What Are We Reading?: Dead Sea, Tim Curran

Rating:

5/5 Unspeakable Horrors

Give me the short version:

Container ship The Mara Corday is unfortunate enough to pass through a dimensional gateway in the Sargasso Sea.

All hands experience a serious change in fortune from working class man to snack buffet.

Have you ever read that Stephen King short story The Mist?

If not, you ought to; the horrible happenings are disturbing enough that your stomach feels reality shift queasily beneath you. They also released a quite natty film adaption of it in 2007. Now, imagine the queasy feeling of The Mist, but set at sea rather than in a supermarket, with the volume turned up to ten. And every time something awful happens you think that's it: that's the most awful thing that could ever happen to a person, nothing will ever top that. And then something else happens that is far, far worse. And this cycle just keeps repeating. I would have liked to see the ending push that concept even further rather than springing back, but the conclusion was such a small part of such a huge sprawl of squeamish shrieking that I feel very forgiving in this case. I keep going back to enjoy Dead Sea again and again, and will continue to do so well into the future.