Move Under Ground

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Nick Mamatas. Move Under Ground

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FOREWORD

AT FIRST glance, the concept of Nick Mamatas’s first novel, Move Under Ground, sounds like the kind of thing you’d think up when very, very stoned. You and your buddy are sitting on either end of the couch, your best bong between you, multiplayering Doom 3 (Move Under Ground was originally published in 2004, after all). You start talking about how awesome Lovecraft and his contingent of Elder Gods are, and he responds, “No, man, Kerouac’s On the Road is where it’s at.” You argue, but after a few more flicks of the lighter you simultaneously come up with the brilliant idea (dude!) of writing a book that combines both Kerouac and Lovecraft. A book both of you can love.

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Shapeshifters. The formless given form by thought or evil deed. Shoggoth. I knew the word now, somehow, but not from some half-remembered bongo drum poem or off the back of a jar of Ovaltine. Marie-The-Bee had told me on the way out the door, bless her. Stilt-Marie sliced a wandering churchlady in half with a swipe of scythe-arm, and chittered at me, but I couldn’t hear her over the splattered meat smacking into what I might as well call the ground. And then I remembered the buzz in my ear from when I left the cabin and the sweet perfume of green grape and sage.

The Master had gathered the students into the courtyard one day and held aloft a butcher’s knife, a simple and base act that alone would require a week of ritual cleansing. Worse, then, he drew his other hand from behind his back and held up a cat by the scruff of its neck.

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