When I put my hands up to do an early review of The Lost Level by Brian Keene, I clearly didn’t know what I was getting myself into.
The book tells the story of Aaron Pace, a man who got trapped in an alternative reality called The Lost Level, and his struggle to survive a strange world full of dangers of all kinds. He befriends a woman named Kasheena and a strange creature named Bloop, which seems like a cross between a man and a cat.
The narrative is straight forward, not much running around in circles, which is great. Seems like every myth or conspiracy theory are cited in this story, and at every corner Aaron Pace and his companions will either come across dinosaurs , robots, zombies or even snakemen.
I particularly liked this passage when Aaron and Kasheena are discussing the idea of a god: “ And you worship this Creator god?”….. “Worship the Creator? No. No one has ever seen the creator. How can you pay tribute to something you cannot see? The creator simply is.”
Keene’s influences are obvious in the various passages of the book from the TV series Lost to sub-genre writers such as Robert E Howards. The author does a good job dividing this story into a series, I am not sure if I could take all the gore in one hit.
All in all this book is entertaining, but with a very descriptive voice, the reader will need to have the imagination lights switched on, to follow all the details Brian Keene throws your way.
There are many unanswered questions in this story, show more which I hope he addresses in the next few books. For those who appreciate the genre The Lost Level won’t disappoint. show less