fighting and dying and fighting again, the struggle is half-mad—but so is James McGill.

BLOOD WORLD is the eighth book in the Undying Mercenaries Series.
Rogue World [Book] Goodreads
author: B.V. Larson 2017 - 3
The Galactics arrived with their Battle Fleet in 2052. Rather than being exterminated under a barrage of hell-burners, Earth joined a vast Empire that spanned the Milky Way.

Today, Battle Fleet 921 is returning to Earth. It hasn’t been seen by human eyes since our blissful day of Annexation. But what should be a joyful occasion, a chance to grovel at the feet of superior lifeforms, is rapidly becoming a nightmare.

Over the last century, Humanity has engaged in many activities that our Overlords find… questionable. A panic ensues, and Legion Varus is deployed to erase certain “mistakes” our government has made. Projects must be purged to stop Imperial military action.

Among the thousands marching to war is one man no politician has ever enjoyed dealing with. One man who’s destined to follow his own unique path through Galactic Law, Morality and the Stars themselves.

James McGill is about to make history.

ROGUE WORLD is the seventh book of Undying Mercenaries Series, a novel of military science fiction by bestselling author B. V. Larson.

The series starts with book #1, STEEL WORLD.
Home World [Book] Goodreads
author: B.V. Larson 2016 - 2
The Galactics arrived with their Battle Fleet in 2052. Rather than being exterminated under a barrage of hell-burners, Earth joined a vast Empire that spanned the Milky Way.

When the Earth is invaded by a rival empire, James McGill’s legion must defend the Home World. The top brass has complex plans, but none of that matters much to McGill, who chooses his own unique path. Traveling to star systems no human has ever visited, he searches for a technological edge to beat the enemy before it’s too late. Along the way he unleashes new terrors, triggering the biggest battles in human history.

HOME WORLD is the sixth book of Undying Mercenaries Series, a novel of military science fiction by bestselling author B. V. Larson.

The series starts with book #1, STEEL WORLD.
Death World [Book] Goodreads
author: B.V. Larson 2015 - 3
The Galactics arrived with their Battle Fleet in 2052. Rather than being exterminated under a barrage of hell-burners, Earth joined a vast Empire that spanned the Milky Way. Our only worthwhile trade goods are our infamous mercenary legions, elite troops we sell to the highest alien bidder.

In the fifth book of the Undying Mercenaries series, James McGill meets new challenges. War comes to Earth, striking a devastating blow. Bent on revenge, Legion Varus chases raiders to the stars and discovers an alien menace growing in their home territory. A cancerous species of invaders plaguing our region of the galaxy and must be dealt with.

In DEATH WORLD, McGill faces an ever more threatening universe. He learns why the Cephalopod Kingdom has yet to attack Earth, and what’s happening behind the scenes in the Core Worlds. Throughout, he maintains his unbending sense of right, wrong and honor.

DEATH WORLD is a military science fiction novel by bestselling author B. V. Larson.
Machine World [Book] Goodreads
author: B.V. Larson Iron Tower Press 2015 - 1
The Galactics arrived with their Battle Fleet in 2052. Rather than being exterminated under a barrage of hell-burners, Earth joined a vast Empire that spanned the Milky Way. Our only worthwhile trade goods are our infamous mercenary legions, elite troops we sell to the highest alien bidder.

In the fourth book of the series, James McGill is up for promotion. Not everyone is happy about that, and McGill must prove he’s worth his stripes. Deployed to a strange alien planet outside the boundaries of the Galactic Empire, he’s caught up in warfare and political intrigue. Earth expands, the Cephalopod Kingdom launches ships to stop us, and a grand conspiracy emerges among the upper ranks of the Hegemony military.

In MACHINE WORLD, McGill faces an entirely new kind of alien life, Galactic prosecution, and thousands of relentless squid troopers. He lives and dies in the falling ashes of the Empire, a man of unique honor at the dawn of humanity’s resurgence.

MACHINE WORLD is a military science fiction novel by bestselling author B. V. Larson. (To find the first book in the series, search for STEEL WORLD, by B. V. Larson.)
Tech World [Book] Goodreads
author: B.V. Larson 2014 - 8
The Galactics arrived with their Battle Fleet in 2052. Rather than being exterminated under a barrage of hell-burners, Earth joined a vast Empire that spanned the Milky Way. Our only worthwhile trade goods are our infamous mercenary legions, elite troops we sell to the highest alien bidder.

In the third book in the series, James McGill is deployed on another alien world. His third interstellar tour is different in every way. Rather than meeting up with a primitive society, this time he’s headed to an advanced world. Tau Ceti, better known as Tech World, is the central trading capital of Frontier 921.

McGill figures he’s lucked out. The assignment looks dull but luxurious. Tau Ceti boasts a planet-wide city with a trillion inhabitants, all of whom are only interested in making a few credits. But all is not well on Tech World. The Empire is crumbling, an invasion is coming, and McGill’s easy ride through life and death has come to an end.

Tech World is a military science fiction novel by bestselling author B. V. Larson.
Dust World [Book] Goodreads
author: B.V. Larson Iron Tower Press 2014 - 3
The Galactics arrived with their Battle fleet in 2052. Rather than being exterminated under a barrage of hell-burners, Earth joined a vast Empire that spans the Milky Way. Our only worthwhile trade goods are our infamous mercenary legions, elite troops we sell to the highest alien bidder.

In 2122 a lost colony expedition contacts Earth, surprising our government. Colonization is against Galactic Law, and Legion Varus is dispatched to the system to handle the situation. Earth gave them sealed orders, but Earth is 35 lightyears away. The Legion commanders have a secret plan of their own. And then there's James McGill, who was never too good at listening to authority in the first place....

In Dust World, book two of the Undying Mercenaries Series, McGill is promoted to Specialist and sent to a frontier planet outside the Empire. Earth's status within the Empire will never be the same.
Steel World [Book] Goodreads
author: B.V. Larson Iron Tower Press 2013 - 9
In the twentieth century Earth sent probes, transmissions and welcoming messages to the stars. Unfortunately, someone noticed.

The Galactics arrived with their battle fleet in 2052. Rather than being exterminated under a barrage of hell-burners, Earth joined their vast Empire. Swearing allegiance to our distant alien overlords wasn’t the only requirement for survival. We also had to have something of value to trade, something that neighboring planets would pay their hard-earned credits to buy. As most of the local worlds were too civilized to have a proper army, the only valuable service Earth could provide came in the form of soldiers…someone had to do their dirty work for them, their fighting and dying.

I, James McGill, was born in 2099 on the fringe of the galaxy. When Hegemony Financial denied my loan applications, I was kicked out of the university and I turned to the stars. My first campaign involved the invasion of a mineral-rich planet called Cancri-9, better known as Steel World. The attack didn’t go well, and now Earth has entered a grim struggle for survival.

Humanity’s mercenary legions go to war in STEEL WORLD, bestselling author B. V. Larson’s latest science fiction novel.
EvP [Environment vs. Player] [Book] Goodreads
author: Shemer Kuznits / Dalton Lynne 2018 - 7
After defeating the hobgoblin threat, Oren is now faced with an even more tenacious enemy: the players themselves.
His old guild have discovered his village's location and a deadly strike force is closing in. With time running out, Oren must build up his clan and recruit an army of monsters if he's to have any hope of withstanding the coming attack.
Master of Formalities [Book] Goodreads
author: Scott Meyer 47North 2015 - 7
Even when finding oneself engaged in interstellar war, good form must be observed. Our story is set thousands of years after the Terran Exodus, where two powerful, planet-dominating families―the elegant House Jakabitus and the less refined Hahn Empire―have reached a critical point in their generations-long war. Master Hennik, the Hahn ruler’s only son, has been captured, and the disposition of his internment may represent a last and welcome chance for peace. Enter Wollard, the impeccably distinguished and impossibly correct Master of Formalities for House Jakabitus. When he suggests that Master Hennik be taken in as a ward of the House, certain complications arise. Wollard believes utterly and devotedly in adhering to rules and good etiquette. But how does one inform the ruler of a planet that you are claiming his son as your own―and still create enough goodwill to deescalate an intergalactic war?
Year Zero [Book] Goodreads
author: Rob Reid Del Rey 2012 - 7
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

An alien advance party was suddenly nosing around my planet.
Worse, they were lawyering up. . . .

In the hilarious tradition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy , Rob Reid takes you on a headlong journey through the outer reaches of the universe—and the inner workings of our absurdly dysfunctional music industry.

Low-level entertainment lawyer Nick Carter thinks it’s a prank, not an alien encounter, when a redheaded mullah and a curvaceous nun show up at his office. But Frampton and Carly are highly advanced (if bumbling) extraterrestrials. And boy, do they have news.

The entire cosmos, they tell him, has been hopelessly hooked on humanity’s music ever since “Year Zero” (1977 to us), when American pop songs first reached alien ears. This addiction has driven a vast intergalactic society to commit the biggest copyright violation since the Big Bang. The resulting fines and penalties have bankrupted the whole universe. We humans suddenly own everything—and the aliens are not amused.

Nick Carter has just been tapped to clean up this mess before things get ugly, and he’s an unlikely galaxy-hopping hero: He’s scared of heights. He’s also about to be fired. And he happens to have the same name as a Backstreet Boy. But he does know a thing or two about copyright law. And he’s packing a couple of other pencil-pushing superpowers that could come in handy.

Soon he’s on the run from a sinister parrot and a highly combustible vacuum cleaner. With Carly and Frampton as his guides, Nick now has forty-eight hours to save humanity, while hopefully wowing the hot girl who lives down the hall from him.

“Hilarious, provocative, and supersmart, Year Zero is a brilliant novel to be enjoyed in perpetuity in the known universe and in all unknown universes yet to be discovered.”—John Hodgman, resident expert, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
What the Hell Did I Just Read: A Novel of Cosmic Horror [Book] Goodreads
author: David Wong / Jason Pargin St. Martin's Press 2017 - 10
NYT bestselling author Wong takes readers to a whole new level with his latest dark comic sci-fi thriller, set in the world of John Dies at the End and This Book is Full of Spiders

Dave, John and Amy recount what seems like a fairly straightforward tale of a shape-shifting creature from another dimension that is stealing children and brainwashing their parents, but it eventually becomes clear that someone is lying, and that someone is the narrators.

The novel you're reading is a cover-up, and the "true" story reveals itself in the cracks of their hilariously convoluted, and sometimes contradictory, narrative.
This Book Is Full of Spiders [Book] Goodreads
author: David Wong / Jason Pargin St. Martin’s Press 2012 - 10
From the writer of the cult sensation John Dies at the End comes another terrifying and hilarious tale of almost Armageddon at the hands of two hopeless heroes.

WARNING:

You may have a huge, invisible spider living in your skull. THIS IS NOT A METAPHOR.

You will dismiss this as ridiculous fear-mongering. Dismissing things as ridiculous fear-mongering is, in fact, the first symptom of parasitic spider infection -- the creature secretes a chemical into the brain to stimulate skepticism, in order to prevent you from seeking a cure. That's just as well, since the "cure" involves learning what a chainsaw tastes like.

You can't feel the spider, because it controls your nerve endings. You can't see it, because it decides what you see. You won't even feel it when it breeds. And it will breed. So what happens when your family, friends and neighbors get mind-controlling skull spiders? We're all about to find out.

Just stay calm, and remember that telling you about the spider situation is not the same as having caused it. I'm just the messenger. Even if I did sort of cause it.

Either way, I won't hold it against you if you're upset. I know that's just the spider talking.
John Dies at the End [Book] Goodreads
author: David Wong / Jason Pargin Permuted Pr 2007 - 1
STOP. You should not have touched this flyer with your bare hands. NO, don't put it down. It's too late. They're watching you. My name is David Wong. My best friend is John. Those names are fake. You might want to change yours. You may not want to know about the things you'll read on these pages, about the sauce , about Korrok , about the invasion, and the future. But it's too late. You touched the book. You're in the game. You're under the eye . The only defense is knowledge. You need to read this book, to the end. Even the part with the bratwurst. Why? You just have to trust me.

The important thing is this: The drug is called Soy Sauce and it gives users a window into another dimension. John and I never had the chance to say no. You still do. I'm sorry to have involved you in this, I really am. But as you read about these terrible events and the very dark epoch the world is about to enter as a result, it is crucial you keep one thing in mind:
None of this was my fault.
Forging Hephaestus [Book] Goodreads
author: Drew Hayes / Amy Landon Tantor Media Inc 2017 - 2
Gifted with metahuman powers in a world full of capes and villains, Tori Rivas kept away from the limelight, preferring to work as a thief in the shadows. But when she's captured trying to rob a vault that belongs to a secret guild of villains, she's offered a hard choice: prove she has what it takes to join them or be eliminated. Apprenticed to one of the world's most powerful (and supposedly dead) villains, she is thrust into a strange world where the lines that divide superheroes and criminals are more complex than they seem. The education of a villain is not an easy one, and Tori will have to learn quickly if she wants to survive. On top of the peril she faces from her own teacher, there are also the capes and fellow apprentices to worry about, to say nothing of having to keep up a civilian cover. Most dangerous of all, though, are those who loathe the guild's very existence. Old grudges mean some are willing to go to any length to see the guild turned to ash, along with each one of its members. Even the lowly apprentices.
Deadly Assessments [Book] Goodreads
author: Drew Hayes REUTS Publications, LLC. 2018 - 7
After several years as a vampire, starting a business, founding his own clan, and proposing to his girlfriend, Fred is finally beginning to settle into life as an undead accountant. Unfortunately, not everyone is happy about his continued survival, or the dangerous friends he’s made along the way.

The Blood Council has dispatched a representative to determine if Fred is fit for the position he currently fills as head of a clan, and the stakes for failure are deathly serious. Worse, Fred will have to muddle through without the help of Krystal, who is off on a mysterious task of her own.

Saddled with a new bodyguard, Fred will have to prove he’s got what it takes to be a respectable vampire, control his abilities, and lead a clan. Because if he can’t, the House of Fred will be no more.
Created date: July 22, 2025