I’m starting preliminary work on a project about the vast ocean, its fathomless depths, and being drawn inexorably down into the dark - as well as thinking about the futility of the imperialist mindset trying to ‘conquer’ nature. Here are some of the books and games me (and co-writer Letty Wilson) have been most obsessed with the ideas in, and I found particularly inspirational on these themes.
BOOKS
QUEER OCEAN HORROR: Emmett Nahil’s From the Belly
A man is cut still-living from the belly of a whale and kept prisoner on a ship where things rapidly start to go wrong and get weird.
Emmett writes queer horror that explores the beautiful and terrible, obsession and the body. Read for ominous growths, portents and prophetic dreams; doomed imperialist arrogance about whaling; and a hot mystery guy who, like the sea, may not be able to love you back.
You can pre-order direct from Tenebrous Press (it’s out May 30th apparently) to support a cool horror small press as well as a cool indie author.
* Full disclosure note: I hired esteemed horror nerd Emmett for his game writing expertise to edit on previous gamebooks (Into the Tower) because I really like his work!
NON-FICTION DEEP SEA: The Brilliant Abyss, by Helen Scales
Fascinating and extremely readable non-fiction about deep sea life, and a bit about the human forces threatening it.
I wish I was able to memorise all the facts from this and keep them in my brain - I ended up making my partner listen to big chunks of the audiobook, because I kept trying to recount all the information back.
Changed how I think about the ocean, and what natural landscapes we think of as ‘valuable.’
LITERARY SF EMOTIONS: Our Wives Under the Sea, by Julia Armfield
A woman’s wife comes back from a deep sea mission Wrong. A story about grief, endings and paralysing anxiety. Beautifully written prose, with a really compelling sense of the characters moving dreamlike through the world, unable to intervene in the inevitable.
On a personal level as someone with a severe chronic illness, the isolating helplessness of how it feels to have or watch a body and mind falling apart - with a system unwilling to help you - made a particular impression.
Really just a banger of a book, everyone I know who read it messaged me like ‘HAVE YOU READ THIS?’ and they were right to.
LITERARY SPACE SCIENCE: In Ascension, by Martin MacInnes
When an unexpected deep-sea mission gets weird and goes wrong, a scientist slowly follows the trail of anomalies into new deep-space exploration.
A sci-fi-later-on climate-y novel with a background of coming to terms with past abuse, and an awe about being part of huge, beautiful natural systems.
This book is philosophical, slow-paced and very interested in the science (listening to the audiobook and having a brief background originally studying astrophysics probably helped my enjoyment. Also warning for sea nerds, it’s only about the ocean at the start.) Not perfect & pretty long - you can honestly skip the first two chapters - but with moments of beautiful and interesting ideas, if you’re up for being patient.
SF HORROR/ THRILLER: The Luminous Dead, by Caitlin Starling
A ‘one last job’ dangerous cave-diving mission to get the MC the money to get off-planet, turned half-psychological horror as she realises her handler on the surface is holding back crucial information. Even as she starts thinking she sees things down in the dark, she crawls deep down into the alien planet, unsure if she’ll be trapped there.
This is cave- rather than sea- diving, claustrophobic, nightmarish and genuinely tense / scary (full warnings here).
The complex horrible lesbians and feeling of obsessively being drawn down into the dark absolutely changed me.
FANTASY WEBCOMIC/ GN HONOURABLE MENTION: Tiger, Tiger by Petra Nordlund
Truly one of my all-time favourite comics ever and I will use any excuse to talk about it, this is an incredibly drawn fantasy comic with a bonus cool and sexy ancient creature / wrathful, awful god brought up from the depths of the ocean in a diving bell.
Free to read (here), with the most awe-inspiring illustration, worldbuilding, queer idiots and extremely funny faces. What more could one look for in a piece of media, I ask you. If I could ever make something 1/10th as good as this comic, I would die happy.
NARRATIVE GAMES
IN DEVELOPMENT: Below and Behold
Felix Miall has been part of a team working on a game about a Clergyship of monks descending deep into the ocean. It doesn’t exist yet, but his ideas and art are always extremely inspiring - if you partake of social media, I strongly suggest following him somewhere so you know what he’s up to.
More pics on his:
- Instagram
- Twitter
* Full disclosure note: Felix is an esteemed beloved creator and deep-sea enthusiast colleague who illustrated on my previous gamebooks. We have both, by yelling about them to each other and through independent accident, enjoyed a lot of the media on this list.
TABLETOP HORRORS: Heart, The City Beneath
Felix was also the illustrator for Grant Howitt / Rowan, Rook & Decard’s RPG Heart, whose manual has the most lush and inventive and awful descriptions of being drawn inexorably downwards towards your doom.
It’s an RPG that’s very good at opening up its worldbuilding for the player or reader to invent more, rather than closing off creative possibilities.
* Another full-disclosure note: just remembered I also designed some pins for Heart, an exciting honour, because I really like Grant’s game writing.
SF SEA EXPLORATION: Subnautica
Actually more of an open-world adventure/explorer than the sort of narrative games I usually play, Subnautica’s atmosphere of being one very small person exploring a vast ocean blew me away.
After a ship crash, you’re trying to explore a planet underwater, looking for what happened to the other escape pods. The exploration and the terror of hearing or glimpsing a huge dangerous creature in the distance alone would make it fantastic, but you also gradually find other clues and audio files left behind and uncover a brilliantly evocative longer history of what happened on this planet and can complete the story.
The game spent a long time in development getting REFINED. A particular mechanic I absolutely love which emerged from that that is that there’s no guns, and almost no point trying to meet the leviathans that lurk in the depths with violence. It leaves you with this incredible impression of the unfathomable indifference of the natural world, how huge and untameable it is, and the need to work alongside as a part of it rather than against it.
MYSTERY SHIP / GAME OF ALL TIME: Return of the Obra Dinn
Me and all my friends’ favourite game. It’s 1807, you’re investigating a ship with all crew dead or missing to determine what fate befell them. Rendered in 1-bit, full of music I’m obsessed with, the game I most wish I could wipe from my memory to play again for the first time. If you can, avoid looking anything up before playing. I heavily blame this game (and The Terror TV show fictionalising the Franklin expedition) for the current fervour of my interest in ships.
