Synopsis
Humanity’s time is done.
The Earth is freezing over and human civilization is gone.
For Ira Hartman and the dysfunctional band of survivors that surround her, all that’s left of the old world are ghosts trapped beneath the still-forming ice sheets.
When Ira and the survivors discover a secret military research facility housed deep within the San Bernardino Mountains, at first, it seems like the perfect shelter. Plenty of rations. Water. Warmth.
Then they discover the remnants of horrifying experiments. Corpses, strapped to operating tables, horror etched on decomposing faces, experiment rooms filed with strange machines and occult symbols, and the logs of a raving lunatic. The unmistakable feeling that something is watching them, waiting in the cold, tubular concrete tunnels, in the shadows.
What Ira and the others don’t know might just kill them.
Review
MIND’S HORIZON by Eric Malikyte is a post-apocalypse horror novel where the protagonists find themselves with mixed fortunes. On one hand, they’re trapped on an Earth that is slowly dying due to a cosmic dust cloud blotting out of the Sun. On the other hand, they’ve found an abandoned underground military base with its own infinite power source. On the other, other hand, the military base was where a bunch of mad scientists attempted to contact other dimensions. So, you know, good news, bad news situation.
It is not a spoiler to state that Mind’s Horizon is a cosmic horror novel, specifically of the Cthulhu Mythos. This is more or less my catnip so I have to warn readers that I am going to be kind to this book beyond what might be warranted (but I enjoyed it legitimately either way). It is like some weird fusion of Fallout and Event Horizon, which is a pretty good set of things but if you aren’t looking for a novel about a bunch of cynical survivors going mad as they’re exposed to nightmarish imagery then this is probably not the book for you.
The book starts with Ira Harding, a young woman with strong protagonist energy, doing her best to try to get some feminine supplies a year into the Ice Age that will eventually exterminate humanity. Ira is the definition of “plucky” and has a crush on her fellow survivor, Eddy. Unfortunately, Eddy is loathed by Ira’s brother, Nico, due to the fact they fought on different sides during the Second Civil War before civilization completely collapsed. Just about everyone in the group hates one another.
The trick to making a good “dwindling party” story is to focus on the characters and make sure the audience cares about them before they die or go mad. The survivors of Mind’s Horizon may not be the most likable bunch of individuals, frequently hostile for the pettiest of reasons (which I feel is fairly realistic given they aren’t here by choice), but they are all distinct with interesting stories. My favorite characters were Nico and Lena, who may be less friendly than most but I understood the rationales thereof. Ira, for all of her positive qualities, often behaves like a brat when everyone else is struggling to survive.
Eric Malikyte does a fantastic job establishing the mind-destroying and hallucinatory effects of the extra-dimensional beings. The protagonists experience flashbacks, hallucinations, and all too real warping of reality as things start breaking down. The extra-dimensional beings are more like Chaos than Lovecraft, though, as they seem actively malevolent versus indifferent. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but some people prefer amoral horrors versus things actively out to torture you before you die.
The feeling of the book is very much a combination of kind of B-movie science fiction horror and would make a very good video game, in my humble opinion. Still, its focus is primarily on the slow breakdown of the protagonists’ sense of reality. It avoids a lot of the usual flaws of horror stories by making it clear why our protagonists don’t just leave. If the choice is a frozen hellhole with no supplies or a place that may be haunted, most people will take their risks with the creepy building. It has its flaws but I enjoyed it.
