Book Review: THE ABYSSAL PLAIN

by | Aug 23, 2024 | Author News, Book Reviews, Reviews, The Horror Review News | 1 comment

The Abyssal Plain: The R’lyeh Cycle
Edited by William Holloway and Brett J. Talley
JournalStone Publishing (November 29, 2019)
Reviewed by Andrew Byers

One of the chief conceits of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos is that eventually the stars will be right and the Great Old One, Cthulhu, who lies sleeping (and dreaming) at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, will one day awaken. With him will come unprecedented chaos, insanity, death, and the destruction of most human life on Earth. The Abyssal Plain is a set of stories about those end times. Cthulhu’s Reign (2010) was a masterful anthology comprised of stories about those Cthulhu-induced apocalypses, but each of that anthology’s tales were disconnected from the others; they were each short, unique visions. I would describe The Abyssal Plain as a shared world anthology; each of the contributing authors have crafted a novella about a set of characters, each in a different part of the world, coping with the end of human civilization as we know it and the first stages of the rise of Cthulhu and his underwater servants. The characters in each novella never encounter each other—they are far too busy merely surviving—but they do live on the same world and are experiencing the same sanity-shattering and life-altering events. Each story is a solid contribution.

“Ammonia” by William Holloway: Opens the collection with the initial event that occurs in Antarctica and begins the ending of human civilization. It’s an interesting story in part because it interweaves a technothriller-esque story of an American submarine crew that was in the Pacific when the event happened with the story of a near-homeless drug addict named Quincy who lives in Austin. People almost immediately start disappearing and Quincy and a few others must try to navigate the beginning of the end. Civilization hasn’t yet collapsed, but it’s getting closer every day. Nicely sets the tone for the rest of the anthology.

“The Sunken Desert” by Michelle Garza and Melissa Lason: A tale of survival. Set a little while after “Ammonia” in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, which is now beginning to flood. A couple brothers, one of whom has just been rescued from a flooded prison, and some Mexican migrants must survive in a newly-flooded world populated by mutated squids and insane cultists. The world is beginning to become depopulated but that doesn’t mean it’s any safer.

“The Rise and the Fall” by Brett J Talley: Sexton has been drafted into what’s left of the U.S. military. This one is set in and around a military encampment in Alabama. They’ve gathered together a few civilian survivors, but they are being co-opted by religious fanatics. The rain keeps falling, the rivers keep rising, and things emerge from the water to kill and destroy everything that survives on dry land. What is left of humanity is breaking under the strain and will soon collapse entirely.

“The Great Beast” by Rich Hawkins: Josiah is a lost soul, a man on his own clinging to his faith while struggling to survive in Britain, on the run from a host of cultists who roam the land, cannibalizing the few remaining non-cultists who have survived the apocalypse. Then Josiah meets, and tries to save, two children, who naturally are more than they initially appear.

This is a compelling and entertaining set of stories about life after the apocalypse. If you’re a fan of the Cthulhu Mythos and are craving some thrilling stories about ordinary people struggling to survive the end of the world, definitely check this out.

1 Comment

  1. captain mission
    captain mission on August 26, 2024 at 2:18 am

    I really enjoyed all these stories, my fave being “Ammonia” by William Holloway but I would have liked to have read more about the military response and defeat. Parts of it was gripping and kept me awake page turning, i just couldn’t put it down.
    i particularly enjoyed the way it was written for adults, nothing seemed of limits and that was refreshing.
    All the stories were very good, unique environments and interesting characters. I have just begun reading volume 2.

    Reply

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