Review: Elevator Quest by Emmanuel M Arriaga

Office life is the bane of many existences, and who hasn’t wished for the universe to throw them a magical curveball to save them from boredom? In Elevator Quest, a whimsical and creative novel by Emmanuel M. Arriaga, those wishes for an exciting escape are granted to a ragtag collection of corporate professionals who are transported from an elevator into a completely new and harrowing world.

Within the first few pages, readers are introduced to a dozen people facing the most terrifying experience of their lives – plummeting to their deaths in an elevator failure. However, the book doesn’t begin with a gruesome scene of carnage, and these unlikely adventurers instead emerge into a world of magic and danger. Using what impractical skills they can muster, the group must battle through a video game-like series of adventures and “baddies” that test their survival instincts and ability to work as a team.

What could have been a clunky and heavy-handed allegory for workplace cohesion becomes a riveting and quirky novel with tongue-in-cheek jokes and enough laugh-out-loud moments to keep the mood perpetually light. Like a party of first-time players in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, the characters fumble their way through one hazard after another, desperate to survive, but also increasingly suspicious of what brought them to this new world, and why.

Certain characters, such as Arnold and Tasha, rise to the occasion, becoming the informal leaders of this harried troupe, becoming the focal point of the action. Arriaga does an excellent job of driving the plot with strong female characters and isn’t afraid of tackling more complex issues of gender and race. Remarkably, the novel unpacks intense problems of human nature in the midst of a surreal and unpredictable world, which Arriaga handles admirably.

Mostly, the novel is an entertaining glimpse into ordinary people thrust into fantastic surroundings, in a way that is immediately recognizable and accessible, despite the fantastical elements. Readers can recognize many of the characters and behavioral tropes, and the modern-day details blended with supernatural settings is particularly entertaining. Trading in smartphones for battle axes, this unique group of anti-heroes represent a compelling and dynamic crew that carries this gem of a story, while the author’s technical skills glue the haphazard pieces together.

Any writer who spends as much time on description as Arriaga should have a knack for it, and his approach is idiosyncratic and powerful. Masterfully avoiding the cliché of telling, rather than showing, readers are forcibly sucked into this vivid realm, adventuring right alongside these cubicle denizens. At times the visceral details are so prevalent that they can become slightly numbing, and some of the action scenes drag on a bit too long, but Arriaga injects enough mystery between the mayhem to keep readers intrigued.

As the book plays out, and it becomes more and more apparent that something fishy is going on in this mystical universe, the action genre bleeds into the mystery and thriller niche, which is an unpredictable and pleasant shift. Don’t let the pulp nature of Elevator Quest fool you: this is a multi-layered fantasy novel with far more going on between the lines than you could ever expect.