"The Deep Zone." James M. Tabor. Ballantine Books, New York; 2012.
ISBN 978-0-345-53061-5. 6 by 9 inches, 418 pages, hardbound. $26.00.
In this novel, a drug-resistant variant of a bacteria has symptoms
similar to that of the Ebola virus and breaks out among hospitalized
U.S. troops in Afghanistan. A bioluminescent moonmilk deep in a cave
in Oaxaca, Mexico, may hold the cure. A good bit of the action takes
place in the cave, and the author makes use of the knowledge he gained
in writing "Blind Descent" about the exploration of deep caves. Some
readers will recognize Llano Cheve and the entrance to Cueva Cheve,
though not the cenote in the field. The cave does resemble Cheve,
augmented by lethal concentrations of hydrogen sulfide gas and a long
lake of sulfuric acid. The cave is called Cueva de Luz, similar to the
name of Cueva de la Villa Luz in Tabasco that does feature those
chemicals, although not to that extent. At least there are no fire-
breathing monsters, but I suppose some could be written in when the
movie is made. The book is an action thriller, I guess, of the James
Bond variety, lots of guns and bad guys, though no really big
explosions.
The book might almost be called science fiction and fantasy in a few
places, notably the vertical technique used, but a lot of background
is based loosely on fact. Besides echos of "Blind Descent" and "The
Hot Zone," there are probably nods to other books I have not read.
Sometimes I got the impression that some of the detail was included
mainly to show off the author's research, but perhaps that's typical
of the genre. As in "Blind Descent," there are glitches, some of which
should have been obvious to an editor without special knowledge. The
thickness of 20 mils has become 20 millimeters. Can you imagine a
hazmat suit made of 20 millimeter plastic?
Given the way Tabor made caving sound like the most exciting and
dangerous thing in the world in his non-fiction (more or less) "Blind
Descent," I shuddered at the thought of what he might do in fiction.
But that sort of thing works better, I guess, in a novel like this,
where the reader does not expect realism. I'm not much of a reader of
this sort of book, and I won't seek out more, but it wasn't bad.
--Bill Mixon
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Nature is a hanging judge.
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