Hello all
For August we've opted for the theme of INVASION!
So stories about conquests / defence – either in literal sense of wars, or you could play with the wording, and make it more personal, with home invasions or bodily invasions (such as parasitic lifeforms).
So straight forward stories of mighty armies clashing for conquest of fantasy lands (or real, of you'd prefer real world fiction for this). Or alien invaders – be they little green men trying to conquer earth, or humans colonising another (already populated) world. Or Historical Fiction, where Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union invaded the USA. Or time traveling armies invading the past.
Or perhaps smaller horror stories about someone trying to fend off a killer trying to break down the front door. Or demonic possession, or alien lifeforms, and the internal conflict for the body or soul.
As usual, the theme is rather open to interpretation – hopefully you can find something you'd like to read that fits the theme, and come and tell us about it on the day. As always below are some examples suggested by members or lifted from Good Reads to set the scene, but you are free to read whatever you wish.
Examples:
- The War of the Worlds, (1898) by HG Wells – probably first thing that pops into many of ours heads on hearing the title. The granddaddy of all alien invasion stories.
- The Invasion of the Body Snatches, (1955) by Jack Finney – covering both the theme of alien and bodily invasion, we've all likely seen at least one of the 4 movies based on it – plant-like aliens (pod-people) come to Earth, and start replacing humans with clones.
- The Exorcist, (1971) by William Peter Blatty – probably the most famous demonic possession story. A Priest battles a demon's control over a young girl.
- The Word for World is Forest, (1972) by Ursala Le Guin – humans invade and occupy a forest planet for unobtainium, and the forest natives fight back.... I still can't believe her Estate didn't sue James Cameron's Avatar :D
- Footfall, (1985) by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle – alien elephants from Alpha Centauri invade Earth. Nominated for the 1986 Hugo Awards for Best Novel, and 1986 Locus Award for Best SF Novel.
- The Tommy Knockers, (1987) by Stephen King – King has a host of stories that deal with alien (Dream Catcher), interdimensional (Myst) etc invasions, but we can't list them all, so group suggested The Tommy Knockers – where a village in Maine (or course) falls under the influence of aliens.
- The Host, (2008) by Stephenie Meyer – alien parasites invade earth and possess humans. While the human consciousness is usually eased in the process, the book follows the story of an alien who takes over a body who's original human conscious is still present
- Britain Invaded: A nightmare story of love and evil in Nazi Britain, (2019) by Paul Hurley – historical fiction, where the Allies lost WW2 and UK was occupied by Nazi Germany.
- Dungeon Crawler Carl, (2020) by Matt Dinniman – aliens invade Earth, kill billions and put the survivors... into a lethal video game game show. Carl and his cat, Princess Donut, participate. Hunger Games meets Hitch-hiker's Guide the Galaxy? Recommended by several members, I'm intrigued.
