Readers have enjoyed a wide range of tasks in this year's Turn Up the Heat adult reading challenge. Here's a sample of what some readers discovered when they read 'a novel about an apocalyptic event/dystopian future or pandemic'.
Eileen read A Lovely Way to Burn by Louise Welsh
The
first in a series, the novel A Lovely Way to Burn by Louise Welsh
was published in 2014. The background is a pandemic known as "the Sweats
" which is rapidly killing most people in Europe's cities. The heroine,
Stevie, early in the novel discovers her lover dead...but has he committed
suicide, been overtaken by the Sweats, or been murdered? In a city becoming
full of dead bodies does it really matter? Stevie searches for an answer,
taking us through London, meeting some unusual characters (or normal people
changed by their experiences. It is a city with few women, only scarily
believable men. Stevie even changes her appearance to a man's. The opening
scenes do not appear to be part of this novel but I suspect in reading the
second and third parts of this Trilogy they will be explained. The ending has
some hope for the future:"It was still dark but there was a glow on the
horizon which might have been the city burning or a promise of the future.
" Looking forward to finding out which!
Ruth read The Prodigal Project #3 Numbers by Ken Abraham, and says:
We are introduced to a number of different characters, and then The Rapture. The main characters we have met are left behind, but most lose someone close to them. All children disappear and all Christ-following Christians. I found it unnerving that I was making comparisons to the apocalypse and covid19. The idea of a worldwide event, the way diverse way different countries and different people reacted. I loved the way the author showed the main characters dealing with their situations, especially those for whom the Bible their loved ones had used seemed to take on new life. The people who thought of themselves as Christians and yet weren't 'raptured'. The ones who had scoffed at their family's beliefs but clung to that now. The ones who had a real encounter with God while reading His word, and how the author brings that to life. By the end of the third novel, however, it was getting far to speculative and I was ready to walk away - until I looked it up while writing this and discovered there is another book, Kings #4. Maybe I would want to read it...
Samantha reviewed Illuminae:the Illuminae files 01 by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
The planet Kerenza is attacked, and Kady and Ezra find themselves on a space fleet fleeing the enemy, while their ship's artificial intelligence system and a deadly plague may be the end of them all.
What a novel way of presenting a book, I thoroughly enjoyed this! A combination of
pandemic (is it still a pandemic when it's spreading through space?) and an
apocalyptic event when the home planet is attacked and destroyed at the start of
the book.
Pandemic
is sweeping across the children of USA and some of the rest of the world, they
are either passing away or becoming 'other'. The story follows Ruby and how she is taken from her parents, shipped to a
“rehabilitation” camp and how she subsequently survives. This is book one of a series. Great read and ends in a way that makes you want
to continue on with the next book
Glenda enjoyed the Gone series by Michael Grant. This is what she thought of the first book: Gone
I wasn't quite sure what to expect and there are a few weird bits in some of the later stories. The concept that a leak at a nuclear plant creates mutations in kids living in the vicinity is a bit xmen-like and I quite like that. That an extra-terrestrial is feeding on the nuclear power is a bit odd but interestingly we'd been reading recently about how dust is made up of all sorts of things, including parts of meteorites ...so who knows whats possible!!
It's a brave new world - everyone over the age of 15 gone, kids stepping up to
create their own rules and relying on their own resources and skills to
survive. I am both intrigued by and grossed out by some of the adaptations in
the wildlife - talking coyote I can handle, wasp like creatures that have metal
teeth and hatch out of their child hosts are definitely not something I want to
come up against ever!!
Can't wait for the book #5 to be available so I can read on to the gruesome
end!
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