Fantasy/Horror/Scifi Book Club - Colour Symbolism

Hello everyone

In October we had a meeting on the theme of Vampires, a picture of some of the books we read is attached.

For October we’re looking at the theme of COLOUR SYMBOLISM.

So storytelling where colour symbolism plays a role, such as shorthand for morality, magical powers or social hierarchy. Examples would be were coloured clothing or titles indicate personality; or fantasy settings where different orders of magic are easily distinguished by coloured robes; or perhaps cast systems based named after or associated with colours.… Or if you don’t care of symbolism, books where Colour plays some role 😀
And while we choose this with fantasy in mind, horror or sci-fi may have examples also.

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 to set the mood and give inspiration, but you are not limited to them.

• The Colour Out of Space, by HP Lovecraft (1927): A horror example. When the strange meteorite crashes in rural Massachusetts, an unnamable shifting color leaches into the soil, water, and livestock, draining the life and sanity of the Gardner family.
• The Colors of Space, by Marion Zimmer Bradley (1963): Interstellar trade and faster-than-light travel secrets are guarded by the Lhari, an alien species that is color-blind to the normal spectrum, where a hidden "eighth color" outside normal human and alien perception becomes the key to breaking a galactic monopoly.
• The Colour of Magic (Discrowold Series #1), by Terry Pratchett (1984): The “eighth colour” of the Discworld spectrum, visible only to wizards and cats. The first Discworld book focuses on it.
• Eye of the World (Wheel of Time #1), by Robert Jordan (1990): Due to a curse by the evil god of the setting, the Dark One, male magic users go insane. The prophesied chosen one who last defeated the Dark One has been reborn for their final confrontation, and the world has to deal with a Messiah who may be as dangerous as the evil god he is defending them against. The all-female magic society divides themselves into Ajahs, colour coded branch organisations each with their own purpose (such as Reds, who hunt male magic users).
• Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter #1), JK Rowling (1997): An 11 year old from 90s England, goes to a magic school in Scotland to learn magic and have adventures. The students are sorted into one of four houses based on personality.
• Warbreak, by Brandon Sanderson (2009): To secure a fragile peace, an arranged marriage treaty requires a princess to marry a mute God King. One princess is sent, and her sister tries to rescue her. In the setting colour is a literal commodity, drained from animate objects, leaving them gray, to power magic.
• Shades of Grey, by Jasper Fforde (2009): Set in a dystopian world where social status, destiny, and the ability to perceive the world depend entirely on which colours you can see; the protagonist belongs to the low-level House of Red, and the rest of the muted world is perceived in shades of grey.
• The Black Prism (Lightbringer #1) by Brent Weeks (2010: Follows a religious leader known as the 'Prism' and the most powerful person in the world, as he combats an uprising led by a self-proclaimed king. The ruling Chromeria consists of seven "Colors," representing each specific duty.
• Red Rising, by Pierce Brown (2014): Humanity's future society is split into a rigid, color-coded castes, from low-tier Reds who labour in the mines to apex-tier Golds who rule.
• Prism (The Color Alchemist #1), by Nina Walker (2017): A YA example. A 17-year-old girl accidentally unleashes a rare and volatile magic (specifically red, an untapped colour) in a Victorian-flared dystopian world where magic is derived from colour. She is brought to the palace and placed under the training of the mysterious Prince Luca