Customer Reviews

DEAD SEA

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm surprised that this book hasn't received more attention. There were only 75 limited edition hardcovers and the book hasn't received any marketing effort. While I enjoy Brian Keene as an author, there is no comparison between his Dead Sea versus Tim Curran's. Both are good reads, but it's like comparing Outback Steakhouse to Flemings. Flemings has more meat and is juicier.

Curran's book is based on the story of a cargo ship entering the Bermuda Triangle and reappearing in an alternate dimension. The concept of normal life is immediately replaced by the horror of warped time and space. And what a horror it is! Glimpses of horrific creatures sliding in and out of the ever-present fog quickly evolves into constant terror as the survivors are tested repetitively by escalating challenges. The themes of man against man and man against nature are supplemented by the possibility that humans aren't necessarily at the top of the food chain when multiple universes are pondered.

Curran is a great wordsmith and does a great job fleshing out his characters and this unusual environment. You can feel yourself alongside the characters in the story and wonder how you would hold up to the constant stress and danger faced by them. Do you measure up or are you found wanting?

Find yourself a quiet place in the dark and allow your mind to enter this maze of horror. You won't be disappointed.

I hate hospitals, I only go there when I get sick. I had seen this novel popping up several times when I was looking up some other book on Amazon, and it looked good, but, there were almost no reviews posted and I always wondered what it was about. Still, Dimension Books is a subsidiary of Elder Signs Press and so I could make a guess. When something didn't show up at a local bookstore, it took the credit offered and ordered "Dead Sea", and it arrived about a week before I was to have some minor spinal surgery, I took the book with me when I had it done and spent the first cold week in January recuperating, and reading what was perhaps the best damn weird adventure that I had read in ten years or more. This novel should have won some awards that year, but I'm sure some dopey, academic, safe, and mainstream weird fantasies were nominated. Whatever. And besides, I believe Curran is a fellow Michiganian, and this book was printed about twenty miles from my home. Cool.

Anyway, Saks is a hard case construction boss, he's also abusive, and an alcoholic, a racist, a sexist, a rapist, and a possible murderer, but he also gets the job done, and he's put together a new crew to go down to French Guiana to clear some jungle for a diamond company's new airstrip. Among his crew is Cushing, a spy from the company to keep an eye on Saks, and George Ryan, the crew's newbie, who's never been on a construction crew before, and who is the novel's central character.

They're not going to make it to the job site. Sometime during the night the radio, Satnav, Satcom, and even the compasses stop working, the ship goes off course, the fog closes in, there's a violent suicide, and something is alive in the ballast tanks. Soon, something comes out of the fog, sailors disappear, and a phantom barge hits the "Mara Corday" and she begins to go down. There are explosions, and it soon becomes everyman for themselves as ship and construction crew alike scramble to get off the ship. Some end up in the water, some on makeshift rafts, and some in lifeboats.

The only problem is that they soon find out that they are someplace other than the Atlantic. Eventually, those that survive the waters end up in two lifeboats, one run by Gosling, the first mate of the "Mara Corday", and the other by Saks. The water is thick and soupy, the lifeboats won't row like they should, and there are things in the sea that are hungry, and the only one there to keep some of the survivors alive is Saks. Then things go from bad, to worse, to Hell in a handbasket.

And then things get really serious, because they find that there are also things that fly, as well as swim in this sea.

The novel's perspective switches back and forth between the two lifeboats, until gradually both storylines drift together into a cohesive whole as the survivors of the two boats combine for survival. Things happen constantly in the novel, and as the characters realize that they aren't in Kansas anymore, their moral drops as they begin to realize that they are going to have less and less control over their destinies.

Tim Curran is a workingman's writer. Curran's obviously influenced by William Hope Hodgeson and his Sargasso Sea stories, especially his novel "The Boats Of The `Glen Carrig'". Other influences would be Dennis Wheatley's "Uncharted Seas"; Lovecraft, obvious when you read the novel, and writers like Jack London, Curran's a realist, and possibly adventure sea author M. C. Pease. But, Curran's most obvious influence here is Robert Howard as Curran is not afraid to jetson the flotsam of politeness; the politeness of upper middle class fictions. Curran's creates characters that swear, drink, become afraid, and often do what they have to do, even if they are scared to death; they are all the types of people who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty while working. Howard wrote high-energy fictions for the working class, with tough, no-nonsense characters and an unflinching look at the situations that they are involved in. Others have been declared the new Robert Howard but Curran is the real deal. Curran romanticizes nothing, he's a realist, everything that happens has an effect, and nature is not here to be admired, its only purpose is to kill you, and to do so in as nasty a way as possible.

The surprises never stop coming, the cover is moody and amazing, the book is sturdy and will hold up under multiply readings. "Dead Sea" would make one hell of a mini series or movie if done right. In a fair world, this would be a classic, but it's not a fair world, and we all know that. Deserves a five star plus rating, buy it now.

I cannot believe there are not more reviews on this masterpiece.
If you hesitate on reading Dead Sea, Don't!
This book is about a crew of men on the Mara Corday, a 720 foot cargo ship. They are going to work in the jungles of French Guiana. One man George has never been to Sea before. He took the position because he needs the money for his mortgage. How apropos for the times. He has a wife and a young son who is thrilled for his father and even asks accompany George. He is only 8. As they head out George listens to the crew exchange tales of sea life. The characters in the story are as real as you can get. After several days out they slowly sail into the Graveyard of the Atlantic. They loose all functions of their high tech equipment as a thick fog rolls in. The Captain keeps a tight lip about the communications, but the crew can feel a static in the fog. They attempt to send out an SOS but what answers is not what they wanted to hear. Then things start to happen. Creatures, spirits, the undead and alien life forms of other worlds are met. In another dimension. Survival is at stake in another world. There are some places from which you can't return......I loved this book. I had never heard of Tim Curran. What a treat it was to find him. Now I am searching for other books by him. He is an excellent author. Enjoy..

Do read Dead Sea you will not be disappointed.

I have to agree with every other reviewer here. This is truly an amazing story. A real page turner that's hard to put down. Only problem was getting past the first 80 pages or so. It seemed like repetitive dialog emphasizing that "something just wasn't right with the fog", "it's not right", "something seems off..it's not right". Once the crew realized that things were definitely not normal, the story takes off. From the giant jellyfish-like creature to the fog devil and the mysterious spider lady, the horrors the survivors face will keep you turning the pages. And once they reach the Devil's Graveyard, you'll be sucked in and glued to the pages. Well rounded characters, strong descriptive writing and just the right mix of horror and science fiction make this epic novel unforgettable. I'm sure glad I found this one and so will you.

This is the first novel I've tried by Tim Curran, and I was really excited about exploring the mind of this writer... Every review I've read about his novels consistently glow over his spellbinding ability to tell a tale... So, I had high expectations for "Dead Sea"... What I discovered is that folks are completely correct about Mr. Curran's uncanny ability to weave prose in a hypnotic and graceful fashion... And his mind is quite creative in the world he lays before the reader... And the characters, and the situations they find themselves in, have plenty of substance to them... So, that's all good...

BUT!!! What I, also, discovered is that I had a difficult time getting through this book, not because it wasn't interesting, but because it was extremely repetitive... Mr. Curran really drones on about some elements of the story, for instance "the mist" or "the sea" or "the stench", and after a bit it becomes annoying... Imo, he could of cut the book down by 30 to 40 pages and made it a much tighter read... @ times, I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere, as if I, myself, was stuck in this "dead sea", anxiously begging for something to happen, for something to move the story along... But that's really my only complaint... Well, there were several typos in the book, but that's not such a big deal, for me...

Anyhow, I gave this book 4 stars, because Tim Curran is definitely a quality writer, and the story is a good one, and I definitely want to try some more of Mr. Curran's novels, but be prepared to have to invest some patience in the read... It doesn't go very quickly, and you might find yourself getting impatient @ times, as I did...

Don't get me wrong, this is one great book. I agree about the pacing and the well fleshed out characters. My only quible is the final wrap up. Things seemed to fall into place just too easily for the heros. Still, it's a good book, and I'd recommend it to anybody fond of horror mysteries.

Well, I have found a new author who knows how to write horror fiction. Curran definitely knows how to write descriptive prose that will have you keeping the lights on while you sleep. All of his characters are very well described and I was able to visualize way too much in this book - characters, monsters and all sorts of abominations.

1. This is a large size softcover book of 328 pages. The font used for printing is pretty darn small. If this was a regularly formatted paperback with font normally used, I bet there would have been at least twice that amount of pages so there is a lot of reading here.
2. The problem with a lot of reading in this case, as other reviewers have noted, is that there is a LOT of repetition in the descriptive passages, especially at the front part of the book. Just how many ways can fog and mist and a gelid sea be described? Curran tries to break a world record, I think.
3. One of the characters in this book is the foulest excuse for a human being I have ever read about. Be prepared - for beyond vulgar jokes and language. I believe Curran was actually trying to show that the only monsters aren't inhuman and he succeeded.
4. Curran brings some very innovative ideas to "Dead Sea" with his very detailed descriptions of monsters, explanations of phenomena.
5. The ending was a little abrupt (after endless pages of fog descriptions) but it worked and didn't leave me dangling.

All in all, this was a great horror novel. Parts of it did feel like Curran was paying homage to Lovecraft et al but most felt very up-to-date. I'm glad I've discovered Curran and have ordered other books of his.

I agree with the previous reviews. Yes Curran did go on and on about the mist, but I think it served the purpose of reinforcing the alien threatening atmosphere of Dimension X. This book I could not put down. The monsters were so well described. The desperate situation was palatable. Everyone was expendable and some of the deaths were suprising. All I want to know is who did Curran piss off? This book should have gotten more notice. Curran is a keeper, I'm a fan. One more thing I noticed is that the pages were small font and small margined. I felt that I got more bang for my buck, none of that large font double space one-half inch margin cheat books. I like that, lets me know he's not trying to push less and get more.

Ever since I saw Jaws on the big screen as an impressionable youngster, I've been awed and intimidated by the vast mysteries of the sea. Noted as a tribute to William Hope Hodgson, Tim Curran also channels and updates Lovecraft, Melville, Jack London, H.G. Wells and others to create a timeless classic of horror at sea and beyond. I rank this up there with Dan Simmons' "The Terror" as one of the best horror adventure novels of the last 10 or more years.

Curran really has a way with the language of horror, getting inside his characters (and therefore his readers) to touch those deep and vulnerable places that inspire fear. At the same time, Curran had me laughing out loud with the salty, tasteless, and disrepectful barbs effortlessly tossed primarily by Saks and others. Each character is deftly shaded masterfully to provide depth and nuance. Rather than plow through as I do with most modern horror, I took my time savoring the vocabulary and atmosphere. If there is a possible knock against "Dead Sea", Curran might go a bit too far with the Hodgson/Lovecraft homage as he gets repetitive in sections, using the same or similar words and phrases to describe the depth of the terror the crew is subjected to.

Curran really lets his imagination loose, introducing and describing in detail a number of unfamiliar and alien creatures. And while not quite as exhausting as Simmons, Curran does his research more than most, providing scientific basis for the ideas and theories supporting "Dead Sea", as well as supplying technological and historical details to drive the nautical aspect of the story.

After such a wildly fresh and exciting build-up, I did think the ending predictable and rather convenient, but that doesn't stop me from highly recommending "Dead Sea", my first exposure to Tim Curran. I look forward to reading more Curran, and easily count him as one of the few fresh voices in modern horror fiction. 4 1/2 stars.

Well reviewed by others, I just want to add another 5 Star rating to this fine author's work. I tend to fall asleep reading unless it's one hell of an engaging read. Such was the case with this book and can't wait to see what Curran comes up with next.