Sunday, May 17, 2020

Six Degrees of Separation: The Road to After the Flood


Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate of Books Are My Favourite and Best in which our lovely host chooses a book and participants take it from there: creating a chain of books, each connected to the one before. Seeing where we end up is half the fun! 


It is rare I have actually read the book that starts the chain, and this is one of the cases in which I have. The Road by Cormac McCarthy made quite an impression on me when I read it. In my 2013 review I wrote: "the writing is brilliant, the story stark and depressing and yet full of love with a (very) dim spark of hope." The novel is about a young boy and his father as they travel toward the coast in an inhospitable, post-apocalyptic world.

Thinking of that father and son pair existing in such dire circumstances, trying to survive, instantly brought to mind Melanie and Justineau from The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey, a dystopian novel in which  the last of the healthy survivors live in fear of a infectious fungal virus that causes people to lose their mental abilities and feed on the healthy. While the two characters are not blood related, they have a relationship much like that of a daughter and mother. Melanie is a part of a scientific experiment, and when the head doctor decides it is time for her to be dissected, her teacher, Justineau steps in and the two end up on the run, trying to make their way to what they hope will be a protected establishment.

Concern of a contagion and being on the run for their lives, immediately made me think of The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, in which the last boy in a town of men uncovers a forbidden secret and must go on the run. At the beginning of the novel, the reader learns it is believed that a "germ" released by the local inhabitants of the planet killed all of the women and many of the men, making it impossible for the thoughts of the men to remain hidden from one another. It's another novel set in a rather dire world, this one another planet, and, like the previous book, the characters are on a journey for their lives.

A crazy preacher and a contagion lead me straight to The Stand by Stephen King next (there's a crazy preacher in Ness's book and a character worshiped as the "messiah" in King's), which features a weaponized influenza epidemic accidentally released onto the population, taking most people out.  Anarchy ensues, while people try to survive, some attempting to build safe communities to live in.


In writing The Stand, Stephen King wanted to create his own epic story in the spirit of Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. King's Randall Flagg a version of the Dark Lord; Las Vegas was cast to represent Mordor.

An unlikely band of characters comes together to help Frodo on his mission in The Lord of the Rings. Similarly, Yumeko, the heroine in Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa picks up her own unlikely traveling companions as she journeys to a far off temple to deliver a part of an ancient scroll, chased by evil forces. Both Frodo and Yumeko face difficult journeys, each with their own burden to bear.

Yumeko guards her part of the scroll well, including keeping the very fact she has it at all from her companions, especially the dangerous and mysterious samurai who is after the scroll himself. Myra is not completely honest with her companions either when they take her and her daughter, Pearl, onto their boat in After the Flood by Kassandra Montag. She does what she can to gain the crew's trust and convince them to go where she needs them to go in the search for her older daughter, even if it means lying to them.


After the Flood is a post-apocalyptic novel set  a century or so from now; floodwaters have overtaken much of the land and coastal cities and even much of the inlands are covered in water. Myra and Pearl have been on their own for many years, living on the water and stopping on land only when they need food or supplies. It is a bleak and near hopeless novel about a mother and her child that brought to mind McCarthy's The Road as I read it. How fitting then that my chain brings me right back to the beginning. Each novel in the chain takes the characters on a quest of some sort, whether it be in search of something or to deliver something or just with the hope of surviving.

All of these are excellent books I highly recommend if you have not yet read them! 

Next month we’ll begin with Sally Rooney’s best seller (and now a TV series), Normal People.


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27 comments:

  1. What a fun link up! I liked following your train of thought and learning about new books along the way. On your list, I've read The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Stand, and agree with your assessment of their connection. Thanks for sharing :)

    Lindy@ A Bookish Escape

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    1. Lindy - This is always a fun post to put together. :-) Thank you for visiting!

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  2. Fun post! I loved The Girl with All the Gifts - I'll have to check out The Knife of Never Letting Go

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    1. Eustacia - I need to read the sequel to The Girl With All the Gifts still. I really liked the first book. I hope you enjoy The Knife of Never Letting Go if you read it. It's part of a trilogy. Thank you for stopping by!

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  3. I enjoyed your chain! As soon as I saw you mention The Knife of Letting Go I was like yes!!

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    1. Marg - Thank you! I couldn't leave out The Knife of Never Letting Go. :-) Thank you for visiting!

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  4. This is such a fun meme. It's been years and years since I read The Stand but it's always stayed with me. It's my favorite by King.

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    1. Tanya - The Stand is a good one. Thank you for stopping by!

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  5. Oh my goodness! Its been such a long time since I participated in this Meme. I loved that the chain started with a book you knew, it always makes it that much easier to add links. I loved your train of thought, having also read The Road and several of the other books in the chain I can understand your thinking.

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    1. Feliciity - Yes, it was nice that I had read the first book this time. Thank you for visiting!

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  6. That's a great chain of books! I'm curious about The Stand but a bit intimidated by the thick volume. I'll probably try that one day depending on my mood.

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    1. Melody, I think you'd like The Stand. It's one of my favorite books of all time. Truly.

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    2. Melody - The Stand went fairly fast for me when I read it. I liked the first half more than the second, but I think for most it was the other way around. LOL Thank you for stopping by!

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  7. You did a good job here, Wendy. I've only read The Stand and have never actually read The Lord of the Rings, though my husband has urged me to do so for a really, really long time. I love the movies though.

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    1. Kay - Thank you. It was fun to put together. I love the Lord of the Rings movies too. I think it's one case where I like both the books and movies equally, but for different reasons. Thank you for visiting!

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  8. Loved how you connected all the books. I have to say they all sound good (haven't read any of them) but they sound a bit dark for me during this time. I am definitely leaning more towards cozier reads.

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    1. Iliana - Yes, these are all too dark for reading right now, I think. Thank you for stopping by!

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  9. Wow... this chain followed a pretty dark path. Let's hope the darkness continues only in books!

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    1. Davida - Yes, it did end up going in a dark direction. Thank you for visiting!

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  10. This is a fantastic Six Degrees, and I love how it circles around back to the beginning😁

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  11. Wow! Those give me nightmares just reading about them! Good work though on your chain--very interesting selections

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    1. Lisa - It certainly is made up of the stuff of nightmares, isn't it? Thank you for stopping by.

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  12. I haven't read any of these but I absolutely love seeing the process of getting from one book to another book when it doesn't seem like they have anything in common!

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    1. Katherine - Me too! It's such a fun meme to do. Thank you for visiting.

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  13. I love seeing all of the connections between these books. I have only read the first two books but I have a few other on my tbr list.

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    1. Carole - It's a fun meme to take part in. :-) Thank you for stopping by!

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