Among The Living by Tim Lebbon

I would like to thank Titan for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Titan

Published - Out Now

Price - £9.99 paperback £1.99 Kindle eBook

Estranged friends Dean and Bethan meet after five years apart when they are drawn to a network of caves on a remote Arctic island. Bethan and her friends are environmental activists, determined to protect the land. But Dean’s group's exploitation of rare earth minerals deep in the caves unleashes an horrific contagion that has rested frozen and undisturbed for many millennia. Fleeing the terrors emerging from the caves, Dean and Bethan and their rival teams undertake a perilous journey on foot across an unpredictable and volatile landscape. The ex-friends must learn to work together again if they’re to survive... and more importantly, stop the horror from spreading to the wider world.

A propulsive horror thriller––fast-moving, frightening, and shockingly relevant―this adventure will grip you until the final terrifying page.

Climate Change is a concept so large its sometimes hard to imagine all the ways this will change the world in the next few decades. Loss of agricultural land; shortening water resources and immense impact for life across the planet. We tend to think of Science Fiction as the genre for exploring the future but Horror also can highlight the dangers lying in wait that may just make us think about our actions. In Tim Lebbon’s dark, gory and racing novel Among The Living we have a unique set of characters racing to save the world from a new danger re-awakened.

In the late 21st century Dean works for a group of resource prospectors who go to places they perhaps should not; scout out the area for local geology and then sell details to the best bidders for mining. Near the Arctic is Hawkshead Island once covered in snow and ice but now thanks to climate change the land is changing as the Permafrost of the land melts. Geysers can suddenly erupt, sinkholes can widen and caves are being revealed to the eyes of humans for the first time. But Dean’s group finds that their cave may have paintings thousands of years old and further in they find straneg bodies all tied up together. Outside the cave three activist reporters are being led to the cave to expose the commerical operation going on. Bethan used to be Dean’s friend until an incident made them part ways but her arrival finds the prospect team have awakened something even more dangerous than anyone apart from their mentor Goyo ever anticipated.

This is a hugely entertaining and yet troubling read that neatly subverts what kind of horror tale we may have gotten. My initial feeling was we are going underground to find trouble but from the moment the two groups meet on the lip of this strange cave everything goes horribly wrong fast. Its a powerful shocking turn of events that fundamentally strange the nature of the tale. Lebbon expertly builds up the world and characters prior. The idea of permafrost melting is something I’d previously only associated with parts of Siberia but here we see a North American area and the landscape is powerfully weird and unsettled - land, water and air moving in strange ways as the characters remark as if the land is reawakened by the pollution.

The characters are uneasy allies in the face of the danger. Lebbon pulls back on the three key characters of Dean, Bethan and Goyo and they’re all interesting ones to root for. Dean is a conflicted soul - knowing what he does is not quite right but loves the tight team of prospectors he works with. Bethan knows the world needs to change but her actions a few years ago have warned her of the dangers of going too far. Dean and Bethan have a powerful friends who know each other so well that makes their scenes together work neatly. Goyo though while also an environmental campaigner is the most fascinating we see the tough life he had in the 21st century of our future but his key role to explain the hidden dangers. Brave, does what need doing and yet we know even this practical and strong character may not be enough.

Yes I may have been circumspect on the danger…but its a deliciously creepy idea that plays to fears that the 2020s have given us and yet adds in additional horrors of what may lurk under our feet and a more insidious fear about the people we may be near. Things go bad fast…very fast… and the unpredictability of the landscape makes the teams way back incredibly hard and filled with dnager natural or otherwide at every term. the speed picks up like a rocket and the dangers are heighteded. Goyo’s expamabtion of various events he knows about raises the stakes skillfully. This story is very much about everyone throwing themselves to the finish line but it may not end well for all of them. That we care about these people’s fates so much is a testament to the early parts of the story working well the horror gets heightened when we see the bad things happen to them and they’re all slightly out of their depth.

I really enjoyed Among The Living. It gives us a real danger of climate change but with added supernatural style additional dimensions to make things feel very dark and scary. I raced through it having a lot of fun but also disquiet as to what would happen in the final chapters. Its highly recommended for those seeking an intelligent scare!