called The Crew.  Each episode is about a different crew member that will be stationed on the PUV James Keeling and gives back-story as to why they were assigned to the vessel in the first place.

Each episode was also co-written by a different author.  You can find more info about each of the episodes and the co-authors here.

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Pusher & [flickr-photo:id=3938763689,size=m]

belladonna on top of everything as usual  :-)

except...she responded to a junkie that hadn't been welcomed yet!!  tsk tsk.  haha, just kidding obviously, but the situation caught my eye.

That could have been another +5 for me! 

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Pusher & [flickr-photo:id=3938763689,size=m]

you'll make it up somewheres  

You know when I was a kid, we got character stories and we were grateful! That's what we got and we liked it!

I was expecting to that the back stories would be intergrated into the story line. One chapter a back story, the next the PUV story line.

Many authors...Oh like Candy? Way back when (60's), the novel Candy was written where one author wrote the first chapter then passed it on to another and so forth.

So it is an experiment!

I'm glad we cleared that up. Now can someone help pull this grapefruit out of my a**.

wait, he got broccoli!  no fair!

we had to read all the words AND turn pages and sometimes hold the book!  Sometimes we even had to WALK into a library and Find the book and Check it out. You kids today are so soft!

Now the stories just slide nice and easy directly into the brain. You can even close your eyes (If you are listening while driving or walking keep those eyes open, Mister!)

It's character stories. All the characters in the stories wind up as crew on THE CRYPT. Seems pretty straightforward to me. Good luck wit the grapefruit. 

The Crypt has been incredible, thus far.  Looking forward to its forthcoming dark adventures as it heads out...  in search of a shining planet.

Many years ago (before most of you knew what a book was), I worked in a library and it wasn't easy. We had to use an index card system to find library books. We weren't spoiled by fancy computers.

The worst part of my job was the ghosts. They would make giant stacks of books in the middle of the aisles or mis-shelve them.

When they destroyed the index card system and scared the head librarian, I got pissed off.

You know what I did then?

I made a phone call.

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"I love the smell of dead triangles in the morning…The smell, you know that rotting smell…smells like victory"

---Perry Dawsey paraphrasing Robert Duvall

Hi,

This Crypt thing seems to be really random.  All I can think about it is that it is just some random short stories that somehow have some connection to the crypt.

 What about the episode called "The Tank" (all of the parts).  What the F**K was that about!!!  It made no sense to the story!

www.youtube.ca/zachthehunter

That must be painful!

Most authors begin from the outset with a cast of characters developing within a common setting. Scott's chosen to hold off on these characters meeting one another until BOOK 02: THE SHAKEDOWN. The first book establishes the characters (most of them), the second book will be the introduction of the ship and some other stuff, and the third book will be the missions the crew partake upon THE CRYPT.

As far as "all" two parts of THE TANK, what confused you? Scott intentionally left the race holding the captives a mystery. Is that where your confusion is coming from? THE CRYPT has a lot of suspense and mystery going on throughout the entirety of BOOK 01: THE CREW. I expect *most* of that will be resolved in the second volume, but I can't promise anything. I haven't read it yet.

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Tangent & Funky Name Brother; Founder of the Gutter Brethren; Frequent Victim of GirlCo [flickr-photo:id=3958341944,size=s]

How do the characters in THE TANK end up in the PUV James Keeling? I did not see that story as a "crew development" story as the others were. It was more of a contextualization of the crypt universe itself. I can see where that might be confusing.

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BigJohn: Badass enough to get the drop on Kissyman

because they ended up being dinner, remember. I would be willing to bet that The Tank was there to introduce the alien species that will be a major protagonist in the greater story. In a way, it was a character introduction just like all the other stories in Book One.

**All this plan is missing is a giant freaking laser in space."**

In my first sentence i said "do" but I meant to say "could" ... :P

I suppose it may be possible if they end up in The Tank after being deployed to the PUV James Keeling, but it would kinda go against the rest of the story arcs, which are all about how the crew gets stationed there.

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BigJohn: Badass enough to get the drop on Kissyman

Scott has his major novels.  A metric buttload of them.  They rawk. Nuff said. 

As a way to continue feeding the addiction of all of us Junikies and keep coming up with fresh content.  He came up with a new idea for a story set in the world of the Rookie. 
From what I can tell, This initially began as a cool backstory short episode to have content in the feed and continue his unbroken streak of 135 years of continuous weekly podcasting.  One short episode turned into two, which got busy and created more of them darn little buggers. 

The idea germinated and grew a nice green afro which became "The Crypt" - So like the FDO says, take your crack and like it junkie, cause it's all good.

So says James Keeling

hhhmmm...  SynapticJam on Toast - hhhmmm... tastes like chicken (aka PUVJK) #2 or 3 in crack hits (Special?  Ain't I just)  Multiple S.H.I.T. Award Recipient!  Double Dipper and Triple Threat!  All-around uberjunkie!

It makes no sense to me because, all of the characters in the episode "The Tank" are dead at the end of the episode!

So how do they tie into the story???

I can see that the story might be a way of introducing the main antagonist in "The Crypt".  I mean the aliens and they way that they tortured the crew of the Tank for no conceivable reason!

I see that the FDO has very good books.  In fact, he is one of my favorite authors.  But, sometimes the diamonds suddenly turn back to coal.  

Get what I'm Saying!!!

Everyone likes different flavors of ice cream. And Scott will always write different kinds of stories.

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Tangent & Funky Name Brother; Founder of the Gutter Brethren; Frequent Victim of GirlCo [flickr-photo:id=3958341944,size=s]

The crew of The Cranky Pecker were never supposed to tie in to the crew of the Keeling. They were a sacrifical storytelling device used to introduce the readers to this alien species that is so different from any we've seen before. From their cloaking technology it can be assumed that they are technologically way beyond anyone else, and apparently they see other creatures (humans, at least) as so far beneath them that they consider them little more than a food source. What seemed like torture to us was probably nothing more significant than slaughtering a pig or a chicken then cooking it for dinner to them.

One of the things I like about Scott's storytelling, especially with The Crypt, are all the little details that, if you connect the dots, give you a bigger picture of whats going on and how different elements are connected. He makes you really pay attention to the story and think about all the little details. I've found his stories to be like one of those movies you can watch over and over and find something new in it each time that you hadn't noticed before.

**All this plan is missing is a giant freaking laser in space."**

I have a theory about the origin of the Keeling. It's been alluded that the aliens introduced in The Tank are the same ones who forced the Roctopi from Earthcore to flee to Earth. Toward the end of Earthcore, we get a description of what their ships looked like, and they sound like they look quite similar in general design to the Keeling, as described in ep.2 of Shakedown.

Additionally, in The Tank it is revealed that the aliens have some kind of cloaking technology that masked their presence to both sensors and direct observation. In ep.3 of The Washington DC, the "artifact" that we now believe is the Keeling was observed to simply disappear from direct visual observation and passive sensors.

Come to think of it, the orbital probe from Contagious had the same tech. Hmmm. I see where you're going here Scott... Bravo! If this plays out along the lines that I think it will, it's gonna RAWK.

**All this plan is missing is a giant freaking laser in space."**

That might be one of the best comparisons Ive heard of for the FDO's work.

Si Vis Pocum, Para Bellum

Jayguana