Among the Living by Tim Lebbon
304 pages, Paperback
- Published February 13, 2024 by Titan Books
Famously Richard Matheson was watching Dracula and had the thought if one of these vampires is scary what if it was reversed? Thus, one of the greatest horror novels of all time was born. I Am Legend is not alone; many great works of fiction come from watching/reading something and thinking I have an idea to make this better. Or I would love to make something similar. I have a suspicion that Lebbon created Among The Living while thinking about what he would do with a sequel to Carpenter’s The Thing. Something he threw out into during the panel episode of my 1930 SF series with Brian Keene and Mary Sangiovani covering John W. Cambell’s Who Goes There.
While Peter Watts and Sam J. Miller got away with short stories that played with being sequels to The Thing. It is a whole different beast writing and marketing a novel. This novel is very much an example of a novel that can be sold to fans of the Carpenter classic looking for something similar. Vibe and tone of a paranoid SF thriller with an additional action component. Most compelling to me is the not-so-subtle ecological messaging that has been the hallmark of Lebbon’s last few novels.
I have made plenty of jokes about the title being the same as an Anthrax album, Lebbon also has a collection that shares All Nightmare Long with Tallica. The Thrax song of course was inspired by The Stephen King classic but we are going deeper than titles here. Just some trivia for those paying attention to such things.
ATL also reminds me in a great way of Lebbon’s writing partner Christopher Golden’s recent horror epic Road of Bones and the two books make a great double feature. They would be great books to take on a trip together. Both novels have far-north settings, crazy twists, an action-forward plot, and a sense of desperation that drips off the books.
Lebbon has been on a streak of Cli-fi novels although it is a long-standing issue of environmentalism going back to his earliest paperbacks. As a paperback original I want to put this out there this should be a contender for the PKD award.
Much like Lebbon’s favorite movie ALIENS, this novel is built on a foundation of a large cast of characters. The likability of these characters is all over the place, but they are all interesting. Lebbon throws us into the setting quickly and into the action, so some of the backstory comes in careful flashbacks. It is all done with a subtle touch that deepens without slowing the action. One of the magic tricks that Lebbon pulls off is making a propulsive adventure book set in nature at times feel claustrophobic. If you dare to put yourself into the character's shoes even out on this remote island you’ll feel walls closing in.
The novel balances the characters with such ease that I don’t feel that it has a main character or singular point of view. This is important because the push and pull between the different characters in this extreme situation is what builds the tension. It is the most THING about it. The paranoid reaction to who is infected, and who is not. Can we trust anyone? Why ? I will come back to that.
A team of environmental researchers are looking for evidence of the effects of climate change. Their research brings them to Hawkshead, an arctic island that is in a thaw thanks to global climate change. They go into a cave open for the first time in thousands of years. Inside they find cave paintings, and defrosting diseased bodies from long ago. Tempering the amazing discovery is the fear of ancient diseases. The vibe Lebbon builds is top-notch.
“When he reached the first chamber he let go of the rope and turned to look around. His head torch forced back the darkness, shadows hunkering down in cracks and corners. He stuck out his tongue, sniffed the air. He tasted damp and smelled age. He heard trickling of water nearby and echoing from further away. He’d been in places like this many times before but something was different about this cave, something off.”
Weirdness turns to creep factor when one of the team insists that one of the bodies moved. Trick of the eye or something else.
Adding to the character dynamic and the tension are the corporate explorers on this remote arctic island looking for mining potential. The different agendas have made the two teams rivals. This adds to the drama when the disease goes rampant. Dean and Bethan, now on revival teams, used to work together and she sees Dean as a corporate sell-out. I could see how some readers might now feel that the characters are given development, but I loved how this was done. Lebbon wasted no time, the flashbacks were kept to a minimum and they were all important to the story. Twenty-five years ago when it was believed that readers wanted longer epic novels a hundred pages would have been wasted on back story and bogged down the terror elements. The pace was great with just the perfect amount of humanity to make me care.
One of the most impressive scenes of writing is when Lebbon cuts many narrative carrots with one knife. Almost a hundred pages in Bethan remembers a conversation they all had about the things they most feared. This chapter provides depth for the characters while also providing world-building. Goyo one of the tough guys working for the mining operation won’t accept boring answers about deepest fears and brings up disease.
“What scares me most is the idea of a disease emerging from the deep past and coming to kill us all.” He goes on to tell the story of a disease on another island that seemed alive and seemed to want to spread.
The disease that the team named Deadeye almost feels born from Goyo’s fears. However, anything anyone in the novel thinks about is just theory. Smartly Lebbon doesn't put a misplaced expert on the team. The disease is a mystery and remains so. As a reader, I believed it was alien in origin, but to the team all they know is the thing seems intelligent and wants to spread. As we learn more about Wren when he is infected it controls you wanting to spread. Several chapters follow the tough guy character Wren as the infection takes over.
It is a new spin on Climate change, and another horror to be mined. Part of me feels I have already told you too much, but I also feel this novel is hard to spoil. The execution, and how tightly wound up the novel is makes for a simple but very effective work of Science Fiction horror.
As accomplished as Tim Lebbon is this book doesn’t have anything award bait about it. It might not make a Hugo or a Stoker ballot. I think it is as high quality as those works It should be considered for a Splatterpunk award. This will be in my top reads of the year, but it is such a book novel for me I wonder if others will be as jazzed as I am. I mean if you trust my opinions then read it.
