Average customer rating:
- A good yarn
- Not the best...
- Another great book from Rollins
- I say read all his 16 books
- I Cannot Believe This Got Published
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Subterranean
James Rollins
Manufacturer: Harper
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Similar Items:
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Excavation
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Deep Fathom
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Amazonia
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Ice Hunt
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Sandstorm
ASIN: 0380792648
Release Date: 1999-06-08 |
Book Description
Travel to the bottom of the earth to a place you never dreamed existed. Beneath the ice a hand–picked team of specialist makes its way toward the center of the world. They are not the first to venture into this magnificent subterranean labyrinth. Those they follow did not return.
Over the rocks...Across the yawning caverns...beyond the black river...You are not alone. Into the darkness where breathtaking wonders await you–and terrors beyond imagining...Revelations that could change the world–things that should never be disturbed...At the bottom of the earth is the beginning. Keep moving toward a miracle that cannot be, toward a mystery older than time.
Download Description
Travel To The Bottom Of The Earth...
to place you never dreamed existed.
Beneath The Ice...
a hand-picked team of specialists makes its way toward the center of the world. They are not the first to venture into this magnificient subterranean labyrinth. Those they follow did not return.
Over The Rocks...Across The Yawning Caverns...Beyond The Black River...
You are not alone.
Into The Darkness...
where breathtaking wonders awaits you -- and terrors beyond imaging...Revelations that could change the world -- things that should never be disturbed...
At The Bottom Of The Earth Is The Beginning.Keep Moving...
toward a miracle that cannot be...toward a mystery older than time.
Customer Reviews:
A good yarn.......2007-09-12
I'm re-reading this book and it's almost as good as the first time I read it. I know the ending already, so I can't fault the book for not being as good as the first time I read it.
I've read some of the readers' reviews and I have a few comments to make.
First, you HAVE to suspend belief. I mean, this is a book about explorers finding a civilization under the Earth's crust. If you refuse to accept that, you shouldn't be reading this type of novel. Go read a newspaper or Newsweek or something. Secondly, if you say this book is ridiculous because of that, then you might as well say the same thing about Jules Vernes' books, or Issac Assimov or Arthur Conan Doyle.
Thirdly, I didn't find the characters all that bad. and not cardboardy at all. In fact, I find Rollin's earlier books much better than his later Sigma books, a huge difference. The difference is that in these stand alone books Rollins isn't constrained to bring essential characters back again, again...... and again. He can kill them off without penalty (except for the penalty of making up and fleshing out new characters for each new book). And if you don't like the characters, you don't have to see them again. And so what if the characters are not deep thinkers up for Nobel Prize or Academy Awards? They don't need to be. OK, they may be stereotypes, but I just need them real enough to move the story along, I'm not going to date them or be blood brothers with them.
What I liked: I liked the story line. I'm here to read an out of the world adventure story and that's what I got. Rollins put together a good setting. There was a lot of suspense, and he populated the book with interesting enough creatures. There are only so many settings on earth you can put your characters in and Jules Verne, Doyle and Burroughs pretty much nailed them all, so it's pretty tough to come up with new settings, but I think Rollins did a good job.
He did a good job of bringing us readers along an exploration where you didn't know what was going to happen next and it was an exploration that was fraught with dangers and dangerous creatures, and they were dangers which he was able to transmit/transfer to us readers sitting on a chair at home. The first time I read it, it kept me wanting to turn the page, and the next one and the next one. That my friends are why we call these books page turners and why I'm giving it a 5. And like I said, if you find all this ridiculous, don't read this genre again. Adios!
Not the best..........2007-09-08
This was the first Rollins book I read. The story line was decent, but could have been developed better. There was too much gore - much more than was necessary.
The main thing that got me was all sex. I mean, when most people are running away from a monster sex isn't usually the number one priority. Some of the events didn't seem logical.
It's not one I would read again.
Another great book from Rollins.......2007-08-17
Rollins in "Subterranean," lets you travel to the bottom of the earth to a place never explored.
A specialized, hand-picked team of scientists make their way towards the center of the earth. They are not the first to venture into this magnificient subterranean labyrinth.
Into The Darkness...where breathtaking wonders await them, and terrors and strange creatures live. Some places should not be messed with or the consequences can be lethal.
I say read all his 16 books.......2007-07-12
I was searching desperately for a good action novel to read, one that has action, adventure, technology and above all it should be fast paced. I searched for almost 2 weeks and zeroed on Matthew Reilly and James Rollins. Then I went and bought a book of each author. I must say that from page 1 of Subterranean I couldn't stop till I read the ending. So much did I like it that I went and bought "Excavation" and "Amazonia" by James Rollins too. I cant wait to get my hands on Ice Hunt, Sandstorm, Deep Fathom, Black Order, Map Of Bones, The black Order and Judas strain too. I am currently reading Excavation and I cant wait to get home to continue reading it. I also heard that he writes fantasy under the name of James Clemens. I plan to buy those 7 books too, begining with Wit'ch Fire. Here I was waiting for the next JK Rowling or Michael Crichton to come along and now I am okay if they dont release abook for the next 1 or 2 years.
Subterranean is his first novel and you get the feeling Rollins has packed in every possible thriller situation in the story, maybe he thought it would be made into a movie. I was amazed how there's so much action in the book. Just when you thought you had your fill of action, you realise that the book is not even quarter over. And then you begin thinking what else he might have packed in the rest of the book. But no, rollins does not disappoint you.
Buy all his books if you like page-turning thrillers. I also recommend Prey, Congo by Michael Crichton, Sphinx and Mutation by Robin Cook, Angel Demons and Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and JK Rowling's Potter series.
I Cannot Believe This Got Published.......2007-05-17
Wow! I'd say this book was really a hoot if it were not so awful. I am amazed that so many readers rated it as highly as they did. The characters are cardboard cutouts and unlikeable and the story lame. Even if one accepts the world the author has created, it's impossible to buy the contrived unfolding of events. In one word: absurd.
Book Description
The underground has been a dominant image of modern life since the late eighteenth century. A site of crisis, fascination, and hidden truth, the underground is a space at once more immediate and more threatening than the ordinary world above. In Subterranean Cities, David L. Pike explores the representation of underground space in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a period during which technology and heavy industry transformed urban life.
The metropolis had long been considered a moral underworld of iniquity and dissolution. As the complex drainage systems, underground railways, utility tunnels, and storage vaults of the modern cityscape superseded the countryside of caverns and mines as the principal location of actual subterranean spaces, ancient and modern converged in a mythic space that was nevertheless rooted in the everyday life of the contemporary city. Writers and artists from Felix Nadar and Charles Baudelaire to Charles Dickens and Alice Meynell, Gustave Doré and Victor Hugo, George Gissing and Emile Zola, and Jules Verne and H. G. Wells integrated images of the urban underworld into their portrayals of the anatomy of modern society.
Illustrated with photographs, movie stills, prints, engravings, paintings, cartoons, maps, and drawings of actual and imagined urban spaces, Subterranean Cities documents the emergence of a novel space in the subterranean obsessions and anxieties within nineteenth-century urban culture. Chapters on the subways, sewers, and cemeteries of Paris and London provide a detailed analysis of these competing centers of urban modernity. A concluding chapter considers the enduring influence of these spaces on urban culture at the turn of the twenty-first century.
Book Description
WARNING: TO BE USED BY MEMBERS OF THE 'HUMAN RESISTANCE' AS A GUIDE TO ALIEN STRATEGY!
This manuscript contains expositions of an extremely revealing and concentrated nature. There are powers of spiritual origin that will attempt to interfere with the dissemination of this information. In the event that the reader begins to sense such an oppressive influence while reading this book, the author strongly recommends that they stop and read the 23rd Psalms aloud and then continue. This will break the power of the spiritual attacks.
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS AMAZING WORK. . .
O The great cosmic conflict between humans and the REPTILIANS.
O The Serpent Race and its influence throughout history.
O The Missing Link between Lizards an Snakes.
O Horrible battle between humans and aliens.
O AGHATRA - Contact with the subsurface world beneath our feet.
O What this group of ETs WANT!
O The great Biblical Deluge.
O Tribal memories of Flying Saucers.
O TELOS -- city beneath Mt Shasta.
O Chinese on the moon 4300 years ago.
O Underwater Bases.
O The Seven Sisters Constellation.
O Tunnel Beneath Salt Lake City.
O Secret Microwave Stations identified.
O Mysterious Disappearances in the Black Mountains.
O The Illuminati tie in.
Learn about the underground base beneath Dulce, NM. Cross breeding with aliens. The Skull and Bones Society and its connection with the Reptilians.
This is one of the most bizarre and amazing works you will ever own...GUARANTEED!!!
Customer Reviews:
A dictionary of the future events.......2007-08-13
If you ever thought you knew about the world...think again! Commander X will astonish you and open your eyes to the truth of this world and what will be. Religious and not religious alike...brace yourselves. All the things on the sci-fi channel ARE NOT, I REPEAT ARE NOT MADE-UP!!! These stories are exaggerated truths of whats really going on but dressed up as fiction. The whole hollow earth theory is really portrayed here because aliens are not entirely from distant world but are in actually here in our own galaxy and our own planet. A must read for a serious truth seeker. Keep it spiritual because that's what its all about people!!! A excellent read!!
It's okay to be paranoid but not gullible........2006-05-06
When I read the reviews for this book prior to buying it and found that most of them were less than complimentary, I took that with a grain of salt. Part of me even thought that some of the reviews may have been "planted" to discourage the public from purchasing this book. I had never read anything by Commander X before so I was curious, but even after reading the book I hadn't read anything by X. The entire book is hodgepodge of different authors and random articles pulled off the internet. It does, however, offer some interesting theories and musings which are entertaining, but few are backed by any extensive evidence. I'm not going to tell you not to buy this book because I did, and you may want to read it for yourself to decide where you stand. If you're like me you'll find the part written by Branton particularly incoherent and I'll leave you with the two words in his section that made me put this book down, "communist homosexuals".
The Serpent Race or Reptilian UFO Occupants.......2005-07-24
I have the first edition of this book, and recently bought the expanded edition. Most of the new material is available on the Internet if you know where to look, so it wasn't new to me, and none of the illustrations in the book are original, although many readers may not have seen them previously. That said, I will admit that this is one of the best compilations of material on reptilian, or scaly-skinned aliens (UFO occupants) currently available. Some of the information in the book is downright paranoid, as is often the case with published information regarding secretive reptilian humanoids. The book also was produced on a very low budget, as is evident from the simple magazine type binding, with additional material simply thrown in as inserts. Nevertheless, I would recommend this for the collection of anyone seriously interested in reports of reptilian humanoids and their possible role within the UFO phenomenon and the world in general. Just remember to take it with a grain of salt, as no one really knows what the big picture really is regarding this subject.
All of his books are rip-offs.......2005-06-15
I mean come on. Over $20 for only 100 pages? This "Commander X" character is trying to win the lottery by putting out skimpy books that could easily be condensed into one volume. But that's not all - all of this information (and much more, in fact) can easily be found for free on the Internet. Commander X = RIPOFF.
REALITY OF THE SERPENT RACE AND OTHER BOOKS.......2004-06-24
COMMANDER X CLAIMS TO HAVE BEEN HIGH UP IN THE SECRET GOVERNMENT. HE SIMILARLY CLAIMS TO HAVE BEEN IN CHARGE OF MAJOR SECRET PROJECTS ETC ETC ETC.
THE GUY CANT EVEN STRUCTURE A SENTENCE THE BOOK IS POORLY WRITTEN AND IS FULL OF GRAMMATIC ERRORS AND SENSATIONALISM. A GOVERNMENT WHO EMPLOYS SUCH A GUY (MR x) (PROBABLY CANT SPELL HIS NAME)TO PREPEARE REPORT FOR THEM WE HAVE NO NEED TO FEAR.
THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE PROVIDED BY HIM.
IT MAKES A GOOD YARN HOWEVER FOR PRE-SCHOOLERS.
PS EXCUSE THE ERRORS MRX TRAINED.
Book Description
Written over the course of three days and three nights, The Subterraneans was generated out of the same ecstatic flash of inspiration that produced another one of Kerouac's early classic, On The Road. Centering on the tempestous breakup of Leo Percepied and Mardou Fox--two denizens of the 1950s San Francsico underground--The Subterraneans is a tale of dark alleys and dark rooms,of artists, of visionaries,
Customer Reviews:
Incoherent rambling.......2006-12-22
Loved Dharma Bums, can't forget On the Road, enraptured with Desolation Angels, and bored to death with the Subterraneans. Only read the first 20 pages, though. Couldn't get farther then that, so maybe it really picks up. Love the first page however. It's really Kerouac at his nonsensical worst.
Arrogant and overrated........2006-04-25
I wouldn't say that the book is wholly without merit, but it left me with an eerie feeling, and a suspicion that it was an advertisement for a certain lifestyle, a cocktail, or god forbid khakis. It's a shameless embrace of impulsive living, embodied in the stylized way this book is written, and which was eventually Kerouac's undoing.
Is he fleecing the lowlifes he socializes with by writing down their stories? Is he glorifying, and capitalizing on, disfunction? It's difficult to answer those questions, but a more meaningful or entertaining book would preclude their asking.
Capote said of Jack Kerouac that he was "typing, not writing." That may have been unfair, but reading the Subterraneans, I felt I knew where he was coming from. That said, I kinda liked the ending. Gosh, I'm a sucker.
Kerouac.......2005-06-27
I liked "The Subterraneans" enough, even though it's not nearly on my list of best works by the author. But I'm hot penning these few sentances for peeps who have read this book. This is for the one's who are interested.
If you haven't read anything by Jack Kerouac before this is NOT the place to start. Though a good book with a good story, "The Subterraneans" is a hard read and not a great introduction to the author. Note I said hard in the previous sentance because this novel was written over three days and three nights and reads that way. Kerouac's prose is right on, as it usually is, but more dense this time, probably because the man was on speed when he penned it.
If you are new to this world of Kerouac then may I recomend to you the always popular "On the Road" or "The Dharma Bums" before this. They both show what Kerouac does best and are two of the best books he ever wrote. Poetry in the form of story.
"Subterraneans" is a good Kerouac book, not the best, not the worst, pretty much residing in the middle of his catalog, hence the three star rating(three to me means good, but there are better books out).
So there you go. You should read "Subterraneans" because again it is a good book. But I think it could, and probably would, turn off newbies to the Kerouac legend(there are always exceptions mind you), and it would be better to start off with one of the aforementioned titles first. Thanks.
Funny Angel.......2005-03-05
My third exposure to Kerouac, though enjoyable and interesting, only rates four stars from me.
Having read Dharma Bums and On The Road prior, Subterraneans, which has a far more limited landscape than the aforementioned, also has a lesser 'growth' for the protagonist, who is a thinly veiled Kerouac.
The story centers on the brief love affair of novelist Leo Percepied with Mardou Fox, an African American beauty, ten years his junior. Taking place during the 1950's; one of the major obstacles in the relationship, from the outset, is the racial difference of the two characters.
But Percepied suffers from other self-imposed obstacles, being unable to fully admit his love of Mardou to himself, until she begins to pull away from him.
Barely over 100 pages in length, this novel, while rich in the same Beat-generation characteristics of his other works, shows far less of a 'voyage' for the protagonist than other novels. While you do gain some insight to the life and person of Jack Kerouac, it is limited.
But don't let that discourage you from giving this book a glance. It is easily digestable, and very enjoyable. Kerouac's Benzadrine-laced prose is, as always, a 'trip'...even in a story that doesn't go very far.
THE BEBOP OF LOVE AND ALL THAT JAZZ.......2004-11-07
THE SUBTERRANEANS is a novel remarkable for a number of distinctions, not the least of which is the report that Grand Beat Master Jack Kerouac wrote it in only three days. The book's analytical depths, structural complexity, and richness of language would make one more inclined to believe it took three years to write. To read this novel is to sink into a mesmerizing whirl of bebop rhythms, uncompromising confession, and the audacity of raw images for which Kerouac and other Beat Writers were so well known. The current hoopla brewing around Ashton Kutcher's on-screen interracial relationship in the forthcoming film GUESS WHO? could make many think this is something new in popular culture. However, Kerouac's main characters in THE SUBTERRANEANS are Leo, an Anglo-American, and his love interest Mardou, an African-Native American. The interracial nature of this relationship (supposedly based on a real-life one that Kerouac had in 1953) is not ignored but neither does it dominate the novel. A question clear from the beginning is not only whether or not Leo and Mardou can successfully navigate their very intensely fragile personalities and sustain a mutually satisfying relationship, but also whether or not they can survive the excessive weights of history and bigotry.
The entire culture of bebop jazz forms an important backdrop for the novel and Kerouac expresses his love for the music in short homages paid to some its giants, including saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker. Likewise, a number of Kerouac's Beat pals can be found (as in other works by him) in supporting roles in this novel: Allen Ginsberg as the character of Adam Moorad; William Burroughs as Frank Carmody; and Gregory Corso as Yuri Gligoric. This a true and thoroughly enjoyable American classic from one of our most true and thoroughly enjoyable writers.
by Aberjhani
author of I Made My Boy Out of Poetry
and Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History)
Book Description
Workers in the United States have a rich tradition of fighting back and achieving gains previously thought unthinkable, from the weekend, to health care, to the right to even form a union.
But in 2005, the number of workers organized in unions reached a 100-year low in both the public and private sectors, even though more and more people would like the protection of a union, and real wages for most workers have stagnated or declined since the early 1970s.
Smith explores how the connection between the US labor movement and the Democratic Party, with its extensive corporate ties, has repeatedly held back working-class struggles. And she closely examines the role of the labor movement in the 2004 presidential election, tracing the shrinking electoral influence of organized labor and the failure of labor-management cooperation, "business unionism," and reliance on the Democrats to deliver any real gains.
Smith shows how a return to the fighting traditions of US labor history, with their emphasis on rank-and-file strategies for change, can turn around the labor movement.
Subterranean Fire brings working-class history to light and reveals its lessons for today.
Sharon Smith is the author of Women and Socialism, also published by Haymarket Books, as well as many articles on women's liberation and the US working class. Her writings appear regularly in Socialist Worker newspaper and the International Socialist Review. She has also written for the journal Historical Materialism and is a contributor to Iraq Under Siege :The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War and Women and the Revolution by Ethel Mannin. She lives in Chicago, Illinois.
Customer Reviews:
Don't Just read, Organize!.......2006-07-13
There are stories in this book that should be part of every textbook in the United States. The attacks on the miners in the Appalachians, the Ludlow massacre of women and children in Colorado, the police and military attacks on striking textile workers in Gastonia, NC, the remarks of various capitalists regarding their opinion of those that made them their riches, the persecution of labor and other radicals throughout the past 150 years, and the manipulation of the public by the two-party system--a manipulation that means the worker gets screwed no matter who he or she votes for. Women on the barricades and the Wobblies. Likewise, the tales of racial and ethnic prejudices that caused strikes and solidarity to fall apart should be told. This latter aspect of US labor history is very important today as immigrants flex their political muscle in the streets of the country and the power elites attempt to create and widen divisions between these immigrants and those US workers that were born here. If workers don't learn from history and oppose these attempts to divide us, Subterranean Fire makes it abundantly clear that all workers will suffer. And only the bosses will win. When lessons from our history are common knowledge we can move ahead in a manner that will bring a movement back onto US soil that protects the lives and rights of the working people in this country.
Smith's book is the perfect vehicle for such an endeavor. It is a readable, lively tale of the worker's movement in the United States. A collection of statistics and anecdotal stories combined with a critical analysis, it is at times despairingly downbeat and at other times exhilaratingly hopeful. Subterranean Fire's a piece of agitational literature. If there's one message that exists in its pages, it is this: Don't just read, organize.
Highly recommended.......2006-05-29
This brilliant book is indispensable reading for any labor activist worth their salt. Get it and clear your schedule for the next 24 hours while you soak up the electrifying history of working-class radicalism in the United States.
Smith's case is meticulous and convincing: The American working-class is far more combative and ingenuitive than its given credit for by the mainstream. And the author's conclusions are provocative: The working-class is a juggernaut in need of an independent, democratic leadership that can fully realize its class interests.
This book is worth it for the highlights of class struggle alone from Toledo, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Birmingham, Detroit, New York, Seattle and beyond. But what makes it truly valuable is its political analysis of the current labor movement slump. Smith is no labor cheerleader nor academic arm-chair quarterback, she's the salt of the movement.
A critical history of the U.S. labor movement and workers' resistance from the nineteenth century to the present day.......2006-05-03
Sharon Smith's Subterranean Fire: A History of Working-Class Radicalism in the United States is a critical history of the U.S. labor movement and workers' resistance from the nineteenth century to the present day. From class struggle, to the uphill battle for industrial unions, to the harsh retaliation of employers, to the dismantling of the New Deal labor laws by Neoliberal presidents and the rise of the Neocons, Subterranean Fire explores a fierce battle on both sides for power, wealth, and legitimacy. A very heavily researched history that not only chronicles worker efforts to fight back, but also warns against the uncertain future that excessive compliance can and might bring, Subterranean Fire is informative reading, especially for students of the American labor movement.
Average customer rating:
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Subterranean Ecosystems (Ecosystems of the World)
Manufacturer: Elsevier Science
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0444822992 |
Book Description
The last 50 years of research on the subterranean biome has revealed considerable taxonomic and ecological diversity as well as unique lineages of organisms - even a new animal class - dependent on a variety of energy sources. During this time biospeleology has developed from a descriptive discipline to encompass the whole field of biological science. The marked change of living conditions in the subterranean realm relative to the surface environment, due to the complete lack of light, provides unique opportunities to test various hypotheses. This book shows for the first time the importance for the biosphere of a previously neglected biota. The types of animals and habitats found in subterranean ecosystems are described together with the geological formations in which they occur and their distribution on earth. The ecology of some subterranean terrestrial and aquatic systems are described together with subterranean ecosystems in different climatic zones. The nature of the adaptations to life in complete darkness, and to the often sparse and patchily distributed foods or various trophic origins, are described. A central part of the volume deals with the characteristics and process involved in the adaptation, speciation and evolution of subterranean animals. The volume concludes with a consideration of the conservation issues arising.
Book Description
* Is the earth hollow?* Is our planet honeycombed with caverns inhabited by a mysterious race? * Are there civilizations of super beings living beneath the surface of the earth?* Are the resdents of this subsurface world friendly, or do they hav our domination in mind? Here are strange and unexplainable legions of the "Wee People," the Dero, and long-haired Atlantean giants as encounterd by cave exlorers and miners trapped far beneath the earth.
Customer Reviews:
It's What's Below That Counts.......2001-03-08
In "Subterranean Worlds Inside Earth," author Timothy Green Beckley has collected many stories from a vast wealth of sources on the subject of what is often called "The Inner Earth Theory." The theory holds that the Earth does not consist of molten metal at its core, as modern science tells us, but is instead quite hollow inside, and supports several different races of sentient beings as well as their impressive underground cities. Those cities are said to be linked to one another by underground tunnels with aboveground openings that the occasional surface-dwelling mortal stumbles on to.
Much of the information Beckley presents comes from a man named Richard Shaver, a spot welder on the Detroit automobile assembly lines who one day began to hear strange voices projected at him as he went about his work. Following the trail that began with that unearthly auditory experience, Shaver eventually came to the conclusion that the voices were coming from somewhere beneath the Earth, from a race of creatures he came to call the "Deros," which is short for "degenerate robots."
The Deros have a story of their own. They were once a gentle race who lived on the surface of the Earth, until it became apparent that the sun was being transformed in some way that caused an increase in the amount of a form of dangerous radiation contained in its rays. Some of the Deros escaped the planet by going into space in their highly-developed spacecraft, but not all of them managed to do so.
Those forced to remain went underground and built the cities referred to above, but the sun's poisonous radiation also caused them to go insane and to develop cruel and sadistic personality traits. It is because of their evil madness that mankind suffers so much today, and Shaver himself experienced some bizarre mistreatments as he sought to learn more about the mysterious Deros. Shaver eventually published many of his Dero tales in a magazine called "Amazing Stories," which were so popular that they greatly increased the magazine's circulation.
But Shaver's story of the Deros is only one of many versions of exactly what is down there in the Hollow Earth. Beckley also offers stories by journalist John J. Robinson and others whose research has turned up different legends and personal experiences, some of which tell of a hidden paradise below our feet where beautiful, spiritually benevolent creatures reside.
Beckley's use of numerous and divergent reports helps to paint a wonderfully complete picture of the centuries of folklore that have become mingled with scientific fact through real-world investigations into the "Subterranean Worlds Inside Earth." Some of what's here stretches credibility a little more than might be totally comfortable. But if you have an appetite for unsolved mysteries that extend beyond the realm of the safe and the knowable, then Beckley's thorough overview of what may be inside the Hollow Earth is well worth the time spent reading it.
IMPRESSIVE COLLECTION OF STORIES.......2000-12-14
I once met the author at a conference a number of years ago. I understand he has been a student of the paranormal since he was very young. He told me he was raised in a house that was haunted and had an out of body experience early in life. He had his first UFO sighting at the age of l0. He did a column called ON THE TRAIL OF THE FLYING SAUCERS for Ray Palmer's magazine and he used to correspond with Richard Shaver who claimed that he had been in the caves and been attacked by the dero. Its all very strange. Beckley tells it best in this book. There are literally dozens of stories about individuals who have met the inner earth dwellers. Its easy to read -- Beckley has a breezy style of writing. Its exciting and will keep you turning the page.
Book Description
As I drew near and nearer to the light, the chasm became wider, and at last I saw, to my unspeakable amaze, a broad level road at the bottom of the abyss, illumined as far as the eye could reach by what seemed artificial gas lamps placed at regular intervals, as in the thoroughfare of a great city; and I heard confusedly at a distance a hum as of human voices . . .
Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race was one of the most remarkable and most influential books published in the 1870s. The protagonist, a wealthy American wanderer, accompanies an engineer into the recesses of a mine, and discovers the vast caverns of a well-lit, civilized land in which dwell the Vril-ya. Placid vegetarians and mystics, the Vril-ya are privy to the powerful force of Vril -- a mysterious source of energy that may be used to illuminate, or to destroy. The Vril-ya have built a world without fame and without envy, without poverty and without many of the other extremes that characterize human society. The women are taller and grander than the men, and control everything related to the reproduction of the race. There is little need to work -- and much of what does need to be done is for a novel reason consigned to children.
As the Vril-ya have evolved a society of calm and of contentment, so they have evolved physically. But as it turns out, they are destined one day to emerge from the earth and to destroy human civilization.
Bulwer-Lytton's novel is fascinating for the ideas it expresses about evolution, about gender, and about the ambitions of human society. But it is also an extraordinarily entertaining science fiction novel. Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, one of the great figures of late Victorian literature, may have been overvalued in his time -- but his extraordinarily engaging and readable work is certainly greatly undervalued today. As Brian Aldiss notes in his introduction to this new edition, this utopian science fiction novel first published in 1871 still retains tremendous interest.
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"I am a native of , in the United States of America. My ancestors migrated from England in the reign of Charles II.; and my grandfather was not undistinguished in the War of Independence. My family, therefore, enjoyed a somewhat high social position in right of birth; and being also opulent, they were considered disqualified for the public service. My father once ran for Congress, but was signally defeated by his tailor."
Customer Reviews:
Conflict and change.......2007-06-02
Reviewed by Leslie Granier for Reader Views (5/07)
"The Coming Race" is a book that will best appeal to individuals who enjoy studying different civilizations and learning about how their citizens come to behave and believe the way they do. It incorporates aspects of both science fiction and fantasy. This book follows the accounts of a man who has fallen into an underground world that is so different from the world he knows. The author utilizes a very descriptive style to portray the intuitive thoughts of this narrator as he recalls this experience.
The residents of this underground society are known as the Vril-ya. They lead simple and peaceful lives in which there is no war and no crime. In fact, if someone is unhappy in their society, his only recourse is to emigrate to a different tribe. In their world, no individual is considered superior to another individual (including the leaders) in order to ascertain there will be no jealousy among the people. Another major difference is that children are the workers and are entrusted with the toughest jobs such as killing any dangerous creatures that are encountered. In the beginning, the narrator seems impressed with this seemingly perfect civilization. However, he comes to question whether it is a good thing to have such a controlled and stagnant society and worries that this type of advanced civilization may eventually take over the world.
This book started off great and I expected it would be action-packed and full of adventure. However, I was somewhat disappointed that it turned out to be mainly a narrative. I would have preferred more dialogue between the characters. The chapter about the development of their language (Chapter XII) was particularly grueling and contributed to the slow pace. I did enjoy the author's use of lesser known vocabulary words. It is good to know that my high school years were well spent.
Although this book was first published in 1871, there is much that can be learned from it. "The Coming Race" makes some important points about what constitutes a productive and successful society. Having no war and no crime sounds great, as does complete equality among individuals. However, once this type of "perfection" is achieved, life will become extremely dull as there can be no debates or exchanges of ideas to keep things interesting. The world needs conflict and change so there can be progress and growth.
Boring.......2005-12-01
I bought this book hoping it would explain the inspiration for the Vril Society. Why would anyone be moved by this book to form a society following the idea of Vril?? Not only is it boring, but it is written like a children's book. Everything is explained like this...the grass was green and everywhere there was light...blah blah.... horrible imagery! I'm being biased only b/c I've read so many things about how the Vril Society influenced Nazism...and now I can't imagine why. This book sucks.
Truth is stranger than fiction.......2005-06-16
A man named Bulwer Lytton had written a book called The Coming Race in 1871 which describes a race of men psychically far in advance of our own said to live in caves in the center of the Earth, soon to emerge to reign over the rest of us. The Vril Society established itself as a reaction to this book.
The Vril Society (or the Luminous Lodge) combined the ideals of the Illuminati with Hindu Mysticism, Theosophy and the Quabbala. It was the first German nationalist group to use the swastika as an emblem linking Eastern and Western occultism. The Vril Society presented an idea of a subterranean matriarchal socialist utopia ruled by superior beings that had mastered the mysterious energy called the Vril Force.
The Vril Society formed shortly before the Nazis came to power. They believed they had secret knowledge that would enable them to change their race and become the equals of men hidden in the bowels of the Earth through methods of concentration based in Ignatius Loyala's Spiritual Exercises.
Great Early Science Fiction: A Fast Fun Read.......2005-02-15
The Coming Race is a great book on many levels. As a story it is well developed and is one of Bulwer-Lytton's best works of science fiction. Also from a historical aspect it is an interesting document to see how the Victorian mind saw the world and what was beyond their horizons. This book had an incredible impact upon the reading public upon its release in 1871 and its influence, as well as that of Lytton in general, is felt greatly in later works of early sci-fi. I especially feel the stylistic influence in Upton Sinclair's "Millennium" and while for a review this is neither here nor there, this is important in understanding the development of the genre.
The book opens up with the main character, an American, being invited into a mine exploration by friend. Within just a few pages of the most basic exposition the story begins. For this genre and being that the terranean characters matter little, jumping into the plot like this makes the reading fun. For a 19th century it reads very fast and before long the reader will be well acquainted with the ways of the vril-ya and "vril" - the power source of the coming race. It really is a fun read.
The only problem with this book is that while Lytton goes through an enormity of steps to describe the culture and idiosyncrasies of the vril-ya the book at times reads more like notes of an anthropologist than a literary novel. Of course this may be the intention and since it is such a quick and enjoyable read, we can forgive the author of this. If you are fan of Lord Lytton or a fan of early Sci-Fi this is a definite read. I also would recommend this book to anyone who like 19th century novels and think this should be included in more high school English literature classes because it does not fit the stereotype and would be a welcome break for many students. While we know quite well that this work is purely fantastical it is really enjoyable to see how the mind of the 19th century saw the possibility of worlds going on underground and it is fun to imagine and believe...
-- Ted Murena
Jules Verne meets H.G. Wells in Lytton's Dystopic Narrative.......1999-03-02
Written in 1871 The Coming Race was one of the last books ever written by the author, he died two years later. The story begins when an American civil engineer falls into an underground world. There he discovers a subterranean paradise inhabited by a race called the Vril-ya.These Vril-ya tell the narrator that they are descended from ancestors who escaped the 'upper world' as a result of a deluge which covered the earth. Their evolution has taken a certain course mainly because of the discovery of an energy source, similar to electricity.This energy, from which they also take their name, is called Vril. Lytton's narrative, published in the same year as The Descent of Man, is one of the first truly post-Darwinian novels. It incorporates many of the scientific ideas of the period, and the subsequent fears of degeneration and devolution. The narrator soon discovers that this subterranean paradise is not all that it seems. Lurking in an unlit region of this underground world are a race of primitive savages, who like Wells's Morlocks, represent the flipside of evolution. Without Vril the savages have not progressed, they live in darkness, eat meat and resemble animals. In contrast, the Vril-ya live perfect lives, they are physically beautiful and have developed the abvility to fly with the help of Vril. The narrator appears to have stumbled into a parasise where a race of angels live in perfect harmony, without conflict, without envy and where all men are considered equal. The one thing that this future paradise cannot overcome is boredom.Tthe narrator concludes that although mankind dreams of perfectibility it is a pleasure that we are not meant to enjoy, at least not in this lifetime. Worth a read, especially if you are interested in the history of Science Fiction.
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- Stick with it, it gets less confusing
- hauntingly beautiful
- Mediocre
- Sometimes Haunting, But Ultimately Lacks Direction
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Veniss Underground
Jeff Vandermeer
Manufacturer: Spectra
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ASIN: 0553383566
Release Date: 2005-09-27 |
Book Description
In his debut novel, literary alchemist Jeff VanderMeer takes us on an unforgettable journey, a triumph of the imagination that reveals the magical and mysterious city of Veniss through three intertwined voices. First, Nicholas, a would-be Living Artist, seeks to escape his demons in the shadowy underground–but in doing so makes a deal with the devil himself. In her fevered search for him, his twin sister, Nicola, spins her own unusual and hypnotic tale as she discovers the hidden secrets of the city. And finally, haunted by Nicola’s sudden, mysterious disappearance and gripped by despair, Shadrach, Nicola’s lover, embarks on a mythic journey to the nightmarish levels deep beneath the surface of the city to bring his love back to light. There he will find wonders beyond imagining…and horrors greater than the heart can bear.
By turns beautiful, horrifying, delicate, and powerful, Veniss Underground explores the limits of love, memory, and obsession in a landscape that defies the boundaries of the imagination. This special edition includes the short stories “The Sea, Mendeho, and Moonlight”; “Detectives and Cadavers”; and “A Heart for Lucretia” and the novella Balzac’s War, offering a complete tour of the fantastic world of Veniss.
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Jeff VanderMeer is the author of two short story collections, City of Saints and Madmen and A Secret Life, and one novel, VENISS UNDERGROUND. He has also edited anthologies Leviathan 1, 2, and 3, and is the co-editor of The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases. He is a World Fantasy Award winner and Philip K. Dick award finalist.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews:
I loved it!.......2007-05-30
Vandermeer is pretty damned good. To be able to communicate the fantastic and surreal in such a subtle fashion; the reader accepts what is happening as if it were commonplace. This story is so many things, horrifying, outrageous, insane, yet what holds it all together, one bloody step after another, is an understated, human love story. Vandermeer is obviously one of those writers that other authors read, not only to see what is possible, but to see how the hell to pull it off.
Stick with it, it gets less confusing.......2007-05-08
Unfortunately my copy of this book doesn't include the extra stories so I only had the pleasure of reading the main story. The first section of the story reminded me of Jeff Noon's Vurt or Pollen, it was rife with fantasy lingo and extreme future concepts and frankly very confusing. The 2nd section was more somber and creepy and then the last section (my favorite) was a surreal, horror-filled quest/adventure (akin to China Mieville's Perdido Street Station)
The mix of atmosphere's and writing styles worked for me. I enjoyed Vandermeer's City of Saints and Madmen and I would say this is on par with that in creativity and originality.
hauntingly beautiful.......2007-02-03
I was given this book as a gift and began reading it right away to block out all the holiday cheer. I found myself hurled into a world of beauty and garbage; any other lover of the cyberpunk and dystopian genres would understand the pull of god-like technology holding together the scraps. Certainly the Orpheus myth was unmistakable, but the book is a page turner nonetheless. Does the brief hope at the end of the first story survive the short-short collection following? (Well, I wouldn't want to give it all away...)
It was only after completing all the stories on the train ride home that the work took full effect. My mind filled in the gaps in time between the stories. I wanted more and yet could not bear to know. How much would you give to save that which you loved best of all, be it lover, sibling, social order or humanity? Vandermeer's characters, even though some exist for brief pages, grip the imagination with their sacrifices and hopes. If one had a critical turn of mind, one might ask what relevance this might have to current social/technological issues.
Mediocre.......2007-01-09
The writing was mediocre. The story idea is not original, but could be quite interesting regardless...but like I said the writing wasn't all that great. The only interesting story was about a destroyed city and a small civilzations attempt to recreate it and the ensuing trouble. This was written fairly well with interesting characters and fantastical creations.
Sometimes Haunting, But Ultimately Lacks Direction.......2006-08-26
This writer is clearly going places, but he needs to reign himself in. This book consists of a menagerie of weird artificial creatures and punchy ideas, woven together with an emotionally engaging multi-perspectival narrative. In hindsight (I read it a few months ago), the ideas really got under my skin, but as a story it just doesn't hang together as well as I'd hoped. More than a couple of chapters are masterfully executed, but others are vague and unfleshed. The book runs out of page-turning gas about halfway through. I got the sense that the author did not know where he was going plot-wise, and just kind of let the story spin out of control. Still, if you are looking for an intellectual mutagen, this is very worthwhile.
Amazon.com
Step into your backyard, David Wolfe suggests at the outset of this engaging book, and push your thumb and index finger into the root zone of a patch of grass. The pinch of soil you bring up will be a world of its own: "You will likely be holding," he writes, "close to one billion individual living organisms, perhaps ten thousand distinct species of microbes, most of them not yet named, catalogued, or understood."
Scientists are only beginning to comprehend the wealth of life that lies below the earth's surface, observes Wolfe, a soil scientist at Cornell University. Apart from familiar, easily observable subterranean creatures--earthworms, say, or prairie dogs--those scientists have found there progressively tinier forms of life, from "water bears" (tardigrades) and dust mites to microbes whose existence miles below the earth's surface provides keys to the origins of life itself. Noting that the total biomass below the surface may well exceed that above it, Wolfe takes his readers on a learned tour of the subsurface biosphere, layer by layer, mile by mile. What he reports is surprising, and oddly inspiring--for, Wolfe notes, although the human footprint on the soil is deep indeed, and getting deeper, plenty of life occurs beyond our reach.
"We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot," Leonardo da Vinci observed five hundred year ago. Wolfe's book helps diminish some of our ignorance, and it is a pleasure to be educated through the course of his pages. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
There are over one billion organisms in a pinch of soil, and many of them perform functions essential to all life on the planet. Yet we know much more about deep space than about the universe below. In Tales from the Underground, Cornell ecologist David W. Wolfe takes us on a spectacular tour of this unfamiliar subterranean world, introducing us to the bizarre creatures that live there, as well as the devoted scientists who study them.
We follow the progress of discovery from Charles Darwin's experiments with earthworms and Lewis and Clark's first encounter with prairie dogs, to the isolation of streptomycin and other antibiotics from the soil and the use of new genetic tools that are revealing an astonishingly rich ecosystem beneath our feet.
The first stop on this amazing journey takes us deep into the earth's rocky crust, where life may have begun-a world devoid of oxygen and light but safe from asteroid bombardment. The recent discovery of unusual microbes that thrive at these depths today has greatly expanded our notion of earth's biodiversity and has forced us to re-draw the evolutionary tree of life. Many scientists now believe that the total amount of biomass underground exceeds that of the surface. Home to miniscule water bears and microscopic bacteria, mole rats and burrowing owls, the underground reigns supreme.
Wolfe lifts the veil on this hidden world, revealing for the first time what makes subterranean life so unique-and so precious. Soil creatures work hard for us, producing important pharmaceuticals, recycling life's essential elements, and helping plants gather nutrients from below. But human activities could easily disrupt the delicate balance within the underground. As Wolfe so eloquently explains, the future of our species may well depend on how we manage our living soil resource.
An original, awe-inspiring journey through a strange realm, Tales of the Underground will forever alter our appreciation of the natural world around-and beneath-us.
Customer Reviews:
What's under your foot?.......2006-10-15
A great deal, says David Wolfe. It's a busy place beneath your soles, and all that activity is more important than we realise. We should learn more about what's down there as part of our learning how the Earth works. Such an education might well be important to our own survival - both as individuals and as a species. What's underfoot is fundamental in more ways than one.
David Wolfe offers a brief guidebook to that realm in this well-written and fully researched account. His credentials as a soil ecologist provide the foundation for his examination of underground life. As the title implies, there are many stories down there, in both senses of the word. At the surface fresh soil is being created as you read. Deeper down are other, sometimes bizarre tales, which can provide hints to the origins of life. They might even offer evidence of the possibility of life on other planets, particularly Mars. If we find them, will "Martians" display radical forms or habits? A tough question since the life found deep in the Earth is more bizarre than dreamt of a couple of generations ago. Life far below the surface is dominated by "extremophiles" of one kind or another. Microbes that eat petroleum. Others that never see the sun and utilise energy in entirely novel ways. Still others that endure the extreme heat and limited consumables, resulting in a reduced pace in their lifestyle. Instead of reproducing in minutes as do the E. coli in your gut, these deep microbes may take years to generate a new individual.
Those deep-living microbes may have been the beginning of all life. Once started, life remained single-celled for two billion years. However, when cells joined for survival, some interesting combinations occurred. One of the more fascinating accounts in this book tells us about fungi. We generally think of mushrooms when "fungi" is mentioned. Mushrooms, however, are but surface indicators of much greater doings beneath the surface. Fungi may have helped establish the root systems of today's land plants over 450 million years ago. Over that immense stretch of time, there developed an intricate and intimate link between nearly all the trees in any given forest, irrespective of species. The soil under the forest floor is criss-crossed with a network of fungi busy sending nutrients and chemical signals among the stands of trees. It's fungi, of course, that provide the means for plants to obtain needed nitrogen from the atmosphere to make sugars for growth.
Other fungi aren't so kindly, at least as we're concerned. In recent years, a fungus attacking potatoe crops was partly controlled because it couldn't sustain itself in the soil. A new strain, arriving from the Mexican highlands granted an asexual species the ability to sexually reproduce. That quantum step along evolution's path gave the fungus the capacity to sustain itself longer in soil. More significantly, sexual reproduction introduced variants that resist pesticide sprays. Fungi can also infect humans and other animals. Fungi commonly reproduce by ejecting spores into the air. Breathed in, they invade the body causing a variety of flu-like symptoms. While few of these are fatal, children and the elderly, as always, are particularly vulnerable. Closer understanding of soil organisms has led to the development of pharmaceuticals such as streptomycine to combat diseases of many kinds.
Wolfe doesn't restrain his tale to nearly invisible organisms. He also discusses the great soil-builder, the earthworm, the topic of Charles Darwin's final volumes. Larger-sized still, another species faces extinction due to thoughtless human greed. For generations, even city kids learned of the "danger" Prairie Dogs posed to livestock. This myth led to even the federal government fostering extermination programmes. Prairie Dog colonies, which often covered vast areas, are now reduced to a few scattered locations. But it's not the Prairie Dog facing extinction, it's the Black-footed Ferret. The rodent is the ferret's sole food source, and reduced numbers and scattered habitat [which means the ferret must cross farms and roads] have tumbled the population.
Wolfe opens his book stating that his "goals are modest" and that this isn't a comprehensive study. Rightly so, since this is but an introduction to the topic. He's given what he promised in a sprightly presentation that should pique the interest of all. That busy realm is under threat in many ways, and it's up to us to understand something of its value. Take up this book and find out why you should learn about what's under your feet. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
left me not much smarter, but deeply saddened.......2005-08-04
All the great reviews, misled me to expect not only a very readable but also a highly informative text. I was disappointed. The book skips across the vast subject, presenting only an interesting morsel here and there. It tells you a little bit about earth worms, a little bit about extremophiles, and a little about the symbiotic relationship between plants and fungi. All that does not add up to a comprehensive picture of the ground beneath our feet. It is, and I guess the title says that too, a collection of tales, and well-told tales they are. The final one about the war of extinction against ground-dwelling creatures in the US is truelly harrowing. All in all "Tales from the Underground" did little to educate me, but a lot to make very sad about the destruction humanity is visiting on this planet. What a dumb and brutal creature man is.
Underappreciated Life in the Soil.......2005-04-03
Soil organisms seldom get their due. Despite the fact that we gain our food directly or indirectly from the soil, few people think much about what exists between the soil particles. In fact the soil is so full of living things that it could almost be considered to be alive itself. If an alien spacecraft landed on almost any soil surface on earth it would find recognizable life processes without much trouble, but then our planet may be a bit weird (at least as weird as Mars or Saturn's moon Titan!).
David W. Wolfe has presented a very readable and fascinating view of the soil and its biota in his book "Tales from the Underground." From soil microorganisms (some not so "friendly") through earthworms to prairie dogs, the reader it treated to a broad panorama of life. It is now suspected that the number of species in the soil (and even into the rocky crust) may be larger than for that on the surface. E. O. Wilson has said that if he were to have another career it would be in the ecology of the microorganisms in tropical soils, and I think he is on to something.
Sadly, there are relatively few soil biologists. Specialists in, for example, earthworms (creatures that as Darwin noted are largely responsible for the development of humus in the temperate parts of the world), are few and far between as noted by Ehrenfeld in his book "Beginning Again." Yet our crops, and thus our very life on this planet, depend on such soil-forming organisms.
I once visited a citrus grove in Florida where nearly every chlorinated hydrocarbon known to man had been used against the ever present insect pests. It was a spooky place. The soil itself could be used as a pesticide and there were, as far as I could ascertain, no ants or spiders. While I was there I heard no birds singing. All of these observations were certainly odd as in every other grove I had ever visited both ants and spiders were common and bird song could be heard periodically. The only living creatures I found were earwigs! Thousands of them existed under the leaf litter. Apparently resistant to the DDT, chlordane, toxophene, aldrin and dialdrin that had been used on the grove, they had proliferated beyond belief. Human activities such as this, as noted by Wolfe, need to be mitigated if we are to have a sustainable society. We cannot think of nature as something to conquer. His last chapter "The Good Earth" should be read by anyone who has a stake in solving the problems that may lead to our demise as a species- and that means all of us! Still Wolfe points out that we have to be "conditional optimists" to progress. Pessimistic despair will get us nowhere and "pathological optimism" has gotten us to this point. Perhaps it is a time for moderation in our thinking, while knowing that we may have to make some drastic changes in our attitudes to get anywhere! It is certainly unfortunate that several current governments are still in the "pathological optimism" mode, but then facing unpleasant facts is always hard! However, many national and international corporations, the World Bank and a number of insurance agencies are taking the threat seriously. After all they will certainly be affected by such drastic changes that may be in the offing. They cannot afford the head-in-the-sand thinking that politicians seem to need to get re-elected.
Read this book- it will change your attitude about the dirt we walk on and from which we probably originated!
Great introduction to subterranean life.......2004-12-13
_Tales from the Underground_ by David W. Wolfe is an excellent though rather brief introduction to the organisms that live underground; it is only 188 pages long, 206 if one count's the end notes and bibliography (which are quite worthwhile to at least browse). One of the things I liked about the book was that Wolfe was clearly enthusiastic about his subject and expressed a real sense of wonder for the fascinating organisms that dwell under the earth's surface.
He began the book with a nice overall introduction to the subject, more than sufficient to grab my attention. In one just pinch of soil from your backyard, you will be holding close to one billion individual living organisms, including quite a few that are not named, classified, or in any way studied, animals ranging in size from the tiniest of microbes to microscopic threads of fungal hyphae, the total length of which might be best measured in miles, not inches. In a handful of soil there are more creatures than humans currently alive. A typical square yard of soil contains billions of microscopic roundworms called nematodes, a dozen to several hundred earthworms, 100,000 to 500,000 insects and other arthropods, and staggering numbers of single-celled organisms. After reviewing some basics about soil layers and types, he went into more detail about this subterranean world.
The first chapter discussed the origins of life on earth, much of which had to do with life in the soil. The complex structure and chemistry of clay crystals may have played a vital role in the development of life, perhaps initially serving as the "infrastructure" of the first, most primitive organisms, this infrastructure eventually being discarded as more and more organic molecules such as those in amino and nucleic acids took over clay's replication and synthesis functions. According to some theorists clay made possible the very first sequencing of simple proteins and genes thanks to its unique properties.
Chapter two introduced the "extremophiles," organisms that live in hostile environments, many of which exist in subterranean conditions. Some organisms "breathe in" iron oxide (rust) as a substitute for oxygen, while others are able to incorporate cobalt and even uranium into their biological processes. Much of the chapter gave the history of the study of extremophiles, as biologists continually had to revise their notions of what life could tolerate as they found organisms living at ever higher temperatures and depths (with organism at 9,000 foot depths and at temperatures higher than 160 degrees Fahrenheit having been discovered). Of further interest, these organisms may be the most common in the world, with some calculations showing that their total biomass exceeds that of all surface life. Study of one group, lithotrophic microbes, which live buried in basalt rock deep beneath the surface, has been vital in the search for life on other planets.
Chapter three focused primarily on Dr. Carl Woese of the University of Illinois, a researcher who discovered an entire new microbial superkingdom of organisms, the Archaea, a finding that radically changed how the various kingdoms of organisms were classified, a discovery that was highly controversial, as he changed the tree of life from one based primarily on visual characteristics to one based on his molecular approach. Woese found that a number of organisms assumed to be bacteria were something entirely different, as different from bacteria at least as plants are from animals. In the end the new tree of life consists of three superkingdoms or domains, Bacteria, Archaea (which includes many extremophiles), and Eukarya (which encompasses plants, animals, fungi, and protozoa).
Chapter four emphasized the importance of "nitrogen-fixers," a small group of bacteria and archaea that are able to convert nitrogen gas in the atmosphere into a form the rest of life on earth can use, a biological innovation every bit as important as the advent of photosynthesis to the history of life on earth. Wolfe showed the rather intricate symbiosis between nitrogen-fixers and plants as well their complex biology. He also discussed the role of denitrifiers, organisms that aid in the recycling of nitrogen on earth as they are able to convert soil nitrates back into atmospheric nitrogen.
Chapter five dealt with the equally important symbiosis between plants and highly specialized underground fungi, vital in enabling plants to obtain water and nutrients from the soil (and occasionally other plants). More than 90% of the higher plants on the planet today benefit from their association with the delicate threadlike hyphae in their roots, a group known as mycorrhizal fungus. Wolfed discussed the two types, arbuscular mycorrhizae (so named because their unique branching, tree-shaped hyphal structures) and the ectomycorrhizae, both of which are the foundation of most terrestrial ecosystems.
Chapter six dealt with earthworms, much of it providing information and anecdotes about Charles Darwin's decades long study of them. Also vital to ecosystems, they act as biological blenders, fragmenting plant debris and mixing it with the soil and living and dead microbial biomass, creating more surface area for further production of humus.
The next chapter discussed some of the good and bad effects on human health of soil organisms. The passages on the soil-borne pathogen _Clostridium tetani_, the cause of tetanus, made for chilling reading. Wolfe also related information about the fungus-like _Phytopthora infestans_, which causes potato late blight, source of the 1840s potato famine in Ireland (and a disease that may be making a comeback). Soil organisms have also done a lot of good; the root fungus _Trichoderma harzianum_ targets a variety of disease-causing soil microbes, and working in the 1940s soil biologist Dr. Selman Waksman discovered a number of potent antibiotics from soil bacteria.
Chapter eight was quite interesting, dealing with the interesting life history and often tragic human history of three animals, the prairie dog, black-footed ferret, and burrowing owl.
The final chapter dealt with the primary threats to soil ecology, notably soil erosion, toxic waste, and climatic change (both acid rain and global warming).
A great introduction to subterranean life, worthwhile reading.
Examines unexplored terrain.......2002-08-08
This natural history of subterranean life examines unexplored terrain and its unique and varied habitats, from microscopic life to small water bears. Particularly intriguing are the links made between subterranean life and its potentials for assisting mankind.
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- The Day the Voices Stopped: A Schizophrenic's Journey from Madness to Hope
- The Demon Princes, Vol. 1: The Star King * The Killing Machine * The Palace of Love (Demon Princes)
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