 An ill-fated voyage on an ancient boat, crewed by a team of inexperienced strangers. What could go wrong? A crabbing ship, captained by a man known only as God, is in search of a crew. As no self-respecting seaman will work with him he is forced to recruit a group of untried outsiders and hope for the best. With a violent psychotic for a deck boss, and a crew without a day's seafaring experience between them, it promises to be a trying voyage, but one that he has no choice but to take. When they drag up something from the depths that is most decidedly not crabs, the crew find themselves freefalling down the food chain as they are soon under siege by a previously unknown, and undeniably deadly, race of creatures. The danger outside their boat, however, is nothing compared to that which is hidden amongst them, waiting for their opportunity to take charge. Plot-wise, ‘Maiden’ is hardly in unchartered waters. The fun here is in the telling and there are enough strange and unusual choices to keep you guessing, even if the broad strokes are easy to see coming. When we’re talking about a book that boasts a sea captain named God, who is aboard a sentient ship under attack by an army of Lovecraftian fish/human hybrids, you can hardly accuse it of unoriginality. We’re even told part of the story from the perspective of the boat, which is a stroke of genius. It is one of those rare books, that is an absolute joy to come across, which is just immediately engaging and impossible to put down once you’ve started. I read the entire thing in a single sitting and imagine most people who pick it up will do the same. There are content warnings aplenty in the back of the book (eight to be precise) and ‘Maiden’ does tackle some difficult and varied subjects (racism, suicide, homophobia to name a few). It can be a tough balancing act to include depictions or discussions about serious, real-world issues in a fictional story which is, by and large, aiming to entertain rather than inform, and in lesser hands, it can either negate the fun factor or, worse, feel as though the book makes light of sensitive subjects. Maiden has no such issue and the way these issues are broached felt appropriate and well handled, thanks largely to some nuanced character work (Jordan and Charlie are both standouts) alongside the larger-than-life characters (Nash, a villain so abhorrent, that you’ll fly through the book simply to see him get his very well-deserved comeuppance). Maiden is such an unabashedly odd book that it is impossible not to get swept up in the story, especially when it is offering its readers something genuinely unique. Captained by an incredible cast, besieged by some memorable creatures and anchored by some stellar storytelling, Maiden’s horrors will test the mettle of even the most able seaman, but once you’ve read the first page, it’s full steam ahead for nautical mayhem. MAIDEN |
Archives
May 2023
|
RSS Feed
|
|