What Stalks The Deep by T Kingfisher
I would like to thank Titan for an advance copy of this novella in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher - Titan
Published - Out Now
Price - £11.99 hardback £8.99 ebook
Alex Easton does not want to visit America.
They particularly do not want to visit an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia with a reputation for being haunted.
But when their old friend Dr. Denton summons them to help find his lost cousin—who went missing in that very mine—well, sometimes a sworn soldier has to do what a sworn soldier has to do...
NB this is the latest in the Sworn Soldier series and very mild stories for previous books will be covered
The Earth itself has a hold on us as we realise it’s very old, very big and humans have literally just scratched the surface of it. I find the idea of mining and exploring cave systems fascinating but I also know I have a high fear of tight enclosed places. Squeezing into tight places that may be where I get stuck under tonnes of rock in the dark….yeah that is not going to happen. Hence I can see why a mine is quite key to T Kingfisher’s latest Sworn Soldier novella What Stalks The Deep but I felt very much a tale of two halves that for me didn’t quite gel together.
Alex Easton had left Europe and their beloved Gallacia to help a friend. Their friend Denton stood with them facing a mighty monster and now he appeals for help and suggests something similar is afoot on another continent. With their ever loyal companion Angus the two travel to find Denton worried over a missing relative who was obsessed with a mine that had come into the family. Messages explaining wonders and unsettling sights led up to a disappearance that cannot be easily explained. The team go to the mine and quickly discover it’s not nearly as empty as they think.
The first half of this was a delight. Fans of the Soldier Son series will enjoy Easton’s narration and this time we get observations on Americans which are sure to raise a smile. Slowly Kingfisher darkens the story with the disappearance and signs of something supernatural at work and I really liked how Easton is shown not to be comfortable with this. For all the humour there is an edge of we are heading into danger. The first experience in the mine is delightfully uncanny, a place humans aren’t supposed to go and you can feel the claustrophobia and hidden dangers all really worked for me - told you this is one of my fears!
Weirdly then the next half of the book I found a lot less effective. We get an explanation and while I think Kingfisher has found a unique creature to highlight and explains their biology well for me this undercut the story. From horror to more supernatural experience and I felt the story sag which in a novella loses pace. We pick up with a further reveal but for me I’d lost the creepiness and sense of mystery from the earlier part of the story. I still had fun but it felt more of an interesting tale than one that will stick in my memory.
What Stalks The Deep will offer fans of the series the mix of supernatural horror and a delightfully humorous narrator who can twist from light to dark in a few sentences but for me it’s central story didn’t quite work. I found in the author’s afterward it uses a classic tale that I’ve never read as a starting point for their own creature but that for me didn’t jump out as an issue. An interesting read some will hopefully enjoy much more than me.
