Geeks vs. Monsters

THE ABYSS ABOVE US by Ryan Notch (2010 / 174 pp / eBook)


A bunch of astronomy students discover an area out in space that holds no galaxies.  It is a pitch-black void full of nothing (as far as they can tell), until it begins to transmit a strange sound.  The sound causes all who hear it to go crazy and committ suicide.  Over 500 students and people in the surroudning area of their university are killed, with only one survivor.


Said survivor, Shaw, is now in a mental institution with a 'One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest' array of characters.  He manages to get on the Internet and meet people who help him hack the Institution's system, and he learns about the massacre at his old university.  He manages to escape the asylum and is housed by a priest in a church he once did computer work for.  The priest also believes his story of an impending alien attack and allows Shaw to set up camp in a hidden room.


Meanwhile, another computer whiz, Collin, has become a slave of the Dark God, a name he gives to the mysterious entity responsible for the university massacre.  The brownstone he lives in becomes a portal where this thing intends to enter the world.  It's up to Englishman Jack and his friend Terra to stop things before they get too out of hand.  But standing in their way are once human-now alien creatures and a building with no way of escape.  Add to the mix Shaw, who winds up in the brownstone being chased by a spider-like creature he has inadvertently called down to his new church home.


This sci-fi/horror/monster hyrbid features a familiar although well paced plot.  And despite some stiff dialogue, THE ABYSS ABOVE US isn't a bad way to kill an afternoon.