The Deep

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When it comes to the ending, it was a bit too predictable and well, somewhat unbelievable for me. Now, I get that this does have a pretty big sci-fi horror aspect to it but I figured what would happen… would probably happen and it did. Don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything for you but I love going into a novel blind and just being immersed in the story without trying to figure things out on my own so everything happens naturally. As can be expected about the science station’s hood, it’s not much like the world as we know it. Light doesn’t exist. Nor do any of the marine world personalities we know and love. It’s also intent on killing stuff. Especially humans. The station’s makeup turns out to be a modest quandary as well. It seems to have a bit of a temper. Especially in the parts of it where the element at hand –that which is alleged to save mankind- seems to have acquired control beyond the physical laws of nature that we Earthlings take for granted.

I think the body horror was really well described. The maggot scene in the tube, for example, or the bee hives on skin. There was typically this feeling of grotesque uneasiness in each description, even when describing events outside of the Trieste, such as in Luke's memory of his mother's body. Unfortunately, The Deep barely has characters much less ones I cared about when the horrible things happened to them. In fact, the book only has one character that we ever really get to know -- Luke -- and he isn't terribly interesting or memorable or clever.Davidson isn't done borrowing from other material, some of it beneath a writer of his talent. The setting has what could be called "Camp Crystal Lake Echo", where a character finds themselves alone in a remote setting and feels the urge to call out to a friend, thereby alerting the killer exactly where they are. I lost count how many times Luke called out, and this is a character who's seen horror movies like Alien. That annoyed me. Although in The Troop, there were a few passages I had to skim over, rather than actually read, due to graphic animal content, it was a sprinkling here and there. The novel follows a troop of Boy Scouts who must deal with not only the threats posed by killer tapeworms, but also the homicidal and sociopathic tendencies of one of their own.

It causes people to forget—small things at first, like where they left their keys…then the not-so-small things like how to drive, or the letters of the alphabet. Then their bodies forget how to function involuntarily…and there is no cure. Deep in the Marianas Trench, in the Pacific Ocean, an unknown substance hailed as “ambrosia” has been discovered—a universal healer, from initial reports. Just in time as the world is being ravaged by a plague called 'Gets. We find ourselves in a special research lab eight miles under the sea, after a strange transmission is sent out and has been radio dark since. Luke and a few of his crew are sent below the depths to find out what happened to the other crew and preserve research. Luke will find out the former crew has tapped into something not of this world. I really wanted to love this book. I found it dragged for me between discoveries. It would have been better if it had a faster pace and more terror. It was an okay read, but nothing special. The second one is the prize-nominated book titled Cataract City. The story features two childhood friends turned foes, whose quest for survival amid social problems drives a wedge between their long-lasting close friendship. Clayton's hand after he touches an extradimensional rift with it. His fingers grow long and segmented, the skin hardens into crab-like armor... and then the hand detaches and goes scuttling off on its own.Luke has agreed to venture to the deepest point on earth because he has nothing left to lose. His son Zachary disappeared seven years ago during a game of hide and seek with his father in the park. Luke's wife left him and then the 'Gets set upon the globe. Luke has a closet full of skeletons. In addition to his missing and presumed dead son, there's emotional abuse he endured from his mother, "Battle Axe" Beth, a prison trustee who went on disability, grew obese and set out to torment her youngest son. Then there are memories of a boogeyman that plagued Luke and later his son, which Zach called the "Fig Men" off his father's assurance it was just a "figment". As with The Troop, the story begins with a clear-cut plotline: There is a horrible new disease called “The ‘Gets” wiping out the population at an alarming rate and a possible cure (code name “ambrosia” or “the nectar of the gods”) has been discovered at the bottom of the ocean. Luke’s genius (and potentially mad) scientist brother is one of three who are researching this new substance from a station on the ocean floor, and he has asked the government to summon Luke to come help him. As far as the comparisons to The Thing, Alien, and The Abyss, I would say this successfully rips off all three without adding anything new to the spirit of those films.

Finally, certain aspects of the ending don’t really add up if you really stop and think about it. No spoilers here, but suffice it to say there were a couple things that didn’t fully work for me. A primary complaint I see about this book is that it heavily borrows ideas from a few other famous tales (Sphere and Event Horizon in particular). I can’t really speak to this topic since I am not overly familiar with either of those stories. If I had been, I may have felt differently about this story. Who knows?

This did have some genuine moments of horror that were well written, gross, and enjoyable so I'm bumping this one up to 1.5 stars. There are certainly some lost opportunities in this book. The ‘Gets, a terrifying combination of Ebola and Alzheimer’s disease, is basically just an elaborate ploy to give Luke a reason to travel to the Trieste. A plague that causes dementia is both fascinating and extremely scary, but the ‘Gets is only part of the story for the first couple of chapters. Cutter also seemed to hint that good and evil were going to battle on a Biblical scale. The research station floating above the Trieste is the Hesperus, which Luke observes is often mistranslated in Latin as Phosphorus or Lucifer. Clayton tells one of the other scientists, “What if the devil unleashed a perfectly unexplainable plague on humanity? If so, isn’t it equally possible that God created the perfect, if inexplicable cure?” (p.47). Due to these hints and how bleak things become for the characters, I fully expected Satan himself to come strolling into the story and was disappointed when he didn’t. Determined to simulate a true-to-life remote island scenario, Tim makes sure to remove any form of communication to the mainland. However, he does bring along a radio because there had been warnings of a potential storm. On the first evening of the trip, Tim notices a boat arriving on the island. Not expecting visitors for another two days, Riggs is wary of the stranger, who, upon inspection, is inhumanly malnourished but otherwise non-threatening. The stranger tells Tim that he needs help and is ravenously hungry. After deliberating, Tim allows the man to rest on the couch inside for the night, but not before telling the boys to stay in their room. I’m not sure if knowing what to expect made a difference, but I thought The Troop was way less disturbing than The Deep. I’m still curious about Little Heavens but I may need a break. I was so worried about the dog in this story, literally the WHOLE TIME, that it made it impossible for me to enjoy it.

He is working on a research vessel, eight miles under the sea. When the station is no longer responsive, Lucas is called upon to get down there and see what is happening and get his brother and the other scientists to return. When I first saw this book. I hit request button faster than fat girl can grab up a cake (I resemble that remark)..and then Netgalley you deny me!!! ARGGGG Side note: if this ever gets made into a movie, Jim Parsons is the PERFECT actor to fill the shoes of Clayton. Luke, our protagonist, has a genius brother, Clayton, who is currently conducting research for a possible cure eight miles beneath the surface of the Pacific, down deep in Marianas Trench. The problem is that the scientists stationed in the underwater research lab called the Trieste have been incommunicado and now one of them has surfaced in a not so pretty state. The last communication that the on surface team received came from Clayton, urging his brother Luke to come on down. I'm talking, he is just a terrible, horrible human being that I would rate right up there with Professor Umbridge as one of my most hated characters of all time.Hi everyone! I just got around to finishing up The Deep and really liked it. I read some comments on it beforehand. I just wanted to post some reflections that are in conversation with other discussion points I've seen on this subreddit. Spoilers below!!! Eight miles below the surface of the ocean, a small team of scientists are working feverishly to harness the properties of a substance that has been discovered on the ocean floor that just may save the world from a plague of staggering proportions.