Deep Fantasy: Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams

With a dark (pun intended) premise and weighty descriptive passages, Gordon's and Williams' Tunnels (Book 1) is finding its place among fantasy readers who fancy the dystopia genre of thriller, in this case, an archaeological mystery which evolves into a subterranean suspense story.

Will Burrows, whose archaeologist father has involved him in various neighborhood digs since early childhood, follows the scant evidence left behind when his father goes missing, uncovering a secret passage in the cellar and digging into a centuries' old culture below ground. For help with the initial excavations Will turns to his middle school friend Chester, and when the two make a virtual breakthrough into an intricately constructed and pressurized air vent leading to a system of tunnels far below ground, the boys cannot resist pressing on.

What lies far below is a society which went to ground centuries before, governed by harsh political rulers called the Colonists and cruel enforcers called The Styx. When captured, Will learns that his life above ground as a "topsoiler" was a lie--that he is the child of a maverick mother, a member of a high-ranking Colonist family, who escaped into the world above, abandoning him in her flight, and that he was raised in an adoptive family topside as live bait to try to lure his mother to her capture. While Will is allowed to go to live with his younger brother Cal in his founding Colonist family, Chester is tortured and imprisoned by the powers that be until his case is resolved.

When Will learns that Chester is to be banished to the Deeps, the tunnels far below the comfortable world of the Colonists, he and Cal bungle his rescue and are forced to flee above ground. Will, however, is unable to go "underground," living in hiding above ground, especially when he learns that his supposed sister, Rebecca, is actually a member of the Styx who knows too much for him to escape their reach for long. Instead, Will and Cal make the decision to return to the tunnels, and with the sacrifice of the life of Cal's Uncle Tam, succeed in rescuing Chester, eluding the Styx, and descending to the Deeps to search for Will's father, Dr. Burrows.

With an epilogue which describes the assassination of Uncle Tam's confederate Imigo above ground by the Styx, this first novel in what is obviously a planned series concludes with a lead-in for the next volume:

Will opened his eyes and leaned toward Chester's ear: "No school tomorrow, then!" he shouted.

The both burst into helpless laughter, which was drowned out by the train as it continued to gather speed, spewing dark smoke behind it, carrying them away from the Colony, away from Highfield, and away from everything they knew, accelerating into the very heart of the earth.

Despite what are undeniably a few, um, holes in the plotting, this one is a page-turner of an adventure story which many young adult readers will find deliciously deep and dark. Shepherded toward publication by the editor who "discovered" J. K. Rowling, the authors are said to be already hard at work on Book 3, so a sequel to Tunnels (Book 1) cannot be long in coming to light.