‘Outpost’ – Adam Baker (Hodder)

 

Page Count: 368 Pages

This week has been a real week for reading horror, so much so that I don’t want to break the streak now. I’m making it official; I don’t know whether it will be another novel, or some short stories, but I’ll be keeping it ‘horror related’ for the rest of the week (or until something else catches my eye, whichever comes first). Lets see how it goes… Anyway :o)

I last read ‘Outpost’ (just over) fifteen years ago so when I saw a copy on the shelf, at Waterstones, not so long ago, I thought it was time for a re-read. I had vague memories of an oil rig, a world shattering virus and… that was it :o) That was all I needed though, I was in the mood for something apocalyptic and the blurb certainly promised that…

They took the job to escape the world, they didn’t expect the world to end…

Kasker Rampart is a derelict refinery platform moored in the Arctic Ocean. A skeleton crew of fifteen fight boredom and despair as their wait for a relief ship to take them home.

But the world beyond their frozen wasteland has gone to hell. Cities lie ravaged by a global pandemic. One by one, TV channels die, replaced by silent wavebands.

The Rampart crew are marooned. They must survive the long Arctic winter, then make their way home alone. They battle starvation and hypothermia, unaware that the deadly contagion that has devastated the world is heading their way…

While there must be books out there that are bleaker than ‘Outpost’ (thinking about it, I’ve never read ‘The Road’, maybe I should…) but based on my experience, there can’t be that many. ‘Outpost’ is a compelling read because it is so grim and bleak; one of those reads where you finish it and have to watch funny Youtube videos to take your mind off it. But you can’t get away from the plot and its implications for the wider world.

That’s not to say its a perfect read though, at least it wasn’t for me. I couldn’t help but feel that Baker really wanted to let his readers know how much he knew about the inside of an oil rig and I’m cool with that, but only to a point that, at times, was crossed in the early stages of the book. I’m all for a bit of background scenery but I’m also all for a read that kicks off right from the start and doesn’t get bogged down in detail (most of which is quite dry). At least, that’s where I am at the moment.

Talking about ‘background scenery’ though, Baker knocks it right out of the park with a particularly oppressive Arctic backdrop (a threat all on its own) that somehow leaves you wondering… If the cast are safe here, what the hell is going on in the rest of the world that could be worse?

Well, we find out eventually but not before a gradual build up that really lays the tension on thick. No-one knows what’s happening and so the reader is in the dark just as much as the cast is; we really get to share their fear and experience events first hand. Like I said earlier, this all makes for a compelling read.

People are being driven to their absolute limit then… And that is when the real threat is introduced. I think there are questions here that were possibly never meant to be raised. In particular, while the merest scratch can cause infection, one character lives right in the midst of the infected… and doesn’t catch it at all. The infected don’t even seem to be that interested in passing it on to this character. I’m not in the best place to pick up on things so it’s likely that I’ve missed something. But… it doesn’t feel like I did, Baker appears to one for telling his tale simply, here, rather than giving us clues. I don’t know… Ultimately, it works but I don’t like loose ends…

When the full nature of the threat becomes clear though, we get this great sequence where our cast realise that they are fighting to survive in a world where it may already be too late to make a difference. What is the point? It’s a really interesting question to ask and by this point, Baker has established a cast where the answer can play out in really interesting ways. And without giving too much away, that answer does play out as well as you’d think. The virus is a nasty one, lending real urgency to the plot and making for some eye-catching body horror all at the same time. Heroes come to the fore and given what they’re up against, you can’t help but respect every single one of them.

Despite that dry start, ‘Outpost’ is just the kind of apocalyptic read that I always enjoy. A well drawn concept, executed smoothly and delivered by a cast that will literally go through hell, even if where they eventually end up is worse. ‘Outpost’ has been out for a while now but if you like apocalyptic fiction and, by some chance, haven’t read it… Do something about that.