Creatures, though, no question. There’s humans all over the place. Beneath, Below is not a long story, and I don’t want to spoil, so I’ll focus mostly on the fact that it’s set in an inconceivably distant lunar habitat – not our moon; our habitat only through artefice – and does a fine job of presenting the subtle and not so subtle stressors of life lived in a superficially comfortable extreme. Which is how it will have to be, when we finally do leave the familiar environments of home to explore what the outer universe consists of. We humans, I mean.
Call me “Neppo-Daddy”, but a month or few ago Foofaraw Press named me “Federmeister” (which translates to “the greatest editor in history”, or something, basically that, let’s move on) and now here I am saying “They’re great, go read them!” But since they are great, and because you should read them, there’s really no conflict of interest here and so I don’t really know why I mentioned it (except that I’m proud of the feather in my cap, obviously).
I say this because in a way the story feels like (if it wasn’t for the appearance of a mobile phone) it could take place any time since say the 70s. Perhaps because the protagonist’s perspective (uncertainty about the intentions of others, uncertainty about those of herself) and the environments she occupies (decaying social spaces, natural zones that don’t feel ours, the liminal borders between them) are in the greater scheme of things persistent conditions, even if the players and the places shift.
I feel myself waffling. It’s the story of Natalie, alone by choice but hardly happy about it. She dreams of something primal and strange; encounters something ancient that offers deepest desires granted; must decide whether it comes at a high cost or is in trade for something she doesn’t value at all. Also sees and thinks about the collapsing mundanity of the world we’re all living in. If you can call it that, what we’re doing.
