Arthur Briggs Book Reviews: Legends of the Radius by Natalie Caves
A new book by Natalie Caves, a famous — or rather infamous — so-called ‘investigative journalist’ accomplishes an unlikely feat of encompassing everything that is wrong with contemporary media — sensationalism, unapologetic profiteering, and poor journalistic procedure. The book, which is supposed to ‘shed light’ on the secrets of Pechorsk Radius zone, is riddled with factual errors, unsubstantiated claims, and leading assumptions. Natalie Caves is well known for her casual approach to facts, but with ‘Legends of the Radius’ she hits a new low, serving up a preposterous, unseemly and borderline insane collection of stories which, supposedly, had taken her years of legwork and interviews to compile.
They say to never judge a book by its cover, but in this case, you can --- ‘Legends of the Radius’ is as vague and without substance as one would assume from its looks.
We all know the story of Pechorsk — a small Eastern European town that was tragically hit by an asteroid, resulting in the near-total decimation of its population and the creation of Pechorsk exclusion zone, which is maintained by a special UN committee to this day. Natalie Caves, however, tries very hard to paint a different picture, which is not only vulgar but also disrespectful to the memory of those who perished, not to mention completely laughable. She gives voice to those crazy conspiracy theorists who made Pechorsk into a deranged obsession, complete with insinuations of alien involvement, paranormal activity, and ghostly apparitions appearing from thin air.
Let’s take a closer look at these insinuations. One of the most popular — and most frequently debunked — legends surrounding Pechorsk is the existence of so-called Artifacts. These objects are supposed to be infused with miraculous powers like healing, turning lead to gold and even granting wishes. Natalie Caves insists that she interviewed a former UNPSC official — conveniently without naming them in an unconvincing attempt to “protect the source” — who used one of these Artifacts to cure their son’s terminal cancer. In another chapter, she describes the process of gaining attendance to the black market specializing in items smuggled from the Pechorsk Radius — the whole thing reads more like a spy thriller than a journalistic report. Nowhere does she provide a shred of tangible evidence that these Artifacts exist outside the realm of urban legends, nor can she — because they quite obviously don’t.
An artistic representation of one of the so-called Changed, as drawn by an ‘actual witness’.
Another prime example of the bizarre myths this book tries to provide with credibility — ineffectively — is the widely circulated ‘theory’ that some of Pechorsk citizens had survived and still live inside the Radius. These people were supposedly changed by the Radius, hence the pretentious moniker ‘the Changed’. Natalie Caves provides several accounts of their sightings in the areas surrounding Pechorsk, all of them strangely unverifiable, and even a few grainy pictures taken by the locals. The Changed are, if we were to believe her, unable to leave the Radius, or rather leave it and survive for more than a few hours. Still, it appears that several of them chose to spend these last hours telling horror-esque stories of their lives inside the Pechorsk exclusion zone, where they are forced to scavenge for Artifacts while avoiding ridiculous ‘anomalies’ and fighting similarly ridiculous monsters. She even provides some sketches of what these monsters supposed to look like! The gall! I can’t imagine an editor allowing these to be published, and yet someone did.
One of the preposterous monster sketches created by Natalie Caves from oral descriptions. Maybe she should stick to writing... on second thought, maybe not.
I’m going to give Natalie Caves the benefit of the doubt and assume that she has some integrity, if very little, and that this disgraceful book is the result of naiveté, not indecency. Perhaps she put too much trust in her interviewees when instead she should have questioned their mental states more thoroughly. It’s not unknown for a journalist to become intoxicated by the personality of their subject, although not one as experienced as Natalie Caves claims to be. In any case, her book should be branded as what it truly is — a harmful piece of sensational, opportunistic rubbish.
And as most of the sensational rubbish that comes out in print today, it’s sadly, but not unexpectedly, flying off the bookshelves and is about to enter The New York Times Best Seller List in number one spot. O tempora, o mores!