Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
This week's prompt is "books whose plots involve travel or feature modes of transportation on the cover/title". My brain immediately went to one of the books that I chose last week in the form of Iron Council, but I'm going to pick some different ones to talk about instead. As with last time I'm limiting this to just five books, and I think I might do that for all of these posts in future just because I find it much easier to think of five things I'm really passionate about than to desperately try and come up with ten entries just to hit an arbitrary count. If we were sitting and talking I'd probably come up with hundreds of answers to any of these prompts, but sit me in front of a screen and tell me to write a blog post and my mind goes blank. So it goes.
I'll still call the posts Top Ten Tuesday, though, because I'm like that.
Dracula, Bram Stoker
One of my all-time favourite novels. At some point over the years I started collecting different editions of what remains a stone cold classic, and now I'm trapped building an ever-growing collection that I can't ever part with. I think it's pretty commonly agreed that the best part of the book takes place on the Demeter during Dracula's voyage to England. If you haven't read it, you must.
Great Martian Railways, Hûw Steer
This isn't a novel but a novelette, published in the July/August issue of Analog, and it's one of my favourite pieces of fiction I've read this year. It's a very simple story about the maiden voyage of the first trans-Martian railroad, and if I were to tell you the plot you'd tell me that it sounds like nothing much happens, but it's joyous and I loved it.
Pushing Ice, Alastair Reynolds
Chris go a day without talking about Pushing Ice challenge 2024. Once again I have failed.
This is still one of my all-time favourite science fiction novels. In the early days of humanity's exploration of the solar system, Bella Lind's icebreaking ship the Rockhopper learns that Saturn's moon Janus has deviated from its orbit and is asked to pursue the moon and find out what the hell is going on. This begins a journey that lasts generations, and hits every button that I love in SF - weird megastructures, a crew fracturing under huge amounts of pressure, and aliens that actually feel alien. It's a masterpiece.
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
I can't remember if this was the first McCarthy book I read - it may actually have been No Country For Old Men - but it's certainly the one that's stuck with me the most and probably the one that I'd call my favourite. I love it so much that I can't bring myself to watch the film version of it because I know it will be disappointing at best and infuriating at worst. If you haven't read this, you must.
Last Orders, Graham Swift
A group of old friends travel from Bermondsey to Margate to scatter the ashes of a departed friend. Along the way they take turns sharing stories about Jack, and we slowly learn who they are and what they all mean to one another. I'm yet to read a Swift novel that I don't love.
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