It’s time for the super monthly tag Six Degrees of Separation, which is hosted by Kate at Booksaremyfavouriteandbest, Six Degrees of Separation #6degrees picks a starting book for participants to go wherever it takes them in six more steps. Links to my reviews are in the titles of the books chosen. The starter book this month is:
The Life of M by Rachel Cusk
I’ve read a couple of Cusk’s earlier novels (The Bradshaw Variations and Arlington Park) but not kept up with her output. Knowing nothing about her latest I shall move on without ado to aother Rachel …
Mrs Caliban by Rachel Ingalls
I really enjoyed this novel which takes its inspiration from The Tempest, and was adapted for the movie The Shape of Water. It tells the story of a suburban housewife, Dorothy, who takes an escaped sea-creature into her home and falls for him. Another Shakespearean inspired novel is…
Fool by Christopher Moore
King Lear is rather a dark play in the Shakespeare canon, and Moore turns it into a hilarious comedy told from the Fool’s point of view. Moore also wrote a pair of comedic vampire novels in Bloodsucking Fiends and You Suck, by contrast a rather serious vampire novel is…
I am Legend by Richard Matheson
A plague has infected mankind, mutating humans into bloodthirsty, nocturnal creatures – vampires. Robert Neville could be the last man alive – he’s had to say sayonara to his wife and child, and despite the awfulness of his situation, something keeps him going on. This 1954 novel has an excellent balance between SF and dystopian horror and scientifically explained vampires. Another end of days type novel is
The Purple Cloud by M P Shiel
In this 1901 dystopian classic, Adam Jeffson joins an expedition to the North Pole, and through nefarious means becomes the first man to reach the Pole. He returns to discover that everyone is dead, killed by a purple cloud. He is doomed to travel Earth seeking other survivors, finds one – a young woman, but rather than be the new Adam and Eve, he goes even madder and tries to destroy everything. Another purple novel is…
Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey
The first western I can remember reading, I loved this classic from 1912. It has a bit of everything you could expect from a Western – cowboys, horses, rustlers, preachers, girls, ranches, cattle, gunfights, horse chases, kidnapping, and more, plus a beautiful landscape, and perhaps surprisingly for those days, a female protagonist! Purple Sage is a classic western, another (contemporary) western is
The Westward Hours by Dennison Smith
Sold to me as a dystopian western, this recent novel is more of a Mad Max style western than the classic genre. It’s set in a nearish future US, where climate change has wreaked havoc worldwide, and millions died, changing the geopolitics of the world too. It tells the story of twins who lead an insurgency fighting back against the big corporations who now rule the habitable world.
This month I’ve gone from Shakespeare to vampires and westerns thence to the dystopian and post-apocalyptic end of days.
Where will your six degrees take you!
Ooooh, you remind me I have a copy of The Purple Cloud lurking somewhere…
Well, you went quite dystopian and fantastical this month – a great array of titles.