Among the Living

by Tim Lebbon

Overview

From the New York Times bestseller and author of Netflix’s The Silence comes a terrifying horror novel set in a melting Arctic landscape. Something deadly has lain dormant for thousands of years, but now the permafrost is giving up its secrets…

"At once a thrilling novel and a call to action against climate change..." - New York Times

Estranged friends Dean and Bethan meet after five years apart when they are drawn to a network of caves on a remote Arctic island. Bethan and her friends are environmental activists, determined to protect the land. But Dean’s group's exploitation of rare earth minerals deep in the caves unleashes an horrific contagion that has rested frozen and undisturbed for many millennia. Fleeing the terrors emerging from the caves, Dean and Bethan and their rival teams undertake a perilous journey on foot across an unpredictable and volatile landscape. The ex-friends must learn to work together again if they’re to survive... and more importantly, stop the horror from spreading to the wider world.

A propulsive horror thriller––fast-moving, frightening, and shockingly relevant—this adventure will grip you until the final terrifying page.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781803365954
Publisher:	Titan
Publication date:	02/13/2024
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	94,299
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Tim Lebbon is the New York Times bestselling author of Eden, Coldbrook, The Silence, and the Relics trilogy. He has also written many successful movie novelizations and tie-ins for Alien and Firefly. Tim has won a World Fantasy Award, four British Fantasy Awards, a Bram Stoker Award, a Shocker, a Tombstone and been a finalist for the International Horror Guild and World Fantasy Awards. The Silence is now a gripping Netflix movie starring Stanley Tucci and Kiernan Shipka.

Editorial Reviews

12/11/2023

Combining a plausible existential threat with vivid depictions of a forbidding landscape, Lebbon (The Last Storm) crafts an expert work of ecological horror. In the near future, catastrophic climate change has so devastated the planet that America’s drought-afflicted farming belt is now known as the Desert. The demand for new sources of rare-earth minerals leads four experts to the Arctic’s Hawkshead Island, where they’ve identified a cave system that could yield riches. But when they enter, the researchers encounter an unusual group of mummified human remains, apparently tens of thousands of years old. Despite every indication that the bodies are long dead, one of them, whose head is in “an impossible position,” appears to move, sending the expedition members fleeing for their lives. When three of the four emerge from the caves, they meet another team, this one comprising activists and ecoterrorists, who are concerned that the intrusion may have unleashed a contagious intelligent disease that could kill every human on Earth. Lebbon skillfully exploits the very real concern that melting permafrost could release deadly viruses to create a nail-biting scientific thriller worthy of Michael Crichton. Readers will be wowed. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Among the Living:


"At once a thrilling novel and a call to action against climate change...This novel is wildly entertaining...The tension and violence are as aggressive as a revving engine here, but Lebbon’s timely message — that hurting our planet is hurting ourselves — is just as loud." 
New York Times

“Fast paced, compulsive, suitably horrifying” –Esquire

"[I]f you're after a tight, exciting thriller with ecological themes and a dash of early episodes of X-Files, it's appropriately chilly for the winter." 
SFX


"A nail-biting scientific thriller worthy of Michael Crichton. Readers will be wowed."
Publishers Weekly


"[Tim's] mastery of descriptive narrative and character crafting left me marinating in every single word of this masterful and gripping story... Among The Living is a film begging to be made; a desperate warning to humanity, pleading to be heard... Tim Lebbon is a master storyteller at his mesmerising best, and Among The Living is worthy of awards and accolades"
Nuzo Onoh, author of Where the Dead Brides Gather




"A chilling, white-knuckled thriller of a novel, Among the Living gives us a peek into the not-too-distant future, and Lebbon scares us to the ice-cold core of our souls with his dark, dire, and delightful prose. This one kept me up at night."
Ronald Malfi, author of Come With Me


"Let me tell you, if the words 'intelligent disease' don't send a chill up your spine, well then Tim Lebbon's got about eighty thousand more words where that came from and they will absolutely pulverize every last vertebra you've got."
Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters and What Kind of Mother 


"Tim Lebbon is the absolute king of modern climate-change eco-horror. Fans of EDEN will adore this one, set on an island in the Arctic Circle, where something lurks in caves underneath the permafrost. Explosions! Body horror! A doomed ship! MONSTERS"
Ally Wilkes, author of All the White Spaces


“The closest thing to an actual nightmare I’ve encountered on the page in a very long time. Among the Living is doom-laden, frantic, desperation horror of the highest order, filled with the most what-the-f**k twists you’ll read all year. Lebbon is a master.”
Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Road of Bones and All Hallows


“Among The Living may be Tim Lebbon’s best work yet. Riveting, immersive and timely, it pits flawed, damaged people in an unequal and desperate struggle to prevent a catastrophe that may be just around the corner for us all. Read it now.” 
Daniel Church, author of The Hollows


“Tim Lebbon is a master of weird fiction! Among the Living is a riot of body horror, desperation, wild action, and totally relatable characters. Bloody brilliant!” 
Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Cave 13 and Empty Graves


“A heart-pounding suspense novel set in a highly believable, not-too-distant future, with humankind and the environment bringing the terror in equal measures. Among the Living is yet another absolute belter from Tim Lebbon, a true master of the eco-horror subgenre.”
Rio Youers, author of Lola on Fire and No Second Chances


“Among the Living is expertly tense, showcasing not only the dread of human distrust, but the destructive possibilities that rest beneath the surface. Tim Lebbon is a master of eco horror.”
Cynthia Pelayo, Bram Stoker Award-winning author  


“At the melting edge of the world, Lebbon confidently cracks open the earth to confront our cosmic insignificance.”
Andrew F. Sullivan, author of The Marigold and The Handyman Method


“When it comes to ending the world, nobody does it better than Tim Lebbon, and Among the Living is his most intense, harrowing effort yet.” 
Brian Keene, Bram Stoker Award -winning author

From the Publisher