Skyships Over Innsmouth is the latest book from Susan Laine. It's an interesting take off on a post-apocalyptic world meeting H.P. Lovecraft. And it works.

 

Dev is the captain of the Smoke Swallow, a scout airship from Canal City, looking for resources to replenish the dwindling stores as well as survivors of the Cataclysm. With his crew: Shay, the scholar, Malia, the fighter, Stork, the jack of all trades, and Wren, the youngest member of the crew, and another one who jumps in wherever needed.

 

Our crew sets off to find a mystical city. One only talked about in books. It never appears on any map, and even the books on it seem vague about any details. But they are determined to find Innsmouth, MA. And to unlock any secrets it may hold, including why its location is so secret.

 

The crew finds Innsmouth, and descends to the ground, leaving Wren aboard ship. Just in case of trouble. And trouble finds them shortly, in the guise of a young girl. A girl who looks oddly like a mix of human and fish? Malia is taken by the residents of Innsmouth, and Dev and Shay wet out to find her, with the help of Stork.

 

It is revealed that Innsmouth is a dream city. Or rather, a nightmare city, populated mostly by frightening hybrids of humans with fish, and a few hybrids of humans and other animals. And a few other beings that defy explanation.

 

Skyships Over Innsmouth borrows very heavily from the Lovecraftian universe, using locations, stories, and beings that were popularized by Lovecraft and his fellows. As such, there are things in the book that don't make lots of sense, unless you've got a little bit of knowledge of the lore. Non Euclidian geometry is touched on, as well as you can describe something that can't exist in our grasp of the universe, but not explained.And that bit of the book is difficult to wrap ones head around, but only because of the descriptions of how that "style" of geometry could look.

 

There's much more to this book, but going much deeper will take away from the mind bogglingness of it. But there is some lovely non-explicit romance, that isn't tiptoed around. It's very obvious what's going on, but there's no explicit sex, which was interesting and very well written. I was very pleased with the book, and how it juggled the two realms of existence. And the wink and nod to other Lovecraftian stories was great.

 

Skyships Over Innsmouth should be put on your to-read list if you're a fan of post-apocalyptic fiction, Lovecraftian fiction, LGBTQIA fiction, old school horror, and just plain weird creepy fiction. I give it two fins up. And a couple tentacles as well.

Book – Skyships Over Innsmouth
Author – Susan Laine
Star rating - ★★★☆☆
No. of Pages – 200

Cover – Gorgeous!
POV – 3rd person, multi-POV
Would I read it again – No

Genre – LGBT, Steampunk, Science Fiction, Horror


** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK, BY THE AUTHOR, IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW **
Reviewed for Divine Magazine



DISCLOSURE: I had never read a Lovecraft novel, and didn't know it was going to be paramount to my understand of this story, so I ended up being really confused, thinking this was all the author's original concept, until countless reviews told me otherwise (after I'd written my own, of course). This is why it's a 3 star and not a 2, as it would normally be. I'm pretty sure Lovecraft fans would love this, but I'm not a fan and I didn't love it; perhaps for this reason or maybe just because it didn't work on its own merit.


While the overall story has merit in terms of old classic horror, in the style of Lovecraft (as the author implies), the rest is just a little too garishly ridiculous for my taste. I've marked it a 3, because I'm sure diehard fans of Lovecraft and old horror might enjoy it, but for me, it just didn't work as an overall, cohesive, captivating story.

I've read quite a few Susan Laine books by now and they're a little lopsided for me – I either love them or feel completely ambivalent about them. This one falls into the second category. Although parts of it were good – the first 45% and moments thereafter – there was just no cohesiveness to the plot, the horror aspects felt sort of stolen from the greats of the genre, even mentioning Lovecraft and Derleth multiple times and the characters sort of became second fiddle to the Innsmouth aspect of the story.

There were aliens, tentacles, zombie-like creatures and squids, skyships, amnesia and more. It was just far too much for one story to handle. And, honestly, the horror wasn't scary or frightening, but overdone and over-exaggerated. I found most of it predictable and the rest fancifully ridiculous.

With monologues all over the place and a pair of male MC's that were will-they-wont-they, there was already a lot to keep track of. But then Malia came into the picture, as the only female, but a very unlikeable, unrelateable character, who was borish, rude and marginalized others at the drop of a hat. Her POV scenes were quite a challenge to read, even though she was a character central to the forwarding of the plot.

Again, there were hints of other horror books/movies included here – a little of The Ring, Lovecraft, Derleth, an Ancient Egyptian twist reminiscent of Stargate, even a little hint of The Hills Have Eyes.

By 45% I started skim reading. I normally wouldn't, for a book I'm reviewing, but this one really was a challenge to read and, honestly, by 45% I could see it ending within a chapter or two, as a short story, while wrapping up the plot and giving us a suitable ending. However, it dragged on to the very end, about 98%, and just became more and more elaborate as it went.

Oh, and the end location (not telling you, in case you read it) just added the cherry to the top of the ridiculousness. That one really made me glad I'd skimmed most of the action/adventure aspect in the second half of the book, because it warned me that there might very well be another book in this world and I'm not going to read it.

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Overall, I think Laine just tried far too hard to emulate the likes of Lovecraft and classic horror novels. Perhaps if the plot had been simplified and the over-exaggeration of danger every second, twists and turns in every chapter.

 

After what can only be described as a sagging middle, the stories are starting to pick up steam again. 

 

Cthulhu of the Dead Sea: a new form of microbes are found living and thriving in the toxic salt levels of the Dead Sea.  Guess what happens when they're brought to a lab for study?

 

Notes Found in a Decommissioned Asylum: a young woman recounts her days in a mental institution after discovering something that should've remained hidden.  But some people are fully aware of what she found and want to know why she still lives.

 

Not bad at all.

For a book that's supposed to be all about the Cthulhu mythos and Lovecraft's works, I ain't seeing a whole lotta tentacled monsters, starry blackness and Ancient Ones lurking in the pages.  So far half the book is generic horror stories that could be slapped into anything. 

 

I'm feeling kinda let down by it all at this point.

 

Eight Seconds: sorta an offbeat tale set in the Australian outback, but hey- at least a monster finally made an appearance.