Spirits of the Vasty Deep Paperback – Import, 19 March 2018

This takes up some the themes of Lovecrafts "Cosmic Horror" but translates them into British terms, our Mythology & attitudes. Dont expect any blood or slime though there is Death & grief. This is a novel of ideas, feelings & images that linger.

It's a nicely sensual produced book by Snuggly Books and delivered in good time from Marketplace sellers rather than Amazons advertised timescales. I'm a slow reader so it was a lovely surprise this story captivated me from the very beginning & I found myself in the rare position of not wanting to put it down. As 'science' fantasy novels go it's quite a small microcosm set in a fictional (sadly) Welsh village, in that it hasn't been discovered yet by Google maps & a small handful of characters. It's true I completely identified with the main character, a 60 something man who is convinced he hasn't made much of a mark on life & having had experience of Welsh village life, local/outsider attitudes (thoroughly down played in the book, reality is far scarier) for real so I had much to draw me in. Making a conscious effort to provide no spoilers, there is some excellent discussion of alternative views of the nature of reality or rather a reasonable extension beyond current scientific assertion, the implied alternative history and the cryptozoology components I also found very plausible all providing interesting trains of thought of possibilities for life being far stranger than we are taught to think. I was highly dubious of the ghost elements not being my thing from the write up but I needn't have worried as they were comfortably fitted in & expanded the books cosmic view. The ending was fairly low key but again quite plausible and fitting for a fine tail to the story and leaving the tale still open, yet for ever changed.Above all a compelling book well worth the read and essential if, as I, you hear the Sirens Song from your own vasty deep.