The A-Z Blog Challenge, Letter C

Letter C of My Favourite Books by title

Two authors - two very different genres.

The first one is The Carpet People by British author Terry Pratchett, sadly deceased in 2015. Here is the back blurb:

In the beginning, there was nothing but endless flatness. Then came the Carpet...

That's the old story everyone knows and loves (even if they don't really believe it). But now the Carpet's home to many different tribes and peoples, and there's a new story in the making. The story of Fray, sweeping a trail of destruction across the Carpet. The story of power-hungry mouls - and of two Munrung brothers, who set out on an adventure to end all adventures when their village is flattened.
It's a story that will come to a terrible end, if someone doesn't do something about it. If everyone doesn't do something about it...

This was the first non-discworld book I read by Terry Pratchett. He has several and this one is particularly good about a tiny people that live in your carpet. It is a patterned carpet and the different colours denote different countries. I love this book and the very concept. It makes me think about when I walk around on my carpets and what or who might be living in them.

Terry Pratchett's book are especially good at making you think about things from an entirely different perspective. He also writes with so much humour, always making them enjoyable. This book is not just great for adults but a good book to ween your children onto, preparing them for his epic Discworld series. Brilliant high fantasy that keeps you laughing. We will be returning to Terry Pratchett, because he is another author who has many books that I love.

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The second is Cell, another by Stephen King.
Here's the back blurb:


Civilization slipped into its second dark age on an unsurprising track of blood but with a speed that could not have been foreseen by even the most pessimistic futurist. By Halloween, every major city from New York to Moscow stank to the empty heavens and the world as it had been was a memory.' The event became known as The Pulse. The virus was carried by every cell phone operating within the entire world. Within hours, those receiving calls would be infected. A young artist Clayton Riddell realises what is happening. He flees the devastation of explosive, burning Boston, desperate to reach his son before his son switches on his little red mobile phone ... 

This is about as close to a zombie novel Stephen King has ever come. It is an apocalyptic tale about what would happen if a virus could be transmitted via mobile phones and turn people rabid. When I first saw the opening of the film Bird Box I thought of Cell as it is very similar in how it starts out. But the people do not really become zombie's they become something else, something that we the reader discover more about through reading the book. And Stephen King left this one on a massive cliffhanger! I am hoping for a sequel - as I am with a couple of his books.

I felt a bit misled by the copy I had because I thought I wasn't at the end yet, only to find out that I was and the last thirty pages plus were devoted to his next book and the opening chapter of it. I was gutted!

Some of you may know that we almost lost Stephen King to a nasty car accident back in June 1999. He said himself that it was like something out of his own novels. There is an account of it at the beginning of his book On Writing. Pretty horrific stuff. It made me painfully aware that losing such a prolific writer (one who produces two books a year - minimum) would be dreadful and it makes me cherish his books all the more, and yearn for him to finish those that are 'inconclusive' like this one.