The first thing I did when I received this book was read the back cover, as I always do. Here is what it said:

Four inhabitants of a crumbling world:

A drug-addled boy, living in dank recesses, sets out in an ancient car to find his ex, who has mysteriously vanished overnight;

A privileged girl, obsessed with the past, and exiled by her esteemed father, learns more about her long-vanished ancestors than she ever could have wished for;

An old man, on his hundredth birthday, deserts his quiet post as an elevator operator, climbing the great shaft in hopes of seeing the fabled topmost level before he dies;

And a fisherman, seeking answers to why his once-vibrant wife is now chronically ailing and wasting away, begins a quest to find and confront the god of all gods.

To me, this sounded like an interesting and exciting plot. Plus, since I usually review horror, a sci-fi novel would be a nice change of pace. I opened the book and dove in.

Only, somewhere in the second chapter, I realized something: I wasn't enjoying it. And I had no idea why.

Filaria has everything I look for in a sci-fi novel. Interesting plots, well-developed characters, sensational settings, and excellent writing. Yet, for the life of me, I couldn't get into this book. I struggled to finish it. Even now, having read the book and put together my rough notes for this review, I still can't understand why I didn't like it. There was no particular single reason, nothing that stands out. And perhaps that's it in a nutshell - nothing in the book stands out, at least not for me.

So I want to look at it with you, dear potential reader, and see if we can work this out.

First we have the plot. Hayward uses a non-linear format where the four main characters never actually meet, but instead interact, accidentally and unknowingly, through secondary characters. This didn't throw me. In fact, one of the reasons I kept reading was to see how these characters would interact, and if their paths would ever cross. And each of the four subplots held its own interesting twists and turns.

Next, we have the prose. Hayward proves himself deft with a turn of phrase, as shown in these examples:

'Worms the size of pinky fingers live in your stool out there...'

'The varicoulors, the smelt, felt textures of moss and mould, vine and leaf, over-growing future tech. The delicate veins in a moth's wing, the worming filaments of filarial infection.

'...he felt like a child again, helpless against lurking monsters, waiting in shadows to slash out and take him down, bloody, at the knees.'

Again, nothing for me to rail against here. So I'll move on to the characters. Here again, Hayward does an excellent job of putting these people into our heads, letting us see them.

'Shotgun, eagle-eyed, Young Phister' is the first character we meet. Right there, we already know a lot about him. Later, we find out that he, like a good many people living in the lower levels, is deformed - no teeth, no hair. In fact, his ideal of beauty, the girl he's trying to find, is described as 'spotty, toothless, and bald.' In just a couple of sentences, Hayward not only tells us what these people look like, but gives us insights into just how far this world has fallen.

Then there is Deirdre. Younger than Phister, she lives in a much higher level of the planet and is immediately presented to us as a person closer to ourselves. She has teeth, and hair, and fresh clothing. She has abundant food, and an artificial intelligence as a playmate.

Mereziah, the old man, has rheumy eyes but a strong body; he longs to taste meat again, but is afraid he won't be able to chew it.

Finally, there is Tran, the fisherman, who, when we first meet him, is overjoyed at having captured a crab, even if that crab is sickly and begs aloud to not be eaten.

Yes, these are characters with a lot of potential - all driven by the desire to accomplish something, all trying to get from where they are to somewhere else, hopefully someplace better.

Haywards's dialog is as good as his descriptions, and his settings - the different zones or levels are all intricately detailed and fascinatingly different - are well-thought out and imaginative.

So what's not to like? I've only been able to come up with one thing, and that is emotion.

For me, the story seemed to plod along, as dreary and melancholy as the lower levels inhabited by Phister or the waters fished by Tran. The main characters are all depressed for one reason or another, and it's almost as if misery hangs over every page. Contrast this with some of the books by Alan Dean Foster, where people on quests survive perils or go through trials and tribulations, but the reader is always at the edge of his/her seat, or sometimes chuckling. Piers Anthony also created excellent books about people on journeys. Even the epic Lord of the Rings carried a lighter mood than Filaria.

Perhaps if Foster, or Anthony, had crafted this book, it might have captured my interest. Instead, reading Filaria was like stepping into a rainy day, where no matter what you do the gloomy weather seems to suck the life and energy out of things.

Or, maybe it was just me. I've seen online that other reviewers gave the book amazing reviews. All I know is I couldn't wait to put this down and pick up something more fun.


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JG Faherty is a writer of dark fiction. His recent credits include Cemetery Dance, www.wrongworld.com, Shroud Magazine, and the anthologies Bound For Evil, Bits of the Dead, and Dark Territories. He writes regular columns, book reviews, and interviews for the Horror Writers Association newsletter, FearZone, and several other online and print venues. You can visit him at JGFaherty.com