Swim, Anyone?

Mira Grant “Into the Drowning Deep” (Orbit, 2017)

Here’s the setup: A TV channel that focuses on “disputed phenomena” does a show on mermaids. To their regret and surprise, the mermaids are real.  And they kill everyone on board the ship.  Of course no one believes that’s what happened. Why would you? But some years later, the corporation sends out another ship (this one larger, and crucially untested in various ways) to try to study and document the phenomenon.  

Of course everything goes wrong!

If you have read the Newsflesh books, you know that Mira Grant is Seanan McGuire’s nom de horror. She likes to play with the horror tool box, but she just can’t resist digging into the science. If you enjoyed that about her zombie books, you will also dig it here.  It’s clear that she has spent some time with ocean sciences, as well as various biological sciences. And it’s great.

If you are someone who hasn’t read one of her books under one name or another, you should know that she knows how to put together a compelling story. I haven’t read one yet that doesn’t have a plot that keeps you turning the pages, and characters that you don’t want to cheer for (even though they have a really good chance of dying). 

My only complaint about Into the Drowning Deep is that the first half or so felt a bit more talky than I think her books usually are. There’s lots of exposition needed, but it just feels a bit more clumsy that I expect from her.

This was a very fun horror story, you won’t look at the deep sea the same way again.

Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit for a review copy!

That Dusty Bottle

Eric Scott Fischl “Dr Potter’s Medicine Show” (Angry Robot, 2017)

Some years back, David Milch rocked us with Deadwood.  Suddenly people thought that Westerns could and should be dark. And now they are.

Did I say dark? Wow, this book is dark.  I have to admit that perhaps it’s my own reading protocols. I thought of this book as a fantasy with some horror elements. I can see now that it’s really a horror novel, with some historical fantasy mixed in.

The book follows the titular Medicine Show around as they travel and use the sales of their cure-all as a means to conduct dark alchemical experiments. It’s gruesome stuff, and the cast of characters do not help. You are either evil or a victim. I kept waiting for a cowboy with a white hat to ride in & clean things up but it was obvious early that was not going to happen.

Now most of my reaction is on me, I’m just not the reader for that. I will say, however, that I thought there were tonal problems with the early scenes with the brothers Ag & Sol. Their early scenes were straight black comedy. Yet contextually it felt jarring rather than comedic relief.