Alicia's review
status:
Read in May, 2008
I was pretty disappointed in this book. I thought the beginning was pretty slow, and it was hard to get interested in the story's overall premise. I did think that the middle of the book got significantly better. I became interested in the world that was discovered. There were many fascinating aspects that I looked forward to learning more about. However, as I continued to read, I kept wondering how the authors were going to explain everything sufficiently with the few pages that were left in the book. And that's just it: the authors never explained how or why this underground world came into existence. Plus, I felt like there were fundamental questions that were left unanswered. Obviously the concept is inconcievable to start with, and I'm okay with that; however, this being said, even in books that deal with fantasy, there are still laws that govern what happens. Things need to be explained and there is logic and purpose within the fantasy world that has been created. I felt like the...more
I was pretty disappointed in this book. I thought the beginning was pretty slow, and it was hard to get interested in the story's overall premise. I did think that the middle of the book got significantly better. I became interested in the world that was discovered. There were many fascinating aspects that I looked forward to learning more about. However, as I continued to read, I kept wondering how the authors were going to explain everything sufficiently with the few pages that were left in the book. And that's just it: the authors never explained how or why this underground world came into existence. Plus, I felt like there were fundamental questions that were left unanswered. Obviously the concept is inconcievable to start with, and I'm okay with that; however, this being said, even in books that deal with fantasy, there are still laws that govern what happens. Things need to be explained and there is logic and purpose within the fantasy world that has been created. I felt like the authors just described an interesting civilization without ever taking into account how it came to be and how it continued to thrive. Also, the clencher for me came with the terrible ending. Nothing was resolved, but the book left you with the all-too-obvious indication that there will be another book, and maybe the answers will be contained within the second volume. I don't think that I will continue to read it. There were just too many things that I couldn't get past. In addition I did not enjoy the authors' descriptive passages in the least. At times, it seemed as if words were being used to just take up space rather than to add to the overall story. The descriptions were too bogged down, and I found myself skipping over quite a few.
I really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't. I finished it out of obligation only....less
Tunnels 
