The Chamber

Esoteric Atmospheric Tale Not For The Faint Of Heart. Straight up, this is one of those truly esoteric books that, even with the glossary and map up front, isn't going to work for everyone - despite not being fantasy *at all*, and in fact because it is perhaps *too* real.

This is the world of Saturation Diving, where divers work underwater under pressure for weeks on end, often repairing cabling or piping or other undersea infrastructure that makes above ground life possible/ globally connected for the rest of us. And here, Dean is as exacting in his depiction of the actual lives of these people as Andy Weir was in The Martian, with *even more* technical discussion since so much of this particular book is a group of these divers living and working together as they do in the real world - warts and all.

And yes, there are also larger forces at play - but we only see those from *inside* the Chamber, through the eyes of our sole narrator. (Ans some scream: "Yay! No multiple perspectives!" :D)

Overall one of the more interesting tales of 2024 just because of how true it is to its real-world subject material and how rare any open discussion of that particular role in modern society really is - but truly, be forewarned: It is extremely esoteric *due* to how rare that job is in the real world *and* the tale can be truly slow or even incomprehensible for some readers, if you simply can't wrap your mind around what is happening in such a tiny and closed off space. For those that can though, this is truly a fascinating book on a few different levels.

Very much recommended.

The last chapters of this book had me feeling like screaming. The countdown and feeling of claustrophobia was almost unbearable. The story as a whole though didn't grab me. I didn't understand Ellen's backstory. It didn't add anything to the story. For a locked room mystery, it felt more like we were waiting for people to die instead of trying to figure out why they were dying.

Hats off to Will Dean. He's only gone and done it again. He's taken the locked room mystery and turned it on its head. For locked room read hyperbaric chamber.
Picture, if you will, 6 people in a very small chamber, locked in and breathing a mixture of helium and oxygen. Then one by one, they begin to die. Sounds like “And Then There Were None” crossed with Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea.
This is no cosy mystery though. It's on-the-edge-of-your-seat, panic inducing, suspense. It is claustrophobia writ large. And oh boy, that ending. See, that's the thing I love about Will Dean. He never gives you a straightforward ending, but he does take you on quite the journey.