#6Degrees of Separation

 

  

I'm taking part in #SixDegrees of Separation, which I first saw on the blog of Bookstooge over at https://bookstooge.wordpress.com/  Started by Annabel Smith and Emma Chapman, now hosted by https://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.com/  On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

This week we are starting with Redhead By The Side Of The Road. A self-employed tech expert, superintendent of his Baltimore apartment building seems content leading a steady, circumscribed life. But one day his routines are blown apart when his woman friend tells him she's facing eviction, and a teenager shows up at Micah's door claiming to be his son.  

I did actually read a couple of Anne Tyler books in the past and found them well written but not really my thing when it comes to reading. I tried them when I was a bookcrossing member. I go more for horror, apocalypse, prepper, tudor and urban fantasy, with some SF and fantasy in there too. As soon as I saw the title for this book I just knew which book I was going to pick to be the first link in the latest chain!

 

In a world where being of mixed-blood is a major liability, Sabina Kane has the only profession fit for an outcast: assassin. But, her latest mission threatens the fragile peace between the vampire and mage races and Sabina must scramble to figure out which side she's on.

This is one of my favourite urban fantasy series. We have a snarky half vampire half mage assassin, vampires, mages, fae and other creatures. We also have the humour of Giguhl, a shopping channel addicted demon sidekick who is mostly trapped inside the body of a hairless cat, and his friend who is a drag queen singer facing an identity crisis. I loved the characters, the action and the humour and it kept up a great standard right through the series. 

Raylene Pendle, a vampire and world-renowned thief, steals priceless art and rare jewels. But Ian Stott asks for help, Raylene finds him impossible to resist. He wants her to retrieve missing government files—documents that deal with the secret biological experiments that left Ian blind. And with a psychotic, power-hungry scientist on her trail, a kick-ass drag queen on her side, and Men in Black popping up at the most inconvenient moments, the case proves to be one hell of a ride.

The link here is another good urban fantasy book that features a drag queen character that I totally loved. The characters in this series were really good and I liked the addition of the experiments on vampires leaving them with health issues to deal with. 

In King’s Landing the Queen Regent, Cersei Lannister, awaits trial, abandoned by all those she trusted; while in the eastern city of Yunkai her brother Tyrion has been sold as a slave. From the Wall, having left his wife and the Red Priestess Melisandre under the protection of Jon Snow, Stannis Baratheon marches south to confront the Boltons at Winterfell. But beyond the Wall the wildling armies are massing for an assault… 

Arya Stark continues her Faceless Men training and has to adapt to being rendered blind, while Jon Snow has to face mutiny at The Wall. This second part of A Dance With Dragons was a really great story which is why we are so desperate for the release of The Winds Of Winter which never seems to be getting any nearer!

Todd wants to spend Christmas with his son. But when a brutal snowstorm cancels his flight, Todd and other stranded passengers rent a Jeep and make the trip. They pick up a man who claims to be searching for his lost daughter. He is disoriented and his story seems peculiar. Strangest of all are slashes cut into the back of his coat, straight to the flesh. When they arrive at the nearest town, it appears deserted. Todd and the rest of the travelers soon learn the town is far from deserted, and that they are being watched… 

Double link here with the winter setting on the cover and of course the title linking nicely to the character of Jon Snow in the previous book. This is a horror author I haven't yet tried and the cover and blurb makes me really want to read this book.

Four old college buddies embark upon their annual elk hunting trip into the Rocky Mountains. This promises to be their last, for the passage of time is as merciless and unpredictable as the Colorado weather. And they’re not alone. Help. There are other hunters in the mountains, stalking game of a different breed. They know exactly what they’re doing, because they’ve been hunting in these woods for a long, long time. And no one ever survives to betray their existence.   

I decided to go for another cover with that startling combination of that red blood on the pure white snow, a cover that will always catch my eye in the horror genre.  

The twin jet plane en route to Denver from Hong Kong is merely a green radar blip half an hour off the California coast when the call comes through to air traffic control: Socal Approach, this is TransPacific 545. We have an emergency.' The pilot requests priority clearance to land - then comes the bombshell - he needs forty ambulances on the runway. But nothing prepares the rescue workers for the carnage they witness when they enter the plane. Ninety-four passengers are injured. Three dead. The interior cabin virtually destroyed. What happened on board Flight TPA 545? 

A straightforward link this time with the names of the authors. I've actually read quite a few Michael Crichton books over the years but mostly before I joined Goodreads so I haven't written reviews of most of them. I never kept notes of books I read and I no longer have most of his books other than the Jurassic Park ones now so I can't write any reviews now! 

So there we are, Redhead by the side of the road to Airframe!