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The Luminous Dead: A Novel Paperback – April 2, 2019
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Bram Stoker Award nominee for Best First Novel!
"This claustrophobic, horror-leaning tour de force is highly recommended for fans of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation and Andy Weir’s The Martian." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
The thrilling, atmospheric debut from the author of The Death of Jane Lawrence, a novel with the intensive drive of The Martian and Gravity and the creeping dread of Annihilation, in which a caver on a foreign planet finds herself on a terrifying psychological and emotional journey for survival.
When Gyre Price lied her way into this expedition, she thought she’d be mapping mineral deposits, and that her biggest problems would be cave collapses and gear malfunctions. She also thought that the fat paycheck—enough to get her off-planet and on the trail of her mother—meant she’d get a skilled surface team, monitoring her suit and environment, keeping her safe. Keeping her sane.
Instead, she got Em.
Em sees nothing wrong with controlling Gyre’s body with drugs or withholding critical information to “ensure the smooth operation” of her expedition. Em knows all about Gyre’s falsified credentials, and has no qualms using them as a leash—and a lash. And Em has secrets, too . . .
As Gyre descends, little inconsistencies—missing supplies, unexpected changes in the route, and, worst of all, shifts in Em’s motivations—drive her out of her depths. Lost and disoriented, Gyre finds her sense of control giving way to paranoia and anger. On her own in this mysterious, deadly place, surrounded by darkness and the unknown, Gyre must overcome more than just the dangerous terrain and the Tunneler which calls underground its home if she wants to make it out alive—she must confront the ghosts in her own head.
But how come she can’t shake the feeling she’s being followed?
- Print length432 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarper Voyager
- Publication dateApril 2, 2019
- Dimensions5.31 x 0.97 x 8 inches
- ISBN-100062846906
- ISBN-13978-0062846907
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“This claustrophobic, horror-leaning tour de force is highly recommended for fans of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation and Andy Weir’s The Martian.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“The Luminous Dead, the fantastic horror sci-fi debut from Caitlin Starling [...] is a survival story in the vein of The Martian, with a psychological horror twist.” — B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog
“Ghostly, mysterious, and terrifying, The Luminous Dead will have you rooted to the spot until the very last page.” — Peng Shepherd, author of The Book of M
“This is a survival story, a psychological thriller, and some of the best SFnal horror I’ve ever read. It’s a hell of a debut, and I can’t wait to see what Starling does next.” — Locus Magazine
“A harrowing, merciless descent into the human psyche. Starling’s prose is breathtakingly cinematic and left me without a molecule of spare oxygen. This book will catch you by the ankles and drag you backwards into a terrifying and inescapable reality. Read this one with all the lights on.” — Sarah Gailey, Hugo award-winning author of River of Teeth
“A tense psychological thriller and a gripping survival story that kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through. It’s a dark ride that’s worth every step.” — Martha Wells, author of The Murderbot Diaries
“Starling’s debut is tense and well-paced, taut and terrifying. This book never lets you (or Gyre) breathe for more than an instant before pushing you further into the frightening unknown. A book you won’t want to put down until the resolution arrives.” — Elsa Sjunneson-Henry
“The Luminous Dead managed to be the best sci-fi book coming in 2019. And the best horror novel. And the best queer story. This book is so many things at once, and I cannot wait for readers to discover the terrifying, complex world that Caitlin Starling has created.” — Mark Oshiro, author of Anger is a Gift
“The Luminous Dead dives into the human psyche and our ability for cruelty alongside compassion. Starling crafts a plot tight and gripping, weaves scenes dripping with wonder and terror, and keeps you wondering what’s real and what’s not until the very last page. Both beautiful and brutal, I loved it.” — K.A. Doore, author of The Perfect Assassin
“An electric mix of The Descent and Gravity, Starling’s debut gives us an exciting and terrifying sf adventure set in the dangerous bowels of a distant planet. This story has hidden depths, secrets and mysteries to reveal. Highly recommended from start to finish.” — John Hornor Jacobs, award-winning author of The Sea Dreams it is the Sky
“Starling’s debut gives us an exciting and terrifying sf adventure set in the dangerous bowels of a distant planet. But like the enormous cavern system below the surface of Cassandra V, this story has hidden depths, secrets and mysteries to reveal. Highly recommended from start to finish.” — John Hornor Jacobs, award-winning author of The Sea Dreams it is the Sky
“The Luminous Dead is a gripping scifi thriller with an eerie, claustrophobic setting that held me captive until I finished it. I think part of me was left behind forever in Starling’s cave. This book will drag you into its dark, twisting depths and will not let you go.” — Emily Suvada, author of This Mortal Coil
“With The Luminous Dead, Caitlin Starling gives us a confident debut, an imaginative future thriller that barely lets up the tension and claustrophobia. Mistrust and paranoia abound all the way to the end, and Gyre feels every moment of it, widening along with the events, as the poet said.” — Tade Thompson, author of the Wormwood Trilogy and The Murders of Molly Southbourne
“A startling debut. I was truly spooked.” — Kelly Robson, Nebula Award-winning author
“Starling’s debut is a chilling study in mutual guilt and dependence that will have readers racing toward the conclusion.” — Booklist
“With sharp prose and mounting dread, Starling will drag you into a dark descent. Get ready for chills.” — Sean Grigsby, author of Smoke Eaters and Daughters of Forgotten Light
“Caitlin Starling’s The Luminous Dead is a gripping, claustrophobic thriller propelled by complex relationships between women. I couldn’t put it down.” — Ada Hoffmann, author of The Outside
“A masterful, nail-biting thriller from an extraordinary talent. Meticulously researched, expertly paced, with yearning, self-destructive heroines whose incredible physical and emotional journies will leave you breathless.” — Kameron Hurley, author of The Light Brigade
“A torturous book. Horrifying in small, cutting, personal ways, and in the more classic scare-in-a-dark-room way. But there’s an iron rod of panicked strength that runs through the middle of it.” — NPR.org
“A genuinely impressive debut, suspenseful and horrific in turns.” — Sci Fi Magazine
“I’m still in disbelief that this book is a debut novel.” — The Reading Chemist
From the Back Cover
A thrilling, atmospheric debut with the intensive drive of The Martian and Gravity and the creeping dread of Annihilation, in which a caver on a foreign planet finds herself on a terrifying psychological and emotional journey for survival
When Gyre Price lied her way into this expedition, she thought she’d be mapping mineral deposits and the greatest dangers might be cave collapses and gear malfunctions. She also thought the fat paycheck meant she’d get a skilled surface team monitoring her suit and environment, keeping her safe. Keeping her sane.
Instead, she got Em.
Em sees nothing wrong with controlling Gyre’s body with drugs or withholding critical information to “ensure the smooth operation” of her expedition. Em knows all about Gyre’s falsified credentials, and has no qualms using them as a leash—and a lash. And Em has secrets, too . . .
As Gyre descends, mounting inconsistencies—missing supplies, unexpected changes in the route, and, worst of all, shifts in Em’s motivations—weigh on her more than the rocks overhead. Lost and disoriented, Gyre finds her sense of control giving way to paranoia and anger. On her own in this mysterious, deadly place, surrounded by darkness and the unknown, Gyre must overcome more than just the dangerous terrain and the Tunneler that calls the underground its home if she wants to make it out alive—she must confront the ghosts in her own head.
But why can’t she shake the feeling she’s being followed?About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Harper Voyager (April 2, 2019)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 432 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0062846906
- ISBN-13 : 978-0062846907
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.31 x 0.97 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #214,982 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #65 in LGBTQ+ Horror Fiction (Books)
- #298 in Colonization Science Fiction
- #2,020 in Exploration Science Fiction
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Caitlin Starling is the nationally bestselling author of The Death of Jane Lawrence (2021), Last to Leave the Room (2023), and the Bram Stoker-nominated The Luminous Dead (2019). Her other works of genre-hopping horror and speculative fiction include Yellow Jessamine and a Vampire: The Masquerade novella, The Land of Milk and Honey (included in collection Walk Among Us). Her short fiction has been published by GrimDark Magazine, and her nonfiction has appeared in Nightmare, Uncanny, and Nightfire. Caitlin also works in narrative design, and has been paid to invent body parts. She’s always on the lookout for new ways to inflict insomnia.
Customer reviews
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Top reviews from the United States
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First off, the book is generally described as sci-fi horror. I would strongly contest this, as the novel is too light on horror for me to recommend it to horror fans and, while it is set against a sci-fi backdrop that definitely ties into the action of the novel, that's not the crux of the novel. The novel is 100% about the characters: protagonist Gyre, a caver who accepts a lucrative offer to explore a large cavern; and deuteragonist Em, Gyre's employer for the job who communicates with her via radio and acts as her backup in hazardous situations.
The real meat of the book is in the way these two characters relate to each other, and anyone who thinks their dynamic is petty, childish, or toxic must have extremely binary views of human beings. No, these characters are not entirely altruistic and good people, but their incredibly flawed natures are what make them so compelling. If you love nuanced, complex, three-dimensional characters with serious flaws, I honestly don't know that I could recommend The Luminous Dead more strongly.
I do have minor complaints with some of the description of the action, which grew admittedly tedious because it was too detailed for people with no knowledge of caving/spelunking (like me) to fully grasp what the author was describing but not detailed enough to paint a clear picture of what was going on. The descriptions also don't change much despite the protagonist doing A LOT of climbing. These are the novel's weakest moments, though author Caitlin Starling typically injects character-building into a lot of these moments to keep things from feeling too monotonous.
The biggest failing of the novel is in the lack of horror, which really could have been used to break up the monotony in the action. The novel starts off with a premise that makes claustrophobics like me uneasy, both in that Gyre is stuck underground and also that her body is confined to a climbing suit she cannot leave (even to sleep, eat, or use the bathroom) for the duration of her journey (which is over a week long). Sadly, it doesn't do anything particularly scary with that, and I was able to disengage enough from that to not feel any genuine fear.
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
There are also light horror elements when Gyre realizes she might not be alone in the cave. Yes, there is an enigmatic, largely unseen creature alluded to early, but when some supplies mysteriously go missing, she concludes another human is in the cave, but it's never exactly played up as horror. When they mysteries begin to ramp up in the third act, it is unsettling, but by this point it has played out for too long to create any genuine terror. Likewise, the climactic showdown between Gyre and the aforementioned creature (called a Tunneler) wraps up a little too quickly and neatly.
**END SPOILERS**
All that being said, The Luminous Dead is a gripping story with compelling, flawed characters that kept me glued to the page, and the themes of loss, grief, trauma, and loneliness are handled with the deftness of a veteran author (this is Starling's debut novel). If that sounds like you're thing, definitely check this one out.
"Everything was painstakingly, extensively designed to protect her from... elements in the cave."
The stakes and danger are established early on: caving is dangerous but the money is good; most in the profession only do a few jobs before retiring. Life on Cassandra-V isn't a good one: it's a population overflow planet in near constant drought. Desperation has led to Gyre taking some... training shortcuts so she can do one big caving expedition and earn enough money to retire afterwards. Turns out this job is more dangerous than she thought and she has to fight her way out alive.
I just love the quiet unease of the story from the beginning. I felt anxious, unsettled, and claustrophobic and the tension is tightly wound within the narrative. I found myself needing to look away from the book every few pages to break the tension building in my body. The book has a slower pace with growing unease that turns into full-blown paranoia. I love how the tension builds; the paranoia grows thick and becomes all-encompassing. What is real? What is imagined?
"Now it was a bone-deep dread, a sickness in her stomach. It strengthened in waves, and the more she fought it, the stronger it grew. She felt it like a presence, like a tug at her center, like she was forgetting something she shouldn't be."
The number of times that I audibly gasped while reading this book or simply annotated with the word "NO!" is rather astounding. Mistakes were certainly made and I was like Randy in Scream yelling "behind you!"
Readers who like a lot of worldbuilding may find The Luminous Dead lacking: the focus of the plot is the cave and Gyre's fight for survival within it, along with the mysteries surrounding Gyre's mother / Em's parents. I do wish some more time had been spent building up the world/universe that Gyre and Em live in, but to be honest I was so captivated by the tension that it didn't bother me as much as a lack of worldbuilding typically does.
"A fleshy bulb squelched beneath her boot, and then deflated in a sudden burst, bioluminescent dust - no, spores - erupting from it and coating the ankle of her other leg with a fine, glowing mist."
Despite worldbuilding not being a big focus, the writing is vivid and descriptive. I could easily envision the setting: the dark, cramped space with faint sounds of water. This would make an excellent movie and I hope will one day be adapted.
Ultimately, The Luminous Dead is an astoundingly claustrophobic thriller that delves into the minds of the two characters. It's gripping and full of tension and a book I will undoubtedly think about for a long time.
Top reviews from other countries
It was so well written, slow at first but wonderful. Really picks up halfway through and I couldn’t put it down.
I wish I could have my time back to read this again for the first time as it was just so wonderful and loved every bit of it.
HIGHLY recommend!! Even if you aren’t a fan of the games, or never heard of them. Really good thriller!
The setup of being locked in an armoured suit, unable to feel one's own skin, relying more on a digital recreation of one's surroundings than seeing them directly, goes from being tense to mundane to horrific and back. The book is wonderfully paced and while it escalates, it remains grounded, gritty, keeping the threat of small, mundane challenges.
In addition to mundane threat is the psychological, the mysterious, and the inexplicable, but also a very potent human story incorporating themes of isolation, conection, loss, control, ambition, empathy, and trauma. It is very much appreciated.
Unfortunately I found the first page or two the weakest, slightly, in terms of prose. It very quickly improves and maintains a flow throughout the rest of the book.
10/10 - read it for down-to-earth (heh) sci-fi, early Lovecraft-like spooks, tense, well-paced horror, and human empathy amid isolating conditions.
No, really, does it?
I kept reading to see if it did. I hate leaving a book halfway through. I was tempted to quit, but I continued, much like the main character, sometimes dreading if I'd lose my sanity. I didn't. It has a couple of moments of greatness--nothing in the tiresome description of the cave or the climbing and descending, but on how the author is able to express the slowly descent into madness of this woman; on how trust is gained and lost and gained and lost again. OK this is not that interesting, but the commentary on how we build trust is. I won't go into the ending. Needless to say, maybe if you're into climbing or spelunking it might be more interesting. But I was just glad I could finish it and move on.
Ein hartes Buch, das den Leser nicht mit Samthandschuhen anfasst, ohne dabei jemals zu graphisch oder grotesk zu werden. Klaustrophobischer Horror mit einer klaren Leseempfehlung.