IN+2+Subterranean

Subterranean James Rollins

** September 30, 2011 ** I// started this novel last week after finishing Excavation (same author). So far, it has proven to be just as interesting. It began with a prologue about a team of explorers in the Antarctic. The prologue ends a bit abruptly, with one of the characters falling on the ice and landing in a pool of warm blood that isn't his own. // //The beginning chapters of the novel introduce several characters that will be gathered to go on another mission to the Antarctic, though they do not know about the first group. I was surprised to read about a volcanic cone called Mount Erebus that is located in the Antarctic. It seems strange that a volcano would be somewhere so cold! The characters I've met so far include Ashley Carter, who is an archaeologist and has an eleven-year-old son, Benjamin Brust, who is an ex-military Australian cave explorer, Linda Furstenberg , a professor of biology, and Khalid Najmon , a geologist. Rollins only gives detail about Ashley and Ben, both of whom seem to come from some sort of broken family or relationship situation.// ** //pd 2// ** //As I continue to read, I am really digging, pun intended, the ambiance of the setting. This team, who also has Major Dennis Michaelson from the US Navy protecting it, will be exploring a series of caverns below Mt. Erebus as well as dwellings carved into the rock that date to 5.2 million years ago. According to one of the characters, the earliest hominids (people) were a little over 4 million years ago. I wonder how accurate his research is, if it really is a little over 4 million years since the human race first surfaced on the planet.// //I am also enjoying Rollins' writing style. There were a few lines I really liked: the air was "like ice water poured into her lungs." Nice! It makes my chest hurt like I am breathing the arctic air. Another: "a tired midday sun protruded wanly over the summit of Mount Erebus." I adore the personification in this, and it sets the mood so subtly, as if the environment is so demanding that even the sun gets tired from it.// ** //pd 3// ** //The team has landed on Mount Erebus and they've descended into the caverns (2 miles below!!). I find the contrast between the topside environment, where it is frozen and bone-chilling, and the caverns, where it is warm and humid with a subterranean lake with glow-in-the-dark fish, to be pretty amazing. Great imagery! I also, as a geeky English teacher, love the fact that the character Ashley makes her son check out books from the library and write book reports while they are going to be there.// //Two awesome lines: when describing the tents on the snow, Rollins writes they were "like boils on a white butt." Hahahahahahahaha. I also like how he described them going into the fissure to descend: "Down the white rabbit's hole went Alice." What a great allusion!!// //The team is dining and making plans for the next day while one of the team members, Khalid, proves to have some sort of ulterior motive. He kills the soldier who is guarding the bridge and plants explosives on the motor to the elevator that he plans on blowing up when he escapes.//
 * //pd BC// **

//In the pages I've read since last week, there has been a lot more focus on the archaeological dig they had found beneath the ice. I love the imagery the author uses to describe it, and it is borderline creepy the way it seems to have been abruptly abandoned. There were very few, if any, artifacts. The implication is that if the inhabitants had died off, their belongings (kitchen tools, clothes, etc.) would have remained. So, if there are so few, does that mean they packed up and moved on? If so, why? Creepy!// //Cool lines:// // "The more you worked on a dig, the more each site developed its own character - or soul." Talk about passion about your profession!// // "Myths often have a kernel of truth." She says this about the oval symbol that was above most of the doors of the homes, wondering if they carved them there because they were trying to ward off an "evil spirit."// //They also describe the underground lake with the phosphorescent fish that Linda and Jake explore. Linda gives Jake a mini-science lesson (which gave me a mini-lesson!) about phytoplankton, which turn sunlight into energy in the water like grass does above ground. The energy from the phytoplankton, and grass, passes into the food chain when it is ingested by shrimp or some other small sea life, which is then eaten by fish, then by bigger fish, etc.//
 * October 7, 2011 **

//I really like how the end of book two ends with the organizer/sponsor of the dig talking about how much the new communications technology will make everything better this time around. It reminds me of the novel __Jurassic Park__, and the arrogance Mr. Hammond has in believing he can control nature.//

** October 14, 2011 ** //In chapter 10, the first chapter of book 2, Rollins introduces two more characters: Major Skip Halloway and Pedro Villanueva. The team is about to embark on their exploration of the subcaverns (this section of the novel is titled "Chutes and Ladders," like the childhood game), which involves them sliding through what seems to be a system of chutes that seem to be man-made as they are all the same size and polished. I have the image of Swiss cheese in my head with seeing the chutes peppering the cavern wall. In order to move their bodies and gear through the chutes more efficiently, they each have what amounts to a skateboard that has been adapted for a larger surface area - rather like surfing on ground instead of the ocean. The team is carrying a great deal of ammunition, so it seems the military and organizers of the dig expect a threat.//

//The leader of the expedition, Ashley, tells them to take care of her son, " with ice in her voice ," while she's gone. I so adore Rollins' use of synesthesia. I can almost feel the temperature in the cavern drop precipitously when she's speaking, and I can completely grasp the level of maternal instinct emanating from her.//

//While they are moving through the chute system, they come to various caverns, which Ben describes: " Caverns breathe in and out. " Sigh... personification makes me happy. Though, I have to say, this makes the cavern seem a bit ominous, as if it has a life of its own and will defend it against any perceived threat. At one point, they break to rest and two interesting things happen: Ben is bitten by a mosquito and they discover a thought-to-be extinct snail (that's roughly the size of one's face). Why is the mosquito thing interesting, you ask? Well, given that they are thousands of miles beneath the surface of Antarctica, it is odd that a mosquito that feeds on the blood of warm-blooded animals, would be alive. Super creepy. It is also interesting to me, in particular, because I seem to have about a gazillion mosquitoes around my house. Seriously, when I do yard work, even when I spray with Off or Cutter or whatever brand, I get 5 or so new bites EVERY SINGLE TIME. It is awful.//

// The snail thing is pretty cool, too, because right before he describes their discovery, he gives a little extinction science explanation. Many scientists theorize that at the end of the Crustaceous period, there was some event (an asteroid is given the most probable theory) that caused the planet to cool quickly and dramatically, leading to mass extinctions. Apparently, the polar vortex (so have to look this up) of Antarctica is thought to have kept the air around it clear so that whatever life was present was mostly spared of extinction. Rollins uses this theory to make the presence of the ginormous snail believable, though who knows, maybe it still is there. These leads to a creepy question posed by one of the team: "What else survived down here?" //

//New word: __**bivouac**__, which according to the dictionary on my laptop means a temporary camp. I ** <3 ** vocabulary.//

//When I finished reading for the first two periods today, it left off with something moving in the shadows and then Major Halloway disappearing. I cannot wait to read more!//

//The team begins searching for Halloway, which takes them to a new cavern with clusters of big yellow rocks, called "cave pearls" and a 10-meter wide river with a swift current. Rollins describes the cave pearls as a build up of limestone around a stone or something smaller, similar to an oyster pearl, in waterways// .// When they shine their flashlights to it, they light up because they are translucent. Bizarrely, they all seem to have formed around skulls. The scientists speculate that this is what happened to the cave dwellers, which based on the formation of the skulls, seem to be pre-hominid. //
 * //Period BC// **

// They break into teams to search for Halloway, and while they are searching, they hear a series of screams from across the river. ( CREEEPY ) They all meet at the rendezvous and decide to cross the river. Does this strike anyone else as particularly stupid?! I mean, if that's where the screams are coming from, I'm thinking it's not too bright to go in that direction. Especially when one team has already come in and not returned. //

// Nevertheless, in their quest to cross the river, one Marine swims across while anchored to the team on shore. While he is swimming, a dorsal fin surfaces and rises to about 3 feet above the water... kinda like Jaws. Not gonna' lie, that's the music I heard playing in my head. Ashley reveals a little about herself when she snatches the rifle away from a aim-challenged Ben and hits the critter, whatever it is, on the first shot. Once the Marine gets across, they all cross hand over hand above the river. //

//So annoyed I had to quit reading!//

//I stayed awake until 2 AM last night to finish, and I have to say it was a little cheesy at the end but still good. My last entry had me at about half way through the book, so I will do my best to recap the rest.//
 * October 16, 2011 **

//After crossing the river, the team encountered a pod of beasts Rollins eventually reveals to be called crak'ans. I think this is where I started to think it was cheesy because it reminds me of Pirates of the Caribbean. Even though the book was published well before the movie, there's something about word association. Anyway, the crak'ans in the novel were nothing like the one from the movie; rather, they are a cross between crocodiles, dinosaurs, platypuses, and some sort of mammal. It is oily black with scales on parts of its body and hair on other parts. The hair has poison in it. The head of a crocodile with super strong hind legs that it crashes around with and a weak upper body with frail arms - I am thinking T-Rex. It lays an egg in a pouch in the front of its body but nurses the young with its own milk. They hunt together in packs.//

//They manage to get through the first pack of crak'ans and come to a new cavern similar to a geode, one of those rocks they sell at stores that are cut in half so you can see the gem formations inside, except rather than purple amethyst, the room is covered in diamond. There also is some sort of fungus that emanates light, so when they turn off their headlamps and flashlights, the room sparkles incandescently. It is quite beautiful to imagine. The team makes camp for the night so everyone can get rest, at which point Ben's dreams about his long-dead Aboriginal grandfather. He is in the caves, painted in primary colors, and warning Ben to go down rather than go back up.//

//At this point, Villanueva has been injured, so the team splits in two, with Ashley, Ben, and Michaelson going on and Linda, Khalid, and Villanueva staying behind. While the advance team surges onward, Linda begins studying the fungi in the cavern. Rollins gives lots of scientific information about types of fungi, and I have to say that I was less than intrigued. What was interesting, though, is when the three of them took a nap and Linda woke up four hours later while the others would not stir. Apparently, the fungi had become aggressive and was producing spores to drug them. I imagine the field of daisies in the Wizard of Oz. What I can't wrap my brain around is what the fungi would have done to them had they never awoken...//

//Meanwhile, the other team stumbles onto the crak'ans' nest then after a particularly exciting escape, comes across an ancient civilization. The descriptions of the people, the way they live, the way the ecosystem maintains itself... so very fascinating!!! The way some of them communicate is equally fascinating - through dreams! - but otherwise they use a series of pantomimes and grunts. There seems to be some unrest among the leaders of the clan as to whether or not to trust the newcomers, and split into two factions, there ends up being a bloody coup.//

//While the teams are working their way through the underworld, Alpha Base is attacked by the crak'ans and pretty much decimated. Jason, Ashley's son, and Blakely manage to escape via the underground lake which eventually takes them further underground through a series of waterfalls. They run into Linda and Khalid, who has been revealed as a mercenary. They all try to escape Khalid, but not everyone makes it out alive... there are guns, a belt made of plastic explosives, more crak'an attacks... it was quite exciting.//

//Through a bit too convenient twist of events, everyone ends up back at Alpha Base for the climactic resolution. I found the falling action to be a bit too neat, but otherwise it was a great story. It certainly was educational, as are most of his novels, and entertaining.//