r/booktopia

I have read/listened to most of his books, but nothing got me so attached like the Invincible, the book concentrates on the events more than what the character is actually doing like most books describe every movement they make. It just direct and pleasantly exciting, it just reels you in deeper and deeper the more you read.

One I could attach to this kind of novels is the movie Prometheus, group of scientists on a planet, alone and in the dark, mysterious and cold. Such things is what I‘m after, any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

Ever since I was born, I had my own personal demon in the form of a father.

 

I guess you could say he wasn't a very good father or dad or really male figure at all.

 

“My heavy breathing; it's too loud.� I thought to myself as I hid in my toy closet from my drunken father's rage.

 

He was tearing the house apart while my sister and stepmother stood in front of him side by side downstairs in the kitchen.

 

I guess you can also say him and vodka really don't mix very well. 

 

“Where is she?� My father screamed as he shattered another glass at the wall near my sister; she yelled

 

“We don't know she hides every time you come here like this disgusting monster!� sobbed my stepmother as she held my sister in her arms.

 

“I'll find her myself.� He mumbled and stumbled off near the living room.

 

I guess you're wondering how I know all this simple: the air vents that went through our house are very echoey. 

 

I shuddered at the thought of him searching for me room by room.

 

“He is going to find you like my father found me here, Jenny." Whispering a small girl's voice

 

I turned around, unable to see anything but the pitch darkness that surrounded me.

 

“Don't be scared and don't say anything; just go to the back right wall and push around until you find a hidden door there so he won't find you. I don't want you to end up like me.� A small girl's sad voice echoed through my head.

 

I followed her instructions right as my father burst through my bedroom door and started rummaging around. Right when I slid the hidden door back into place, he opened the toy closet.

 

I held my breath for what seemed like an eternity. I almost dared to breathe... Almost when I heard the girl say.

 

“Don't breathe,� she whispered.

 

I stayed silent, and then I heard a gut wrenching scream pierce through the night into my bones, making me shudder, and my anxiety heightened.

 

You see, my father is not normal. I wasn't being an exaggerative teenager when I said my father was a demon. 

 

He literally is a demon, to be exact, one of the seven princes of hell, very powerful, standing at number two. He is the demon of pain and suffering where the truly evil souls go who steal innocence and deserve little to no mercy.

 

You see why I hide from him when he is like this now? 

 

I'm his daughter, making me one of the royals of hell, also a demon, the demon of darkness. I thrive in it, so my father knows to look for me in very dark places; however, I cannot see in the dark. I have no need; I don't get spooked by much that I can hear.

 

“You brat, I can smell you all over this closet. Where are you!?� My father screamed as he ripped apart my toys and stuffed animals.

 

After ten minutes of thoroughly looking through every item and being satisfied that I somehow wasn't there, my father left with a huff and muttering a very deep threat.

 

“If I ever see your face again, you will be a distant memory. Get out of my house, you coward.� He muttered with disdain.

 

My father had never threatened me like that before; he really sounded like he wanted to rip me apart. Time for me to get out of this hell hole; maybe the hollow is real... time for me to find out.

 

"Thanks, little girl.� I whispered as I climbed out.

 

Spirits have always helped me there, the same as me stuck in the darkness with no way out in sight, lost to it forever, trying so hard to find a path, any path, even if it's not so good.

 

To Be Continued...

Hello, I have a message for the earth and all of its inhabitants that are sentient enough to read this message. 

You are not alone, and you never have been, but you aren't yet allowed to enter our galaxy government; you're still too primitive. 

Yes, you have made technology, and yes, you have done engineering, but you're still too compelled by your primitive nature.

If we were to introduce you to our government, you would start war. A war unlike we all have ever seen; in fact, none of us have ever seen war, not for ten centuries, because we have moved beyond the need for trivial fighting. 

We all understand the most important thing in life, and it's not money, power, or land; it's time.

We silently fight for more time, which can be farmed on planets such as yours. You see, as you age, your cells still die but cannot be replenished nearly as fast as when your body was younger. We have figured out a way around that. 

We take the DNA of you and other creatures across the multiverse and drain it out of you as if you were donating blood. No, the host does not die; we are not cruel; we just extract enough from them for them to not notice.

You think the longest you can live with the utmost perfect conditions is 123 years, but that's not true, not even close. The human species is actually supposed to live at a maximum of 700 years old, but since biblical times, we have not let that happen. 

We took the average lifespan of animals around you and made them shorter by extracting their DNA at birth, and please don't say you would notice unless you don't abide by the rules of time; you wouldn't know you don't have our technology yet.

Then, when you got used to that, we started shortening your life spans. We noticed fifty years was too short and you wanted a longer span, so we made your total possible life span one hundred and twenty-five years. Most people don't make it to this point because your economy and government poison your foods, water, and air, all of which you don't even notice.

Just another reason we still find you primitive for our society. You can look for us all you want, but until you actually put aside your personal differences, you're wars and weapons, and until you drop them, you won't ever find us. We are much more advanced than your minds can even comprehend. We have been trading information and time for a very, very long time, and we don't intend to stop. It’s a mutually beneficial situation. 

How, you may ask, is it mutually beneficial?

Well, we give you technology in turn for taking your time. We have found that your superiors highly covet technology at this time in history, mostly to defeat their enemies. We laugh at that fact.

You can play your war games as much as you want. We don't care; we do find it sad, however.

I grew up watching the first world war on earth, and then the second was supposed to be a war to end all wars. So tell me, why are you still fighting with each other?

Killing your own species isn't something even your wild animals do unless they are starving to death, and even then, most primates choose death, so why do you humans love violence so much, I wonder? 

You could be happier. Your planet could be healthier during your "pandemic" because animals came back to their natural habitat because humans stayed inside less cars, driving less pollution, and even your ozone layer in the Antarctic started to repair itself, but the moment you all got to go back to your parties and social events, you took it with only selfish thoughts in the back of your heads. You don't care about the birds or primates on your planet; you care about yourselves.

Humans are violent and selfish creatures who will choose their own comfort over everything else, and that's why you start wars, and that's why you will never gain a high consciousness until you learn that you will always be alone in our wonderful universe, which is wonderful and endless with so many cultures you cannot even fathom.

But you won't know that for a very, very long time, and I don't want to say that I love humans, so please, please, put aside your differences and hatred and let us welcome you so you may live forever and help other primitive societies. 

Join us.

Hey there,

I am building an free app to help people incorporate books into their daily routine on Android and IOS. The goal is to let users track their reading, and their books, win prizes and ultimately reinforce their reading habits.

Can you give me some feedback about the features necessary for such an app? Here is the current version:

• IOS ->

• Android -> 

Thank you :)

A bit about me - I've been an avid reader since I could remember. Started quite young with Enid Blyton books, haha. Ofcourse ever since then I've tried various genres, various authors and various country's books.

I got into the habit of buying e-books because of ease of availability. Since for a lot of the authors I loved, their printed versions wouldn't get shipped to my country unfortunately. And with my precious Kindle, I've started reading more e-books than physical copies.

But I'm yet to be able to enjoy an audiobook. I was genuinely curious what engages people in it, those who prefer audiobooks over ebooks?