Onyx reviews: The Pandora Room by Christopher Golden

Reviewed by Bev Vincent, 04/28/2019

Archeologist Sophie Durant and her team discover a secret chamber in the underground city of Derveyî, in the Kurdish territory of Northern Iraq, near the Turkish border. Ancient writings on the walls refer to the myth of Pandora's Box and a variation that includes Pandora's sister, Anesidora.

According to that version of the legend, there were two "boxes," one containing all the world's curses and the other containing all of its blessings. Given the warning nature of the inscriptions, Durant and her fellow explorers believe the vase they find contains "curses," whatever that meant to the originators of the legend. At the very least, it might contain toxins or diseases unknown in the modern era.

Fresh from a mission in the Arctic where several ancient microbes were discovered in the recently thawed permafrost (reminiscent of the TV series Fortitude), Ben Walker arrives on the scene in the company of Seong Kim, his counterpart with the United Nations. Walker, introduced in Ararat, operates under the guise of working for the National Science Foundation, but is actually a DARPA employee whose mandate is to investigate discoveries that might be used as weapons. If they can be, he is to ensure they will be used by the United States and not against them. This mission often puts him at odds with Kim, who has become his lover since they met on the Ararat mission.

They aren't the only people interested in what Durant's team has turned up. On their last trip into town, Sophie and her colleagues were pursued by mysterious individuals. Rumors spread among the locals, firing up Islamic terrorists and other groups in the region. The terrorists are out to destroy anything of archeological value and the government agencies want to retrieve it for themselves.

Not willing to take any chances, the researchers enact containment protocols, limit access to the chamber containing the vase and require protective masks and suits for anyone who might have to get near it. However, the ancient vase has already released some of its contents and team members are getting sick. In addition to fever-like symptoms and rashes, one of the disease's symptoms is hallucinations, which might actually be manifestation of ancient evils. Ghosts, in other words.

The cast is large and diverse and, although Golden does daub a bit of character color onto many of them, some tend to blend together in the reader's mind after a while. With a contagion spreading and so many players to account for, it's difficult to pause the pell-mell action long enough to give each a bit of backstory and motivation, although he does a decent job in this department.

As in Ararat, there is a prevailing sense of claustrophobia in The Pandora Room. The research team is, at first, quarantined in the underground city to prevent accidental release of whatever the urn contains. Later, when the jihadists lay siege to the Allied military forces providing protection on the surface, they are trapped, and it's only a matter of time before the terrorists invade. There also may be a spy on Sophie's team, which adds paranoia, suspicion and betrayal to the tension that already exists underground.

It's a rollicking, fast-paced thriller that will appeal to fans of the Indiana Jones movies, with its blend of myth, science and the supernatural. It's hard to image how Walker can survive many more confrontations with ancient evils, but it would be nice if in a future book Golden revealed all the details behind what Walker experienced at the lake in Guatemala he often mentions.