Cory Doctorow‘s Masque of the Red Death is a bleak mirror of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story of the same name and takes on the damaging lens that survivalism and capitalism view the world and people through. Stefan Rudnicki is a wonderful narrator for the audiobook and his voice adds to the deeply affecting nature of the story.
Masque of the Red Death harkens back to Doctorow’s Walkaway, taking on issues of survivalism versus community.
Masque of the Red Death: A Radicalized Novella
The novella is one of the four that make up Radicalized and is the darkest of them all. Its critique of individualism at the expense of human kindness is sharp and the defense of the mutual benefit of working together with a community offers a counter to the too common plan to give up on and fear others when calamity hits.
