the-gods-of-lakiThe Gods of Laki: A Thriller
Chris Angus
Yucca Publishing
2015
Reviewed by Michael R. Collings

Chris Angus’s The Gods of Laki is one of those fascinating and deeply satisfying novels that are ultimately impossible to classify.

It is, as the subtitle claims, a thriller. Set primarily in—and often underneath—Iceland, it details multi-national political, religious, and economic intrigues that place its protagonists in constant danger of death by assassination, by suffocation, by incineration in lava flows, by nuclear blast, by drowning, and by absorption (but to discover by what or whom, I leave you to read the story). It includes among its characters:

Tenth-century quasi-immortal Vikings;
Nazi scientists developing a heinous plan to win World War II and gain global domination;
Iranian terrorists determined to manipulate and control the price of oil;
A cabal of Catholic cardinals privy to a decades-old secret that could shatter the foundations of religion;
The Majority Leader of the Senate, the President’s science advisor, and the President himself;
A potentially god-like entity unlike anything the characters can imagine;
And scientists, linguists, volcanologists, and half dozen others whose specialized talents blend seamlessly with a complex, coherent narrative.

It depends upon level after level of secret plans and machinations, each deadlier than the last, that must be unraveled and understood.

It is horror as well, at least as far as featuring tentacle-encrusted human chrysalides animated by a fearsome power as unknowable and, perhaps, as indifferent to human life as any of H.P. Lovecraft’s Great Old Ones helps define that genre. It incorporates gruesome death and eldritch creatures from the depths…although in this case, not the depths of the sea but of the unfathomable and constantly changing world of sub-volcanic caverns and passageways.
It is science fiction in that at the core of the problems that develop as a result of human tampering with Laki, a volcano on the southern coast of Iceland, such things as strangelets, the Higgs boson/God particle, the Large Hadron Collider, black holes, and alternate universes become crucial to explaining events. Or do they?

Along the way—but certainly not peripherally—it deals with religion and reason and questions of ultimate existence, of the purposefulness or futility of humanity. It deals with appearance and reality; with illusion and fact and the often tenuous interface between them; with life, death, the prospect of immortality and the unanticipated consequences of obsession with longevity; with ambition and greed and pride and virtually everything else that makes life interesting. It deals with gods and devils, believers and atheists, and the differences and similarities linking them.

And it does so by telling a compelling story of two central characters—ex-Secret Service agent now expert in geothermal energy Ryan Baldwin; and Samantha Graham, daughter of a powerful senator, seeking to understand the mysteries of Laki. The progress of their relationship—which gives the novel a light touch of romance—parallels the gradual revelation that Laki is more than just a volcano…and that penetrating the enigmas surrounding it will forever change perceptions of reality.

A thoroughly enjoyable read on multiple levels, well-written, fast paced, and intriguing in its suggestions and possibilities.

About Michael R. Collings

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