The Below
Moving through landscapes marked by decay, a government agent’s sense of identity wavers in the humane dystopian novel The Below.
In Scott T. Miller’s haunting dystopian novel The Below, emotional scars and social divisions define both the human conscience and control.
In Hawaii, across the stacked megacities that house the survivors, class divisions and corruption shape human existence. The Designers live in sterile privilege, while life Below is grim: Hunger, drugs, and violence beset the population. Between the Designers and the Below are the agents of the Department of Inter-Island Peace, who enforce order. Kilo, one such agent, is haunted by his past service on the poisoned Continent (a looming emblem of sacrifice and futility) and by the psychic echo of EO, a projection of his fractured mind.
Kilo, assigned to investigate a pattern of deaths linked to the Designers, finds his work complicated by his divided identity and volatile history with the ruling class. As he moves through spaces defined by the social hierarchy, including stark corridors and rain-soaked slums, he exemplifies internal struggles and moral exhaustion. Flashbacks to his years of combat and abandonment are used to bridge the past and present, reinforcing themes of trauma as a living force.
The prose is deliberate and cinematic. Neon light, dense concrete spaces, and the hum of machinery establish the environment in tactile terms. Evidence of environmental decay and technological adaptation also appears in the book’s action scenes, which include details about traffic systems powered by electric cycles, checkpoints separating society’s different levels, and runoff from the higher cities spilling onto the streets below. And the book’s scenes of pursuit and confrontation unfold with precise, visual details of riot activities, dark alleys, and broken bones. The fight sequences balance clarity with chaos, their energy grounded in Kilo’s fatigue and determination.
Kilo’s exchanges with EO are edifying, exposing his guilt and fragments of self-recognition. They complicate the story’s otherwise rigid social contrasts, showing the mental erosion that prolonged conflict causes, even for those who seem somewhat protected. The book’s secondary characterizations are less thorough and more focused on reinforcing these themes: Complacent Designers, desperate workers, and defiant protesters all reflect how society has lost faith in its design.
Moved along by alternating bursts of violence and moments of introspection, the book escalates toward its climax, which is marked by political unrest and Kilo’s personal reckoning. Though the central conflict is resolved, mysteries remain about the Designers’ intentions, generating interest in future series entries.
The Below is a tense dystopian novel in which an investigation in a stratified society reveals feelings of grief, duty, and endurance.
Reviewed by
Brandon Pawlicki
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