Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed
I would like to thank David from Rebellion for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Solaris
Published – Out Now
Price - £8.99 paperback £5.99 Kindle eBook
HOPE HAS A PRICE
Nick Prasad has always enjoyed a quiet life in the shadow of his best friend, child prodigy and technological genius Joanna ‘Johnny’ Chambers. But all that is about to end.
When Johnny invents a clean reactor that could eliminate fossil fuels and change the world, she awakens primal, evil Ancient Ones set on subjugating humanity.
From the oldest library in the world to the ruins of Nineveh, hunted at every turn, they will need to trust each other completely to survive…
When we are young our first close friendships are often to us the strongest things in the world, they may last longer than our first loves and they can cross divides of class, gender and culture. We can easily imagine we have found our first found family. But things change – we change and the people we once thought of as a critical part of our lives can sometimes no longer be the person we want to talk to. It can feel like the end of the world which in Premee Mohamed’s enthralling Beneath The Rising is appropriate as we have here two long time childhood friends having to try to save the world and also examine if their friendship is still what they thought it was.
It’s an alternative 2001 where 9/11 did not happen. People are getting ready for the second Lord of the Rings movie and amazing teenage genius Joanna ‘Johnny’ Chambers who has already created solar PCs, a cure for HIV and now invented a small reactor that removes the need for fossil fuels. She returns to New York where her best friend blue collar worker Nick Presad is waiting to once again resume their friendship – but a dark figure is lurking in the forests; Nick’s family is attacked by monsters and Johnny explains that there really are Ancient Ones who have been sleeping and they are now getting very awake – the end of the world as they know it is on the horizon. Johnny and Nick are going to travel across the world to the Middle East exploring ancient libraries, destroyed cities and tombs in a search for hope. But Nick is starting to hear whispers when he sleeps; he starts to realise Johnny is not quite who he thought she was, and the stakes are getting dangerously high.
The thing that I really noticed about reading this story is just how well-balanced Mohamed is in getting the tone right. It initially feels light and optimistic -who wouldn’t want the world’s many problems to be solved by an optimistic genius from our own generation. Nick and Johnny are geeks who joke and insult each other coming from different worlds but bonded together from a childhood tragedy both survived. The early parts of the book are warm and weird. We see Nick’s lovely but loud single mother family while we have in contrast Johnny separated from her parents living in a huge multi-layered hi tech building with labs; gadgets and a genetically engineered brilliant octopus suitably named Science Octopus oh and smart engineered dung beetles – it’s a future I wish we had had in the early 21st century.
But then Mohamed starts to darken the palette – into this tale which almost feels optimistic SF comes the older world of horror and fantasy. Beneath Johnny’s new world of wonderful science, we find it’s a world of magic; ancient secrets and societies all vying to destroy or protect the world. Mohamed skilfully brings Lovecraftian monsters into the modern world to help create new terror. There is a theme here; as has been explored in many tales, of the search for knowledge being the thing that brings our world’s undoing. Nick is plunged into fighting monsters; being tempted by demons and suddenly finding out there has been a lot Johnny hasn’t told him about her life. After New York we get to explore cities and have escapes and demonic confrontations. I really like Mohamed’s ability to create a mood for scenes that range from horror to wonder. The mix of action, danger and exposition is really well judged and keeps the story motoring at pace. By the end we have explored other dimensions with different stars and black sands; fighting terrifying monsters in their air and on land while also learning about a history no one admits, and that tonal transition across each scene is a delight to read.
But the absolute heart of the story is the relationship between Nicky and Johnny. The story is told from Nicky’s point of view and I really loved the gamut of emptions we go through. To Nicky Johnny is exciting, funny and he loves being by her side. But we also see that both of them have some blind spots – Johnny never seems to realise that her rich white upbringing brings advantages and attitudes that Nick has never been able to use. Nick has forgotten that a woman in a male led field such as science isn’t going to be an easy ride. The story really examines this friendship and why it has been formed and where it is heading. Appropriately their own personal world seems to be ending just at the same time. Both sides want their own futures and we start to wonder why Johnny has got to where she is. How far can you let your best friend go in seeking their dreams?
This was a very very interesting and enjoyable story mixing genres and ideas but really capturing for me the epic fantasy and horror that needs to be finely balanced with two characters I ended up caring a lot about and hoping they would do the right thing. It’s thoughtful, emotional and on occasion laugh out loud funny. I shall definitely be looking out for more from Premee Mohamed in the future as this was a smart, disturbing delight of a book.
