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Beneath the World, a Sea
South America, 1990. Ben Ronson, a British police officer, arrives in a mysterious forest to investigate a spate of killings of Duendes. These silent, vaguely humanoid creatures with long limbs and black button eyes have a strange psychic effect on people, unleashing the subconscious and exposing their innermost thoughts and fears. Ben becomes fascinated by the Duendes, but the closer he gets, the more he begins to unravel, with terrifying results. Beneath the World, A Sea is a tour de force of modern fiction—a deeply searching and unsettling novel about the human subconscious, and all that lies beneath.
288 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 4, 2019
47 people are currently reading
920 people want to read
About the author
Chris Beckett
106 books350 followersChris Beckett is a British social worker, university lecturer, and science fiction author.
Beckett was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford and Bryanston School in Dorset, England. He holds a BSc (Honours) in Psychology from the University of Bristol (1977), a CQSW from the University of Wales (1981), a Diploma in Advanced Social Work from Goldsmiths College, University of London (1977), and an MA in English Studies from Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge (2005).
He has been a senior lecturer in social work at APU since 2000. He was a social worker for eight years and the manager of a children and families social work team for ten years. Beckett has authored or co-authored several textbooks and scholarly articles on social work.
Beckett began writing SF short stories in 2005. His first SF novel, The Holy Machine, was published in 2007. He published his second novel in 2009, Marcher, based on a short story of the same name.
Paul Di Filippo reviewed The Holy Machine for Asimov's, calling it "One of the most accomplished novel debuts to attract my attention in some time..." Michael Levy of Strange Horizons called it "a beautifully written and deeply thoughtful tale about a would-be scientific utopia that has been bent sadly out of shape by both external and internal pressures." Tony Ballantyne wrote in Interzone: "Let’s waste no time: this book is incredible."
His latest novel, Dark Eden, was hailed by Stuart Kelly of The Guardian as "a superior piece of the theologically nuanced science fiction".
Dark Eden was shortlisted for the 2012 BSFA Award for Best Novel.
On 27 March 2013 it was announced that Julian Pavia at Broadway Books, part of the Crown Publishing Group, had acquired the US rights to Dark Eden and Gela's Ring from Michael Carlisle at Inkwell Management and Vanessa Kerr, Rights Director at Grove Atlantic in London, for a high five-figure sum (in US dollars).
Beckett comments on his official website: "Although I always wanted to be a writer, I did not deliberately set out to be a science fiction writer in particular. My stories are usually about my own life, things I see happening around me and things I struggle to make sense of. But, for some reason, they always end up being science fiction. I like the freedom it gives me to invent things and play with ideas. (If you going to make up the characters, why not make up the world as well?) It’s what works for me."
Beckett was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford and Bryanston School in Dorset, England. He holds a BSc (Honours) in Psychology from the University of Bristol (1977), a CQSW from the University of Wales (1981), a Diploma in Advanced Social Work from Goldsmiths College, University of London (1977), and an MA in English Studies from Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge (2005).
He has been a senior lecturer in social work at APU since 2000. He was a social worker for eight years and the manager of a children and families social work team for ten years. Beckett has authored or co-authored several textbooks and scholarly articles on social work.
Beckett began writing SF short stories in 2005. His first SF novel, The Holy Machine, was published in 2007. He published his second novel in 2009, Marcher, based on a short story of the same name.
Paul Di Filippo reviewed The Holy Machine for Asimov's, calling it "One of the most accomplished novel debuts to attract my attention in some time..." Michael Levy of Strange Horizons called it "a beautifully written and deeply thoughtful tale about a would-be scientific utopia that has been bent sadly out of shape by both external and internal pressures." Tony Ballantyne wrote in Interzone: "Let’s waste no time: this book is incredible."
His latest novel, Dark Eden, was hailed by Stuart Kelly of The Guardian as "a superior piece of the theologically nuanced science fiction".
Dark Eden was shortlisted for the 2012 BSFA Award for Best Novel.
On 27 March 2013 it was announced that Julian Pavia at Broadway Books, part of the Crown Publishing Group, had acquired the US rights to Dark Eden and Gela's Ring from Michael Carlisle at Inkwell Management and Vanessa Kerr, Rights Director at Grove Atlantic in London, for a high five-figure sum (in US dollars).
Beckett comments on his official website: "Although I always wanted to be a writer, I did not deliberately set out to be a science fiction writer in particular. My stories are usually about my own life, things I see happening around me and things I struggle to make sense of. But, for some reason, they always end up being science fiction. I like the freedom it gives me to invent things and play with ideas. (If you going to make up the characters, why not make up the world as well?) It’s what works for me."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 133 reviews
April 2, 2023
The world Chris Beckett creates in Beneath the World, a Sea is breathtaking in its ingenuity. The Zona de Olvido, a place where memory doesn’t exist, so that a person remembers only the before and after, not their journey through it. The Submundo Delta, a region with its own bizarre ecosystem, entirely distinct from everywhere else. Duendes, creatures like humanoid plants, with beady eyes and suckered hands, and a strange ability to make humans feel intense despair. The plot concerns a British policeman, Ben Ronson, journeying to the Delta, ostensibly to determine how to stop the locals killing duendes – a common and long-standing practice, but one that has become a problem now the duendes have been legally designated as people. But Ben soon finds that writing a mere report on the situation will be impossible. He is drawn deeply into the local community, becoming entangled with others who have visited the Delta and never left, repeatedly losing track of his original intentions and desires.
Every element of this unique setting is used to its full potential. The mind-altering qualities of the Zona and the Delta mean we can never be quite sure which aspects of a character represent their true self, and which are distorted. Encounters with locals and duendes serve to highlight Ben’s (and others’) naivety in believing outside-world values can be imposed on the region. And of course, the weird and wonderful plants and animals conjure up fascinating, colourful images that made the book feel like a place I wanted to keep returning to. I struggled sometimes with Ben, who is often unlikeable, but reflecting on it now (especially considering the ending), he’s the perfect guide. The whole point is that Ben is a morally ambiguous person – the reader is repeatedly invited to wonder exactly what he did in the Zona, just as Ben himself is terrified to open the notebooks he kept while travelling through it.
The setting is imprinted on my mind, and I relished the details of the characters’ lives and the insights we’re given by way of their revelatory experiences in the Delta. This is a book that feels both imaginative and fearless, a great combination for speculative fiction.
Every element of this unique setting is used to its full potential. The mind-altering qualities of the Zona and the Delta mean we can never be quite sure which aspects of a character represent their true self, and which are distorted. Encounters with locals and duendes serve to highlight Ben’s (and others’) naivety in believing outside-world values can be imposed on the region. And of course, the weird and wonderful plants and animals conjure up fascinating, colourful images that made the book feel like a place I wanted to keep returning to. I struggled sometimes with Ben, who is often unlikeable, but reflecting on it now (especially considering the ending), he’s the perfect guide. The whole point is that Ben is a morally ambiguous person – the reader is repeatedly invited to wonder exactly what he did in the Zona, just as Ben himself is terrified to open the notebooks he kept while travelling through it.
The setting is imprinted on my mind, and I relished the details of the characters’ lives and the insights we’re given by way of their revelatory experiences in the Delta. This is a book that feels both imaginative and fearless, a great combination for speculative fiction.
May 12, 2023
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Beneath The World, A Sea by Chris Beckett is a book I won through ReadersFirst, published by Corvus. And to be honest, Beneath the World, A Sea wouldn’t have been my first choice, because I don’t often go outside my comfort zone. I am so glad I did though, because I really enjoyed this book a lot!
Synopsis:
Beneath The World, A Sea by Chris Beckett is a story told mainly by Ben, the policeman. The story is also told from other people’s points of view as well, all connecting to Ben in one way or the other.
A number of people go on a journey to Submundo Delta, all with different missions and plans in mind. During this trip, they have to go through a place called Nus, where no one can remember their duration of their stay there.
In Submundo Delta, the people that live there are called Mundinos. However, there are also creatures that live in the forest, called duendes. And the duendes want to get closer to the Mundinos, which results in them getting killed vigorously.
Ben is sent there to investigate why the local people are killing the duendes. During his investigation, he meets different people and gets a chance to have some weird encounters with the duendes themselves.
My Thoughts of Beneath the World, A Sea:
Beneath the World, A Sea is very philosophical and deep science fiction, and definitely not for everyone. It touches on many topics, but mostly the topic of self-discovery. Who are we? Who are we really? How do we get to be the person we actually are? Are we hiding any hidden intentions? Are we just performing a play and not letting people see behind the curtain? What if there is a place we can truly be ourselves? And we don’t remember it after? Would we be murderers, or samaritans?
This book will make you wonder, all while maintaining the story and introducing interesting characters. Ben is trying to discover who he really is, Hyacinth seems to somehow know everything he’s about to experience, Rico has a relationship with the duendes like no one else, Jael is extremely smart but chose to do something else with her life, Justine had her heart broken and never had the courage to leave… Beneath the World, A Sea is a unique experience with fantastical elements in it. It is also very well written, with intriguing plot twists and a very unexpected ending. I especially loved the intrigue that involved a certain diary. It kept me hooked until the very end.
Even though a very unique and niche book that won’t appeal to all, I warmly recommend it, as I think this is the perfect book to get you out of your comfort zone and take you on a unique adventure.
Beneath The World, A Sea by Chris Beckett is a book I won through ReadersFirst, published by Corvus. And to be honest, Beneath the World, A Sea wouldn’t have been my first choice, because I don’t often go outside my comfort zone. I am so glad I did though, because I really enjoyed this book a lot!
Synopsis:
Beneath The World, A Sea by Chris Beckett is a story told mainly by Ben, the policeman. The story is also told from other people’s points of view as well, all connecting to Ben in one way or the other.
A number of people go on a journey to Submundo Delta, all with different missions and plans in mind. During this trip, they have to go through a place called Nus, where no one can remember their duration of their stay there.
In Submundo Delta, the people that live there are called Mundinos. However, there are also creatures that live in the forest, called duendes. And the duendes want to get closer to the Mundinos, which results in them getting killed vigorously.
Ben is sent there to investigate why the local people are killing the duendes. During his investigation, he meets different people and gets a chance to have some weird encounters with the duendes themselves.
My Thoughts of Beneath the World, A Sea:
Beneath the World, A Sea is very philosophical and deep science fiction, and definitely not for everyone. It touches on many topics, but mostly the topic of self-discovery. Who are we? Who are we really? How do we get to be the person we actually are? Are we hiding any hidden intentions? Are we just performing a play and not letting people see behind the curtain? What if there is a place we can truly be ourselves? And we don’t remember it after? Would we be murderers, or samaritans?
This book will make you wonder, all while maintaining the story and introducing interesting characters. Ben is trying to discover who he really is, Hyacinth seems to somehow know everything he’s about to experience, Rico has a relationship with the duendes like no one else, Jael is extremely smart but chose to do something else with her life, Justine had her heart broken and never had the courage to leave… Beneath the World, A Sea is a unique experience with fantastical elements in it. It is also very well written, with intriguing plot twists and a very unexpected ending. I especially loved the intrigue that involved a certain diary. It kept me hooked until the very end.
Even though a very unique and niche book that won’t appeal to all, I warmly recommend it, as I think this is the perfect book to get you out of your comfort zone and take you on a unique adventure.
March 30, 2019
This book wasn't necessarily bad but not exceptional either. It was just generally weird, it's hard to explain the concept of this book but a policeman goes to the Submundo Delta, which is inhabited by people, who were dumped there 150 years ago as well as the strange, original inhabitants the Duendes, which make people go crazy when you're near them. The people keep killing the Duendes and the policeman is sent there to try and stop it, but he then realises how hard that will actually be.
The writing was good and very descriptive which allowed you to get a wider understanding of the story, however, the writing also went off on a lot of tangents which made the book feel as if it didn't have a plot at times and was a little bit confusing. The book finished at open-ended points for all the characters so I wonder if there will be a sequel of it will just be left open for judgement about what happens? The characters were very well developed and for the most part enjoyable to read about. I would definitely recommend this for sci-fi fans.
The writing was good and very descriptive which allowed you to get a wider understanding of the story, however, the writing also went off on a lot of tangents which made the book feel as if it didn't have a plot at times and was a little bit confusing. The book finished at open-ended points for all the characters so I wonder if there will be a sequel of it will just be left open for judgement about what happens? The characters were very well developed and for the most part enjoyable to read about. I would definitely recommend this for sci-fi fans.
May 4, 2023
3.5/5 stars
Unsure yet whether to round it up or down...
Beneath the Earth, A Sea is an unusual mix of sci-fi/speculative bio-fiction with a heaping helping of philosophy and sociological theory. If that all sounds quite high-brow; you’re right. I feel like that’s largely what makes this such a polarizing read, and I’m not completely sure where I fall on that spectrum myself yet.
On the one hand I liked the themes the author explored, I loved the prose and the imagery (seriously, the Zona is one of the most beautifully described fictional environments I’ve read about in a long time), and I liked the way that character-exploration was interwoven with those elements. It helps that I’m personally interested in topics like anthropology/psychology; if you’re not, you might want to skip this one.
My biggest complaint was the lack of subtlety. From a very early point, it’s clear what part the Zona and the Duendes will play as a story-device. Yet I felt like the author didn’t completely trust me to get the allegory, so decided to smack me over the head with it several more times. Maybe it would’ve helped if the story had been 50 pages shorter, cutting out a few repetitions. The references, especially relevant placenames, also could’ve been a little less on the nose. “The Submundo”, with the river “The Lethe” running through it… Yes Chris, we get the Greek Mythology reference, and we get you went to grammar school…
Overall: interesting, but a little too “inward focused” for me, to the point where it almost becomes self-indulgent. Letting it sit with me for a little while so I can better articulate that feeling in a more structured review.
Unsure yet whether to round it up or down...
Beneath the Earth, A Sea is an unusual mix of sci-fi/speculative bio-fiction with a heaping helping of philosophy and sociological theory. If that all sounds quite high-brow; you’re right. I feel like that’s largely what makes this such a polarizing read, and I’m not completely sure where I fall on that spectrum myself yet.
On the one hand I liked the themes the author explored, I loved the prose and the imagery (seriously, the Zona is one of the most beautifully described fictional environments I’ve read about in a long time), and I liked the way that character-exploration was interwoven with those elements. It helps that I’m personally interested in topics like anthropology/psychology; if you’re not, you might want to skip this one.
My biggest complaint was the lack of subtlety. From a very early point, it’s clear what part the Zona and the Duendes will play as a story-device. Yet I felt like the author didn’t completely trust me to get the allegory, so decided to smack me over the head with it several more times. Maybe it would’ve helped if the story had been 50 pages shorter, cutting out a few repetitions. The references, especially relevant placenames, also could’ve been a little less on the nose. “The Submundo”, with the river “The Lethe” running through it… Yes Chris, we get the Greek Mythology reference, and we get you went to grammar school…
Overall: interesting, but a little too “inward focused” for me, to the point where it almost becomes self-indulgent. Letting it sit with me for a little while so I can better articulate that feeling in a more structured review.
March 27, 2019
I will say it, Chris Beckett writes such weird books! But good! But seriously weird. They are so hard to explain.
Right...ok so this cop goes to a strange place in South America. People were dumped there 150 years ago. There are also some strange creatures and the UN wants to protect them. Also if you go there you lose your memory for awhile. And you have no idea what you did then...
This place is so weird. The strange Duende brings our the worst in humans. Near them every thought in your head screams at you and that is why people kill them on sight. Every dark thought you ever had comes forward.
It is surreal, like being on drugs. It is not a place I would want to visit and it messes with everyone. But it is fascinating. A corner of the world not explained. Like what are the Duendes. How does this weird place work?
It is a good, but strange book. And the poor cop soon realises that stopping these murders wont be easy, or even possible. I liked the doubts he had and how he wanted to know during those lost days.
I have never read anything like it. He does write the weirdest books.
Right...ok so this cop goes to a strange place in South America. People were dumped there 150 years ago. There are also some strange creatures and the UN wants to protect them. Also if you go there you lose your memory for awhile. And you have no idea what you did then...
This place is so weird. The strange Duende brings our the worst in humans. Near them every thought in your head screams at you and that is why people kill them on sight. Every dark thought you ever had comes forward.
It is surreal, like being on drugs. It is not a place I would want to visit and it messes with everyone. But it is fascinating. A corner of the world not explained. Like what are the Duendes. How does this weird place work?
It is a good, but strange book. And the poor cop soon realises that stopping these murders wont be easy, or even possible. I liked the doubts he had and how he wanted to know during those lost days.
I have never read anything like it. He does write the weirdest books.
May 12, 2019
Chris Beckett hat mit DARK EDEN eines meiner persönlichen Highlights der letzten Jahre geschrieben. Nachdem sein letzter Roman AMERICA CITY einen eher konventionelleren Setting gespielt hat (einer USA der nahen Zukunft, geprägt von den Folgen des Klimawandels), führt er uns in in seinem neuen Werk in eine Welt, die ähnlich fremdartig und surreal ist, wie sie Eden war. Diesmal befinden wir uns nicht auf einem fernen Planeten, sondern in ein Südamerika der 1990er-Jahre, in einem abgelegenen Flussdelta inmitten eines von fremdartiger Fauna und Flora geprägten Urwalds. Dort leben menschliche Siedler und mysteriöse Wesen, welche unangenehme psychische Auswirkungen auf den Menschen haben. Um dort hinzugelangen, muss der Reisende eine tagelange Bootsfahrt unternehmen und hierbei auch die „Zona de Olvido“ durchqueren. Nach dem Verlassen der Zone verschwinden die Erinnerungen an alle Erlebnisse während des Aufenthaltes dort.
Dies ist kein action-lastiger Page-Turner, sondern ein poetischer und in Teilen verstörender Roman, der Fragen über den Menschen aufwirft und nach dem, was diesen im tiefsten Inneren antreibt. Was würdest Du tun, wenn Du wüsstest, dass weder Du noch irgendjemand anderes sich an das erinnern wird, was in den nächsten Stunden passiert???
Dies ist kein action-lastiger Page-Turner, sondern ein poetischer und in Teilen verstörender Roman, der Fragen über den Menschen aufwirft und nach dem, was diesen im tiefsten Inneren antreibt. Was würdest Du tun, wenn Du wüsstest, dass weder Du noch irgendjemand anderes sich an das erinnern wird, was in den nächsten Stunden passiert???
May 15, 2020
this book was very surreal but felt something was missing but did make you think though but also felt that the novel was a slow mover too
November 27, 2020
Just as I feel I must buy a grocery item if I've touched it these days, I am also obligated to borrow any library book I touch. Given that library browsing slots give me 15 minutes to choose a stack of books, my novel-choosing heuristics are: semi-familiar author, appealing cover, and/or on the new acquisition shelf. 'Beneath the World, a Sea' met all three criteria. It was on the new book shelf, looked attractive, and I recognised Chris Beckett's name as I've read America City, (which had interesting ideas but a rather flat narrative). My heuristics served me well, as I really loved 'Beneath the World, a Sea'. I can be stingy with five star ratings and struggle to articulate what exactly takes a novel from four to five stars from me. It tends to be some sort of emotional affinity, as I give plenty of excellent books four. In this case, the setting, themes, and narration were all exceedingly appealing. 'Beneath the World, a Sea' (which is also wonderfully titled) is set in a weird, isolated South American forest community. I adore spatially specific weirdness of this kind and was pleased to be reminded of Annihilation and Infinite Ground. The latter is an especially apposite comparison, as 'Beneath the World, a Sea' also begins with a police investigation before developing in much more existential directions.
The protagonist, Ben Ronson, is a London police officer sent to the Submundo Delta to investigate the mass killing of native creatures called Duendes. To reach the Submundo, he and everyone else travelling there must spend several days in the Zona, a space of forgetting. Thus everyone arrives at the Submundo disorientated by a gap in their memory, to find the peculiar flora and fauna of the place have a powerful psychological effect. In the vicinity of Duendes, people become overwhelmed by all the thoughts that they would normally repress. The geographical isolation of the Submundo also creates a peculiar intimacy between its expat residents, which makes it easy to perceive the truths of others without enabling similarly acute self-perception. Beckett's writing manages the clever trick of being evocative without a great deal of description. The dialogue and streams of consciousness help to create a vivid and distinctive atmosphere throughout. I found the place beguiling and fascinating.
It was also very nice to read a book set in 1990. That's recent enough not to require much adjustment for historical events and attitudes, yet also a time before the internet and mobile phones made us perpetually accessible to each other. The Submundo is physically and thus informationally isolated from the rest of the world, although various characters discuss how this could be changed. One proposes to build a monorail, which would traverse the Zona and widen the life opportunities of the Mundinos. These are the descendents of South American people dumped in the Submundo by colonial intruders in the 1860s. They established themselves in villages around the delt, creating a religion unique to the place. One of the main characters is an anthropologist who studies their ways of life, which include killing Duendes. Via this anthropologist and others, the narrative considers colonialism and financial neo-colonialism in an interesting and subtle way.
Although there are several intriguing themes of this kind, the questions at the core of the book are more philosophical and concern the sense of self. I absolutely love it when what could have been a criminal investigation plot turns into something far weirder and more existential. This is quite often attempted, but can be difficult to pull off. Beckett subverted my expectations brilliantly and turned Ben Ronson the upright cop into a fascinating character, who is essentially investigating himself:
The Submundo could be an analogy for various different things, yet I also appreciated it as a throwback to Victorian tales of strange undisturbed places that Western minds can't cope with. Beckett combines elements of those stories with sci-fi and contemporary psychological insight, to brilliant effect.
The protagonist, Ben Ronson, is a London police officer sent to the Submundo Delta to investigate the mass killing of native creatures called Duendes. To reach the Submundo, he and everyone else travelling there must spend several days in the Zona, a space of forgetting. Thus everyone arrives at the Submundo disorientated by a gap in their memory, to find the peculiar flora and fauna of the place have a powerful psychological effect. In the vicinity of Duendes, people become overwhelmed by all the thoughts that they would normally repress. The geographical isolation of the Submundo also creates a peculiar intimacy between its expat residents, which makes it easy to perceive the truths of others without enabling similarly acute self-perception. Beckett's writing manages the clever trick of being evocative without a great deal of description. The dialogue and streams of consciousness help to create a vivid and distinctive atmosphere throughout. I found the place beguiling and fascinating.
It was also very nice to read a book set in 1990. That's recent enough not to require much adjustment for historical events and attitudes, yet also a time before the internet and mobile phones made us perpetually accessible to each other. The Submundo is physically and thus informationally isolated from the rest of the world, although various characters discuss how this could be changed. One proposes to build a monorail, which would traverse the Zona and widen the life opportunities of the Mundinos. These are the descendents of South American people dumped in the Submundo by colonial intruders in the 1860s. They established themselves in villages around the delt, creating a religion unique to the place. One of the main characters is an anthropologist who studies their ways of life, which include killing Duendes. Via this anthropologist and others, the narrative considers colonialism and financial neo-colonialism in an interesting and subtle way.
Although there are several intriguing themes of this kind, the questions at the core of the book are more philosophical and concern the sense of self. I absolutely love it when what could have been a criminal investigation plot turns into something far weirder and more existential. This is quite often attempted, but can be difficult to pull off. Beckett subverted my expectations brilliantly and turned Ben Ronson the upright cop into a fascinating character, who is essentially investigating himself:
The forest had crept into him. Last night it had been hard to let it in, knowing that it was about to be taken from him, but somehow this morning it had crept back in. Being Ben Ronson didn't seem so important now, with these big spiral leaves hanging down all around him, those quivering white helices opening their crimson mouths... And what was Ben Ronson anyway? He imagined a kind of web which linked up objects out there in the world with memories and nodes of feeling in long branching chains. At any particular moment almost all of this web was in darkness, and if he had a self at all, it was a kind of spotlight that swept back and forth through these hundreds of millions of branching chains, searching for some kind of meaning, some kind of sense that he was connected to something he wanted.
The Submundo could be an analogy for various different things, yet I also appreciated it as a throwback to Victorian tales of strange undisturbed places that Western minds can't cope with. Beckett combines elements of those stories with sci-fi and contemporary psychological insight, to brilliant effect.
April 4, 2019
I was absolutely drawn in by the cover of this book as it is so unusual, as it turns out the story itself is equally unique. The journey I went on as a reader was incredible and unbelievable and had me questioning the dark thoughts people can have. I found the description of the world really helpful, but repetitive in parts and felt that the multiple viewpoints were a little confusing at times. However, the characters developed well in my opinion and I particularly liked how we learnt more about Rico (and he learnt more about himself) at the story went on. I wouldn't recommend this as a light read, but more for people who are interested in a really thought-provoking premise that is, at times, quite a terrifying prospect.
March 26, 2019
Something truly unexpected here, both philosophical and deeply weird. Beckett has a pleasing ability to allow the reader to make their own conclusions, as we learn few FACTS in this books, but the journey is glorious all the same. The characters and their journeys I found captivating and how they interacted with their extraordinary surroundings. A very interesting read indeed.
October 15, 2019
I can’t tell you how excited I was to discover this book. Like many other reviewers, I was initially pulled in by the magnificent cover but stayed for the promise of unconscious mind exploration: exactly what I love to read.
A policeman is called to investigate a number of killings in the Submundo Delta: a highly unusual but naturally occurring basin in South America. To reach it he must travel by boat through the Zona del Olvido: a region people forget the instant they leave it, including everything they did there. (Just like sleep, I thought. A gateway to the unconscious.) But the creatures that are being killed aren’t people. Not exactly…
The Duendes are a beautifully original idea. Among so many imaginings in contemporary novels of what could exist in city life and technology, it’s refreshing to find such visions of the natural world and biology. Back to our roots, it seems was Beckett’s intention. I pictured the creatures as a kind of amphibious pixie. Whenever they are near, you find your innermost fears and urges exposed. Would that be embarrassing or freeing?
Beneath the World, a Sea feels distinctly Ballardian, with its resort community, strange crime and hidden motives; but it is in equal part a meditation on the nature of consciousness and all the things that lurk beneath the surface of our being. The clever thing about Ballard is that his language actually touches something in the unconscious, pulling the reader asunder and making us feel unnerved or conflicted or dark. The Duendes go some way to matching that, I think. But, because this book has so much to say, its philosophy is sometimes at the expense of such absorbing storytelling techniques. There are long passages of discussion that break the flow of scenes, and although the characters have backstories, they lack the emotional connection that makes readers care what happens to them. The policeman in particular, who is given most ‘airtime’, could drive the narrative a lot more if we felt involved in his plight. Rico, a psychonaut who has delved deeper and deeper into his mind over the years, and Jael, an ex-scientist, are the most interesting to me, but even they feel as though they were mere devices.
The philosophical aspect of Beneath the World, a Sea, however, is spot on. It’s very accessible, and it raises some fundamental questions that have become buried in the unconscious: things we take for granted such as personhood, morality and values. Things we can only see for what they are if we step out of our usual mode of being. All of our lives are built around our collective values and feed back into the echo chamber over and over. Are we the same people when removed from that? Does that scare us?
‘That’s where our civilization has come to,’ Jael said. ‘Consciousness is an illusion! We’re so alienated from our own natures that we deny the reality of the one and only thing that we can know for certain definitely exists, while insisting on the reality of constructs like, for instance, so-called quarks whose supposedly objective existence can only be demonstrated by a long chain of abstract reasoning that ninety-nine per cent of human beings are unable to follow. Talk about fucking alienation!’
The Submundo Delta might not exist in reality, but it seems reasonable to compare it to the experiences people have when attending Ayahuasca ceremonies: life-changing and eye-opening, but not necessarily something you’d want to indulge in for any great duration. And like our native communities who use Ayahuasca, there is a tribe in the book – the Mundino people – who have built a religion around the strange properties of the basin. This led me to ponder how ritualisation and cultural tradition alters our perception of morality.
Although he opens up conflicting ideas about consciousness, Beckett doesn’t force a conclusion upon the reader, and I like that. It means we are left to decide how and if we want to apply this strangeness to our own worldviews, in much the same way as his characters are.
In summary, I really enjoyed Beneath the World, a Sea. It was wonderful to see metaphysical topics being introduced into mainstream fiction, and pitted against science as a valid way of interpreting the human experience. The world itself, with the magenta trees, bluebirds, siren song waters and caves made from roots, was stunning and I will remember it for a long time. The Duendes and the Zona del Olvido made a lasting impression, too. The characters and plot, unfortunately not so much. I nonetheless recommend this novel to anyone with a penchant for the unusual and the big questions in life.
A policeman is called to investigate a number of killings in the Submundo Delta: a highly unusual but naturally occurring basin in South America. To reach it he must travel by boat through the Zona del Olvido: a region people forget the instant they leave it, including everything they did there. (Just like sleep, I thought. A gateway to the unconscious.) But the creatures that are being killed aren’t people. Not exactly…
The Duendes are a beautifully original idea. Among so many imaginings in contemporary novels of what could exist in city life and technology, it’s refreshing to find such visions of the natural world and biology. Back to our roots, it seems was Beckett’s intention. I pictured the creatures as a kind of amphibious pixie. Whenever they are near, you find your innermost fears and urges exposed. Would that be embarrassing or freeing?
Beneath the World, a Sea feels distinctly Ballardian, with its resort community, strange crime and hidden motives; but it is in equal part a meditation on the nature of consciousness and all the things that lurk beneath the surface of our being. The clever thing about Ballard is that his language actually touches something in the unconscious, pulling the reader asunder and making us feel unnerved or conflicted or dark. The Duendes go some way to matching that, I think. But, because this book has so much to say, its philosophy is sometimes at the expense of such absorbing storytelling techniques. There are long passages of discussion that break the flow of scenes, and although the characters have backstories, they lack the emotional connection that makes readers care what happens to them. The policeman in particular, who is given most ‘airtime’, could drive the narrative a lot more if we felt involved in his plight. Rico, a psychonaut who has delved deeper and deeper into his mind over the years, and Jael, an ex-scientist, are the most interesting to me, but even they feel as though they were mere devices.
The philosophical aspect of Beneath the World, a Sea, however, is spot on. It’s very accessible, and it raises some fundamental questions that have become buried in the unconscious: things we take for granted such as personhood, morality and values. Things we can only see for what they are if we step out of our usual mode of being. All of our lives are built around our collective values and feed back into the echo chamber over and over. Are we the same people when removed from that? Does that scare us?
‘That’s where our civilization has come to,’ Jael said. ‘Consciousness is an illusion! We’re so alienated from our own natures that we deny the reality of the one and only thing that we can know for certain definitely exists, while insisting on the reality of constructs like, for instance, so-called quarks whose supposedly objective existence can only be demonstrated by a long chain of abstract reasoning that ninety-nine per cent of human beings are unable to follow. Talk about fucking alienation!’
The Submundo Delta might not exist in reality, but it seems reasonable to compare it to the experiences people have when attending Ayahuasca ceremonies: life-changing and eye-opening, but not necessarily something you’d want to indulge in for any great duration. And like our native communities who use Ayahuasca, there is a tribe in the book – the Mundino people – who have built a religion around the strange properties of the basin. This led me to ponder how ritualisation and cultural tradition alters our perception of morality.
Although he opens up conflicting ideas about consciousness, Beckett doesn’t force a conclusion upon the reader, and I like that. It means we are left to decide how and if we want to apply this strangeness to our own worldviews, in much the same way as his characters are.
In summary, I really enjoyed Beneath the World, a Sea. It was wonderful to see metaphysical topics being introduced into mainstream fiction, and pitted against science as a valid way of interpreting the human experience. The world itself, with the magenta trees, bluebirds, siren song waters and caves made from roots, was stunning and I will remember it for a long time. The Duendes and the Zona del Olvido made a lasting impression, too. The characters and plot, unfortunately not so much. I nonetheless recommend this novel to anyone with a penchant for the unusual and the big questions in life.
April 1, 2019
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.
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.
November 3, 2019
I'm not entirely sure what I read. I can't remember why it's set in 1990.
Basically, it's about a place in South America only accessible by boat. What happens in the Zona stays in the Zona, because once people leave it they are unable to remember what happened while they were there.
Duendes are humanoid creatures that do something telepathically to make people feel all their worst insecurities. Yet some people seem more at home among duendes than they do among their fellow humans.
It's a vibrant, colourful world...yet I couldn't connect to it because I didn't understand it. Suspension of disbelief only goes so far, I guess. I still intend to read the author's backlist and future publications, though.
Basically, it's about a place in South America only accessible by boat. What happens in the Zona stays in the Zona, because once people leave it they are unable to remember what happened while they were there.
Duendes are humanoid creatures that do something telepathically to make people feel all their worst insecurities. Yet some people seem more at home among duendes than they do among their fellow humans.
It's a vibrant, colourful world...yet I couldn't connect to it because I didn't understand it. Suspension of disbelief only goes so far, I guess. I still intend to read the author's backlist and future publications, though.
June 28, 2019
Bizarre and Unprecedented
The Submundo Delta is unlike anywhere else on Earth. The forest floor is made up of tree roots, tangled together over the sea to make up a landmass, the foliage is magenta and the creatures are unrecognisable. When English police-officer, Ben, arrives at the Delta to investigate the deaths of a group of local creatures only recently deemed persons, he discovers that the forest has strange and enticing power.
This book is written in a very interesting and unprecedented way. It is not story driven, which I believe puts a lot of people off, but which I actually found very interesting. It is a book of world building and concept building, which does not, in my opinion, need to rely on a strong storyline. Beckett introduces a variety of characters and with their backgrounds, shows the Delta through their eyes and explores their psychological journeys. The setting is, in a way, the whole story. The way that the Delta effects people differers, and each person's experience shows a different aspect of humanity, psychology, compassion, logic, etc.
I love the concept of the Zona, an area which you cannot remember once you have left. The time spent there is erased from your memory as soon as you leave it's boundaries, meaning that in the Zona people find themselves free to do whatever they wish, knowing that they will not have to live with any consequences, even so little as the memory of having done it. Ben is convinced of the idea that the Ben who was in the Zona is not the one who lives outside of it, and is terrorised by the idea of what he may have done when he knew he wouldn't remember.
This book made me think a lot about what it means to be human, whether or not we should let fears be part of our decision making, and whether we as humans really have a right to take what we want, accessing remote areas regardless of how it effects local communities and habitats.
The conceptual nature of this book was done very well, right up until the last 50 pages or so. At that point I felt that it began to unravel, and unfortunately it stopped working for me. I get that the forest was working it's magic on Ben, and so he is meant to be getting more theoretical and less literal, but by the end I just found his chapters to be unreadable messes, more abstract than interesting. I get what Beckett was going for, I really do, I just didn't enjoy his execution of it. There was one sequence for instance that gave me a flashback to the video game scene in the film of The Beach, which is not a compliment coming from me.
Overall, I loved the general setup of the book, and the characters were each fascinatingly flawed. The delta was beautifully crafted, and I enjoyed all of the amazing descriptions of the otherworldly foliage and fauna. It's exciting to imagine somewhere on Earth being so different and other. I would say around the middle of the book I would give it 3.75 stars, but by the end, 3 stars.
The Submundo Delta is unlike anywhere else on Earth. The forest floor is made up of tree roots, tangled together over the sea to make up a landmass, the foliage is magenta and the creatures are unrecognisable. When English police-officer, Ben, arrives at the Delta to investigate the deaths of a group of local creatures only recently deemed persons, he discovers that the forest has strange and enticing power.
This book is written in a very interesting and unprecedented way. It is not story driven, which I believe puts a lot of people off, but which I actually found very interesting. It is a book of world building and concept building, which does not, in my opinion, need to rely on a strong storyline. Beckett introduces a variety of characters and with their backgrounds, shows the Delta through their eyes and explores their psychological journeys. The setting is, in a way, the whole story. The way that the Delta effects people differers, and each person's experience shows a different aspect of humanity, psychology, compassion, logic, etc.
I love the concept of the Zona, an area which you cannot remember once you have left. The time spent there is erased from your memory as soon as you leave it's boundaries, meaning that in the Zona people find themselves free to do whatever they wish, knowing that they will not have to live with any consequences, even so little as the memory of having done it. Ben is convinced of the idea that the Ben who was in the Zona is not the one who lives outside of it, and is terrorised by the idea of what he may have done when he knew he wouldn't remember.
This book made me think a lot about what it means to be human, whether or not we should let fears be part of our decision making, and whether we as humans really have a right to take what we want, accessing remote areas regardless of how it effects local communities and habitats.
The conceptual nature of this book was done very well, right up until the last 50 pages or so. At that point I felt that it began to unravel, and unfortunately it stopped working for me. I get that the forest was working it's magic on Ben, and so he is meant to be getting more theoretical and less literal, but by the end I just found his chapters to be unreadable messes, more abstract than interesting. I get what Beckett was going for, I really do, I just didn't enjoy his execution of it. There was one sequence for instance that gave me a flashback to the video game scene in the film of The Beach, which is not a compliment coming from me.
Overall, I loved the general setup of the book, and the characters were each fascinatingly flawed. The delta was beautifully crafted, and I enjoyed all of the amazing descriptions of the otherworldly foliage and fauna. It's exciting to imagine somewhere on Earth being so different and other. I would say around the middle of the book I would give it 3.75 stars, but by the end, 3 stars.
May 1, 2019
A very strange, unsatisfying book that leaves way too many things unanswered and unexplained and with unrelatable, unlikable characters that are at best uninteresting, at worst annoying as hell to read about. There are some unsatisfying parts about, I guess, internalised biphobia and colonialism/white people telling other kinda indigenous people to just go with the times and move away while they're at it.
The main thing about this book though is how frustrating the ending is. There's neither an explanation about the wondrous world we've been introduced to nor about the lost time of the MCs or their future. Also all those fucked up straight relationships? Boring af
The main thing about this book though is how frustrating the ending is. There's neither an explanation about the wondrous world we've been introduced to nor about the lost time of the MCs or their future. Also all those fucked up straight relationships? Boring af
dnf
April 13, 2024dnf @ pg. 45
this is just giving me really weird vibes and i'm not here for it
this is just giving me really weird vibes and i'm not here for it
July 19, 2025
This is not a story, this is a description of a place. In this place (isolated via a memory air-lock) people and entities are described and the details of this location are laid out (colonialist, jungle, and a mythology). The people are all interconnected in their histories, which are slowly laid out.
The key element of this place is the fact that people’s minds are laid bare, and nothing really gets achieved. So it is with this book.
“There was a reason for people being predisposed to accept things at face value. It kept you away from sinking into that deep well, that pit, each layer cancelling the last, descending downwards into meaninglessness.”
The key element of this place is the fact that people’s minds are laid bare, and nothing really gets achieved. So it is with this book.
“There was a reason for people being predisposed to accept things at face value. It kept you away from sinking into that deep well, that pit, each layer cancelling the last, descending downwards into meaninglessness.”
December 24, 2022
A jewel of character design and point of view in a cushion of original and fascinating world
February 22, 2021
Economical, imaginative, deeply psychologically probing, with wit and style. Like Graham Green exploring a China Meiville travelscape.
June 16, 2019
3.5
Very easy reading and some chapters designed, it seems, purely for self reflection of the world as general. But very decent.
The zona has similarities to Roadside Picnic and Southern Reach but the intrigue to me didn't last so long. Whereas those kept me hooked throughout, I thought this petered out a little towards the ending, which in itself was open ended and decent just without a hook to elevate it higher than my rating.
Well worth a read.
Very easy reading and some chapters designed, it seems, purely for self reflection of the world as general. But very decent.
The zona has similarities to Roadside Picnic and Southern Reach but the intrigue to me didn't last so long. Whereas those kept me hooked throughout, I thought this petered out a little towards the ending, which in itself was open ended and decent just without a hook to elevate it higher than my rating.
Well worth a read.
January 29, 2020
Chris Beckett has an amazing talent for creating natural, weird, alien worlds which are utterly immersive and believable. No technology, no ‘science’ just strange ecosystems. And then he puts us humans in these places and carefully documents how we get on. There are no rip roaring plots, no ticking clocks, things move calmly, slowly, like his slow rivers, and yet I’m always gripped.
November 14, 2021
A book, a bookshop
Ostend, Belgium’s most fascinating seaside resort, has a new bookshop. After three years as a second-hand bookshop-pop-up in a very small space in the Ritz garage (more a big shop window than a real space), De Witte Zee moved to bigger premises next to the Casino, very close the the seaside. I started buying books there when I noticed they always had a small but very good selection of English books, often of to me unknown authors but beautifully edited. I could add a few names to my list like that, and I made a habit of coming in whenever I was in the neighbourhood.
Since the move it also started selling new books, and they offer a very good selection with lots of interesting titels and beautiful books. During one of my last visits I discovered this book, by Chris Beckett, a SF author, until then completely unkown to me. I was an avid reader of SF when young, but when I finished university I had the impression of having read all SF that was worth the trouble, and I started my attack on the literary classics. So it was a long time ago that I bought my last Science Fiction novel. Here it was the mention of the author having won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (and that is quite a name in SF land) and my recent re-reading of the Dune and Foundation books, that made me grab it. It is quite strange that what was so popular in my youth now seems to come back into fashion, but as far as Science Fiction is involved, I can only applaud that.
The book is about an unkown part of our world that can only be reached via the Zone, an area where we do things we will never remember, as leaving the zone seems to wipe the slate of our emories involved, and that is inhabited by Duendes, a very strange species that is able to influence people’s mind in the most strange ways, so disturbing that the inhabitants try to kill them whenever they can. When a British Police Officer is sent over to investigate and stop these killings, he is so touched by the strange atmosfere that he himself gets into trouble. It is a strange book, well written and with a fascinating storyline, but it also seems to be unfinished, almost as if the author wanted to keep enough material for the next volumes, but it left me a bit unsatisfied.
When I went to pay for the book the owner said to me that she was happy that I bought it. She had herself been struck by the cover and the story, and without having read it herself she thought it would definitely be something for some of her customers. Now, this is what I like about a good bookshop: that there are bookshops that still go into this effort. You could fill a bigger bookshop than this with contemporary Science Fiction, but somehow Eva Cox thought that this book was a good one for clients like me. I am happy I bought it, happy I read it, and especially happy that there is another bookshop that puts books like this on my path. So whenever you are in Ostend, pass by, and buy a book: the survival of bookshops like these depend on us, the readers.
Ostend, Belgium’s most fascinating seaside resort, has a new bookshop. After three years as a second-hand bookshop-pop-up in a very small space in the Ritz garage (more a big shop window than a real space), De Witte Zee moved to bigger premises next to the Casino, very close the the seaside. I started buying books there when I noticed they always had a small but very good selection of English books, often of to me unknown authors but beautifully edited. I could add a few names to my list like that, and I made a habit of coming in whenever I was in the neighbourhood.
Since the move it also started selling new books, and they offer a very good selection with lots of interesting titels and beautiful books. During one of my last visits I discovered this book, by Chris Beckett, a SF author, until then completely unkown to me. I was an avid reader of SF when young, but when I finished university I had the impression of having read all SF that was worth the trouble, and I started my attack on the literary classics. So it was a long time ago that I bought my last Science Fiction novel. Here it was the mention of the author having won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (and that is quite a name in SF land) and my recent re-reading of the Dune and Foundation books, that made me grab it. It is quite strange that what was so popular in my youth now seems to come back into fashion, but as far as Science Fiction is involved, I can only applaud that.
The book is about an unkown part of our world that can only be reached via the Zone, an area where we do things we will never remember, as leaving the zone seems to wipe the slate of our emories involved, and that is inhabited by Duendes, a very strange species that is able to influence people’s mind in the most strange ways, so disturbing that the inhabitants try to kill them whenever they can. When a British Police Officer is sent over to investigate and stop these killings, he is so touched by the strange atmosfere that he himself gets into trouble. It is a strange book, well written and with a fascinating storyline, but it also seems to be unfinished, almost as if the author wanted to keep enough material for the next volumes, but it left me a bit unsatisfied.
When I went to pay for the book the owner said to me that she was happy that I bought it. She had herself been struck by the cover and the story, and without having read it herself she thought it would definitely be something for some of her customers. Now, this is what I like about a good bookshop: that there are bookshops that still go into this effort. You could fill a bigger bookshop than this with contemporary Science Fiction, but somehow Eva Cox thought that this book was a good one for clients like me. I am happy I bought it, happy I read it, and especially happy that there is another bookshop that puts books like this on my path. So whenever you are in Ostend, pass by, and buy a book: the survival of bookshops like these depend on us, the readers.
March 16, 2024
Beneath the World, a Sea by Chris Beckett is a unique science fiction/fantasy novel.
I'll be honest, this book wasn't for me. I don't dip into sci-fi too often because I find I just don't enjoy those books all that much. Specifically, the writing style was what got me with this book. It's beautifully written, but it didn't connect with me. I was very confused on what was going on in the story and couldn't keep track. I wasn't engaged with the book, which was very disappointing. The cover is beautiful, the synopsis sounds intriguing, and it was recommended to me by a local indie book store. But, it didn't hold up.
I'm sure sci-fi lovers will eat this book up! There's so much this book has to offer with this dystopian story, and reminded me of the world that Avatar was building.
Overall, not good for me. I can honestly say it wasn't my type of book but it is a good book!
One out of five stars.
I'll be honest, this book wasn't for me. I don't dip into sci-fi too often because I find I just don't enjoy those books all that much. Specifically, the writing style was what got me with this book. It's beautifully written, but it didn't connect with me. I was very confused on what was going on in the story and couldn't keep track. I wasn't engaged with the book, which was very disappointing. The cover is beautiful, the synopsis sounds intriguing, and it was recommended to me by a local indie book store. But, it didn't hold up.
I'm sure sci-fi lovers will eat this book up! There's so much this book has to offer with this dystopian story, and reminded me of the world that Avatar was building.
Overall, not good for me. I can honestly say it wasn't my type of book but it is a good book!
One out of five stars.
August 9, 2023
After ages, I've decided to pick up a book in bookstore that I didn't hear about nor googled reviews online. My eye was simply caught by the beautiful cover and the plot sounded fascinating. I'm so grateful I bought this book, after a while it was a book that made feel as if I'm in the story myself. After taking a class on psychology of identity, this was a perfect book to read. Author dismantled the nature of human identity, question of who we could become without societal pressure or trauma, what makes us us and what even makes us human. At the end, I was left with a need for more answers but in the big picture, it doesn't matter. What matters is that I'm in need for more stories from this place 😩
April 26, 2020
A rather disturbing novel I think, and hard to describe. It's earth, and there is a region where the Duendes live, a humanoid species. They have the ability to unlock all your hidden thoughts, fears, and desires. They are also being hunted down and killed by the Mundinos, humans emigrated from South America. Ben Ronson is sent to investigate, but will he be able to do so?
November 25, 2021
oddly good
December 29, 2024
Nicely written and super interesting concept. But I can't help but feel a bit unsatisfied, like it was unfinished almost. There's a lot of unanswered questions and I get that's kind of "the point" but it almost felt like the author didn't really know the answers so left it as a mystery because they couldn't answer it. I guess it's a sign of compelling writing that I'm left wanting more, but frustrating when there is none.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 7, 2019
This book imagines a region -called the Submundo Delta - where the subconscious desires and conflicts that Freud taught us were beneath the surface of all our psyches, emerge to trouble its visitors. The chief character is Ben Ronson who, since he is a policeman whose job is to suppress criminal behaviour, is ideal material to represent psychological repression. Other characters include Judith, whose bourgeois boringness becomes horribly exposed, Hyacinth, a knowing anthropologist who is a useful source of explanations of what is going on, and Jael, an exceptionally intelligent and superior woman who uses her hippy boyfriend Rico to explore the hidden depths of the place, to the point at which Rico becomes almost a sacrificial victim to Jael’s rather icy desire for knowledge.
There is also a community of indigenous people whose emotional survival and way of life depends, first, on beliefs in a powerful local theology and, second, on killing the strange creatures from the watery deep who threaten the return of the repressed in whoever they approach. Ben the policeman, with Hyacinth’s help, comes to understand this murderous behaviour as necessary and ceases to condemn it, all the time troubled by his own inner conflicts which are mercilessly exposed by the magical atmosphere of the place. These conflicts, amongst other things, involve a suggested fascination with violence. At one point Chris Beckett suggests that the lifting of repression allows us to reconnect with an animistic world view, in which everything is alive. Another theme is a deep scepticism about the value of science, economic progress, and the motives of people who act as agents of globalised capitalism. Such people also visit the Delta and undergo varying levels of disturbance.
I found it an absorbing read. Like all of Chris Beckett’s books, it is strong on ideas. Occasionally I worry that the ideas overwhelm the storytelling aspect of the novel, with words put into characters’ mouths so that the reader can be informed of what is in the author’s (albeit very interesting) mind. But if you like strong world-building, challenging material and convincing, complex psychological exploration, this is the book for you.
I bought an author-signed copy this book at a book launch event in Cambridge.
There is also a community of indigenous people whose emotional survival and way of life depends, first, on beliefs in a powerful local theology and, second, on killing the strange creatures from the watery deep who threaten the return of the repressed in whoever they approach. Ben the policeman, with Hyacinth’s help, comes to understand this murderous behaviour as necessary and ceases to condemn it, all the time troubled by his own inner conflicts which are mercilessly exposed by the magical atmosphere of the place. These conflicts, amongst other things, involve a suggested fascination with violence. At one point Chris Beckett suggests that the lifting of repression allows us to reconnect with an animistic world view, in which everything is alive. Another theme is a deep scepticism about the value of science, economic progress, and the motives of people who act as agents of globalised capitalism. Such people also visit the Delta and undergo varying levels of disturbance.
I found it an absorbing read. Like all of Chris Beckett’s books, it is strong on ideas. Occasionally I worry that the ideas overwhelm the storytelling aspect of the novel, with words put into characters’ mouths so that the reader can be informed of what is in the author’s (albeit very interesting) mind. But if you like strong world-building, challenging material and convincing, complex psychological exploration, this is the book for you.
I bought an author-signed copy this book at a book launch event in Cambridge.
April 29, 2020
2.75/5 well I am confused and dissatisfied with this book, while understanding the idea behind it?
I would sum up this book with: weird deconstruction of characters in an alien-jungle isolated civilization. Yes it is very atmospheric and I appreciate the in-depth dive into Ben's character. It is suppose to be confusing because nobody understands the situation for real. The duendes are extremely interesting and I love the mixed culture in the Delta.
The thing is this book is extremely egocentric. The main character quickly abandons everything that has driven him in the beginning and falls apart. He was not established enough for me to care and his obsession with himself is ugh...So much so that I didn't care for any relationship or character. They are not likable at all. NONE of them. There is nearly no plot at all and the whole story left me extremely unsatisfied. I wanted to know about the weird world. I wanted the scientists to dive into the culture. I wanted to understand! I wanted to get a POV from Rico tbh. The synopsis was in my 0pinion misleading.
I feel like this story had so much potential as a sci-fi book, but turned out to be a pseudo-philosophical study of a man's character. While being very in depth in a character study it lacks plot, pace and overall depth. Ben's character should have been better established in the beginnig so we care. It wasn't
So this was greatly frustrating for me. I felt like DNFing it several times. It was interesting enough to continue reading in the end but it left me with a feeling: ok I've read 275 pages of this and that's it??
I don't feel enriched after reading this story. Just a bit: clearly I don't give a damn?!? *shrugs*
I would sum up this book with: weird deconstruction of characters in an alien-jungle isolated civilization. Yes it is very atmospheric and I appreciate the in-depth dive into Ben's character. It is suppose to be confusing because nobody understands the situation for real. The duendes are extremely interesting and I love the mixed culture in the Delta.
The thing is this book is extremely egocentric. The main character quickly abandons everything that has driven him in the beginning and falls apart. He was not established enough for me to care and his obsession with himself is ugh...So much so that I didn't care for any relationship or character. They are not likable at all. NONE of them. There is nearly no plot at all and the whole story left me extremely unsatisfied. I wanted to know about the weird world. I wanted the scientists to dive into the culture. I wanted to understand! I wanted to get a POV from Rico tbh. The synopsis was in my 0pinion misleading.
I feel like this story had so much potential as a sci-fi book, but turned out to be a pseudo-philosophical study of a man's character. While being very in depth in a character study it lacks plot, pace and overall depth. Ben's character should have been better established in the beginnig so we care. It wasn't
So this was greatly frustrating for me. I felt like DNFing it several times. It was interesting enough to continue reading in the end but it left me with a feeling: ok I've read 275 pages of this and that's it??
I don't feel enriched after reading this story. Just a bit: clearly I don't give a damn?!? *shrugs*
July 19, 2020
I grabbed a copy of this from the bookstore when starting my summer holidays because I craved something with a thick atmosphere of mystery and a general sense of weirdness. Also, the cover was really stylishly beautiful.
Beckett certainly delivered on the atmosphere - this is definitely a book that you should enjoy more as a trip into its surreal world than juicy characters or an astounding plot. But the characters were also interesting (like a BBC TV-drama cast) and the plot is there too.
Set in 1990, this is a David Lynch -style slice of alternate history where there is a small piece of totally outlandish delta in the Amazonas. The worldbuilding and mystery surrounding this "Area X" (yes, this is in many ways similar to Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation) is nicely intertwined with the main characters' journey and the plot that unfolds from that. The other big focus of the novel seems to be in exploring human relationships and our consciousness in its various forms, making this a heady mix of sci-fi and psychological thriller with some horror elements thrown in.
The writing's good but the last third of the story hastens to the conclusion a bit too early as to make it connect in a satisfying way, giving the impression that the ending was written in a bit of a haste. That's too bad, since it risks the novel becoming a Zona de Olvido (a place in the book where basically, what happens in Vegas *really* stays in Vegas) of its own in a way, where you enjoy the strange effect it has on you while reading it but at the end, you sort of forget about it after a while...
Because the truth is
Beckett certainly delivered on the atmosphere - this is definitely a book that you should enjoy more as a trip into its surreal world than juicy characters or an astounding plot. But the characters were also interesting (like a BBC TV-drama cast) and the plot is there too.
Set in 1990, this is a David Lynch -style slice of alternate history where there is a small piece of totally outlandish delta in the Amazonas. The worldbuilding and mystery surrounding this "Area X" (yes, this is in many ways similar to Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation) is nicely intertwined with the main characters' journey and the plot that unfolds from that. The other big focus of the novel seems to be in exploring human relationships and our consciousness in its various forms, making this a heady mix of sci-fi and psychological thriller with some horror elements thrown in.
The writing's good but the last third of the story hastens to the conclusion a bit too early as to make it connect in a satisfying way, giving the impression that the ending was written in a bit of a haste. That's too bad, since it risks the novel becoming a Zona de Olvido (a place in the book where basically, what happens in Vegas *really* stays in Vegas) of its own in a way, where you enjoy the strange effect it has on you while reading it but at the end, you sort of forget about it after a while...
Because the truth is
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