Interesting

The book raises a lot of interesting questions and, like a lot of good sci-fi, it's as much concerned with people as it is with supernatural elements; it's as much a study of the relationships and feelings of the people in the delta as it is a study of the strange inhuman creatures inhabiting it.

It's almost painfully slow, though. Halfway in I still felt as though the plot hadn't really gotten started. Events do quicken eventually, but this isn't an action-packed romp by any means. But that's a strength of the book in a sense; this is a contemplative book. The author describes it as a new direction for himself, and I find myself wanting to read his other works to see how they compare. Beckett's writing has an almost anthropological quality to it: there's so many little moments that illustrate human behaviour perfectly. And at its heart, Beneath the World A Sea is a story all about human behaviour – about the things you'll do when you're pushed by stress or fear. Here, it's the psychedelic quality of the delta, where memories don't last and emotions go haywire, that's the trigger. The truly intriguing question is what sort of people would choose to come there…