Cover image for

Move Under Ground

Author Nick Mamatas
Categories Fiction, Post-1930, Creative Commons, Horror
Language English
Published 2004
Notes

On the road with Kerouac, Cassaday, and Cthulhu -- Mamatas parodies the Beat writers of the 60's in this cross-country Lovecraftian romp.

Approx. 60,305 words.

Excerpt

the empty ghost of a road, occasionally swigging some water from my canteen. It was rough in my bloody boots; now my ankles were chafed as well. I balanced the rucksack on my head to keep the sun off of it, but that didn't help, and the straps had already dug into my shoulders, so I took to swinging it, tossing it twenty yards in front of me, and then leisurely strolling over just to pick the sack up. No wonder I wasn't getting any nibbles from the few folks who did drive by.

It got dark fast; there was hardly any dusk at all. And behind me, I heard the roar of a convoy, but they weren't old trucks coming my way. Instead, it was wagons, sedans, curvy Studebakers, and even a few old crank cars with rumble seats and shivering fabric roofs. Town cars driving five abreast in tight formation across only two lanes of highway, eating up the shoulders, headlights suddenly blazing a terrible, beautiful amber. I cut into the wood and watched them zoom past from a little ditch I happened to fall into. Above the

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Average Rating:

2007.11.16
Jim

I agree with Cheryl. This is a poor book. Despite it being written as a pastiche of Kerouac (On the road), it still reads badly. The author has managed to take a well written book and write it badly, adding a mishmash of Cthulu Mythos in an attempt to spice it up. There really is no plot structure. That's the one glaring fault above all others in this book, its structure. I couldn't finish it either. The books lets you down, and is just another example of Creative Commons putting out rubbish. I looked this book up to see what background I could get on it, and discovered, to my utter surprise, that it seems to have won awards. I notice this trend a lot lately, and have commented on it here before, awards being dished out to undeserving books. I have to say that most of the Creative Commons books are pretty bad stuff. This is yet another bad one.

2007.03.07
Cheryl

Although the writing is interesting, I could not finish this book. There seems to be no - or very little - plot. It's basically a fantasy/horror version of "On the Road", written in that style. Maybe if you REALLY like the Beat writers, you'd like this book. To me, it's more of a novelty item with a cute idea that would've been better expressed in the short story or novella format.