Spelunking in Space! That could be a cheesy tagline for Caitlin Starling’s claustrophobic debut, The Luminous Dead, in which a young cave diver maneuvers through the subterranean mining pathways of an alien world named Cassandra-V. So what we have here is part science fiction, part survival horror surrounding a whole lot of character interplay.
A thrilling, atmospheric debut with the intensive drive of The Martian and Gravity and the creeping dread of Annihilation, in which a caver on a foreign planet finds herself on a terrifying psychological and emotional journey for survival.
When Gyre Price lied her way into this expedition, she thought she’d be mapping mineral deposits, and that her biggest problems would be cave collapses and gear malfunctions. She also thought that the fat paycheck—enough to get her off-planet and on the trail of her mother—meant she’d get a skilled surface team, monitoring her suit and environment, keeping her safe. Keeping her sane.
Instead, she got Em.
Em sees nothing wrong with controlling Gyre’s body with drugs or withholding critical information to “ensure the smooth operation” of her expedition. Em knows all about Gyre’s falsified credentials, and has no qualms using them as a leash—and a lash. And Em has secrets, too . . .
As Gyre descends, little inconsistencies—missing supplies, unexpected changes in the route, and, worst of all, shifts in Em’s motivations—drive her out of her depths. Lost and disoriented, Gyre finds her sense of control giving way to paranoia and anger. On her own in this mysterious, deadly place, surrounded by darkness and the unknown, Gyre must overcome more than just the dangerous terrain and the Tunneler which calls underground its home if she wants to make it out alive—she must confront the ghosts in her own head.
But how come she can’t shake the feeling she’s being followed?
The first thing that strikes me about this novel is how well Starling imbues a claustrophobic atmosphere in this story. Essentially, it is a conversation between two characters: Gyre, the caver, and Em, her guide topside. These are two characters interacting merely out of necessity, Gyre is working for Em; both are desperate for their own reasons to explore the tunnels which are about as clear as unlit cave at the beginning of the novel. Everything we see is from Gyre’s point of view, so our opinion of Em is fully clouded by Gyre’s thoughts and emotions. While I wouldn’t consider Gyre an unreliable narrator, we definitely don’t see the full picture of who she is initially. It is usually fairly easy to trust protagonists, especially those whose heads in which we are so tightly enwrapped, but as Em reveals details she knows about Gyre (her falsified “resume” and other details about her past), it becomes equally easy to mistrust Gyre as it does Em.
Gyre knew of the dangers she’d be encountering, the extremely rough and challenging terrain, and the limited supplies, being locked up in her diver suit for much of the journey, and even the Tunnelers, the monstrous inhabitants of the caves of Cassandra-V. What she didn’t expect, especially to the degree it eventually presented itself, were the depths of recent history she’d be encountering in the caves. As Gyre find herself alone and lost in her own head, she begins to question her sanity. She knew the caves had been explored before her journey, but her mind plays tricks with her. With her connection to Em losing strength, she wonders if she is seeing ghosts or just echoes of her own projections.
The way Em plays with Gyre’s emotions, their initial relationship as employer and employee, also sets up an antagonistic relationship between the two. They push each other to their mental and emotional limits as Gyre spelunks the alien cave. Gyre isn’t the only one with a history, Em’s history is just as twisty as Gyre’s and more entrenched in the caves of Cassandra-V than she let on initially. In other words, there is a physical delving and a mental/psychological delving for both characters. As the story progress, the two characters begin to build a tenuous trust, at best. They realize trust is the only thing that will get Gyre out safely and will help avoid the past mistakes made by previous people in her position.
The Luminous Dead is a mostly taut novel that plays with tension and horror in equal parts. I definitely get the comparison to The Martian, both feature characters stuck on a planet with a claustrophobic feel. There’s much more dread in Starling’s novel, though. My only real criticism is that the novel, for all that claustrophobia and tension, had spaces in the narrative that felt less tenuous. I felt it dragged a bit at times and was somewhat unbalanced throughout. When the novel was at its tightest and most tense, it was great. Thankfully, the slower parts were outweighed by those tense, addictive sections of either Gyre alone in her head or even her arguments with Em.
Starling’s novel writing career shows definite promise based on The Luminous Dead, she’ll be one to watch.
© 2019 Rob H. Bedford
Trade Paperback, 432 Pages
Published by HarperVoyager, April 2019
Review copy courtesy of the publisher
https://www.caitlinstarling.com
