'An ancient horror deep in the Amazon jungle spins a web of nightmares to ensnare adventurers, explorers, and their souls, in this skin-crawling Arkham Horror novel of cosmic dread.
'When Arkham Advertiser reporter Andy van Nortwick receives a mysterious film reel in the mail, with a simple note: “Maude Brion is very much alive!”, he steps onto a path which will lead him to the brink of madness. Brion, the famous actress and film director, vanished a year ago on an ill-fated expedition into the Amazon rain-forest, delving into the legend of the Spider Queen. Thrilled by the prospect of his big break, Nortwick swings the funds to launch a rescue mission. He gathers a team of explorers and a keen folklorist to bring back Brion and cement his reputation. But deep in the Amazon jungle, the boundaries between intrepid adventurers, dreamers, and deranged fanatics blur inside a web of terror.'
I absolutely adore the Arkham Horror books that Aconyte have been producing. Despite being based on the same game, which is based on the literary world created by one person, each and every one of them has brought something new and unique to the table; and none more obviously so than their latest offering, Cult of the Spider Queen by S. A. Sidor.
As the name of the series suggest, the vast majority of the Arkham Horror stories take place in and around the city of Arkham. We've had a few tales that expand that a bit, spreading out into the surrounding area, and even a few short stories that have features snippets in France during World War One, or ancient Greece. But for the most part these are small excursions whilst the majority of the story takes place in a setting we know. This book, on the other hand, plays things very differently, with only the first handful of chapters set in Arkham before the action moves to the heart of the Amazon rain-forest.
As the story begins we follow Andy van Nortwick, a young reporter working at the Arkham Adviser who's looking for his big break to get him noticed. He thought that he'd found it in the past when he brought a story of strange cults and mysterious disappearances to his editor (a fantastic nod to the fact that Andy briefly appeared in Sidor's previous Arkham Horror title, The Last Ritual) but was laughed out of the room. He needs something big, something that will make him stand out, and that won't end up with him being ridiculed once again.
When Andy spots a strange looking package in the Adviser's mail room, a package sent from the Amazon, he sneakily scribbles his name onto it; sure that whatever is inside is a good story. What he gets is an roll of film, one that documents part of a lost film crew's journey into the rain-forest in search for the fabled Spider Queen. Along with the film is a note telling Andy that the film's director, a famous actress named Maude Brion, is alive. Having been lost for a year, Andy knows that if he's able to find Maude and bring her home it'll make him famous; and if he finds evidence of this fabled Spider Queen too he'll be able to make money off the story.
Andy sets out across Arkham to find funding for his expedition to the Amazon, and convinces a wealthy businessman to fund the trip with the promise of gold on the horizon. Along the way he picks up a mysterious anthropologist who knows about the Spider Queen, and seems to have an agenda of her own; as well as a pair of adventurers and archaeologists who can lead him through the jungle. With the team all set, they head out to the Amazon, hoping to use the information in the film to lead them to Maude. However, they didn't expect to find strange visions, giant monsters, men from other worlds, and a strange cult waiting for them. Now they've ended up simply fighting to stay alive as they try to find their own way home again.
I'm going to say straight away that I absolutely loved the set-up for this story. The missing film crew, the footage sent in the mail, the journey to the Amazon. It felt so different and so fun and I was so down for it. The beginning of the film felt like the set-up of a found footage movie, where the mysterious film reveals something spooky happening deep in the rain-forest and a team gets together to go and find out what's happened; whilst the story being set in a harsh, unforgiving environment felt like a throwback to old adventure horror films like The Creature From the Black Lagoon and The Mummy. I don't know how this book discovered all the boxes I liked ticked, but it absolutely nailed it.
As most of the book is set in the rain-forest it quickly becomes apparent that the book won't be relying on the dark and brooding nature of Arkham, and instead goes for a very different kind of horror. The story doesn't rely on the bizarre and the unsettling creeping into familiar environments to make the reader feel on edge, but uses the alien like nature of the jungle to do it. Most of us won't be familiar with the Amazon; we won't have been there or travelled on those waters, but we know how it's supposed to work. As such when the jungle falls eerily quiet we know that that's wrong, and it makes things feel even scarier and unsettling.
But Sidor doesn't just rely on the strange setting to ramp up the tension. There are some scenes in this book that are easily some of the most bizarre, disturbing, and unsettling things I've read in this series. When the team head out from their boat in canoes things start to go wrong for them. They lose track of each other, get lost, time doesn't flow right, and they encounter strange things waiting for them in the trees. It's like they get stuck in nightmares, drawn into a warping, ever changing reality. It makes for some unsettling moments, ones that begin to introduce some of the bolder story beats, and also means that you're never quite sure if you can trust what you're reading to be real or not. Sidor seems to know how to mess with the reader, to give them just enough doubt and unease to feel like everything they know is wrong, and that they can't trust what's going on.
But Sidor is also great at creating some compelling characters too, and our core cast are wonderful to follow. With most of the Arkham Horror books there tends to be one of two lead characters, with perhaps a third coming into the story for a short while. On a whole they keep the attention on just one or two people in order to tell their stories. As such, Cult of the Spider Queen ends up feeling a lot bigger with its focus on four principal leads; as well as some chapters told from other points of view too. It adds a sense of scope to the tale, reminds readers that this isn't just a story with one central lead, but an ensemble piece.
The characters are really likeable too. Andy is a eager young man, one who desperately wants to prove himself and show the world that he has what it takes to be a good writer. Whilst his mission to find Maude is motivated by a desire to find a good story he does care about bringing her home too. He isn't just using her disappearance for his own ends, and is willing to put his own life on the line to help others around him. Ursula and Jake, the two experienced explorers of the group are a great duo, are two people who clearly care a lot about each other and will try to put the other first. However, each of them acknowledges that the other can take care of themselves, and puts protecting those less experienced than them first. And then there's Iris, a woman who clearly has more going on than first meets the eye, and is hiding things from the others; but despite this seems to be a pretty decent person, one who doesn't always put her wants first if it means endangering the other members of the group.
They're a bit of a rag-tag bunch, and there are times that they butt heads and come to disagreements, but it's clear that they're all pretty decent people, and when things start to go wrong they all look out for each other and try and help where they can. This adds to the story feeling like one of those classic adventure movies, where the team has to come together in order to make it home again, learning to step-up and take risks to save the team, or having to give up on their destructive goals lest it end in tragedy.
One of the things that Sidor does really well too is the segments of the book that are written as if you're watching the small snippets of film that have been recorded. Translating exactly how the camera moves, what is seen on screen, can be difficult, and making sure that the reader sees exactly what you want them to isn't always guaranteed. But the moments where we got to see through the eye of the film were incredibly well done. It felt like watching the film, rather than just getting a description of what it was showing. It really helped to put me in the moment, as well as making me feel the tension of the scenes.
Cult of the Spider Queen is the kind of book that I wasn't expecting to get in the Arkham Horror series. It gave readers bold, new ways to bring the Lovecraftian horror to an interesting and unique environment without it feeling like it was another project all together. It might only begin in Arkham, but this is unmistakably in the same universe as the other other stories; just one that feels a lot bigger now. I really hope that we get more titles like this, one that take big chances and try bold things, because this was absolutely fantastic.
No comments:
Post a Comment