In Browne's (Hunted
) dark and slow-moving fantasy, the subterranean world of Below is a dog-eat-dog realm populated by outcasts, just beneath the beautiful city of Lunnzia, home to the Abovers. But the Abovers don't have it easy: a rigid theocracy enforces poverty to stave off sin, and jobs and housing arrangements are assigned. As the novel opens, two people—Rej the comber (a catacomb-dweller) and Donna from Above—are having the same dream, that of riding an enormous dragon over Lunnzia. They are drawn together when a prominent Abover is left for dead underground, and Rej discovers him. Donna works as a scribe for "the Doctor Esteemed Melagiar," all the while hiding the secret that she was an assassin who specialized in poisons before being thrown into the present caste system. Together, the two protagonists discover that Melagiar and the dead man were collaborating on the mother of all weapons, a device that can literally scare people to death, the "Basilisk Contrivance." The pacing is straightforward and culminates in a big showdown, but neither the setting nor the characters become very interesting. This feels like an off-the-shelf fantasy realm with not much to call its own, making it hard to care whether or not the Basilisk Contrivance gets built and unleashed. Ages 12-up. (May)
