Stories from Underground
Random fact: June 6th is National Caves and Karst Day. Truly.
What’s a “karst?” you ask? <<Clears throat academically>> It is a geological formation created by the dissolution of solid rock.
I know that’s not very helpful. Sorry.
Therefore, in honor of this day—first instituted in 2017 by the National Caves Association—here’s a list of great books featuring underground settings.
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (1864)
You’ve got to start with this one, right? Avoid the Griffith & Farran translation and choose instead the 1877 edition from Ward, Lock, & Co. Unfortunately, even this translation is not brilliant, but at least it’s available for FREE at Project Gutenberg: https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3748/pg3748.html
Wool by Hugh Howey (2012)
Far in the future, a disaster has rendered the surface of the Earth toxic and uninhabitable. Humanity has retreated to underground bunkers, many stories deep, called “silos.” Serious infractions against the law result in being forced to suit up and go clean the lenses of the cameras that are the silo’s only connection to the surface of the planet. And the cleaner always dies. One day, the Sheriff, Holston, in an act of despair, asks for the unthinkable. He asks to go outside. Hugh Howey’s trilogy (Wool, Shift, and Dust) have been adapted for the screen by Graham Yost as the Apple TV+ series Silo.
The Black Echo by Michael Connelly (1992)
The first book in Connelly’s outstanding Harry Bosch series follows in the footsteps of the great authors of hard-boiled detective novelists Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon) and Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely). The setting is Los Angeles, and Detective Harry Bosch is called to the scene: a dead body has been found in a drainpipe. Bosch realizes that the dead man is a former member of his unit in Vietnam, a group of soldiers called “tunnel rats,” who delved into the Viet Cong’s network of underground passageways and hideouts and fought a hidden war. The trail of clues leads Bosch to team up with the FBI to foil a heist utilizing a system of tunnels beneath the city.
Homeland (The Legend of Drizzt, volume 1) by R.A. Salvatore (1990)
Here’s where my nerd creds shine through. This novel is set in The Forgotten Realms, a fantasy setting for the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. It’s the origin story of a D&D fan-favorite, Drizzt Do’Urden, the iconic Dark Elf. He hails from The Underdark, a wilderness of caverns so vast it spans a continent. Don’t worry—even though this book draws heavily on creatures and situations familiar to D&D players, it is not a transcript of a D&D session. Salvatore is a very good writer and this is a marvelous feat of world-building, character creation, and storytelling.
D’aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths
Some of the best stories of the underworld are from Greek mythology: Orpheus and his tragic journey to Hades to rescue his wife Eurydice. Demeter and her daughter Persephone, whose tale is a fanciful explanation of how the arrival of spring signals the end of winter. The twelfth and final “Labor of Heracles” was to descend into the underworld of Hades and bring back Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guarded the entrance. And who can forget the Greek hero Theseus, who famously entered the Labryinth to slay the Minotaur. Many editions of these stories exist, from children’s storybooks to scholarly treatments, but consider starting with D’aulaire’s.
Virgil’s Aeneid
This is one of the greatest epics in the world, written by the Roman poet, Virgil. The hero, Aeneas, one of the few survivors of the Trojan War, embarks on many adventures, including a trip to the Underworld. You can also read about Virgil in quite a different “underworld” — in Inferno, part 1 of The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri.
“The Machine Stops” by E.M. Forster
In the future, human beings live underground, having all their needs met by The Machine. Unlike the people in the silos of Wool, the humans in Forster’s world are all isolated from each other and only venture out among other people when forced to. They prefer to stay inside, surfing the Internet, taking online courses, and conversing with one another through video chat. Hm…
The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
In The Hobbit, Bilbo’s adventures in the caves beneath the Misty Mountains lead to his encounter with Gollum and the discovery of the Ring of Power. In the deep caverns of The Lonely Mountain, Smaug the Dragon guards his hoard of stolen Dwarven treasure. And in The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf leads the Fellowship through the vast underground passages of the Mines of Moria, where they encounter one of Middle-earth’s most ancient and deadly evils.
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau (2003)
Ember is a post-apocalyptic novel for young readers that I really enjoyed as an adult. It’s about a young girl who lives in an underground city, created by The Builders as a refuge against a world-destroying disaster. After 200 years underground, a special box with a timed lock is supposed to open and reveal to the survivors of humanity everything they need to know to evacuate the city, return to the surface, and repopulate the earth. Problem: 240 years have gone by. And nobody in Ember even knows about the box…
National Caves and Karst Day
June 6
https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/caves-and-karst-day/
National Caves Association https://cavern.com
National Speleological Society https://caves.org
If you’d like to pick up your own copies of the books I mentioned, consider following this link to my Bookshop.org store. This is an affiliate link, which means you will still receive a discount on your purchase, but Bookshop.org will give me a small commission in return for sending my readers to them. Thank you so much for your support — it means a lot!