Relic

Relic
by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Before I get too far into this post, a confession. I am absolutely infatuated with Special Agent Aloysious X. L. Pendergast. I love his funereal suits, excessive list of preternatural abilities, and the delightful deep southern style. That said, this is not my favorite book to feature him (although it is the first) - that honor belongs to Still Life with Crows, which I heartily recommend. Brimstone is a close second. But they're all good and everyone should go read them.

Now then.

Relic is something of a convoluted tale with a simple premise - monster runs amok in museum. The convolutions come about as a way to get the monster there in the first place. The museum of natural history is a great setting and I love the way it is featured in the book, but the authors have to go to great lengths to explain how the creature came to be in NYC to begin with. These narrative gyrations came across as heavy handed to me, particularly in the final chapter where Dr. Frock summarizes everything for a roomful of people who already know what he is talking about. The epilogue, though it contained new information and was largely a teaser for the sequel, was guilty of the same.

The monster of the piece, Mbwun, is gradually revealed to be the results of mutation caused to an explorer by ingesting a virus-infected plant. The creature has a mix of ape and lizard DNA and is described as having a very foul odor, three claws on the forelegs and five on the back, and a simian face. The creature is said to have human intelligence (explained later in the novel by the fact that it was once human), but poor eyesight and superior smell and hearing.

Mbwun was an effective monster in most of the important ways - it stalks through the museum and picks people off at a steady rate, and its later appearances during the exhibition fiasco was suitably dramatic. The creature is extremely dangerous and difficult to kill - almost comically so. A greater part of its invulnerability is the fact that no one believes it's real, a factor which gradually became less and less believable. The trope of the creature's odor giving away its location worked reasonably well, although it did get repetitive. But it was a clever enough creature to keep things interesting, and the way it played off of the museum setting and the Superstition exhibit made for a good combo.

The setting plays a big role in this novel, and for good reason. The Museum is pretty much a character in its own right, and it is the perfect backdrop for this creature out of legend and history. The story just wouldn't be the same if it took place in an abandoned steel mill or an old railway station. The only downside of the setting (and the characters necessary to populate it) was that there were a number of scenes that seemed to serve no function beyond saying "look how smart we are". It reminded me of CSI in that respect.

Relic is a fusion of mystery and horror - it starts out as a whodunnit, with characters trying to piece together the cause of grisly murderers. A shift occurs in the middle of the book, once the characters discover that the murderer is actually an honest-to-goodness monster, and the book shifts gears into a horror survival story. It's an effective combination, and made for a compelling and enjoyable read.