A review by riven010101
Beneath by Jeremy Robinson

1.0

STUPIDITY AT ITS FINEST

This book relies on the classic formula of 'make your characters so dumb that disaster is bound to strike'. I lost count of the number of times I was tempted to let this book take a flying leap out the nearest window. Unfortunately, since it was on my ereader, I had to restrain myself. What made this book even more annoying was that the majority of these characters were supposed to be scientists, yet it was impossible to tell rom the way they were acting. I'm not saying scientist can't be dumb, but is expecting some logic and rational thinking to much to ask for? Let's take a small example:
SpoilerAfter take samples of an alien life-form on Europa (one of Jupiter's moon), one of the scientist, (whose co-worker died from contact with this same alien life-form) decides to play peek-a-boo with another fellow scientist using one of the untested samples. For the fun of it, apparently. He then proceeds to do a experiment in an uncontrolled environment, even after realizing this alien life-form is actually sentient and perhaps highly intelligent. Is it any wonder that this idiot got what he deserved.

To top it all off, after this dumb scientist got infected with alien poison with yet unknown consequences, the majority of the team decide to take another happy trip down to Europa to find more alien lifeforms, leaving the captain, also a scientist, in charge. Instead of putting this infected scientist into lockdown, with the blast doors shut and keeping track of his movements 24/7, the captain instead decides to go Jupiter-gazing. And this captain was also aware that a fellow scientist died hideously after contact with the same alien life-form! Common sense, what happened to it?


Of all the six main characters in this novel, only two showed a modicum of having some brains, one of them being an extreme sports expert, who had no scientific background. HOW did these people get their positions on a MULTI-BILLION DOLLOR EXPEDITION and HOW in the world did they keep them?

To top it all off, there seem to be an inordinate amount of characters suddenly becoming clumsy at critical moments and convenient falling down holes resulting in outright disaster. Just for the thrill, apparently.

To add insult upon injury, the most critical question of the entire novel is not even given the time of day: how in the world did an intelligent sentient life-form find itself on an inter-steller cruise through the galaxy ON A METEORITE?

This book is a game of dumb and dumber. I'm sorry I wasted my time with it.