Beneath the Verdant Veil
Liminal Loves Book #1
Concerned with the tension between belief and evidence, Beneath the Verdant Veil is an intriguing speculative novel.
In Veronica Thorne’s thrilling science fiction novel Beneath the Verdant Veil, a tropical basin’s unusual geometry attracts curious scientists and corporate greed.
Aerial footage captures intentional patterns in the Escondido Basin’s dense forest, perhaps a living architecture. Mara, an archaeologist who studies complex forest systems, is intrigued if reluctant to lead an expedition. When Auralis Biotechnologies promises her the high-priced, cutting-edge field equipment she’s lusted after, plus complete authority over field operations, she acquiesces. With a small team and a state-of-the-art ship, she heads upriver into the wilderness.
The characterizations are complex. Mara is haunted by the death of her previous graduate student at a field research site. She is flinty and skeptical, which sets up numerous opportunities for conversations that tease out the science behind the consciousness and intent in the plant life her team encounters. Her backstory makes her protective of Amaya, her graduate student on the project.
Amaya and Kenji, a technology guy, are brilliant in differing ways; Amaya is awed by the forest’s anomalies, while Kenji first tries to corral them with technology and then comes to fear them. Elias, a disgraced explorer whose shame and remorse run deep, is hired to help the team reach the remote area safely, and Diego, a cultural observer, is torn between preserving, obscuring, and worshiping what the jungle shows them. In contrast, Adrian, the dishonest, greedy corporate representative of Auralis, is not developed beyond stereotypes.
The prose is elegant, using apt comparisons to enliven the settings. In an academic setting, a silver-haired university chair who disputes Mara’s findings has “tenure lacquered onto him like shellac.” In the Basin, thick vines tighten like anacondas around Adrian; a tangle of other vines pull back into the roiling river with a “sickening slurp.” Without a boat, the remaining crew’s only option is to enter the jungle with care, where vines part “with deliberate grace, like heavy velvet curtains in a theater.”
Indeed, the jungle is depicted as being in continuous motion. The varied parts of the ecosystem work in sync to guide the crew to its powerful center. The gorgeous biological complexity they discover there challenges their assumptions. References to established science and to the limits of science are clarifying. Mara’s skepticism fades as she recalls that ants were once believed to be incapable of computing.
And then Auralis’s mercenaries attack.
The tension between belief and evidence is at the heart of the novel, which is also moved along by senses of adventure and possibilities. Complicated platonic and extra-human relationships motivate the characters, who face multifaceted conflicts between discovery, wealth, and ecological integrity. Keeping secrets injures everyone on the team, and they may each be required to keep one more.
In the riveting speculative novel Beneath the Verdant Veil, a scientific exploration encounters mythic elements just when it needs them most.
Reviewed by
Michele Sharpe
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
