“The Devil’s Throat” by Rena Mason (in Hellhole: An Anthology of Subterranean Terrors edited by Lee Murray)

Adrenaline Press, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-940095-94-3

Availability: paperback, ebook

‘The Devil’s Throat” plunges the reader into an undersea volcano called the Devil’s Throat.  A team of scientists working from a floating research station near the volcano loses contact with one of their members while diving in the Throat.  They struggle to find out what happened to the missing scientist, and have to contend with the military showing up and trying to take over the rescue operation, for reasons of their own.

The best part of the story is the setting and the monsters.  For undersea monsters, authors have used sharks, snakes, and jellyfish, but…sea cucumbers?  That has to be a first, using those harmless looking things as creatures that are attracted to blood and attack humans.  The setting is also very good.  The Throat isn’t just a cylinder, it’s honeycombed with passages in its walls that provide additional chambers and dive holes for the characters to venture into.   While the scientists and military people are facing off within the volcano walls, the cucumbers are also an element that both sides must contend with.  The idea may sound silly, but the author takes it seriously and makes it entertaining, and it all caps off with two of the most perfectly written sentences to end a story.

The story is well-written in third person, and delivers good entertainment within its nineteen pages.  It’s a story that may well leave the reader clamoring for more, as there are plenty of plot devices in the narrative that could have been developed further.  Little detail is given involving the military experiments at the bottom of the Throat, or the genetic modifications done to the sea cucumbers.  This is worth the read, and would probably make an excellent basis for a much longer story or full length novel, as the material quality is good enough to provide the basis for one.  Recommended.

Editor’s note: “The Devil’s Throat” is a nominee on the final ballot for the 2018 Bram Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in Short Fiction. Monster Librarian does not typically review individual short stories, and this is an exception made specifically because of its inclusion on the Stoker Awards final ballot. 

Contains: mild violence

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson