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A review by lkedzie
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
3.0
It's as if Mary Shelly went to Lascaux instead of Lake Geneva in 1816.
I didn't like this book, but I kept reading. I'm not afraid to DNF something, but something else kept me reading. I think that I couldn't articulate why it was that I didn't like it.
With only two characters the book is set entirely in a cave. Like, not an analogy, but an actual cave. One thing that I admire about some science fiction, Ender's Game shoots to mind, is how it can describe something complex or non-intuitive in understandable terms. Here I admit that I was frequently lost or trying to catch up, because the action of caving is difficult and technical.
What eventually, very late in the book, pushed me off the proverbial fence and into the like yard is when it hit me that this is a science fiction take on a gothic novel, and a traditional one at that. Probably more Henry James than Mary Shelly, but I think that the joke works better that way.
When I realized that, everything falls into place, to the point that it wholly reconstructed my thoughts on the novel. I still think that it's more of good novel than a likable novel: atmospheric and intense, dry but very haunted.
I didn't like this book, but I kept reading. I'm not afraid to DNF something, but something else kept me reading. I think that I couldn't articulate why it was that I didn't like it.
With only two characters
Spoiler
(or are there...)What eventually, very late in the book, pushed me off the proverbial fence and into the like yard is when it hit me that this is a science fiction take on a gothic novel, and a traditional one at that. Probably more Henry James than Mary Shelly, but I think that the joke works better that way.
When I realized that, everything falls into place, to the point that it wholly reconstructed my thoughts on the novel. I still think that it's more of good novel than a likable novel: atmospheric and intense, dry but very haunted.