The meme is hosted by Books are My Favourite Best and is described thus: On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book. Each person’s chain will look completely different. It doesn’t matter what the connection is or where it takes you – just take us on the journey with you.
This month we begin with Prophet Song by Paul Lynch, the 2003 Booker Prize Winner. I read this last year and really enjoyed it, although I am not sure that 'enjoy' is the correct word for a book so dark. Prophet Song is a dystopian novel set in Ireland, as it endures a violent slide into a totalitarian state and a civil war. Now, I think the world fears that it may offer a glimpse of a possible American future, but I like to think positively.
It does immediately bring to mind The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, another dystopian novel about a totalitarian state. Atwood famously wrote this book using only the dark abuses that exist in our current world, combining them into one dystopian world full of horror and harm.
Trying but failing to keep move onto a lighter subject, I immediately thought of The Invisible Man by HG Wells. Elisabeth Moss being the obvious link here, having appeared in the tv adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale and the 2020 movie The Invisible Man. I am actually a big fan of old school science fiction, and I am partial to a bit of HG Wells, although The War of the Worlds is my personal favourite.
Now my mind is stuck on some of my favourite old school science fiction novels. The first is Nemesis by Isaac Asimov. I know that Asimov is probably more famous for some of his other novels, and I am very partial to the Space Ranger series, but Nemesis has just been one of those substantial science fiction novels with space travel, future civilisations and strong female characters that I can revisit over and over again.
Then of course there is The Chrysalids by John Wyndham. This is my absolutely favourite Wyndam novel - a masterpiece set in a post-apocalyptic world following a nuclear disaster where society has become deeply religious and anyone born with any slight difference is consider impure and immediately outcast. If you haven't read this - I highly recommend it. You can read my full review here, where I gave it full marks and declared it one of my new favourite books of all time.
This takes us to my final book of this month's entry - which is The Passage by Justin Cronin. The Passage is an exhilarating and tense post-apocalyptic story that spans the decades before and after a virus has been released by the US Military and destroyed the world as we know it - you can read my full review here. I absolutely loved this book when it came out, it was everything you could want from popular fiction; fast-paced, action-packed, enthralling and with skilled writing as well. The Passage is the first in a series, and unfortunately for me it was one of those series that just dropped the ball as it progressed. I would highly recommend reading The Passage but give the later books a miss.
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