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Book Review: The Devil and the Deep edited by Ellen Datlow

The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea edited by Ellen Datlow

Nightshade Books, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-59780-946-7

Availability: Hardcover, paperback, audiobook, Kindle edition

 

On the surface, it seems like a good idea.  A collection of short horror stories with the ocean as a common theme, written by authors with solid track records.  Unfortunately, it fails to live up to its premise.  In terms of story quality, there are roughly four treasures and a few nice baubles, but you have to dig through a lot of sand to find them.

These stories all come in at around 20 pages, so there isn’t a lot of space for character development or backstory, and things often happen for no reason.  That’s part of what makes writing short stories challenging.   But, you still need to create an interesting plot and make sure that each event ties into another, using limited space.  The stories here that qualify as treasure do that very well.  Christopher Golden’s ‘The Curious Allure of the Sea” is a perfect example.  A young woman finds a necklace bearing a unique symbol on her dead father’s boat.  She has it tattooed on her arm, and soon many different living (and sometimes dead) creatures are flocking from everywhere to be with her, and sometimes attack her.  The weirdness escalates, and she is soon forced to make difficult choices to try to save her own life.  This story is a perfect example of how to write an excellent short story.  You never get an explanation for why her dad had the necklace, or what the symbol means, but who cares?  Details like that can be skipped as long as the story makes sense and moves along, and it does.  Golden keeps in just enough to keep the plot rolling, and anything else is cheerfully tossed over the side.  Seanan McGuire’s “Sister, Dearest Sister, Let Me Show You to the Sea,” and Brian Hodge’s “He Sings of Salt and Wormwood” also do an excellent job of getting in fast, blowing the reader away, and getting out without any unnecessary filler.  Michael Marshall Smith’s “Shit Happens” also deserves praise. It’s an excellent story, and written in an off-kilter, hilarious way that reminds me of how Stephen King used to write for some of his oddball characters.  People don’t have sex, they are interested in “activities that would have a bedstead banging against a cabin wall into the small hours.”  Advice on hot sauce consists of  “some of those local brand bad boys will put you in a world of sphincter pain.”   It’s a great horror story, and the author’s hilarious way of narrating it will have you laughing out loud at times.

As for the other stories, a few are decent, but the rest suffer from the same problem: a lack of coherence in the plot.  They aren’t sleek, fast jetboats: they are more like a collection of parts thrown together to get from one harbor to another.  The authors do have some very original ideas and the tales start well, but then they get too metaphysical and abstract, which drags the story down.  Quite often, you will get to the end of a story and find yourself asking “what just happened?” The stories go in a sensible fashion for a while, then wander off the deep end into nonsensical events.  It’s a shame, because many of the stories had promise, but wound up as unrealized ideas, leaving this reader annoyed.

If you have the money to spare, it may be worth picking this one up for the few gems. Otherwise, the reader would probably be best to pass on this one.

Contains:  violence

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Editor’s note: The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea is on the final ballot for the 2018 Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in an Anthlogy.

 

Posted on April 15, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

Into The Drowning Deep by Mira Grant
Orbit Books,2017
ISBN-13: 978-0316379403
Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

Mermaids? Scary? If you’re familiar with Mira Grant(aka Seanan McGuire), author of the Feed series, you know she’s capable of some horrific storytelling. In Into the Drowning Deep, the sequel to her novella Rolling in the Deep, Grant has reinvented a creature that most people don’t take seriously into a terrifying monster. The novel is scientifically based, utterly plausible, and rich in characterization– and it will make the reader cringe every time a dark corner is turned. Into the Drowning Deep is as frightening as Aliens and as mind-bending as Jurassic Park, with the lyrical prose only Grant is capable of writing.

The plot goes something like this: Imagine, an entertainment corporation that seems part reality-show machine and part “Umbrella Corp,” sent a cruise ship into the heart of the Pacific, towards the Mariana Trench, in search of a fictional beast they believe will steer millions straight through televisions into their pockets. Except, of course, something goes wrong and everyone on board goes missing. Only a secret video and splatters of blood remain.

Victoria is a marine biologist whose sister was one of the victims on that first boat. Now, Imagine wants Victoria to be a part of the second voyage, to prove that mermaids actually exist. She’s grouped with a college professor who’s devoted her life to cryptozoology, the woman’s husband and Imagine guru, a pair of deaf twin sisters who are geniuses in their given fields, and a plethora of other characters. Not one of the secondary personalities is poorly drawn; everyone has a backstory that works here without it overwhelming the story.

The ship has its own mysteries, and things obviously go wrong, but not in a typical “bad horror movie” way. The creatures find them and all hell breaks loose, but not in a manner that’s expected. Fans of Grant’s Feed series know that blood and gore will not be avoided, yet it is not exploited, either. Despite the carnage, the cast and crew of the ship remain committed to solving this sci-fi horror mystery of the hows and whys of the mermaids, and not just surviving them.

With very few parts that lag, Into the Drowning Deep rolls through the currents fast and hard, pushing the reader to keep up. While deftly pacing the story so the reader knows what’s going on and why, Grant also captures the lives of the characters in a manner that most cannot. Even the unlikable people evoke sympathy from the reader, and the suspense is genuine because of it. While not as hardcore and explicit as Michael Crichton, the science rings true. It is fascinating, teaching the reader about the mysteries of the deep sea and what we don’t know– yet.  Recommended.

 

Contains: gore, violence, sex.

 

Reviewed by Dave Simms

Posted on May 26, 2018 by , Reply

Monster Kid Request: Sea Monsters from A to Z

Not surprisingly, the Monster Kid loves monsters. He especially loves cryptids and sea monsters. So although he hasn’t actually asked for the ABC’s of sea monsters, I’m pretty sure he would if he could. I’m not sure about sharing this with him, as I’m not really up to explaining Cthulu to a six year old (nor do I think it’s appropriate, although I’m sure a fair share of parents who read this have probably given their kid a plush Cthulu- and I have it on good authority that it can get rid of closet monsters). But he would LOVE seeing some of his favorites– known, unknown, and fictional– on this list provided by Tor.com. It’s all kinds of awesome, with everything from the Kraken (with a great pic from Clash of the Titans) to the Gill-man, from the Fiji Mermaid to the vampire squid. This is just one article from Tor’s Sea Monster Week, which actually appears to be this week. I’m so sad I didn’t find this till now! In addition to a week’s worth of posts (one of which is about the Gill-man, a favorite of the kid’s), there are excerpts from several related books at the bottom. These are way too old for him, but something you might enjoy, even if you aren’t personally obsessed with sea creatures and killer animals. Moby Dick, anyone?

Posted on August 17, 2012 by , Reply