Underland by Robert Macfarlane
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A strange and at times mesmerizing book, as Macfarlane explores caves, catacombs, glaciers, mines, and nuclear waste storage sites exploring our species' fascination with the underland as a place to both save and hide our relics from cave paintings to mass murders.

We is a marvelous wordsmith. Here is an example:

I step down to the edge of the water, to the bay where the white forms move, my torch-beam probing the water, and as I approach the edge the forms shrink back and away from me. I kneel and drink two stony mouthfuls of the starless river, and wash my face of the fear-sweat of the descent.

View all my reviews