''Beneath the Rising'' is a 2020

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

cosmic horror Lovecraftian horror, sometimes used interchangeably with "cosmic horror", is a subgenre of horror fiction and weird fiction that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible more than gore or other elements of shock. It is named a ...

novel by

Premee Mohamed Premee Mohamed is an Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta. She also works as Social Media Manager and Associate Editor for Escape Pod. Mohamed received her undergraduate degree in molecular genetics i ...

. It was first published by

Solaris Books Solaris Books is an imprint which focuses on publishing science fiction, fantasy and dark fantasy novels and anthologies. The range includes titles by both established and new authors. The range is owned by Rebellion Developments and distribute ...

Synopsis

When teenage super-scientist Joanna "Johnny" Chambers invents a clean energy generator in 2002, it draws the attention of malevolent extradimensional gods. Now, Johnny and her childhood best friend Nick Prasad must travel the world in a desperate attempt to find and close the Gate before a cosmic alignment allows the forces of evil to return.

Reception

''Beneath the Rising'' was a finalist for the 2021

Aurora Award for Best Novel The Aurora Awards are granted annually by the Canadian SF and Fantasy Association and SFSF Boreal Inc. The Award for Best Novel was first awarded in 1982 as the Award for Best Outstanding Work and is two awards, one granted to an English-language ...

,2021 Aurora Award Ballot
by

Mike Glyer Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...

, at File770; published May 9, 2021; retrieved June 15, 2021 the 2021

Locus Award for Best First Novel The Locus Award for Best First Novel is one of the annual Locus Awards presented by the science fiction and fantasy magazine ''Locus''. Awards presented in a given year are for works published in the previous calendar year. The award for Best Firs ...

,Here Are The 2021 Locus Awards Finalists
by Andrew Liptak, at

Tor.com ''Tor.com'' is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine published by Tor Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers. The magazine publishes articles, reviews, original short fiction, re-reads and commentary on speculative fiction. From 20 ...

; published May 3, 2021; retrieved June 15, 2021 and the 2021

Crawford Award :::''See also'' Crawford Medal The IAFA William L. Crawford Fantasy Award (short: Crawford award) is a literary award given to a writer whose first fantasy book was published during the preceding 18 months. It's one of several awards presented by ...

.Nghi Vo Wins Crawford Award
at ''

Locus Online ''Locus: The Magazine of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field'', founded in 1968, is an American magazine published monthly in Oakland, California. It is the news organ and trade journal for the English-language science fiction and fantasy fields ...

''; published March 3, 2021; retrieved June 15, 2021

James Nicoll James Davis Nicoll (born March 18, 1961) is a Canadian freelance game and speculative fiction reviewer, former security guard and role-playing game store owner, and also works as a first reader for the Science Fiction Book Club. As a Usene ...

lauded Mohamed's depiction of "the vexed relationship between Johnny and Nick", and observed that her portrayal of the Ancient Ones as "highly invested in preventing anyone anywhere from enjoying long-term happiness" made them the equivalent of "inter-dimensional

griefer A griefer or bad-faith player is a player in a multiplayer video game who deliberately irritates and harasses other players within the game (trolling), by using aspects of the game in unintended ways such as destroying something another player ma ...

s". A Certified Genius at the Age of Five
by

, at James Nicoll Reviews; published January 24, 2020; retrieved June 15, 2021 At ''

Strange Horizons ''Strange Horizons'' is an online speculative fiction magazine. It also features speculative poetry and nonfiction in every issue, including reviews, essays, interviews, and roundtables. History and profile It was launched in September 2000, and ...

'', S. Qiouyi Lu emphasized that, despite the many positive outcomes of Johnny's inventions, Johnny is still a "villainous

mad scientist The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as " mad, bad and dangerous to know" or "insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly amb ...

" who "channel(s) great evil", and commended Mohamed for not romanticizing the

codependent In sociology, codependency is a theory that attempts to explain imbalanced relationships where one person enables another person's self-destructive behavior such as addiction, poor mental health, immaturity, irresponsibility, or under-achiev ...

nature of Nick's magically-enforced love for Johnny which, Lu felt, made Nick a

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

; ultimately, Lu found the novel to be "near-flawless", with a "brilliantly constructed narrative" that also serves as an "extended metaphor" in which "Johnny's covenant, and Nick's role as her 'companion,' are tools to critique the legacy of

colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...

".BENEATH THE RISING BY PREMEE MOHAMED
reviewed by S. Qiouyi Li, at ''

''; published February 24, 2020; retrieved June 15, 2021 Lu further explored the novel in an essay at ''

'', in which they described Johnny as "a symbol for coloniality", and noted that Indo-Guyanese-Canadian Nick's identity as a self-described "brown" man in the medium-term aftermath of

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

(even if, in the world of the novel, the attacks on the World Trade Center narrowly failed when both jetliners crashed into the Hudson River) "is not an incidental part of the narrative — it ''drives'' the narrative," and shapes not just Nick's internal voice but also "how he reacts and makes decisions".A Framework for Decolonizing Speculative Fiction: ''Beneath the Rising'' and ''Steel Crow Saga''
by S. Qiouyu Li, at

; published March 10, 2020; retrieved June 15, 2021

Background

Mohamed wrote the novel's first draft in 2002, but did not begin submitting it to publishers until 2015. She has stated that the tensions between Nick and Johnny, who differ significantly in both race and class, are based on her own late-teenage relationships with friends "who were in different social classes to me and who were mostly white".Premee Mohamed Is Not a ‘New’ Writer: In Conversation with Rob Wolf on the New Books Network
at

Literary Hub Literary Hub is a daily literary website that launched in 2015 by Grove Atlantic president and publisher Morgan Entrekin, American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame editor Terry McDonell, and Electric Literature founder Andy Hunter. Conten ...

; published September 11, 2020; retrieved June 15, 2021

References

{{reflist 2020 debut novels 2020 science fiction novels Solaris Books books