The Dry Salvages [Hardcover]

Caitlin R. Kiernan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An interplanetary expedition pays an unexpected visit to the dark side of science fiction in this gripping genre-jump by horror specialist Kiernan (Murder of Angels). In the 23rd century, Earth has just discovered signs of the first nonhuman civilization on Piros, a moon in a star system some 15 light years away. Extrasolar exopaleontologist Audrey Cather and three other crew members of the starship Montelius are dispatched to rendezvous with Gilgamesh, the exploratory ship that made the discovery, but when they make port they find that half the Gilgamesh crew has vanished on Piros while those on board are struggling with madness. Something has frightened the scientists to irrationality and driven at least one to spouting portentous passages from Blake's Book of Urizen. Suspense mounts excruciatingly as the crew of the Montelius hastens to Piros to confront the horror themselves. Echoes of other first-contact stories—from the transcendent 2001 to the paranoid gothic Alien cycle—reverberate through the narrative, setting the mood for an eerily unpredictable close encounter. Kiernan also draws on her training as a paleontologist for her rigorously plotted extraterrestrial environments. But this tale's focus is squarely on the human, and it asserts an authority that will convince readers of all tastes that "the alien" is a fundamental fear that can conjure primal horror out of a sophisticated SF setting.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Fifty years after the Montelius' mission to Piros, its last surviving crew member lectures on paleontology and her month on Titan--things deemed safe by the powers that be--and writes her memoirs with reconditioned ballpoints. She wanders through her memories of arrival at Piros, where they found Gilgamesh crewed by robots, its crew lost on the surface except for two who, suicidal, remain on the ship. Something was out there: there are remains of an alien quarry and whatever killed the Gilgamesh shuttle crew. Back on Earth the remains played hopefully, as signs that we aren't alone in the universe. But Audrey Cather's memory says otherwise. While writing, Audrey is wrapped up in the old mission's contemporary repercussions when agency security comes to keep her from leaking her classified memories. All records of the mission were destroyed, you see, including the neural implants of another crew member. Kiernan plays on the frailty of memory, creating chilling fear without ever showing the monster her narrator's realistically rendered forgetfulness can't quite recall. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 130 pages
• Publisher: Subterranean Press; First Edition edition (October 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596060069
• ISBN-13: 978-1596060067
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #463,928 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Caitlin R. Kiernan was born near Dublin, Ireland, but has spent most of her life in the southeastern United States. In college, she studied zoology, geology, and palaeontology, and has been employed as a vertebrate palaeontologist and college-level biology instructor. The results of her scientific research have been published in the JOURNAL OF VERTEBRATE PALAEONTOLOGY, THE JOURNAL OF PALAEONTOLOGY and elsewhere. In 1992, she began writing her first novel, THE FIVE OF CUPS (it remained unpublished until 2003). Her first published novel, SILK (1998), earned her two awards and praise from critics and such luminaries as Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Peter Straub, and Poppy Z. Brite. Her next novel, THRESHOLD (2001), was also an award-winner, and since then she has written LOW RED MOON (2003), MURDER OF ANGELS (2004), DAUGHTER OF HOUNDS (2007), and, forthcoming, THE RED TREE. She is a prolific short fiction author, and her award-winning short stories have been collected in TALES OF PAIN AND WONDER (2000), WRONG THINGS (with Poppy Z. Brite; 2001), FROM WEIRD AND DISTANT SHORES (2002), and TO CHARLES FORT, WITH LOVE (2005), ALABASTER (2006), FROG TOES AND TENTACLES (2005), TALES FROM THE WOEFUL PLATYPUS (2007), and, most recently, the sf collection, A IS FOR ALIEN (2009). She has also scripted comics for DC/Vertigo, including THE DREAMING ('97-'01), THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE DEATH ('98), and BAST: ETERNITY GAME ('03). Her short sf novel THE DRY SALVAGES was published in 2004, and has published numerous chapbooks since 2000. Caitlin also fronted the goth-rock band Death's Little Sister in 1996-1997, once skinned a lion, and likes sushi. She lives in Providence, RI with her partner, Kathryn, and her two cats, Hubero and Smeagol. Caitlin is represented by Writer's House (NYC) and United Talent Agency (LA).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All build-up with too little action, but still a delightful atmosphere with rich horror. Recommended, March 16, 2009

By 

Juushika (Oregon, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dry Salvages (Hardcover)

An old woman recounts a long-ago journey with a small crew to investigate distant abandoned ruins, humanity's first proof of alien life. The mission brought the crew to madness and prompted a government cover-up; now, the narrator is the last record of what they really found in the ruins. At only novella-length, The Dry Salvages suffers from too much build up and not enough delivery. Nonetheless, the build-up and atmosphere are top notch, a combination of psychological and Lovecraftian horror, and on the whole this is an intriguing and enjoyable, if brief, read. I recommend it.

I've previous read and adored Kiernan's Threshold , and the aspects I loved of that book reappear here: Lovecraftian horror of the endless and threatening unknown, slow-building tension, and a wealth of scientific detail which makes the supernatural events all the more believable. The Dry Salvages also adds psychological horror--this brief book has little room for plot; instead, character interactions make up most of the action, following the crew's slow descent towards madness. All of these elements are skillfully rendered and incredibly enjoyable, creating a book which grips the reader and builds the sort of horror which I actually find frightening--a rarity, in literature, and something that I cherish.

And yet the book offers little more than that. The build up does lead somewhere, but it doesn't lead to a destination quite big enough for all that precedes it. At just over 100 pages, this book simply feels too short: there's enough time for foreshadowing but not enough time for action, and the conclusion is a miserably short ten pages. Things end as soon as they seem to begin, and it's simply frustrating. The anticipation is still delicious, and the short conclusion is a wonderful balance between madness and horror, but I wish there were more to this book. As a result, I prefer her novel-length works by a long ways, simply because they strike a better balance and have more to offer. But I did enjoy and do recommend The Dry Salvages. It's not perfect, but it's short and sweet and still worth the time it takes to read.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creepy, without the gouging of eyes, December 26, 2004

By 

Hayley Huston (Hudson, WI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Dry Salvages (Hardcover)

Very unsettling. It remineded me of Event Horizon, but without the too-exact explanation of what the "bad thing" was. I find the unexplained and unknown more frightening than the diagrammed and dissected evil being that's just a trounced-up version of my neighbor. This book pulled that off perfectly. I especially liked the futuristic slang that the characters used, made it seem like a completely foreign world.

Now begins the excrutiating wait for Daughter of Hounds.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another fine work from Kiernan., February 15, 2005

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Dry Salvages (Hardcover)

Caitlin R. Kiernan, The Dry Salvages (Subterranean, 2004)

There's something utterly cool about a book whose back jacket lists the author's last publication as a huge unpronounceable stream of words published in an obscure archaeological journal (well, obscure to everyone save archaeologists). Especially when the book you're holding will not be filled with the same types of unpronounceable words. Such is the case with The Dry Salvages, a short sci-fi novel from the always-fine pen of Cait Kiernan. The setting is Piros, a small red moon orbiting a gas giant in another galaxy. The players are four scientists and an unknown number of artificial persons headed to Piros to work with a bunch that's already there. The plot is... hmm. Well, basically nonexistent. This is a character study about the interactions of four people with themselves and others, told by one of them many years after the events in question.

After watching the flood of negative reviews come in for the last book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series, I can see a lot of people hating the way this novel ends. I, personally, thought it was the bees' knees. Your mileage may (and likely will) vary. Can't say more than that for fear of spoilage.

Kiernan hasn't yet writ the book not worth reading. This one is another fine addition to the library. *** ½