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DEEPSPORE: Death Below The Sea
The ocean has always held its mysteries, but aboard the luxurious cruise ship American Dream, something ancient and deadly is awakening beneath the waves. Tessa thought she'd left her fear of the sea behind her, but when a surprise trip becomes a floating nightmare, her worst memories are dredged up—and they might not stay in the past.
Strange meteorites, eerie lights, and horrifying creatures begin to plague the ship, leaving its passengers and crew at the mercy of the deep. As the sea turns against them, alliances will form and shatter, and survival will demand confronting the dark truths lurking in the water... and within themselves.
A spine-chilling thriller blending cosmic horror and human resilience, DEEPSPORE will leave you breathless and questioning what truly lies beneath the surface.
Strange meteorites, eerie lights, and horrifying creatures begin to plague the ship, leaving its passengers and crew at the mercy of the deep. As the sea turns against them, alliances will form and shatter, and survival will demand confronting the dark truths lurking in the water... and within themselves.
A spine-chilling thriller blending cosmic horror and human resilience, DEEPSPORE will leave you breathless and questioning what truly lies beneath the surface.
208 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 21, 2025
3 people are currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Vaughn A. Jackson
6 books16 followersVaughn A. Jackson is an Horror Writers Association affiliated author, editor, and sometimes poet of dark speculative fiction. His work generally focuses one one of three categories: Creatures, Kaiju, or Cosmic Horror. Often blending elements of fantasy, science fiction, and horror, he refers to his works as unholy abominations of terror. His published novels include the Kaiju thrillers Up from the Deep and Deepspore: Death Below the Sea, the cosmic horror Touched by Shadows, and the vampire hunter revenge novel Southern Cross. He is also the co-editor of the diverse cosmic horror anthology Beyond the Bounds of Infinity. When not writing, he can usually be found hanging with his wife and pets, cracking jokes, and making sure H.P. Lovecraft turns over in his grave.
You can find Vaughn on Bluesky @madnessandmonsters.bksy.social or on Instagram @madness_and_monsters. He also has a newsletter: https://madnessandmonsters.substack.com/
You can find Vaughn on Bluesky @madnessandmonsters.bksy.social or on Instagram @madness_and_monsters. He also has a newsletter: https://madnessandmonsters.substack.com/
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 6, 2025
A good captain can lead his ship through troubled waters, but only a foolish one leads his ship into them.
Vaughn A. Jackson's "Deepspore: Death Below The Sea" is an interesting creature feature that certainly holds enough horrors to satisfy any fans of Kaiju or other monstrous oceanic terrors. I almost picked his book "Up From the Deep" for this round of reading, but have recently had my fill of giant things with large, pointy teeth heading to the surface to devour anyone still stupid enough to hang around the area after said monster's first appearance. Luckily for me, the creature in question this time is an undefined "alien" of some kind, noting we're never sure that the meteors that fell before its appearance carried it to Earth from some far-away hellscape or merely awakened some ancient Terran beast from a deep slumber beneath the waves. Whatever the case may be, it's a nasty thing that isn't just satisfied to eat people and move on, it leaves them with agonizing injuries of the worst kind!
Its limbs branch out into the water, the burrowing roots of a cancer growing in the sea.
If I had to describe the book in a quick nutshell for the casual observer, I'd say it was definitely like the "Poseidon Adventure" that I remember everyone flocking to in the early 70s mixed with something like "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". And if you want, sprinkle in some "Love Boat" along with "Alien" and you're bound to get the picture. You should realize of course that there's some rather apparent comparatives with "Titanic" that also apply (wait for it!). In its essence, as a quickly read creepy crawlie tale of death, destruction and even redemption. So, I'll say it again, it's not a bad book.
Sounds of joy and horror blend together into a nauseating, discordant carnival of noise.
It all starts off with Sean (we'll get back to his name in a moment) having essentially shanghaied his fiancée Tessa onto a 2 week all-inclusive cruise through the Bering Sea. Now the location is important, because usually this is one of the most closely monitored areas in the world, for all the reasons that Sarah Palin has described before. The fact then that considering what happens over the following hours as this disaster befalls the American Dream that no one arrives to inspect what's happening was rather unbelievable to me. But then again, if the US, Canadian, or even Russian militaries showed up and started dropping nukes on things - because of reasons - the story would have been a lot shorter.
The jelloids climb from the water and onto the ship like a hundred translucent spiders in stop motion.
But back to Sean and Tessa: the reason Sean (again, hang on to that name) has literally tricked Tessa into coming is that she suffers from intense PTSD and survivor's guilt. Seems she and her sister, Julia, were scuba diving not long ago and wouldn't you know it, they went down too deep. Tessa is rescued but Julia perishes leaving the aforementioned Tessa, a former Olympic swimmer mind you, even too afraid to sit in a half-filled bathtub. So to the rescue comes dear, lunkheaded Sean who think a good dose of "exposure therapy" will cure what ails her. What follows then is a clusterfvck of unimaginary vastness, not the least of which is just how bad an idea this type of therapy is without agreement on all sides to try it out. Oh well, at least Tessa can relax in the opulent surroundings of the local oligarch's - Wesley Anker as in "sinks like an …." - pleasure liner along with all the other extremely drunk and sexually unleashed business guests. Party on, you poor doomed fools!
The creature works its writhing appendages over her carcass with a touch like an abusive lover.
If you can't tell yet, the foreshadowing starts to flow in like water through a hole an iceberg might leave in the side of a ship… and yes, the American Dream just happens to be an EXACT replica of the Titanic on the outside (surprise!)! What could possibly go wrong, right? But then we learn that "there were reports of an unknown aurora in the skies over this very sea; a strange, purplish-red fluorescence that—as far as we know— has never been documented before." Okay, well, don't forget the meteorites that are reported as well (or at least someone mentions them rather suddenly, but I couldn't find an actual report...)! So perhaps steering the ship even closer to the weird stuff they notice happening in the ocean near them wouldn't be the best idea? Aw, but what harm could a tiny look do? Cue screaming, dying and general eaten-by-the-sentient-oozeness! It becomes a survival situation where very few actually manage to do so, though we are given pretty clear "guidelines" if you will about who we are ultimately glad lives and who we aren't too disappointed to see doesn't. There's very little moral confusion for sure.
The terrified shouts and murmurs of the passengers join the wind in a symphony of terror.
Unfortunately for this book, which I still think has a ton of potential, the editing, well, it goes down with the ship. Literally. It is not good at all, with mistakes ranging from dozens upon dozens of tense disagreements, even within the same sentence; use of the wrong words (including the greatest sin of them all, namely confusion among "too" vs. "to"); punctuation errors; and the wrong names used on occasion. Blunt question: who is Shawn? Well, considering who was standing there before, it would seem to be Sean. Yeah, this shouldn't happen, particularly if you're not self-publishing! Advice: make sure to always have a total bastard in your beta-reading group!
That thing in there ripped its way out of a child’s throat.
But as I've seen from other books published by Raven Tale, this seems to be par for the course, that is, just letting the editing hiccups slide as long as the blood and offal is freely flowing. I mean, I know they're not the biggest operation, but it is a shame because when Jackson's writing is on, it's really on, and I would think he deserves a bit more support. He provides some passages with really clever and interesting formulations and overall I was impressed with his style. But then when things are off, well, again, the text kind of drowns in the mistakes. Yeah, shipwreck puns there, sorry, not enough room on the door for anything else. So anyway, if you can get past the execution issues and keep afloat, it's a fun read. Enjoy, Matey!
Vaughn A. Jackson's "Deepspore: Death Below The Sea" is an interesting creature feature that certainly holds enough horrors to satisfy any fans of Kaiju or other monstrous oceanic terrors. I almost picked his book "Up From the Deep" for this round of reading, but have recently had my fill of giant things with large, pointy teeth heading to the surface to devour anyone still stupid enough to hang around the area after said monster's first appearance. Luckily for me, the creature in question this time is an undefined "alien" of some kind, noting we're never sure that the meteors that fell before its appearance carried it to Earth from some far-away hellscape or merely awakened some ancient Terran beast from a deep slumber beneath the waves. Whatever the case may be, it's a nasty thing that isn't just satisfied to eat people and move on, it leaves them with agonizing injuries of the worst kind!
Its limbs branch out into the water, the burrowing roots of a cancer growing in the sea.
If I had to describe the book in a quick nutshell for the casual observer, I'd say it was definitely like the "Poseidon Adventure" that I remember everyone flocking to in the early 70s mixed with something like "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". And if you want, sprinkle in some "Love Boat" along with "Alien" and you're bound to get the picture. You should realize of course that there's some rather apparent comparatives with "Titanic" that also apply (wait for it!). In its essence, as a quickly read creepy crawlie tale of death, destruction and even redemption. So, I'll say it again, it's not a bad book.
Sounds of joy and horror blend together into a nauseating, discordant carnival of noise.
It all starts off with Sean (we'll get back to his name in a moment) having essentially shanghaied his fiancée Tessa onto a 2 week all-inclusive cruise through the Bering Sea. Now the location is important, because usually this is one of the most closely monitored areas in the world, for all the reasons that Sarah Palin has described before. The fact then that considering what happens over the following hours as this disaster befalls the American Dream that no one arrives to inspect what's happening was rather unbelievable to me. But then again, if the US, Canadian, or even Russian militaries showed up and started dropping nukes on things - because of reasons - the story would have been a lot shorter.
The jelloids climb from the water and onto the ship like a hundred translucent spiders in stop motion.
But back to Sean and Tessa: the reason Sean (again, hang on to that name) has literally tricked Tessa into coming is that she suffers from intense PTSD and survivor's guilt. Seems she and her sister, Julia, were scuba diving not long ago and wouldn't you know it, they went down too deep. Tessa is rescued but Julia perishes leaving the aforementioned Tessa, a former Olympic swimmer mind you, even too afraid to sit in a half-filled bathtub. So to the rescue comes dear, lunkheaded Sean who think a good dose of "exposure therapy" will cure what ails her. What follows then is a clusterfvck of unimaginary vastness, not the least of which is just how bad an idea this type of therapy is without agreement on all sides to try it out. Oh well, at least Tessa can relax in the opulent surroundings of the local oligarch's - Wesley Anker as in "sinks like an …." - pleasure liner along with all the other extremely drunk and sexually unleashed business guests. Party on, you poor doomed fools!
The creature works its writhing appendages over her carcass with a touch like an abusive lover.
If you can't tell yet, the foreshadowing starts to flow in like water through a hole an iceberg might leave in the side of a ship… and yes, the American Dream just happens to be an EXACT replica of the Titanic on the outside (surprise!)! What could possibly go wrong, right? But then we learn that "there were reports of an unknown aurora in the skies over this very sea; a strange, purplish-red fluorescence that—as far as we know— has never been documented before." Okay, well, don't forget the meteorites that are reported as well (or at least someone mentions them rather suddenly, but I couldn't find an actual report...)! So perhaps steering the ship even closer to the weird stuff they notice happening in the ocean near them wouldn't be the best idea? Aw, but what harm could a tiny look do? Cue screaming, dying and general eaten-by-the-sentient-oozeness! It becomes a survival situation where very few actually manage to do so, though we are given pretty clear "guidelines" if you will about who we are ultimately glad lives and who we aren't too disappointed to see doesn't. There's very little moral confusion for sure.
The terrified shouts and murmurs of the passengers join the wind in a symphony of terror.
Unfortunately for this book, which I still think has a ton of potential, the editing, well, it goes down with the ship. Literally. It is not good at all, with mistakes ranging from dozens upon dozens of tense disagreements, even within the same sentence; use of the wrong words (including the greatest sin of them all, namely confusion among "too" vs. "to"); punctuation errors; and the wrong names used on occasion. Blunt question: who is Shawn? Well, considering who was standing there before, it would seem to be Sean. Yeah, this shouldn't happen, particularly if you're not self-publishing! Advice: make sure to always have a total bastard in your beta-reading group!
That thing in there ripped its way out of a child’s throat.
But as I've seen from other books published by Raven Tale, this seems to be par for the course, that is, just letting the editing hiccups slide as long as the blood and offal is freely flowing. I mean, I know they're not the biggest operation, but it is a shame because when Jackson's writing is on, it's really on, and I would think he deserves a bit more support. He provides some passages with really clever and interesting formulations and overall I was impressed with his style. But then when things are off, well, again, the text kind of drowns in the mistakes. Yeah, shipwreck puns there, sorry, not enough room on the door for anything else. So anyway, if you can get past the execution issues and keep afloat, it's a fun read. Enjoy, Matey!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews