Tunnels

January 14, 2008
Although it arrives from the U.K. amid plenty of fanfare—and to fandom here, too (see Galley Talk, Dec. 10)—this first in a planned series seems full of holes, as if its raison d’être were to set up the action for future books. The plot builds on a secret subterranean culture, a cruel, hierarchical English society that is deeply hostile to “Topsoilers.” As the book opens, the punningly named Will Burrows and his archeologist father are tunneling beneath a disused train station, as this is Dr. Burrows’s passion. Their bond established, these two major characters soon go off in different directions; as they do later, the authors lengthily follow one protagonist and seemingly abandon the others. Dr. Burrows, having discovered underground passages in local cellars, disappears after a quarrel with his useless wife; Will and a friend go after him. Encumbered by verbose and flat descriptions (“His whole being emanated evil, and his dark eyes never left Will’s, who felt a wave of dread wash over him.... {Will] was unable to tear his gaze from the sinister man, whose thin lips twisted into a sardonic smile”), the novel is nearly one-third over before the boys enter the underground Colony—where they are promptly imprisoned and tortured. The narrative at last begins to twist and turn, but the authors still have trouble tracking their cast—and because the offstage characters seem to figure so punily in the others’ thinking, readers have little incentive to stay invested in their fates. Ages 8-14.