Move Under Ground by Nick Mamatas Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Move Under Ground
Book Review: Read this. Now.
Summary: 5 Stars
In lesser hands the premise of Jack Kerouac meets Cthulhu would be just that, a premise, a one trick pony with nothing to see. Not the case here. His use of beat voice and Burroughs-like dreamy metaphor is a perfect match to the slimey beasties of Cthulhu. Move Under Ground is clever and funny, but it's also surprisingly sad and human and profound.Book Review: Too hip for the room?
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this book on the recommendation of a friend. We are no longer friends. (Kidding .... but this book was really pretty lame.) It's written in a way that is too self-consciously cool, and unlike an homage to the beat authors it was just derivative. I strongly urge you to check this book out at the library or read excerpts before shelling out the bucks. I sure wish I'd done that.Book Review: Tries Too Hard to be Cool
Summary: 2 Stars
I guess I just don't get it. While attempting to read this I never was sure if at any particular moment the author was using metaphors or being literal in his storytelling. I am a voracious reader of sci-fi, horror, and fantasy, and I really wanted to enjoy this book and tried hard to finish it but couldn't get much further than half way. I got the impression that Mamatas was trying to be cool just for the sake of being cool - way too full of himself. Reminded me a lot of Tarantino's style of film making, which I often enjoy, but does sometimes get to be annoying. In this case, Mamatas style was pretty much continuously annoying to meBook Review: Wonderful first novel from one of the best new sf writers
Summary: 5 Stars
I enjoyed the hell out of this book. I've liked just about everything I've read by Nick Mamatas, so it came as no surprise to me how accomplished this novel was. Emotional, moving, and wickedly intelligent. You don't even have to be familiar with Kerouac or the Beats to get into it, so don't let that stop you. Read it now, or you risk becoming a mindless, clacking beetleman.Book Review: Wow.
Summary: 4 Stars
Nick Mamatas, Move under Ground (Night Shade Books, 2004)
Nick Mamatas does more than fulfill the promise of his first novella, Northern Gothic, in his debut novel. In fact, he's more than fulfilled the promise of any five young new writers. No matter how you end up feeling about the book itself, you just have to admire the guy's hubris at attempting to take two subgenres of fiction that passed the cliché stage decades ago and add in the exceptionally risky practice of incorporating historical characters into fiction. That the result is at all readable would have been a triumph. That it's actually good is nothing short of miraculous.
Jack Kerouac is recovering from a nervous breakdown in Big Sur when he gets a strong urge to go find Neal Cassady, who (if you'll remember from the end of On the Road) ditched him in Mexico. Knowing Cassady will likely be in San Francisco, Kerouac sets out, and soon stumbles upon a sight neither he, nor anyone reading the opening pages of this book who's somehow managed to miss all the synopses, expected to see: R'lyeh, no longer sleeping, rising from the waves. Yes, folks, the Great Old Ones are back, and Jack Kerouac and his longtime travelling companion have to save the world. However, along the way Kerouac realizes that not only is Neal acting strangely-- does he want to save the world, or is he just looking for the ending of his next novel?-- but that the Earth is only a minuscule part of the bigger stakes of a war between Cthulhu and Azathoth...
I mean, come on. You can't read that synopsis and not tell me it's not a recipe for absolute disaster. But Mamatas does things of beauty with both Beat and Lovecraftian literature, spicing the tale with subtle (and not-so-subtle) references to works in both, but keeping it on such a level that the reader doesn't need to have read extensively in either genre to get something out of this book. You probably don't even have to know who Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady are; they're just two guys driving across the country trying to save the universe from descending into utter chaos.
Come to think of it, that sounds rather like the plot for Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, but believe it-- Nick Mamatas can write rings around Kevin Smith. ****
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