Fantasy/Horror/Scifi Book Club - Forests

Hello everyone

In July we had a meeting on the theme of Man Eating Beasts, a picture of some of the books we read is attached - and a full list of the books and summary of thoughts is in the chat for that meeting.

For August our theme is Forests. So stories where woodlands feature heavily, and the whimsical fantasy adventures therein, or the horrors that lurk there. Obviously fantasy is full of magic forest settings, and horror is where hikers go to die, however sci-fi can get in on the act with forest worlds, alien terraforming etc or you want some really out-the-box thinking, I have an example.

As always you are free to read whatever you wish, as strictly or loosely as it fits the theme, and come and tell us about it on the day and whether you’d recommend it.

Below are examples from our members (and goodreads) to set the mood and give inspiration, but you are not limited to them.

• The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien (1937) - Classic fantasy adventure in which Bilbo the Hobbit is hired by dwarves to help them with their dragon problem - lots of forests along the way filled with adventure and monsters.
• The Word for World Is Forest, by Ursula K. Le Guin (1972) - A scifi example, basically the book James Cameron’s Avatar was probably inspired by but not credited for 😀 Humans set up a military logging colony set up on a forest world, as told from the perspective of the aliens.
• The Haunted Forest Tour, by James Moore and Jeff Strand (2007) - Pulp Horror, basically Jurassic Park with monsters. A village is swallowed up by a forest full of supernatural creatures, and a company starts running trams through it for tourists - what could go wrong?
• The Dark Forest, by Liu Cixin (2008) - A metaphorical scifi example for those who really don’t want to read about trees 😀The Dark Forest is a Fermi paradox concept which states alien civilizations exist, but they stay silent to avoid invasion. Thus this book revolves around humanity's attempts to construct a defence against an impending invasion.
• The Ritual, by Adam Nevill (2011) - Dark horror where four men go hiking in Swedish forests and are stalked by a pagan god.
• Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer (2014) - Surreal horror in which the Florida Everglades are enclosed in an alien field that starts terraforming them. Follows 4 female scientists who are one of a series of explorers.
• Uprooted, by Naomi Novik (2015) - A high fantasy story based on Polish folklore about a village girl who is selected by the local wizard for her unseen magical powers to battle the threat of a nearby magical wood and the creatures in it.
• Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre, by Max Brooks (2020) - my favourite horror book, basically a found diary about a small eco-community who live in the Pacific Northwest, and cut off from society by a volcano eruption have to content with the local bigfoot.
• Nettle & Bone, by T. Kingfisher (2022) - A dark fantasy deconstruction of fairytales.