Book Review – James Rollins’s “Subterranean”
Late last night I finished reading James Rollins‘s action-adventure book, Subterranean.
This is a standalone book and NOT part of his later SIGMA Force stories.
Published back in 1999, Subterranean is a modern day story that takes a team of explorers and researchers deep beneath the surface of the Earth. No, they don’t try to reach the Earth’s core or anything far-fetched. This is a more realistic look at cave exploration along with some fictitious (and quite terrifying) creatures thrown in for fun.
Subterranean beings in a New Mexico desert as anthropologist Dr. Ashley Carter is returning home from an excavation. She’s a leading researcher in her field. Upon arriving at home, Ashley Carter is greeted by a few armed Marines escorting Dr. Andrew Blakely, the head researcher of a secret research site in Antarctica.
At first Ashley is furious about armed men being in her home and around her son, Jason. But when Dr. Blakely explains his visit and shows Ashley an extremely rare artifact, something pointing to an ancient human civilization living beneath the ground, she considers joining his research team.
Across the world and in the southern hemisphere we’re introduced to Ben Brust, a bit of a troublemaker who’s very experienced in leading teams of people through caves and unauthorized areas. He has an Aboriginal ancestor in his family tree, though Ben doesn’t consider it important. While sitting in jail, Ben’s former commander in the military pays him a visit and offers him a job of escorting scientists deep underground in Antarctica. Ben accepts the mission.
It doesn’t take long for the team of scientists and escorts to gather. Dr. Blakely gathers the team at a hotel in South America where he holds a briefing. The new team members get to know each other before making the long voyage down to a military base in Antarctica. Once there, they board vehicles and make the trek into a mountain and down to Alpha Base.
At Alpha Base, the team members prepare for their underground expedition, complete with a Marine and couple of Navy SEALs providing an armed escort. Are armed forces really necessary for exploring caves deep under the Antarctic ice? Ashley Carter and her fellow teammates learn that their team is not the first to explore the caves extending out from Alpha Base. The previous expedition sent a few weeks earlier has yet to return to base.
While Ashley’s son, Jason, remains at Alpha Base, the team of explorers and soldiers begins their trek into the caves. They find evidence of the previous team and stay on their trail. As they descend deeper and deeper into the previously unexplored caves, they begin to make some interesting discoveries. It appears that somehow some people of an ancient civilization had already been through those very caves.
And then the monsters attack.
Dinosaur-like reptiles attack the expedition, killing a few of the team members in a lengthy attack sequence. Simultaneously, more of the killer reptiles attack Alpha Base, overwhelming the security force and killing most of the people at the previously secure base. Dr. Blakely is able to escape with Jason, but they have their own series of narrow escapes and harrowing encounters with the creatures.
The major attack by the creatures takes place fairly early in the book.
Rollins doesn’t really leave you wondering why such large and vicious creatures are able to survive deep underground. They do have a food source, and they aren’t the only creatures living underground. In fact, because of the bioluminescent plants and organisms, many of the creatures have eyes and are able to see their prey.
Subterranean takes an interesting turn when the team members finally make contact with the ancient civilization still living in the caves. It turns out that there’s a whole society of primitive, midget-like creatures living deep underground. You’ll learn more of their story about why they ended up underground later in the story.
As a whole, Subterranean is a pretty neat action-adventure story set deep underground. Keep in mind that this is one of James Rollins’s first major novels, so it’s not quite as well-defined as his later works. Not all of the characters are fully explained, and there are a couple of plot holes and unexplained events here and there.
For me, Subterranean‘s best parts were throughout the beginning when the team arrived at Alpha Base and began exploring the caves. The dinosaur-like creatures were fairly interesting, and their attacks had some great horror elements in the book. It’s just that the ending was a little bit weird with the little people and their telepathic way of talking to Ben.
If you’re into caving and adventure stories in general, be sure to grab a copy of Rollins’s Subterranean. It’s a fairly well-written story that will keep you turning the pages into the latest hours of the night. I speak from experience — I was up until 3:30 am for the past two nights finishing the book!
