Among the Living

The last few years, Tim has focussed very much on the eco-horror side of things and we are again back in that same territory here. This time global warming has caused a remote Arctic island to thaw and expose the mummified remains of an ancient people who are incubating a terrifying new disease which can takeover and control its host. When a prospecting team and some activists become exposed to it, it's a race against time to stop it spreading whilst questioning whether any of them have become infected.

It's a smart read and one that has throwbacks to the better of Michael Crichton's thrillers in which there's a strong foundation of a real world, real people and real relationships fighting against the fantastic and the weird. Tim puts show more his own mark on this though by substituting the science for folklore and using that to uncover the mystery behind everything. Which for the most part works really well, although there appears to be a narrative hole here in how the stories of such an eldritch plague could have been handed down from a necessarily isolated ancient society at all to the modern people and incorporated into their legends.

Whilst the nature of friendship is a big part of the character dynamic, the group of people we follow aren't as quite as strong as previous books as only three of them get back stories (which telegraphs obvious plot twists unfortunately) and despite the promise of a Thing style "who is infected" mystery, more could have been of that in a stronger way throughout the book, although it's interesting when things briefly flip to the pov of the one(s) who are infected. I would have liked more of that in its place and to add a touch more depth to the story.
But, it is their connections and emotions to the haunted, desolate landscape that form some of the strongest parts of the story, bringing home not only how remote their location is, but also the sadness in the changing natural world caused by wider human actions. Tim never lets his message get preachy and it hits home harder because we feel it through his characters.

It's a fast paced book and action happens suddenly and without warning - almost like a sonic boom you don’t really register it after it’s gone and you ask yourself “what just happened??”. These scenes are full of his usual over the top style as everything that could go wrong happens at once. I think he might enjoy himself a lot during these scenes!

There are minor niggles which pull it just short from his very best work such as in Last Storm (which is a fantastic and near flawless book), but for me to be gripped over a couple of nights for me still shows that Tim is one of the most natural storytellers and fluent horror-thriller writers around, with a wonderful talent for combining the weird with nature's most exotic. show less

I have to admit I was pretty disappointed with story as I've loved several of his previous works. I'm always intrigued with pandemic/apocalyptic type tales but this just did not live up to my expectations. I thought that the characters and setting were well written and the disease origin was unique though not thoroughly explained. It was just a little to predictable for me.

What a great scary book to start the season off right! Loved it.

For the rest of the review, visit my Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/p1RlZEDiY_o

Enjoy!