The Caves of Night

John Christopher was a popular pseudonym used by British writer Sam Youd (1922-2012). Under the Christopher name, Youd authored successful science-fiction, fantasy, and young-adult fiction titles like The Tripods, The Lotus Caves, Sword of the Spirits, and The Fireball. He also authored numerous books using a variety of other names like William Godfrey, William Vine, Peter Graaf, Hilary Ford, and Stanley Winchester. Having owned several of his novels, I opted to escape the summer heat with Christopher's cavern disaster book, The Caves of Night. It was originally serialized in John Bull Magazine in 1958 and published in hardcover the same year. The most popular edition is the 1968 Avon with cover art by Don Crowley. My version is the 1984 Sphere paperback with art by Chris Achilleos.

Married couple Henry and Cynthia routinely take vacations to a rural inn in the Austrian wilds. Henry is a spelunker with a passion for a unique, complex cave structure that is completely off the grid when it comes to tourists and other hobbyists. During their stay, they meet an eccentric Russian named Albrecht, a WWII veteran and former prisoner-of-war. He invites the couple to wine and dine with him. As these things go, Henry is climbing in caves and turning up stones while Cynthia and Albrecht secretly develop a romantic groove. Thrown into the mix is a young, newlywed couple that also enjoys Albrecht's company. 

The first half of this book explores infidelity, marriage struggles, and the daily grind of domestic life – work vs play. Henry is a really nice guy, but seeks these solo ventures into the cave's infrastructure. It's a real bore for Cynthia, but she supports his enthusiasm. There's a definitive rut in the marriage, and the author capitalizes on it with the affair angle. However, based on the cover art and premise, I needed some caves to crash and characters to slowly suffocate. It's how I roll. 

Thankfully, the second half of the book plunges all five of these characters into the bowels of the Earth. When the newlywed couple attempts to pick flowers – a symbol of their budding love – all Hell breaks loose. Trapped in the cave for days, this quintet logically turns to desperation. With dwindling light, food, and general survival supplies, the hours turn frantic as the group treks into the darkest recesses, hoping to find daylight. It was this aspect of the novel that appealed to me, a gripping survival yarn that conjured some of the moments I loved so much in the post-apocalyptic novel The Rest Must Die by Kendell Foster Crossen. Youd's use of darkness, despair, and loneliness in one particular scene really etched a place in my mind. 

If you want a straight-up cave adventure, then The Caves of Night might partially disappoint you. Ultimately, this is a story of marriage and the weight of relationships. So much so that the final scenes of the book utter a Shakespearean echo of Romeo & Juliet – only with people perilously dangling from fraying ropes above a dark mouth of some wet and bottomless chasm. Yeah, the book is definitely about marriage. 

Pick up a copy of the novel HERE.