Beneath The World, A Sea by Chris Beckett

          2.5 Stars

This is a very peculiar book, and not necessarily in a good way.  Rather than tell a straight forward story of the Submundo Delta and the surrounding Zona it very rapidly becomes an overly self-conscious examination of the human power to lie to itself.  The allegory isn't at all subtle and leaps of the page to slap you around the face whilst joyously shouting "look at me, see what I did here".  This did mean that some parts rapidly become turgid and I found myself skim reading to get to the next bit.  Unfortunately, these were mainly the sections dealing with Ben Ronson who is the character we spend most of our time with.

The setting of The Delta is meticulously described so you get a real feel for this strange pink and purple fractal landscape balanced on its mat of roots above the The Lethe.  The problem comes when every time one of the characters moves from the town on the rock to the forest we then get treated to another description of the helical flora and strange fauna.  Once is enough and although intriguing on the first read of the description it soon becomes a frustration as it impinges on the story and after about 100 pages begins to seem like nothing more than a ploy to increase word count.

Probably because I became more and more disillusioned with the book as I read the naming of the river The Lethe also began to annoy me.  We have The Zona which surround the Submundo Delta where you cannot remember what happened when you leave so why hammer this home by calling the river after Greek Mythology?  It all began to feel very heavy handed and clumsy, not something I would have associated with this author.

There are traces of a good story here - the imported Mundino population and how they have created a whole religion and mythos to explain their existence in this strange place.  The native Duendes that do very odd things to the human psyche (again the allegory between the landscape and the unfurling of innermost thoughts is laid on with a trowel).  The violence of the Mundinos to the Duendes, the way in which the Delta has almost become a play ground for the rich Westerner (no mention of anything other than British, American and the odd South American or South African; so I can only deduce that every other Nationality has more sense than to visit).

Characterisation is sparse and I was left with the feeling that our cast had no real personal depth.  Ben Ronson is the go-getting Policeman sent in to sort out the killing of the Duendes, he is supposed to be deep and conflicted but actually came across as leaden and quite boring (and likely in need of a good slap).  Hyacinth the Anthropologist was just there and never really developed a personality.  Jael and Rico were plain odd, although this is decidedly intentional.  Justine and the other ex-pats living on the Rock come across as cowed by the strange Delta with their personalities wiped away to be left with only their fear and isolation.

The book is endlessly repetitive and never really seems to move forward or say anything much from a story point of view.  The story is a thin veneer over the warning to beware of what we do to our planet, to be aware that people aren't who we may think they are - indeed we may not be who we think we are.  It all gets a bit laboured and "sloggy".  certainly not Mr Beckett's best.

THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA READERS FIRST.