by Max Brooks

Century, out now

What did happen to the Greenloop eco-community after the Mount Rainier explosion – did they really face a creature from legend?

Max Brooks’ new novel uses his familiar technique of quoting from multiple sources to create an overview of an event – in this case, the fate of those who formed a community not far from Mount Rainier in Washington State. When the volcano explodes they’re cut off, and their battle for sheer survival is made immeasurably worse by the arrival of a troop of Sasquatch. And forget the Bigfoot from The Six Million Dollar Man – these are giants who are seriously pissed off by events and do not take the humans’ presence lightly.

Our primary source is the journal of Kate, a new arrival at the community, whose own self-absorption is whittled away by what’s happening around her. Through her, Brooks paints vivid pictures of the others there, and although they occasionally veer towards archetypes, their reactions to the situation are credible – from the foolhardy to those totally unable to cope because reality simply doesn’t function that way to those whose pasts give them a perspective others lack. We also are provided with some historical context for Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) and the testimony of the person who eventually found the remains of the community.

As with any book of this sort, you have to set aside questions of quite how the authors of the core testimonies have both the time and the mental capacity to pen their journal extracts, and let yourself go with the flow. Brooks does a great job of tightening the screws on the characters and ratcheting up the tension – it reminded me a great deal of Desmond Bagley’s novel The High Citadel, which was based on a similar siege, albeit without the Bigfoot element, where characters’ pasts enabled them to return themselves to the mindset of an earlier form of human existence (the devolution of the title – it’s nothing to do with Scottish independence!).

Verdict: Don’t wait for the inevitable movie – get involved with the siege now. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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