Horror

Even allowing for the theories about the limited number of plot lines there are out there, it's always surprising when you come across a couple of books that have a central premise that's remarkably similar, written within the same time period.  And this isn't a particularly common shared premise.  THE CROSSING by B. Michael Radburn is the second book with a male protagonist mourning the inexplicable and sudden disappearance of a much loved young daughter.  In THE CROSSING Taylor Bridges' is completely traumatised by the unexplained vanishing of his daughter Claire - so much so that his marriage falls apart, and he exiles himself to a small town in Tasmania.  

Bridges is a national park ranger, and somehow this new job, based on the fringes of a drowning town, in the dark, damp and cloying forests of Tasmania fits.  He mourns his daughter as the community around him mourns the loss of their town, overall there's a sense of loss and despair everywhere.

As with the first book I read on this theme, there are elements of the supernatural.  Bridges does see / talk to his daughter and whilst there's definitely a feeling of the "other" about that aspect to the book, overall it seems to fit within what is really a very creepy, odd, unsettling sort of atmosphere.  Bridges is uncertain, unsure, suffering, frightened and yet baffling, questionable.  He is a chronic sleepwalker, often waking up outside his cabin, cut and bruised, with no idea what he has been doing or where he has been.  Which doesn't help when a little girl goes missing from the neighbourhood.  A little girl he's recently spent time with.

Undoubtedly the feeling that you come away from THE CROSSING with is overwhelming grief, although along the way there's just creepiness, disquiet and discomfort.  As the story of how Claire Bridges came to disappear is revealed, Bridges' overwhelming sense of loss, responsibility and complicity matches perfectly with the weird, insular, dark, enclosed and vaguely sinister world that he now lives in.  Even the possibility that supposedly extinct Tasmanian Tigers could be lurking in the surrounding forest seems to fit with the idea that this place, this little drowning town, is just slightly off.

The earlier book I read covering this subject matter is one of my favourites, but then the author of that book is the only person that has yet been able to convince me to read horror or vampires and not run screaming from the room.  So I was a little leery when I realised what was going on in THE CROSSING.  Would it stand up against the earlier one?  It's undoubtedly a different book and whilst the supernatural elements don't come across as intrinsic to our culture or sense of place, they absolutely do work in terms of this man's mind, his state of being if you like.  The story of the disappearance of Claire is slowly revealed, it's plausible and undoubtedly poignant, and whilst the discovery of the truth may require a little suspension of disbelief, the result is really quite moving.  

Radburn has written a most unusual book in THE CROSSING.  Even if, like me, you're very leery of supernatural elements, if horror normally leaves you more than underwhelmed, the emotional journey of this man, combined with the wonderful sense of place that is built around him, really makes THE CROSSING one of those books to step outside your comfort zone with.

Long's power novel, THE DESCENT (1999) truly took some topping.  Long took the fantastic and made it both credible and creepy, introducing us to a whole other offshoot of humankind that in Long's clever hands, seemed very logical to have evolved in the subterranean world.   If you like to tick the boxes with questions you've always had about the origin of our species, Long tied that all up neatly together in a racing thriller which was one of the "sleeper" reads of the year.

It has been a long wait for follow-up.  DEEPER is the more literary novel, if the purist in you won't reel in horror at that style of writing being attributed to an action thriller.  Or perhaps you'd consider this a work of dark fantasy.  However you choose to categorize, this reader feels that Long's atmospheric work DEEPER spans a few genres, borrowing a little and often the best of each.    What makes it the lesser book to its predecessor is the tendency for Long to spend too much time with the surreal sequences, where the reader has to make their best judgement as to what it is the characters are really seeing.  Small gaps in action perhaps are to be filled by reader's imaginative fears.  The plot drifting does become irritating, interspersed even as it is with some beautifully evocative scenes of the Hadal's ancient territory and the poignancy of what man had never appreciated, that which had always lain beneath.  When Long is good, he's brilliant.  The urge to rein in all in becomes quite powerful, and a plot that becomes somewhat resurrectionist towards conclusion loses none of its terrible beauty but most of its momentum.
 
Do we detect future plot seeds sown?  Hadn't picked that with THE DESCENT, which stood on its own merit, but DEEPER is again either prompting the reader towards some more learned predictions of their own or  is leaving the door open for a third book.  It's a powerful read, and the themes of sacrifice and adaptation are strong throughout.    Disturbing, thought-provoking and very required reading for anyone who wanted to further explore that post-apocalyptic world first introduced in THE DESCENT, DEEPER carries the banner of mankind with its all its failings and strength forward, with some space for reflection on what it is has brought the ape-like man to live how he does, above, and in the sun.