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KDS's Reviews > The Great White Space
The Great White Space
by
by
On initial pick up I didn't think there could be a more perfect book for me. 1930's Lovecraftian vibes, lost city, exploration of unknown lands - it has everything that appeals to me. In fact is has a very strong vibe of Journey to the Centre of the Earth meeting At the Madness of Madness. The problem is that it not only takes the best of those books, but the worst of them too.
The book can be divided into three unofficial "acts". The first act covers the preparation work for the expedition to discover a mysterious cosmic gateway; here the formal style works well with lightness of tone, the mystery and the comaraderie between characters. The second act is the journey itself; starting out across mysterious desert lands, it eventually find itself deep within colossal tunnels hewn into a distant mountain range. The final act is the horror fuelled finale of action, madness and 'things from beyond'.
Acts one and three are the strongest parts of the book and achieve everything they set out to accomplish - especially in the final quarter. The book falls down in the second act which slows to a plodding pace through mostly pitch dark, featureless tunnels - occasionally enlivened by a waterway or curious object. Expedition routines are mundane and repetitive and the looming dread isn't as oppressive as it could be. It reminded me of the interminable trek through the bowels of the Earth in Jules Verne's more well known work before getting to the good bits. In keeping with such muted atmosphere, even the lost city itself somehow feels more like a less impressive version of the eldritch city of the Elder Things in Lovecraft's seminal novel, despite some crossover in architectural descriptions. There are some notable events which I wont spoil here, but they feel a bit smothered and too few in number to ratchett up the tension against the tedium of the journey, which is too often described in cyclical detail.
When it gets to the good bits later though, it doesn't disappoint, nor does the climax cop out as so many other pretenders do. As a lover of Lovecraftian fiction, this was an enjoyable homage to the mythos era and a decent addition to my library. As a recommendation, it'll appeal to anyone who loved stories like the aforementioned At the Mountains of Madness and Clark Ashton Smith's much shorter Vaults of Yoh-Vombis. For everyone else, just read those instead.
The book can be divided into three unofficial "acts". The first act covers the preparation work for the expedition to discover a mysterious cosmic gateway; here the formal style works well with lightness of tone, the mystery and the comaraderie between characters. The second act is the journey itself; starting out across mysterious desert lands, it eventually find itself deep within colossal tunnels hewn into a distant mountain range. The final act is the horror fuelled finale of action, madness and 'things from beyond'.
Acts one and three are the strongest parts of the book and achieve everything they set out to accomplish - especially in the final quarter. The book falls down in the second act which slows to a plodding pace through mostly pitch dark, featureless tunnels - occasionally enlivened by a waterway or curious object. Expedition routines are mundane and repetitive and the looming dread isn't as oppressive as it could be. It reminded me of the interminable trek through the bowels of the Earth in Jules Verne's more well known work before getting to the good bits. In keeping with such muted atmosphere, even the lost city itself somehow feels more like a less impressive version of the eldritch city of the Elder Things in Lovecraft's seminal novel, despite some crossover in architectural descriptions. There are some notable events which I wont spoil here, but they feel a bit smothered and too few in number to ratchett up the tension against the tedium of the journey, which is too often described in cyclical detail.
When it gets to the good bits later though, it doesn't disappoint, nor does the climax cop out as so many other pretenders do. As a lover of Lovecraftian fiction, this was an enjoyable homage to the mythos era and a decent addition to my library. As a recommendation, it'll appeal to anyone who loved stories like the aforementioned At the Mountains of Madness and Clark Ashton Smith's much shorter Vaults of Yoh-Vombis. For everyone else, just read those instead.
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