All Comments on 'Quaranteam - Book Two (Ch. 10)'

The side effects keep escalating. I don't know how I feel about that yet. Thanks for sharing another chapter.

That's an interesting side effect and potentially could cause major issues if there are more Cocingtons around. Another great instalment.

I don't know if a lot of readers have thought a lot about the 'basic' side effects of the 'cure' and how they could be used by nefarious people. Anyone else's cum, other than their imprinted partner is essentially a lethal poison to an imprinted woman. You want to kill a particular woman? Get ahold of someone's cum and lace her food or drink or even throw it in her face. Want to implicate a particular man? Use his cum. Sperm banks are basically biological weapons storage.

Weaponizing women who haven't been imprinted seems pretty simple to me, just feed and water them but withhold a man to imprint on and they turn feral. Then you could drop them off in a certain area, a household, a neighbourhood, a city centre or a military base. They'd be feral women trying to get at the nearest man and would cause panic and chaos.

There's so many other ways that a devious mind could use people to destabilise an area, prior to some kind of military action, covert mission, robbery, or just 'because'. I mean, a serial killer of women would have his murder weapon at hand at all times if he was determined. I'm sure that the government would be keeping DNA samples of all men on record but how would they handle that situation? It could be a real problem.

Good ending! I like Ash’s comment at the end.

Also, interested in the interactions between the women in teams… you made reference to passiveness and verbal interactions, closed team. Curious if behavior is serum derived or just a normal “guarding” behavior.

Good writing, though in some of your theology you are limited to some degree in your thinking.

First, not all traditions are harmful or should be carelessly cast aside. In fact, keeping some traditions can help us cope with necessary change. Also we each have our own traditions even if we do not recognize them as traditions Those traditions provide us with comfort we otherwise would not have.

Second, regarding identity politics. It divides us and retries past grievances in a continuous cycle of self destruction. Racism itself is a form of identity politics, whether it is exercised by white men (whether or not they belong to groups like the Klu Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, the American Nazi Party, etc...) or people of other races, sexes, ethnicities, political persuasions, etc... When groups like Hamas want to see the genocide of the Jewish race, that too is a form of identity politics as is support for such groups.

Critical theory (whether it is critical race theory, critical gender theory, or other forms of critical theory) retries past sins and demonizes entire groups for sins committed by people of like race, ethnicity, gender, etc... It does not move us forward to a more hope filled future focused on achieving the harmony we wish to see in the future.

While we must learn from our past mistakes and sins (like racism and slavery) we should not assess blame for those past mistakes (born from cultural stupidity) on the current or future generations unless it is merited by individual's own actions. Identity politics no matter what form it takes must be removed from our political landscape before it destroys us from within the body politic.

Third, yes the justice system is not always fair and more times than any of us like is used as a form of political warfare on those who the powerful oppose or as a means to enrich those in positions of political power. While our system of justice in the United States is not perfect and has corruption permeating portions of it, it is better than most of the systems of justice on planet Earth.

Most of this comes from us as individuals playing team politics and voting for political party, political persuasion or playing favorites with acquaintances & people we think of as friends who we may not really know and not from actually seeking to put the best person in political office no matter who they are.

A Democratic Republic like the United States requires voters to actually do their homework on the candidates and to seek out those candidates regardless of political party, who have the desire to fix things for the benefit of the voters they are running to represent as well as the rest of the state and the nation, and not just the special issue groups that are backing them with paid volunteers, campaign contributions, or independent expenditures.

If we want to remove the corruption that leads to injustice we must seek to put into political office those who will seek to set things right and are not seeking to get even for past slights or wrongs, or who are out for personal enrichment.

Of course, that comes with the warning that we must accept that we will have to dig through the political spin that populates our news sources, whether those sources be FOX, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, the New York Times, Facebook, AXIOS, or whatever. All news sources are biased with agendas we must acknowledge and dig through or circumvent in order to get to the truth of who our candidates are and what the solutions to our issues are.

Of course this raises the question of which issues are priorities and which have been raised as priorities to obfuscate and cover up or block her pressing problems from the view of much of the public.Sometimes these are real problems that just are not that pressing, and sometimes those problems are based on a bed of lies and are not problems at all.

We live in dangerous times where the truth is not always easily given or found, but find it we must. This requires a curious but skeptical mind.

-Publius

This quote about Andy in a way sums up your storytelling as well. "I leave the sex on the page, Mr. Brown, and figure that my audience is grown up enough to handle it. But I never let it get in the way of a good story." Not completely but kinda. Really enjoying this series!

I believe your stories will be better received if you stay away from espousing your political views. Please recall what our mothers taught us when we were young. Politics and religion should never be discussed in polite conversation or in this case reading for pleasure.

Best regards,

DOS

Cannot believe how this story gets better and better with each chapter. A tribute to the sort of author you are.

Keep going strong.

Scores 5/5 as usual

Well done again. I am enjoying the stories.

For people complaining about politics and such, wow. just wow. Perhaps they forget it's a work of fiction. Either way, there is nothing wrong with Andy's views.

I love your stories. The Quaranteam universe has become one of my favorites. I even read all of the spin-offs by other authors.

I only have one complaint and I believe that I mentioned it back when you first started the series. While I know that some politics will pop up everywhere nowadays, please keep it to a minimum. I hear political arguments way more than I want to in the real world. I'd rather not have it in the few relaxing pass times I get.

Thank you for some excellent stories.

Excellent. When I read this chapter and also when I read chapter 1 of book two I was reminded of an old joke. I don’t remember who first told it to me but it goes like this. A man is trapped in a flood, so bad that he had to crawl on to the roof of his house. A man in a row boat came along and told him to get in the boat, and the man said it’s ok God will protect me. A short time later a ski boat came along and the driver said get in the boat and the man said, no thanks God will protect me. Later a helicopter came and lowered a harness, and the man waved them off saying God will protect me. Eventually the house collapsed and the man was washed away and drown, when he got to heaven he asked God, I was faithful why didn’t u protect me, and God said,” I sent u 2 boats and a helicopter, what more do u want?” When I read chapters 1 and 10 I think about Covid and all the idiots that wouldn’t take the vaccine and think if you truly believe in God maybe he put those scientists where they needed to be to create that vaccine that was needed at that time in that place. Just sayin.

I am a Black American Woman. And yes more than half the crimes in America are committed by people of color. Which is just a fact.

White collar crimes are about money. Money that can be replaced just by working or with time. Yes, white collar crimes are more profitable. But it doesn't usually lead to bodily harm or death.

The crimes that people of color commlttes usually leads to bodily harm and / or death. The crimes can also lead to feelings of despair and hopelessness.

So tell me what crimes do you think is worse. Maybe because your character doesn't believe in a higher power, it's hard for you to understand that the spirit is harder and takes longer to heal than your bank balance.

I'm very happy you are keeping this story line on track. Also very happy to see that most everyone who has borrowed from your story line is also putting out some very good material. The quaranteam series', across the board, have been engaging. Looking forward to your next installment.

I'm enjoying the whole Quaranteam universe of stories, especially the main one. I am, however, still disappointed that we've had no resolution of the Mali situation. There was a brief tiff with Emily about it, but Mali hasn't appeared at all since being imprinted. I'm pretty sure the bookstore trip was at least planned out, if not actually started before she even woke up. If the whole point was to protect her psyche, how much damage will being left before even finishing the imprinting process do? Andy's been very good with all the other team members, even Melody, but has he just abandoned Mali like that? Why?

Given that good literature about humankind contains description of the culture wherein the characters exist, then politics is necessarily an important part of the story, especially in a period of adjustment to unforeseen changes in the wake of catastrophes like the pandemic. In a situation like CP has set up, politics are going to be evident in every aspect of life. After all, politics are only an aspect of society and culture, but an important component of the ethos of the people involved. Are there going to be going pains and clashes as the adjustments to the new reality? Of course there will be. Will the progress of change be without conflict? Doubtful, at best. The author is describing how these adjustments are affecting his cast of characters and how Team Rook is adapting. Since Andy is in the profession of writing, his views are projected into society differently than most, would be discussed and debated more widely than the average person's, and probably generate more "heat" in the broader society and thus involving more people. All of which brings us back around to politics being an important aspect of the story. If the political aspects are purged from consideration, the story will lose much of its richness and the story will become bland.

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I much prefer some fireyness in what I read. CP, keep up the good work! Show us your views. Let the rest of us enjoy the story, and debate the consequences, just as any group of social beings would (read: react politically).

It may be that I am wasting everybody's time with this but I feel it needs to be said. A number of the QTU writers seem to be merely chronicling the lives of the luckiest S.O.B.s on the planet, who deal with the problems of meeting and imprinting women, having meetings, going through interviews, meeting and imprinting more women, attending parties and, in general, adapting to their new lives as best they can. These stories present convincingly what might happen under the given circumstances. But, it's getting kind of dull. I'm not saying the standard should be to convert all of the stories to murder mysteries or tales of espionage. I am just saying that I, personally, would like to see our heroes dealing with something more challenging than a stereotypical future brother-in-law. It might be that these writers just haven't gotten around to that next big (or little) adventure yet, in which case my point is moot, but, as I stated, I felt it just needed to be said. Please continue!!!!!

I feel like I've read this story before. It later turns out he's the mastermind behind it all, his dark side is unleashed it gets really really dark, and this is all just actors recreating an apacolypse that happened years ago, to help him recover his memories.

What’s the point of ruining a wonderful story but unnecessarily injecting personal politics?