To be perfectly honest, I don't know where I picked up this novella. I probably got it for free from somewhere, but I'm not sure where. In any case, it's a relatively new story (2012) by Tim Curran.It's a well told story from top to bottom, I would say. The writing style is easy to follow. The story follows a debutante miner on his first day of the job. He dreads going into the mine, but chalks it up to typical nervousness for the first day of the job. But it turns out that his premonitions were nothing to sneeze at.
The miners go into a deep pocket that has been buried for about 250,000,000 years. They discover an entire world that has petrified. Everything from dinosaurs to gigantic trees, all preserved in this underworld. But beyond the memorial of a primeval period of time that goes back to the beginning of the dinosaur age, there is an immortal resident.
The immortal resident is described as a super intelligent spider like creature. It is able to tap-tap communicate. It is powerful enough to rip full grown, powerful men into pieces for devouring. It does not eat like a spider, but rather chooses to eat men more like those around a turkey for Thanksgiving: ripping it to pieces and eating limbs and lapping up the blood of its victims. The protagonist, on the other hand, she preserves. She has been lonely for 250,000,000 years, and chooses him as a companion. She feeds him in the darkness. She helps him overcome a serious illness. Then, she gives birth to creatures. Eventually, the rescue team gets into the chamber, but this is where the story ends.
The story reminded me somewhat of H. P. Lovecraft. I am not alone in this vein. It was entertaining. It was short. It was an easy and pleasant enough read. If you like the short horrors of long ago, you will probably appreciate Curran's effort.
