Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

This is a Buddy Read for The Fold by Peter Clines starting on August 20, 2023.


Happy Reading!

Thank you!

I'm starting this today. I'll probably still be listening once you all join :D

LOL see you then, Narilka!

Through Ch 6 (view spoiler)[That's a sneaky hook Mike's friend used to get him interested lol (hide spoiler)]

So jealous... I'm eagerly awaiting my re-read of this... I love this one so much... altho I always forget that (re-readers only) (view spoiler)[Anne from work in the first one, is Anne the receptionist in this one... and secretly another cultist, all along... altho it makes sense, as much as she pestered the dude in the first book... (hide spoiler)]

Timelord Iain wrote: "So jealous... I'm eagerly awaiting my re-read of this... I love this one so much... altho I always forget that (re-readers only) [spoilers removed]"

That's a big series spoiler. It becomes known in book 4 if I remember right, though subtle in the first two.

I forgot how addicting this book is :D Through Ch 23 (view spoiler)[All the effort Mike is putting in lol Oh boy. Just wait until he finds out the actual reason.

Poor Bob. Horrific for him and traumatizing for everyone else.

Also Mike's explanation to Jamie in the bar about his memory and how he deals with death. That would be beyond awful. This makes me glad to have a "normal" memory. (hide spoiler)]

Through Ch 38. There's a chance I'll be finished before you all start lol (view spoiler)[So much happening!! I think I'd be a bit freaked out too knowing I was from/in another dimension. At least they ripped the bandaid off the big secret that no one knows how it works lol

Loved the connection in the last chapter to room 14. It's much easier seeing the connections reading them back to back like this. Last time I took more time between books. (hide spoiler)]

You dirty scoundrel

What can I say. I find myself making up excuses to listen lol I don't know why I only rated this 4 stars before. It's getting bumped up to 5 once I'm done.

I love this one! I think I actually read it before 14 originally...

This is definitely my favorite Clines book... I wish he wrote more/faster... he's only released a couple books in the past 6 years... no idea what he's releasing anytime soon...

Ch 52 - super spoiler (view spoiler)[Holy shit it's Andrew! I'd completely forgotten!! (hide spoiler)]

Tonari no Emily wrote: "I love this one! I think I actually read it before 14 originally..."

I read them out of order the first time through too :)

I finished :D That was satisfying. I sure hope Clines returns to writing in this universe some day.

Narilka wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "So jealous... I'm eagerly awaiting my re-read of this... I love this one so much... altho I always forget that (re-readers only) [spoilers removed]"

That's a big series spoil..."

There's ALOT of clues, tossed at you all at once, in chapter 17, if you're looking for suspicious stuff:

(view spoiler)[Mike asks Anne how she came to be working at the site, and she says:

1) She moved from LA
2) Was placed by a temp agency... she also did alot of work for the agency in LA... data entry at a magazine, receptionist work...
3) Lost her brother, lived in the same city but estranged... invited to a "family thing"... then he was gone...

It's pretty damning, as a reader, if you look at it, LOOKING for connections... but otherwise, it's easy to miss... but DAMN... (hide spoiler)]

Oh yeah, definitely. Ch 17 is a gem of clues.

Narilka wrote: "Oh yeah, definitely. Ch 17 is a gem of clues."

In book 4, (view spoiler)[does Anne do alot of monologuing?... for some reason, I thought that happened here in book 2... wasn't paying close attention to the end last night, so I relistened today, and didn't hear any... I think I'm mixing up my books... (hide spoiler)]

So, apparently I posted this in the wrong thread, a few days ago... so the only things I posted in the right thread were super-spoilers for re-readers only... oops :D

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I joined the Early Bird Party, and started last night... read 10-20%... not gonna read it at work, tho, I don't think, so I can probably savor it for a few days...

That first chapter always gets me... (view spoiler)[this being my 3rd read-through, I know what's going on, but I never remember how far the dude goes in this first chapter... if the wife lives or dies... very nail-bitey... (hide spoiler)]

I stopped after the first on-site door test...

Well chapter 1 was intense!

Chapter 6 (view spoiler)[ Did someone come through with a giant fly head or something? 😂😂 (hide spoiler)]

I love when the title appears in the story. Now the title makes sense.

Ah, there’s a Warhammer 40K reference. Now I can get my husband to read it.

Chapter 15 (view spoiler)[ Ans there are the green cockroaches. I find a lot of these characters have similar personalities to people in 14. I’m not sure if that’s just because the narrator is using similar voices. It reminds me of Stephen Kings Desperation & The Regulators. All the characters have the same names and there is similar thing happening but they aren’t the same people. Like in Desperation the main characters name is Bobby Parkerand he’s a 12 year old boy (his name isn’t Bobby Parker, I can’t remember what it is even having read it three times because I lurve it) and in The Regulators Bobby Parker is a 65 year old plumber side character. It’s very interesting. (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 31 (view spoiler)[ I feel like Mike is the same character as Nate and Janet(?) is the same Character as Zilla (sp?) from 14. Sorry, when I audio I lose names sometimes and I definitely don’t learn how names are spelled. (hide spoiler)]

Jamie not Janet.

I think you mean Veek or Xela, for book 1 characters/names... Veek is the hacker girlfriend by the end, and Xela is the artist sunbather...

Xela. In the audiobook it’s pronounced Zilla. I had no idea it would be spelled that way. 😂

Felina wrote: "Xela. In the audiobook it’s pronounced Zilla. I had no idea it would be spelled that way. 😂"

Z sounds can go either way... X/Z... the pronunciation makes me think of Futurama...

Timelord Iain wrote: "Narilka wrote: "Oh yeah, definitely. Ch 17 is a gem of clues."

In book 4, [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[I don't remember that but it definitely didn't happen in the first two books so if it does, it's book 4 :D I just remember she's one of the threads running through the series. (hide spoiler)]

Timelord Iain wrote: "That first chapter always gets me......"

And (view spoiler)[It takes many, many chapters to learned what happened to them! (hide spoiler)]

Well that was fun.

Started last night and enjoying it so far. Up through Chapter 15. I really like all the pop culture references. (view spoiler)[It's probably due to the scene at the very beginning, but everyone seems a bit more paranoid than just a company review could account for. So I'm definitely wondering if it is A) a side effect of the technology, B) they all actually have something to hide, or C) a red herring for something else. When they go through the teleporter, is it the same version of them that comes out the other end? Or maybe a slightly off dimension version?

When the MC asked "like a Stargate?" earlier, I was thinking--"no, like a Tesseract!" I was sad no one used that word... the way they describe the teleporter reminds me a lot of A Wrinkle in Time... But the reference to the Fly definitely has stuck, as the neck-hair-tingling weird tension keeps ratcheting up by tiny notches...

This actually really made me think about how 3D printing is, in some form, teleportation. We have had 2D teleportation with regular 2D printers--and with 3D printing we can take a form and send it anywhere with a 3D printer. As long as we have the materials and know-how to construct the object. But I guess it isn't quite the same as the ideal idea of teleportation--literally moving the same object from Point A to Point B. But if you're talking about a process which requires you to break down the object at Point A, and reconstruct it at Point B--then really the only difference between that and 3D printing is that printing doesn't require a breakdown of the original. No matter what you do, when you reach Point B, you're looking at a copy. Then the only purpose to the breakdown is to ensure that there is only one copy at all times, so the item/person remains unique. But then you also have information degrade, every time something is copied, the original becomes slightly more unstable. Entropy.

I also really like the eidetic memory aspect. It's cool to see how the author describes the MC experiencing it. I haven't met anyone who has this trait, only come across a couple characters too--Dresden Files White Night comes to mind--and I've heard it's different for different people.

When the book mentioned finding green cockroaches in the computers I was like DO THEY HAVE AN ODD NUMBER OF LEGS?? SOMEONE COUNT THE LEGS!! (hide spoiler)]

Are these only connected by the weird phenomenon, or do we get to see overlapping characters? Feel free to RAFO me.

@Iain, re: Chapter 1--(view spoiler)[The first chapter kind of made me think of Sliders... or other multi-dimensional stories... character comes home, but it's not their home, or the person home isn't the same version...

But then then the husband was acting weird before the wife came home--he already had the gun out--so it wasn't triggered by her coming home... but it could still be him noticing over the last few days that she didn't match up with his memories...

Strange, I didn't actually wonder if she was killed or not... maybe because there wasn't an ominous gun shot at end? Or maybe my brain was just like "ooh interesting" instead of "oh no, will she live?" I probably wouldn't be safe to be around in a hostage situation, I'd just ask for popcorn... (hide spoiler)]

@Narilka, re: Chapter 6--(view spoiler)[Crap, I already forgot the hook. What hook did his friend use? (hide spoiler)]
@Felina, re: Chapter 6--was that a rhetorical question/joke or were you curious about (view spoiler)[the movie The Fly (hide spoiler)]?

Felina wrote: "Ah, there’s a Warhammer 40K reference. Now I can get my husband to read it."
LOL! I laughed so hard at this! Good luck!

@Felina, re: Chapter 15--I really like your Stephen King comparison... I'm definitely getting a very similar vibe with this to 14...

Timelord Iain wrote: "There's ALOT of clues, tossed at you all at once, in chapter 17, if you're looking for suspicious stuff:..."

Oooh, I'm definitely looking for suspicious stuff, and I'm almost to 17... gonna try extra hard to reign my brain in from wandering...

It's also a bit of a juggle to figure out which spoilers are safe and which aren't! LOL I think I've been good and only clicked safe ones so far...

Nirkatze wrote: "Started last night and enjoying it so far. Up through Chapter 15. I really like all the pop culture references. It's probably due to the scene at the very beginning, but everyone seems a bit more p..."

You have the context of chapter 1 a bit skewed: (view spoiler)[the wife was home alone... the husband returned from a business trip (to the Fold Site in New Mexico or wherever it's set)... he definitely jumped to gun fast... (hide spoiler)]

Iain, (view spoiler)[the Fold is in San Diego lol (hide spoiler)]

Nirkatze wrote: "Are these only connected by the weird phenomenon, or do we get to see overlapping characters? Feel free to RAFO me.."

RAFO.

No, my fly comment was just quoting the book. That’s what Mike asked. Mike? The main character. It made me laugh.

Felina wrote: "No, my fly comment was just quoting the book. That’s what Mike asked. Mike? The main character. It made me laugh."

LOL it was a funny line--(view spoiler)[I'm pretty sure the line is a reference to the Jeff Goldblum movie The Fly, which tells of a scientist who, after an experiment in teleportation goes wrong, slowly turns into a fly-hybrid creature.

I think the line would probably be funnier without that context though...

It definitely made me think that something similar might be going on, and so I think I missed the funny-quality... (hide spoiler)]

@Iain--thank you for the Chapter 1 head re-screwing--(view spoiler)[I totally thought that the wife was the one who came home to find her husband going crazy, not the other way around... (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 17--Apparently I was actually up to Chapter 19 when I stopped to do my comments for through Chapter 16, so I went back and listened again... (view spoiler)[the zeroed numbers make me think of the mechanical room that was at the magma fracture in 14... and Jamie's story of coming from LA for a fresh start made me wonder if she might be one of our crew from the apartment building, sent to infiltrate a group whose tech is maybe poking at the edges of the shield...? Her description doesn't match the the women I remember the most (Xele & Veek), but there was the mousy girl who didn't want to have to go back to her parents and had a really bad credit score, and kept getting hit on by strangers... and I'm sure others I just don't remember. (hide spoiler)]

Up to Chapter 30! Thinking on Narilka's Chapter 23 comment on memory again in this chapter--(view spoiler)[Mike's description of how all of his memories are always with him makes me think of people with severe trauma too, how it keeps getting relived...

I do feel like I've read another story where a character gave a very similar explanation though. Can't think of what it was though...

And here in 30, he talks about how he discovered that social happiness seems directly inverse of IQ-style intelligence... definitely makes everything look like more of a curse than a blessing...

But I also think it is a very interesting conversation on how social/emotional talent can be built and worked on just as much as knowledge-talents... and teaching is definitely a trade that requires a lot of empathy and social intuition... though it is NOT the best job if you actually want to have a social life outside of school, lol. (hide spoiler)]

I think the reference to a fly head is actually more towards an episode of The Simpsons where they are referencing The Fly. In that episode Bart and a fly go through the machine together and Barts head ends up on a fly body and the fly head ends up on Bart’s body. Either the reference is awesome.

Ooooh! Thank you for that updated reference!! That is also funnier.

Narilka wrote: "Through Ch 38. There's a chance I'll be finished before you all start lol So much happening!!..."

That's a good question... (view spoiler)[I think I would be more freaked out if I were in a relationship or had a family... or that the freak-out part would creep up on me slowly, and not all at once... seems like being single would be a good way to be here...

Also, I kind of want people to be able to meet their other-dimensional selves....

This kind of makes me think of The Space Between Worlds... and also Sliders TV show...

And the bit about the different Star Trek-based TV series was pretty funny... I would kind of look forward to that--a whole new classic SF show to watch, that doesn't exist in my dimension... (hide spoiler)]

Finished! Was fun! (view spoiler)[Were the bug people here the same as the creatures in the first book? I don't actually remember what the descriptions were... except for that they also had the odd number of limbs... and had human slaves... (hide spoiler)]

Nirkatze wrote: "Finished! Was fun! [spoilers removed]"

So much more than that: (view spoiler)[the main baddie, that was grafted together out of body parts?... that was Andrew, the cult neighbor that called in his family in book 1, once they learned the whole apartment building was The Machine... (hide spoiler)]

Nirkatze wrote: "Finished! Was fun! [spoilers removed]"

So much more than that: (view spoiler)[the main baddie, that was grafted together out of body parts?... that was Andrew, the cult neighbor that called in his family in book 1, once they learned the whole apartment building was The Machine... (hide spoiler)]

WHAT?! I feel like I need to immediately reread now.

Wait are we supposed to know that it was him? Is it revealed later or did I miss something here...

Had so much fun on my reread, I think I'm gonna bump up my rating :)

I think it’s inferred… based on description and things he said… (view spoiler)[the extra body parts are either family members or characters that didn’t survive 14… (hide spoiler)]

Tonari no Emily wrote: "Wait are we supposed to know that it was him? Is it revealed later or did I miss something here..."

You missed the clues ;) I have a spoiler above with the chapter.