Short Fiction · Chapter
A New Horror explained
Roverton, Adams, and Deming find themselves in a nightmarish jungle on an alien world, surrounded by carnivorous plant-monsters.
What happens
Roverton, Adams, and Deming find themselves in a nightmarish jungle on an alien world, surrounded by carnivorous plant-monsters. Adams is devoured by a kraken-like plant but is later ejected, as human flesh proves indigestible. The survivors are passed through the jungle by the plants and eventually flung unconscious onto a treeless plain.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Rising action.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
This excerpt marks the story's dramatic climax because it depicts the protagonist's psychological nadir—a phan…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Cosmic Horror and Estrangement
The alien jungle and its carnivorous flora embody the incomprehensible and hostile nature of the cosmos, overwhelming the human characters.
- Supernatural and the Unknown
The bizarre, sentient plant-forms and their predatory behaviors defy natural laws, creating a sense of the uncanny.
Characters to notice
- James Roverton
Witnesses the plant-monsters and is dragged through the jungle, eventually flung unconscious onto the plain.
- Herbert Albert Adams
Devoured by a plant-monster but ejected when human flesh proves indigestible.
- Chester Deming
Survives the plant attack alongside Roverton and is also flung unconscious onto the plain.
Key passages
“The flying monster was stretched on the ground and was wrapped from head to tail in the coils of something which Roverton could only designate to himself as a vegetable anaconda.”
The bird-like creature lay on the ground, completely entangled in the coils of a plant that Roverton thought of as a vegetable anaconda.
Describes the initial encounter with the alien plant life.
“Instantly a long tentacle shot out from the nearest of the kraken-like forms and encircled him. Struggling and screaming, he was drawn toward the great dark lumpish mass from which the tentacles emanated.”
A tentacle from a nearby plant-monster grabbed Adams and pulled him toward its central mass as he screamed.
Adams is captured by the plant.
“Obviously human flesh had not agreed with the digestion of the Andromedan plant-monster.”
The plant-monster found human flesh indigestible.
Explains why Adams was ejected.
