Humanity has always felt a strange pull to the earth beneath us. Caves, as author and journalist Will Hunt explains, mess with our sensory apparatus and initiate our fight or flight response. Stay in the dark long enough and one will begin to hallucinate, seeing floating spots that eventually coalesce into shapes and images. And yet, humans have journeyed underground since we evolved from other upright apes: we can't escape its allure.
Underground explores this primal call from the deep, with Hunt relying on his experience as a spelunker and urban explorer to help shine light on the darkest places on earth. From ancient caves to the sewers in New York and Paris, Hunt takes the reader on a fascinating journey that transcends culture and time, linking modern and ancient practices to create a colorful mosaic. Hunt deftly explains a wide swath of subjects, equally comfortable with hard science as he is with personal narrative. The latter may be the best part of Underground, though, since his excitement at traveling beneath the earth is infectious when describing his first solo sojourn or his attempt to traverse all of Paris through its catacombs and sewers. Readers follow Hunt as he travels the world, learning about the collective human experience underground, yet another example of how cultural practice and belief transcends geography and time. Underground is a lively, informative read that nicely balances adventure with anthropology and science, placing Hunt's own dynamic history at the center of it all. --Noah Cruickshank, director of communications, Forefront, Chicago, Ill.