The Dry Salvages

By Caitlín R. Kiernan

Award-winning author Caitlmn R. Kiernan, best known for her contemporary settings, gothnoir tales of pain and wonder, and atmospheric stories of Lovecraftian terror, was first published as an author of dark science fiction. Now she returns to sf with a masterful thirty-thousand word novella, The Dry Salvages.Three centuries in the future, though much of Earth has been crippled by war, pollution, and catastrophic climatic change, man has at last traveled to the stars and even found evidence of at least one extraterrestrial civilization. In a bleak and frozen Paris, at the dawn of the 22nd Century, an old woman is forced to confront the consequences of her part in these discoveries and the ghosts that have haunted her for almost fifty years. The last surviving member of the crew of the starship Montelius, exopaleontologist Dr. Audrey Cather struggles to remember what she's spent so long trying to forget -- the nightmare she once faced almost ninety trillion miles from Earth.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1596060069
• ISBN13: 9781596060067
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Subterranean
• Length: 123 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.5" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

freaky

This is a genuinely unsettling little deep-space ghost story. This work is not perfect. It's really difficult to pull off a structurally flawless horror novel, and Kiernan doesn't do so here. But _The Dry Salvages_ creates and sustains an eerie, haunting tone. It manages to capture some of the terrifying size and emptiness of the universe, the feeling you can get looking up at a night sky in the country, or from Lovecraft when he's not being silly. That's a plenty rare accomplishment in its own right. If I had to pick Kiernan's best work, it might be some of her short stories, rather than this. But this is one of her most stylistically successful works. Her prose can become a bit ornate sometimes, and the gritty, technical tone of this novella helps to fight that. Regardless, if you like horror, its not as though the bookstores are overflowing with accomplished, interesting new work. This is short, very readable, and quite good. Horror fans who are unfamiliar with Kiernan definitely ought to give it a try.

All build-up with too little action, but still a delightful atmosphere with rich horror. Recommended

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.

Stunning, absolutely stunning.

I've just finished reading this book and I know what I will say about it will never, ever measure up to what I've just read. I am, nearly literally, stunned. Kiernan is a genius. Read her bio. I can't help but feel that I've been grabbed from somewhere behind my navel and dragged along for the ride. Fans of Carl Sagan and science as a whole should enjoy this novel immensely. It is unlike anything I have ever encountered. I strongly reccomend the chapbook The Worm in My Mind's Eye that accompanies this novel if you can get ahold of it.

Poetry in Space

Caitlin Kiernan's lastest offering reads like poetry by Harlan Ellison would sound. Kiernan possesses a gift for describing vivid stories in effortless, flowing movement and an insight into the human condition far beyond her young years. So very much more than an 'alien' tale, The Dry Salvages resonates with the reader long after the reading is done. It touches the very essence of 'humanness', which is the best sort of 'science fiction' one could ever hope to read. This book is destined to be another well-deserved award-winner for Ms. Kiernan.

Creepy, without the gouging of eyes

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.