THE IRON LABYRINTH

In Beckman’s debut novel, a 1940s Englishman undergoes a profound transformation after he’s imprisoned in a bizarre subterranean maze.

As this dark fantasy begins, writer and editor Brian Renwick is spirited away from 1947 London to a bleak underground domain, where he becomes the property of the seemingly all-powerful “Uncle,” ruler of the Iron Labyrinth, where his minions mine and forge pyrite. Brian painfully learns that Uncle wields absolute control, requiring obedience of mind, body, and soul of his prisoners. As Uncle tells him, “I want you exquisitely alive to my demands. I want you [to] try to discover a new heartbeat, one that pulses for me alone.” Uncle’s punishments for lapses are savage, but the grievously injured and dismembered are healed by a magical blue light, andthe dead are resurrected. Despite the grindingly hard work, Brian’s strength grows through gladiator-style training sessions, fraught but mind-expanding interviews with Uncle, and other otherworldly encounters. The prisoner has all but accepted that Uncle is breaking him down in order to forge him into a weapon for an unnamed purpose—until a shattering betrayal occurs. This is an overly ambitious but wildly imaginative tale. The prose is often vivid, as when Brian climbs up a tower, “driven by a force he could neither mollify nor stop,” and many scenes are striking.The story’s sadomasochistic dynamic is disturbingly effective but not for the faint of heart; it encompasses bestial sex and, in one case, a horrific rape on a lakeshore. There’s also an overabundance of fantastical plot points that make for a bumpy read, including manifestations of the biblical Tree of Life and the Goddess of Pyrite; shape-shifting; extraterrestrial royalty; dimension- and time-hopping; amnesia; and cryptic utterances from seen and unseen entities. Too many unanswered questions distract: What is Roche Brooks, Brian’s best friend back in London, being groomed for? Is Uncle connected to Brian’s lonely childhood? Why are Uncle’s minions being trained in ancient fighting techniques? What is the Uncle-defying power that lurks in the labyrinth’s ominous mist? A sequel, however, might offer answers to these question.

A vividly descriptive and shockingly brutal fantasy story that leaves readers hanging.