This blog was inspired by RecommendMeABook.comāwhich posts first pages of novels before revealing the title and authorāand by poll blogs such as doyoulikethissong-poll.
The main goal of this blog is to 1) Expose people to literature by posting snippets of different books, 2) Discuss said books, and 3) Promote different kinds of literature and authorsāboth classic and modern, as well as both fiction and nonfiction. In a world full of AI, advertisers, social media, and many more constantly vying for our attention, it feels more important now than ever to expose people to different kinds of literature. People may be more interested in reading a book cover to cover if they know they like the prose, characters, and overall themes.
how this works:
I (the blog's mod) posts polls with excerpts from booksāoccasionally I post excerpts from novellas and short stories. Polls run for one week, so results are posted eight days after the original post date. Part of the fun is guessing/trying to figure out which book the excerpt is from, with some excerpts being more obvious than others. Feel free to leave suggestions for books you want to see posted (or suggestions for the blog in general) in the replies of this post šš
There is only one mod running this blog so please be patient and kind. I currently post 1-2 polls per week.
submissions are now open, submit a book here!
current voting options:
A) Iāve read this book before, and I like it!
B) I can tell which book this is from based on this excerpt, but I haven't read it
C) I started reading this, but didnāt finish it (or I am reading it currently)
D) I havenāt read this book, but I like this excerpt!
E) Iāve read this book before, and I donāt like it
F) I havenāt read this book and I donāt like this excerpt
tags:
open polls you can still vote on: tagged/open
closed polls/revealed: tagged/results
all of this blogās polls: tagged/poll time
fiction polls only: tagged/fiction
nonfiction polls only: tagged/nonfiction
submitted polls only: tagged/submission
all polls (includes polls from other blogs): tagged/poll
all posts that are not a poll: tagged/not a poll
resources to free reading, libraries, and posts about libraries: tagged/library
reading recommendations from tumblr: tagged/tumblr reads
additional tags not listed here include names of titles and their authors.
a list of all excerpts that have been posted and revealed:
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Six of Crows (part of the Six of Crows duology and the Grishaverse) by Leigh Bardugo
Beloved by Toni Morrison
āThe Metamorphosisā (German: Die Verwandlung) by Franz Kafka
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
My Immortal fanfiction ā this was posted for April Foolās Day
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel von der Kolk
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez
Silver in the Wood (part of The Greenhollow Duology) by Emily Tesh
Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls
Holes by Louis Sachar
1984 by George Orwell
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
āI Have No Mouth, and I Must Screamā by Harlan Ellison
A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells
Iām Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy
The Giver by Lois Lowry
If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan
āThe Yellow Wallpaperā by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
All Systems Red (part of The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells
The Music of What Happens by Bill Konigsburg
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Aces Wild by Amanda DeWitt
Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
Geisha: A Life/Geisha of Gion by Mineko Iwasaki (the results also discuss Memoirs of A Geisha by Arthur Golden)
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
The Alchemist (Portuguese: O Alquimista) by Paulo Cuelho
Mistborn: The Final Empire (part of the Mistborn trilogy and Cosmere) by Brandon Sanderson
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Eve by Cat Bohannon
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Carrie by Stephen King
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
āThe Tell Tale Heartā by Edgar Allan Poe
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
The Forests of Silence (part of the Deltora Quest series) by Emily Rodda ā submission by @/pearlhoardingdragon
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Count of Monte Cristo (French: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) by Alexandre Dumas
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Forever King by Molly Cochran and Warren Murphy (part of The Forever King trilogy) ā submission by @/0rions-belt
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski ā submission by @/hdfjsjkj
Careless in Red by Elizabeth George ā submission by @/pearlhoardingdragon
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Untwine by Edwidge Danticat ā submission by @/klainelynch
Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson (part of The Stormlight Archive and Cosmere) ā submission by @/pearlhoardingdragon
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Aliceās Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Golden Door (part of The Three Doors series) by Emily Rodda ā submission by @/pearlhoardingdragon
Annihilation (part of The Southern Reach series) by Jeff VanderMeer
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Lady Tanās Circle of Women by Lisa See
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
āMy Billionaire Triceratops Craves Gay Assā by Chuck Tingle
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster ā submission by @/waycoat-art
A Darker Shade of Magic (part of the Shades of Magic series) by V.E. Schwab
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney ā submission by @/nabwastaken
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Snow in May by Kseniya Melnik
Soul Music (part of Discworld) by Terry Pratchett ā submission by @/hiihavebrainrot
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber ā submission by @/pearlhoardingdragon
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara ā submission by @/find-the-path
Gods and Generals by Jeff Shaara ā submission by @/find-the-path
Valhalla by Ari Bach ā submission by @/sharkchunks
The Scapegracers by H.A. Clarke ā submission by @/halfthealphabet
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles ā submission by @/gay-kurapika
The Last Full Measure by Jeff Shaara ā submission by @/find-the-path
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker Chan
Novice Dragoneer by E.E. Knight ā submission by @/pearlhoardingdragon
Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan ā submission by @/dent-de-l1on
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
They Threw Us Away (part of the Teddies Saga) by Daniel Kraus ā submission by @/nowheresamsaucex
Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi ā submission by @/nowheresamsaucex
Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore ā submission by @/nowheresamsaucex
The Faithful Spy by John Hendrix ā submission by @/nowheresamsaucex
Self Made Boys by Anna-Marie Lemore ā submission by @/nowheresamsaucex
Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa ā submission by @/nowheresamsaucex
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Spanish: Cien aƱos de soledad) by Gabriel GarcĆa MĆ”rquez
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor ā submission by @/halfthealphabet
Three Parts Dead (part of The Craft Sequence) by Max Gladstone ā submission by @/lettiecassie
Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H.
The Ruin of Angels (part of The Craft Sequence) by Max Gladstone ā submission by @/lettiecassie
Soulmatch by Rebecca Danzenbaker ā submission by @/nowheresamsaucex
Asunder by Kerstin Hall ā submission by @/bubblesandpages
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (part of The Locked Tomb series) ā submission by @/rookvolkarin
The Shining by Stephen King
āThe Cask of Amontilladoā by Edgar Allan Poe
In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune ā submission by @/pearlhoardingdragon
āThe Veldtā by Ray Bradbury
Iām Afraid Youāve Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle ā submission by @/pearlhoardingdragon
The Light Eaters by Zoƫ Schlanger
Angel Mage by Garth Nix ā submission by @/lettiecassie
Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore ā submission by @/pearlhoardingdragon
The Handmaidās Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Bone Flute by Patricia Bow ā submission by @/myclutteredbookshelf
Ain't I A Woman by bell hooks ā submission by @/myclutteredbookshelf
Clariel by Garth Nix (part of The Old Kingdom series) ā submission @/lettiecassie
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
Soonish by Zach and Kelly Weinersmith ā submission @/pearlhoardingdragon
Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein by Ali Fadhil and Jennifer Roy ā submission by @/nowheresamsaucex
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
Gallant by V.E. Schwab ā submission by @/pearlhoardingdragon
Beyond Uhura by Nichelle Nichols ā submission by @/myclutteredbookshelf
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
Dragonsdale by Salamandra Drake/The Two Steves ā submission by @/pearlhoardingdragon
Humankind by Rutger Bregman
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards ā submission by @/evelynrose33284
The Last Dragon on Mars by Scott Reintgen (part of the Dragonships series) ā submission by @/pearlhoardingdragon
The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia A. McKillip ā submission by @/only-by-the-stars
The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud (part of the Bartimeaus Sequence) ā submission by @/redribbonofficial
I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett (part of Discworld) ā submission by @/redribbonofficial
The Hitchhikerās Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams ā submission by @/redribbonofficial
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee ā submission by @/only-by-the-stars
Going Postal by Terry Pratchett (part of Discworld) ā submission by @/redribbonofficial
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien ā submission by @/nochd
Tweak by Nic Sheff ā submission by @/gerardsguitar
Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman ā submission by @/gerardsguitar
The Bone Queen by Alison Croggan (part of The Books of Pellinor) ā submission by @/cryoriku
Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones ā submission by @/only-by-the-stars
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh ā submission by @/off-the-beaten-timeline
The Heir of Night by Helen Lowe (part of The Wall of Night series) ā submission by @/next-crisis
Brightly Burning by Mercedes Lackey ā submission by @/twilitdragoneye
Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone (part of The Craft Sequence) ā submission by @/lettiecassie
The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff ā submission by @/next-crisis
Every Heart A Doorway by Seanan McGuire (part of The Wayward Children series) ā submission by @/next-crisis
āPortrait of a Girl in Glassā by Tennessee Williams ā submission by @/myclutteredbookshelf
Penricās Demon (part of World of Five Gods) by Lois McMaster Bujold ā submission by @/next-crisis
The Charioteer by Mary Renault ā submission by @/ionisible
The King of Elflandās Daughter by Lord Dunsany ā submission by @/next-crisis
Isles of the Emberdark by Brandon Sanderson ā submission by @/pearlhoardingdragon (the results also discuss Sixth of the Dusk by Brandon Sanderson)
Stealing the Elf Kingās Roses by Diane Duane ā submission by @/next-crisis
Tolkien and the Great War by John Garth ā submission by @/next-crisis
poetry polls only*:
*Note: Poetry polls only run in April for U.S. & Canada National Poetry Month. You can find all of this blogās poetry polls here.
āCrumbling is not an instantās Actā by Emily Dickinson
āGitanjali 45ā by Rabindranath Tagore
āThis Bread I Breakā by Dylan Thomas
āThe Highwaymanā by Alfred Noyes
āCaged Birdā by Maya Angelou
āSinā (Persian: ŚÆŁŲ§Ł) by Forugh Farrokhzad
"The Dragon of Wantley" by Anonymous (submission by @/pearlhoardingdragon)
I can tell what this is from based on this excerpt, but I haven't read it
I started reading this, but didnāt finish it (or I am reading it currently)
I havenāt read this book, but I like this excerpt!
I've read this book before, and I don't like it
I havenāt read this book and I donāt like this excerpt
Remaining time: 18 hours 13 minutes
Please reblog the polls, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people read the excerpt with an open mind šš Title and author will be revealed after the poll's conclusion.
Thank you @myclutteredbookshelf for the submission! š
I can tell what this is from based on this excerpt, but I haven't read it
I started reading this, but didnāt finish it (or I am reading it currently)
I havenāt read this book, but I like this excerpt!
I've read this book before, and I don't like it
I havenāt read this book and I donāt like this excerpt
Voting ended onNov 10, 2024
Please reblog the polls, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people read the excerpt with an open mind šš Title and author will be revealed after the poll's conclusion.
Thank you @pearlhoardingdragon for the submission! š
FINAL RESULT: The majority of voters havenāt read this book, but enjoyed this excerpt. š
The Forests of Silence is a 2000 fantasy novel written by Australian author Emily Rodda, and is the first book in the Deltora Quest series. From Wikipedia: āThe novel follows a teenage boy named Lief as he and his companions search the deadly Forests of Silence for the magical Topaz gem, one of the seven missing gems from the belt of Deltora.
The novel was awarded the "Notable Series in Children's Book of the Year Awards 2001: Younger Readers". The Deltora Quest series, which consists of fifteen books and six bonus books, has sold over 18 million copies worldwide.
An anime adaptation of the series aired from 2007 to 2008. Deltora Quest was also made into a Nintendo DS game.ā
I can tell what this is from based on this excerpt, but I haven't read it
I started reading this, but didnāt finish it (or I am reading it currently)
I havenāt read this book, but I like this except!
Iāve read this book before, and I donāt like it
I havenāt read this book and I donāt like this excerpt
Remaining time: 1 day 19 hours
Please reblog the polls, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people read the excerpt with an open mind šš Title and author will be revealed after the poll's conclusion.
Thank you @only-by-the-stars for the submission! š
I can tell what this is from based on this excerpt, but I haven't read it
I started reading this, but didnāt finish it (or I am reading it currently)
I havenāt read this book, but I like this excerpt!
I've read this book before, and I don't like it
I havenāt read this book and I donāt like this excerpt
Voting ended onMay 6
Please reblog the polls, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people read the excerpt with an open mind šš Title and author will be revealed after the poll's conclusion.
Thank you @redribbonofficial for the submission! š
FINAL RESULT: The majority of voters havenāt read this book, but enjoyed this excerpt. š
The Amulet of Samarkand is a 2003 young adult novel of alternate history, fantasy and magic by English author Jonathan Stroud. From Wikipedia: āThe book and series are about power struggles in a magical dystopia centred in London, England, and feature a mix of current and ancient, secular and mythological themes. The book is named after a magical artifact created in the ancient Asian city of Samarkand, around which the story revolves. The story follows Nathaniel, gifted 12-year-old apprentice of a middle-aged mid-level magician, Arthur Underwood. He assumes his magician name, John Mandrake, to protect him from rivals who would wish him harm. When the magician Simon Lovelace cruelly humiliates Nathaniel in public, Nathaniel decides to take revenge by stealing Lovelace's most powerful possession, the Amulet of Samarkand, which makes the wearer invulnerable to magic. Unknown to his tutor, he begins the study of advanced magic in order to summon the djinni Bartimaeus and enslave him. Bartimaeus soon overhears Nathaniel's birth-name, which greatly reduces Nathaniel's control over him, because demons can then cast counterspells. Things soon get out of hand and Bartimaeus and Nathaniel find themselves caught in the middle of magical espionage, murder, blackmail, and revolt.
The Amulet of Samarkand received positive reception, and made multiple Top 10 lists in 2004. The Amulet of Samarkand is the first published book in the Bartimaeus Sequence. In October 2010, Disney-Hyperion published The Amulet of Samarkand as a graphic novel written by Jonathan Stroud and Andrew Donkin, with art by Lee Sullivan and colors by Nicolas Chapuis. The first print run was 50,000 in hardcover and 100,000 in paperback. In 2019, Start Media acquired the film and television rights to the Bartimaeus Sequence.ā
I can tell what this is from based on this excerpt, but I haven't read it
I started reading this, but didnāt finish it (or I am reading it currently)
I havenāt read this book, but I like this excerpt!
I've read this book before, and I don't like it
I havenāt read this book and I donāt like this excerpt
Remaining time: 18 hours 13 minutes
Please reblog the polls, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people read the excerpt with an open mind šš Title and author will be revealed after the poll's conclusion.
Thank you @myclutteredbookshelf for the submission! š
I can tell what book this is from based on this excerpt, but I haven't read it
I havenāt read this book, but I like this excerpt!
I've read this book before, and I don't like it
I haven't read this book and I don't like this excerpt
Voting ended onMar 9, 2024
Please reblog the polls, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people read the excerpt with an open mind šš Title and author will be revealed after the poll's conclusion.
FINAL RESULT: The majority of voters have never read this book, but enjoyed the excerpt posted. š
Speak is a 1999 young adult novel by Laurie Halse Anderson. From Wikipedia: "Speak tells the story of high school freshman Melinda Sordino. After Melinda is raped at an end of summer party, she calls the police, who break up the party. Melinda is then ostracized by her peers because she will not say why she called the police. Unable to verbalize what happened, Melinda nearly stops speaking altogether, expressing her voice through the art she produces for Mr. Freeman's class. This expression slowly helps Melinda acknowledge what happened, face her problems, and recreate her identity.
The novel was based on Anderson's personal experience of having been raped as a teenager and the trauma she faced. Speak gained critical acclaim for its portrayal of the trauma caused by rape. Since its publication, the novel has received several awards and honors, including the American Library Association's 2000 Michael Printz Honor and the 2000 Golden Kite Award. It was also selected as a 2000 ALA Best Book For Young Adults. Speak has been translated into sixteen languages."
I can tell what this is from based on this excerpt, but I haven't read it
I started reading this, but didnāt finish it (or I am reading it currently)
I havenāt read this book, but I like this except!
Iāve read this book before, and I donāt like it
I havenāt read this book and I donāt like this excerpt
Remaining time: 1 day 19 hours
Please reblog the polls, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people read the excerpt with an open mind šš Title and author will be revealed after the poll's conclusion.
Thank you @only-by-the-stars for the submission! š
I can tell what this is from based on this excerpt, but I haven't read it
I started reading this, but didnāt finish it (or I am reading it currently)
I havenāt read this book, but I like this excerpt!
I've read this book before, and I don't like it
I havenāt read this book and I donāt like this excerpt
Remaining time: 18 hours 13 minutes
Please reblog the polls, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people read the excerpt with an open mind šš Title and author will be revealed after the poll's conclusion.
Thank you @myclutteredbookshelf for the submission! š
I can tell what this is from based on this excerpt, but I haven't read it
I started reading this, but didnāt finish it (or I am reading it currently)
I havenāt read this book, but I like this excerpt!
I've read this book before, and I don't like it
I haven't read this book and I don't like this excerpt
Voting ended onMay 8
Please reblog the polls, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people read the excerpt with an open mind šš Title and author will be revealed after the poll's conclusion.
Thank you @redribbonofficial for the submission! š
FINAL RESULT: The majority of voters havenāt read this book, but can tell what itās from. š
I Shall Wear Midnight is a 2010 comic fantasy novel by English writer Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld. It is the fourth novel within the Discworld series to be based on the character of Tiffany Aching. From Wikipedia: āTiffany Aching is now fifteen years old and getting on with the hard work of being a witch. The title is taken from a quotation in A Hat Full of Sky: "When I'm old I shall wear midnight, she'd decided. But for now she'd had enough of darkness."
I Shall Wear Midnight won the 2010 Andre Norton Award.ā
I can tell what this is from based on this excerpt, but I haven't read it
I started reading this, but didnāt finish it (or I am reading it currently)
I havenāt read this book, but I like this except!
Iāve read this book before, and I donāt like it
I havenāt read this book and I donāt like this excerpt
Remaining time: 1 day 19 hours
Please reblog the polls, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people read the excerpt with an open mind šš Title and author will be revealed after the poll's conclusion.
Thank you @only-by-the-stars for the submission! š
I can tell what book this is from based on this excerpt, but I haven't read it
I havenāt read this book before, but I like this excerpt!
I've read this book before, and I don't like it
I haven't read this book and I don't like this excerpt
Voting ended onMar 8, 2024
Please reblog the polls, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people read the excerpt with an open mind šš Title and author will be revealed after the poll's conclusion.
FINAL RESULT: The majority of voters have never read this book, but enjoyed the excerpt posted. š
The Glass Castle is a 2005 memoir by American author Jeannette Walls. From Wikipedia: "Walls recounts her dysfunctional and nomadic yet vibrant upbringing, emphasizing her resilience and her father's attempts toward redemption. The Glass Castle has received broad readership and positive critical feedback for Walls' balanced perspective on the positives and negatives of her childhood. The memoir spent over 260 weeks in hardcover on The New York Times Best Seller list, and it remained on the paperback nonfiction bestseller list until October 10, 2018, having remained for 440 weeks. By late 2007, The Glass Castle had received many awards, including the Christopher Award, the American Library Association's Alex Award, and the Books for Better Living Award."
I can tell what this is from based on this excerpt, but I haven't read it
I started reading this, but didnāt finish it (or I am reading it currently)
I havenāt read this book, but I like this excerpt!
I've read this book before, and I don't like it
I havenāt read this book and I donāt like this excerpt
Remaining time: 18 hours 13 minutes
Please reblog the polls, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people read the excerpt with an open mind šš Title and author will be revealed after the poll's conclusion.
Thank you @myclutteredbookshelf for the submission! š
Everyoneās favorite lethal SecUnit is back in Platform Decay, the latest installment of Martha Wellsās The Murderbot Diaries series.
Having someone else support your bad decision feels kind of good.
After volunteering to run a rescue mission, Murderbot realizes that it will have to spend significant time with a bunch of humans it doesn't know.
Including human children. Ugh.
This may well call for...eye contact!
(Emotion check: Oh, for fā)
Weāve included an excerpt from the first chapter below:
Chapter One
Space was okay to look at but not super fun when you were out in it. And Three and I were definitely in it, clamped on to the outside hull of a small in-system shuttle. It was just as uncomfortable as it sounds.
Obviously, to make this plan work, we had needed a suit. And considering this was the distraction part of the plan that would be taking the brunt of the attention, it was better if it was an armored suit. But it couldnāt be Threeās actual SecUnit armor, it had to look like the kind made for humans.
We had ended up with an armored suit designed to look like one that Wilken and Gerth had used back on Milu. Because someone (ART) thought this part could use some more verisimilitude. (Like someone might have researched that incident, and think Iād been hauling around one of those shitty sets of armor all this time, or hiding it in my secret rogue SecUnit lair. (Otherwise known as the Port Hotel on Preservation Station, or ARTās aft module resident cabin, depending on where I was at the time.))
(Iām not saying using that armor design is not a good idea; I mean, that is some quality paranoid overthinking right there, we all have to agree on that.)
Anyway, even in an armored suit, traveling via clamping on to the outside of a shuttle moving through space was so inherently disturbing it was a relief when the black hull loomed out of the dark. We were coming up on our target/destination, which was a gigantic space dock attached to an even more gigantic planetary torus. There were multiple docks along the torusās outer hull, but this one was closest to our primary target, which was why we had to go in here. Literally because the thing was so big, and because multiple intel sources suggested it would be difficult to move around in. (Yes, that sounds like the opposite of super fun. There were a lot of other things I would rather be doing.)
A station that encircled an entire planet had to be huge. (And it was huge. From this vantage point you would have no idea there was a whole planet on the other side of this thing, over there somewhere.) It was also very old, not a point in its favor. In the few spotlights along this part of the hull, you could see the metal had scrapes or impact marks that had been repaired over time. But what gave the age away were the engraved numbers stretching across the plates next to the various hatch accesses in the dock area. They had been put there for human pilots, before bot-pilots and the feed were common, as a failsafe for automated approach beacons. The numbers were in three differentānumber systems? Languagesā What do you call numbers in different languages, characters orā
Numerals, Three said.
That didnāt sound right, but whatever.
Our shuttle started its maneuvers into a parking sync orbit above the dock. The torus feed was just a dull roar even this close, and its Port Authority comm channel was all commands and info, no obtrusive ads. If I hadnāt been so angry I would have been really intimidated at this point. Okay, I was still a little intimidated. But mostly angry. Not at Three.
(Emotion check: Angry. Itās never a good idea to try to do complicated things when youāre angry. Like coding. Coding is complicated. Especially when people are shooting at you. But I do that all the time.)
Three said, Target Null+1 on approach, and included the direction vectors. I didnāt need any direction vectors, because Three had a visual on the cargo bot, so I had a visual on it. There were other bots moving on the torus hull some distance away, where big modular transports were connected to larger locks. On our shuttleās sensor feed I could see the lines of powered cargo modules traveling on their set routes, though that was too far into the dark to pick up with our scan or visual. But Target Null+1 bot was passing nearly beneath us. (At least it looked that way from our position on our shuttle. It could have actually been sideways or up or whatever, because space.)
The cargo bot climbed along a seam between hull plates, shifting in and out of shadow, an inert cargo container clamped under one arm, while the other three limbs guided its body along. It was one of the larger models, maybe seven meters tall from its splayed grippy feet to the flat top of its head/processor. Cargo bots are weirdly graceful in zero gravity, it was kind of cool to watch. (Unlike certain stations I could name (Preservation) which lets them wander around inside the port wherever they want and their giant metal asses are in the fucking way all the time.) (Yes, Iām mostly talking about JollyBaby.)
Three released the magnetic grips that were keeping us attached to the shuttleās hull and said, Initiate in 3ā2ā1.
It pushed off from the shuttle and we fell through the dark, with a little help from a set of removable EVAC suit-maneuvering thrusters. Three was good at following the instructions from the suitās feed, and we landed lightly on the cargo botās back, our grips engaging again to keep us in place.
You can just talk, I told Three. I pinged the shuttle to let it know we were in place, then tapped the cargo botās internal feed and slipped past its wall. Before the bot finished querying me as to what the hell we were doing on its back, I removed its memory of the proximity alert and told it everything was fine, just keep following its schedule. We arenāt pretending to be a SecUnit, I added to Three, weāre pretending not to be a SecUnit.
The cargo bot hauled itself toward our next target, an entrance to the main cargo sorting port for this dock. Three hesitated for .02 seconds while it parsed what Iād said. It likes using logic. Which not that I donāt; itās stupid not to use logic when youāre constructing flow charts and databases, etc. But itās not particularly helpful for threat and risk assessment. Priorities reorder too fast in high-threat percentage situations, humans exist, and so on.
(Save-for-later: Check wonky risk assessment module for excessive logic statements. That would explain a lot.) Three finally said, We are pretending to be space debris.
It had a point. And what Three was pretending or not pretending to do wouldnāt much matter in the next ten-plus minutes.
The problem with the missionā Okay, the problem with the mission is the mission itself. Missions in general often suck, but extractions that can turn into hostage situations are the worst.
The other worst was that this dock and the section of the torus it serviced was owned by Barish-Estranza and contained one of their second-level headquarters installations. And there was a chance in the high 70s that they knew we were coming.
(Emotion check: Again? Itās been like two seconds.)
Obviously, I did not want to do this. But Three was shit at pretending to be human. (I know, I should have been working with it more, āmentoring it,ā as the humans insist on saying. But we also needed to let Three do what it wanted for a while, and what it wanted was to watch science documentaries and listen to freakishly advanced machine intelligences pretending to be bot-pilots talk at it. (Mostly Holism, but a few of the others had got in on it after discovering that there was a SecUnit around that liked being lectured to.) So there wasnāt a lot of pretending-to-be-human training involved in that.) Our cargo bot reached its hatch just as it was cycling open. It climbed inside and Threeās dark-vision filter activated, so the airlockās blue and green safety lights lit up more of the interior.
It was a lock designed for bots, so it was pretty utilitarian. There wasnāt even any active process to clean off the build-up around the vents. Our suit feed gave us stats
on the flush of station air and the pressure and gravity change, and we started picking up ambient audio. Then the inner hatch slid open.
This was a bad moment. We couldnāt risk a peek over our cargo botās shoulder and Three couldnāt deploy drones without setting off the dockās interior alarms. Three admitted, This is not ideal.
By which it meant it was somewhat terrifying. I acknowledged but didnāt reply; I was waiting to grab the interior feed so we didnāt get killed.
(It turns out executing a deliberate, convincing distraction is a lot harder than being a distraction accidentally.)
The cargo bot stepped through the inner hatch and we slipped off its back. Its giant body continued on, even as a flotilla of hauler bots swerved to avoid it. Three had frozen into immobility as I pulled in the dockās feed and started to work. We were in the shelter of the lockās safety overhang, which was in a visual shadow because of the angle of the wall lights; it was also a tiny motion and audio sensor black-out zone. (Since my penetration-testing report on Preservation Station, they had installed individual sensors on all the hatches where that happens. Mihira and New Tidelandās stations and space docks were in the process of doing it now.)
(This is why humans shouldnāt do their own security, or farm it out to automated sensor sweeps. Sensors canāt see what they canāt see, right? And while humans are shit at security, mostly because of the overreacting and some being assholes who just like using weapons to hurt each other, they are fantastic at getting into places where they arenāt supposed to be.)
(Apparently itās genetic? Overse recommended a book on human evolution and it was even more fucking weird than anything Iād read about it before.)
I made it through the first three DockSys feed walls and got a view through the cameras. The dock was arranged in a cylindrical column, with multiple levels of platforms around a central pillar with lifts and ramps. We were on level 20. The walls were just bare metal, scarred by accidents, no decoration or holos or anything. (This was supposed to be a big deal Corporation Rim torus/ whatever, youād think they could make an effort, even in here. But they never do anything fancy where itās just indentured workers to see it. The only real color was the Barish-Estranza logos stamped on everything.)
Hauler bots sorted the cargo containers into pallets ready to be transported to modules or ships or for internal dispatch. Large shafts in the floors of the platforms accommodated cargo containers with their own propulsion systems or climbing cargo bots. There should be very few humans in here, since most of the supervision and oversight would be done via the dockās inventory system. (Which was standard practice because
it was cheaper, obviously, but really, areas like these are dangerous for anybody squishier than a hauler bot to be wandering around in.) (The exception to this is mining cargo docks, which, surprise, have an insanely high casualty rate. Even company executives would leave notations on the mortality reports like What the shit are they doing in there.)
But with a little tweaking, my camera views found plenty of human activity, scattered at different sheltered points around each level. They were all in protective suits that looked bulky enough to hide security armor. Some of them were actually working, but most were just pretending to.
This is great, because it meant our distraction plan would work. Also not so great, because I would like Three to get out of here alive.
I sent Three the schematics highlighted where the potential security personnel were located; it replied with an acknowledgment sigil and an updated map projection. The cargo bot lumbered out of the potential fire zone and we eased forward. Ambient audio was low, just the hum of hauler bots and the clank of maneuvering modules on the level below us. The cameras spotted more human activity on a platform two levels above us, a scramble of workers (probably the real workers) trying to get to a lift tube and a few workers (the security humans pretending to be workers) holding them back. Iād hoped
weād have a little more time. Fortunately, I was now in three different Sec and Safety systems and MotilityControl for all the lifts, including the central cargo lift. I already had my files queued up and loaded, I just needed to adjust the code for these individual systems.
There were a lot of things they could have done to slow me down, if they knew I (or something like me) was coming. (They couldnāt keep me out, not with what they had available, not without isolating their SecSystems from the feed and each other, and thatās not possible if you want them to do their jobs.) But they hadnāt done those things. Which meant (1) their intel was flawed;
(2) they didnāt know I was coming and this security was for something else.
I ran that through risk assessment and it produced the equivalent of a shrug sigil.
(Emotion check: Shrug sigil right back at you, you piece of shit.)
The kind of coding I did didnāt leave a lot of what ART liked to call forensic artifacts behind; if Barish-Estranza had good intel they might be familiar with the results of what I could do, but they would assume Iād just be bashing around in there destroying stuff with viral code, not redirecting process commands.
We couldnāt delay any more without making them suspicious. They obviously knew we/somebody was in here, even if they werenāt quite sure where/who yet, or the indentured workers they had dragged in as cover wouldnāt be panicking. I told Three, Weāre go. Proceed.
Three started across the platform, staying in shadow and using the hauler bots as cover. I could have removed it from the cameras entirely but intel suggested they didnāt know I could do that, and I wanted to keep them from knowing it for as long as possible, since it was really important for the rest of the plan.
Three reached the cargo lift and used a magnetic grip to attach itself to the side of a powered cargo module moving upward. We drifted up with the module, so it would look like we were heading for an admin access three levels up. I glitched their security feed at random intervals, to keep their attention on it, while I was setting up on MotilitySys.
Systems like Motility are designed to keep things from running into each other; itās hard to override that to cause crashes. Itās much easier to get the system to send things on increasingly chaotic routes that donāt crash, causing mass confusion instead. Humans always assume youāre going to kill them, which is one of the reasons they overreact to everything. (Ratthi says thatās genetic, too, but I think he was being sarcastic.) (Maybe he wasnāt.)
We reached our target level and I gave Three another go-ahead. It released its grip from the cargo container and dropped onto the supposedly unoccupied platform. It said, If TorusSecurity does not attack, should I engage them?
That isnāt going to be a factor, I told it, and added, feint aggressively toward that inventory kiosk, then drop and roll back toward the lift shaft.
Three charged the inventory kiosk where the armored human security guard was hiding. They overreacted (surprise), jerking up their heavy projectile weapon and firing. By that point Three was on the ground as instructed and the projectile passed over its head toward the lift shaft. I had already nudged the powered cargo module currently floating serenely upward into position. The projectile slammed into its side plating.
A powered module should be able to take a hit like that (they bump into each other all the time) but I had followed up the positioning nudge by cutting power to one of its stabilizers. So the force of the armor-piercing projectile knocked it into a spin and right out of the lift field. The module tumbled across the platform, startled cargo and hauler bots scattered, and every audible and feed proximity/safety alert in the whole dock went off. I kicked its stabilizer back on and MotilitySys engaged a temporary air barrier. The module stopped right in front of a transparent section of wall over an office, where human supervisors had been pretending not to watch us. Well, they had been doing that. Now they were belatedly screaming and flinging themselves away from the window.
Three was already up and sprinting and I engaged code haulerfight.file and cut off all access to the cameras.
So that worked great.
The hauler bots accelerated and charged at each other, then veered off at the last second. The patterns were complex and unpredictable and it was happening on every level of the dock. Iād put some of it together from code Iād used before, but changing the variables and adapting it for B-Eās specific code architecture on the fly was tricky. MotilitySys was helping everything along, obeying what it thought were my authorized instructions to ātestā its tolerances. It was really going for it, too. It wasnāt going to last long, though, which was why Three needed to move fast now.
SafetySys had ordered the cargo bots to climb the walls or head for the nearest hatches, so they were all in the way, too. We were both scanning the updated map data but Three spotted the best route first, including a feint toward a maintenance access and faking a dive into one of the side lift tubes. I made a couple of adjustments and suggestions. Three said, I have it now. You should go. Right, so, I am not actually physically present with
Three.
I was tagging along with it via a new share-architecture code derived partly from ARTās ability to create iterations of itself and partly from the way we had built Murderbot 2.0. āPartly,ā because the me who was with Three was not a full iteration; it was a partial download, but it was the parts I needed.
This wasnāt a full independent virus (or software baby, as Amena would say), it was just me going partially dormant while taking a temporary ride on Threeās hardware. We did have a secure feed link, but it was currently dormant, too, waiting until we needed it. We had to do it this way so B-Eās SecSystem couldnāt detect (or worse, break) our connection.
This was necessary because Three just doesnāt process as fast as I do, despite being a newer unit. I knew my processing stats had increased over the course of going to a lot of places and needing to write increasingly complex code at increasingly fast rates in order to get out of those places. Notwithstanding the time I nearly blew my brain out trying to process on a company gunshipās hardware. Three didnāt have that experience and sending it in here alone would have been basically murder.
This way was better. Three would cause a little more chaos, then exit the torus through a lock it had already identified and return to the shuttle. It would even get to ride inside this time.
Acknowledged, I said, and brought my secure feed link forward from backburner. Initiate upload.
I can tell which book this is from based on this excerpt, but I haven't read it
I started reading this, but didnāt finish it (or I am reading it currently)
I havenāt read this book, but I like this excerpt!
Iāve read this book before, and I donāt like it
I havenāt read this book and I donāt like this excerpt
Voting ended onMay 23
Please reblog the polls, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people read the excerpt with an open mind šš Title and author will be revealed after the poll's conclusion.
Thank you @redribbonofficial for the submission! š
FINAL RESULT: The majority of voters have read this book before and like it! š
Going Postal is a 2004 fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the 33rd book in his Discworld series. From Wikipedia: āUnlike most of Pratchett's Discworld novels, Going Postal is divided into chapters, a feature previously seen only in Pratchett's children's books and the Science of Discworld series. These chapters begin with a synopsis of philosophical themes, in a similar manner to some Victorian novels and, notably, to Jules Verne stories. The title refers to both the contents of the novel and the idiom 'going postal'. The story takes place in Ankh-Morpork, a powerful city-state on Discworld. The protagonist of the story is Moist von Lipwig, a skilled con artist who was to be hanged for his crimes, but saved at the last moment by the cunning and manipulative Patrician Havelock Vetinari, who has Moist's death on the scaffold faked, being hanged "to within half an inch of your life".
Going Postal book was on the shortlist for both the Nebula and Locus Awards for Best (Fantasy) Novel. It would also have been shortlisted for the Hugo Award for Best Novel, except that Pratchett withdrew it, as he felt stress over the award would mar his enjoyment of the Worldcon. This was the first time Pratchett had been shortlisted for either award. Sky One produced a two-part television film, Terry Pratchett's Going Postal, which aired on 30ā31 May 2010.ā
