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Book Review: The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

Harper Voyager. 2019

ISBN-13: 978-0062846907

Available: Paperback, Kindle, audiobook, audio CD

 

Claustrophobic horror has always been a thrilling subgenre, and while this offering leans much more towards science fiction than pure frights, it’s a strong candidate for the Bram Stoker award for first novel.

It has been compared to several titles by the publisher, including Andy Weir’s The Martian and Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation, although this reviewer would call it an underwater Gravity. Most of the interaction in the story occurs between the two main characters, with a strong dose of inner monologues that suggests this would also be a great option for a Hugo Award. The sheer atmosphere of the novel is what turns what could be a literary musing on character motivation into a powerful tale that is a worthy addition into the scifi-horror library.

Gyre Price is a caver, miner and excavation worker who takes on the job of a lifetime. It’s a great paycheck, and could change her life- if she survives it. A few tangles in her story warp her reality. She shouldn’t even be down there in the bowels of a strange, dangerous planet. In addition, as in other novels of its kind, Gyre has quite a few skeletons in her closet. She lied to get the job, and hoped it would be a cake assignment. Well, cake besides the preparation that forced her to undergo some physical alterations to adapt to the alien environment.

Why does everyone else die who takes the job?

She finds herself deep (pun intended) in the mire of the water, caverns, and mystery, before she realizes her biggest threat might be the one person who can also keep her alive. Em controls much of Gyre’s fate, even her body; she feeds her, sometimes with drugs, and other times with misinformation. It becomes a strange symbiotic relationship that is reminiscent of the astronauts’ relationship with HAL in 2001, except for Em being human. The manipulation turns dark, with Em sometimes a distant voice from another realm, whose motives and goals are opaque to Gyre.

As she sinks deeper, Gyre finds she might not be alone. Think back to some of the underwater/alien planet films of the 80s and 90s. such as Leviathan and Planet Mars. What Gyre may be facing could be all of that- or none of it. Is her terror merely  a psychological manifestation brought on by the foreign depths and Em’s ploys? Or is it something Gyre’s brain simply cannot handle?

The point of view and mood created by Starling elevates this book into an interesting read, pushing it sideways into the dark tendrils of the horror realm. Recommended.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

Editor’s note: The Luminous Dead was nominated to the final ballot of the 2019 Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a Novel.

Posted on April 14, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: Invisible Chains by Michelle Renee Lane

Invisible Chains by Michelle Renee Lane

Haverhill House Publishing, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-949140-03-3

Available: Hardcover, paperback

 

Jacqueline, an enslaved Creole growing up on a Louisiana plantation in Michelle Renee Lane’s Invisible Chains, learns all too soon what it means to be black and female. She is beaten, raped, and terrorized but manages to survive by using the secrets of Vodun her mother taught her and by tapping the powers of the vampire and werewolf who assist her on the flight toward what she hopes will be a rescue.

Even though monsters help Jacqueline, she is still threatened by them and in constant danger, even from love. Lane uses these relationships, including a flirtation with the vampire, to highlight the suffering, marginalized groups depicted in this novel. This includes enslaved people and monsters but also mixed race people, Spanish Jews, Irish immigrants, circus performers, Gypsies, seers and couples in interracial relationships. People who are considered different by the larger white society are powerless and can survive only by appeasing and imitating their oppressors or using magical or supernatural powers against them.

Although the book often moves quickly from one terrifying event to the next, Lane effectively traces Jacqueline’s growing sense of her own talents and strengths. Jacqueline learns that each horrific experience enhances her abilities as a conjurer and intensifies her understanding of herself, thus making it possible for her to voice her demands and choose what she needs to live. She also learns that she must protect her mind and soul most of all and that she has a certain power in knowing the future in which her true freedom will never be a reality. However, she continues to be brave, heroic, and unstoppable. Recommended.

Contains: Graphic violence including rape and torture; sexual situations

 

Reviewed by Nova Hadley

Editor’s note: Invisible Chains was nominated to the final ballot of the 2019 Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a Novel.

Posted on April 12, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

Del Rey, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-399-18210-5

Availability: hardcover, audiobook, ebook

 

It’s inevitable that any 782 page magnum opus about the end of the world like Wanderers will get compared to the two titans of the apocalyptic pantheon, Stephen King’s The Stand and Robert McCammon’s Swan Song.  Wendig’s tome compares fairly well. The prose is excellent, character development is strong, and the plot has plenty of surprises.  Wanderers might have been able to join the other two at the top of the mountain, but it does have a couple of faults.  The story sputters to a muddled conclusion at the finish line, and the author’s insertion of his own political beliefs into the stories detracts from the strength of some of the characters, reducing them to stereotypical cardboard cutouts.

 

14 year old Nessie one day starts walking down the driveway in an unresponsive trance, leaving the home she shares with her older sister Shana and her father. Others with the same symptoms soon join her, and soon there is a pseudo-parade of walkers and supporters marching across the country, although no one knows where they are going.  The real focus of the story, however, isn’t the walkers themselves, it’s the reaction of the rest of the country to them.  Are the walkers carriers of a new disease?  A sign from God?  Messengers of the devil?  They become national news in an election year, and reactions vary from solidarity with the walkers to outright violence against the “devil’s parade”.   It becomes a race for medical professionals to find the cause of the trance-walking, set against the backdrop of a country on edge due to its own political beliefs about the walkers.

 

There isn’t much to dislike in the book.  The author writes extremely well in a tight-but-loose fashion, the story peppered with numerous asides and pop culture references that give the book a unique feel.   This is truly a character-driven story.  It’s not so much about what the characters do: how they think, feel and respond to their own lives, and the world falling apart around them is what keeps the story flowing.  Summing up the actual actions of the first 500 pages could be done in a few sentences, but that would miss out on the richness of the characters’ thoughts and emotions.  The plot itself is an unusually complex take on the “end of the world” scenario, as artificial intelligence and nanotechnology play a part.  It is partially a detective story, and it’s not an easy puzzle to figure out, especially with the final twist inserted in the last few pages.

 

The drawbacks to Wanderers are minor, but they prevent a good story from becoming a great one.  As noted, the final showdown between good and evil was a bit convoluted and didn’t really fit the rest of the story.  The real problem is the author’s use of stereotypes when it comes to his antagonists from the conservative side of the political spectrum.  These make the villains far too predictable in their actions and reasons.  Author Wendig also has a bad habit of inserting his own liberal beliefs into the story as narration asides, not as part of the character development.  That damages the narrative, when it is written from the author’s point of view to make a political case, and not to further the story.

 

Overall, Wanderers is a well-written, epic saga of the end of the world, and well worth the time investment to read its almost 800 pages.  However, conservative readers will have to put aside their own feelings and viewpoints to enjoy reading this.  Otherwise, they will probably get mad and quit within the first 100 pages.  Recommended.

 

Contains: violence, mild gore, racial slurs, rape

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Editor’s note: Wanderers was nominated to the final ballot of the 2019 Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a Novel.

Posted on April 10, 2020 by , Reply
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