Many students at the University of Waterloo have discovered that UW’s pedestrian tunnels offer shelter, both from inclement weather and the abundant, aggressive geese1. The university also features steam tunnels, which provide a convenient way to string infrastructure across the campus2. Tunnels are awesome, especially in goose nesting season.
Speculative fiction authors have come to much the same conclusion. Thus the many stories in which tunnels play a prominent role. Here are five such works.
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (1864)
Professor Otto Lidenbrock stumbles across Arne Saknussemm’s ancient claim that Snæfellsjökull volcano hides a gateway to the center of the Earth; he is sufficiently intrigued to mount an expedition. Accompanied by his reluctant nephew Axel, Lidenbrock journeys to Iceland, recruits local guide Hans, and ventures into the forbidding Snæfellsjökull3.
Whether or not the tunnel the party explores truly leads to the center of the Earth is unclear. What is clear is that it leads to a vast refugium of otherwise extinct species, from mammalian megafauna to dinosaurs and more. What wonders the party will have to relate… if something does not eat them before they can return to the surface.
I don’t know what annoys me more about the various adaptations of Journey to the Center of the Earth: that I have never managed to track down the Brendan Fraser adaptation or that I’ve seen the full run of the 1967 animated series… several times. Anglophones interested in tracking down the original book would do well to avoid the early translations, as they are terrible.
Tumithak of the Corridors by Charles R. Tanner (1932)
Venusians! Pesky! Also, technologically superior! With the Earth’s surface dominated by extraterrestrial invaders, humanity’s last remnants had no choice but to retreat deep under the surface. To do otherwise would be to perish.
Most humans accept their dismal lot. Not Tumithak! The brave young man is determined to restore human control of Earth. There is little doubt that Tumithak can overcome the dangers that lurk in the tunnels, or that he can with sufficient effort unite the peoples of Earth. However, there is one challenge for which Tumithak is unprepared: the crippling agoraphobia any tunnel-raised human feels upon reaching the surface of the planet.
Tanner made the curious decision to present the story from the perspective of archaeologists living centuries after Tumithak. The archaeologists are certain some elements of the legends are complete fabrications, but working as they are from incomplete records, they are unsure how to sort truth from myth.
A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! by Harry Harrison (1972)
Despite the efforts of long-dead traitor George Washington, America remains a loyal subject of the British crown. How inconvenient that that the Atlantic divides the two. How splendid it would be if some means were found to span the distance. A bridge, or even better, a “tunnel through the deeps” (to quote the book’s alternate title.)
Augustus Washington, descendant of treasonous George, undertakes the prodigious task of designing and constructing the undersea railway tunnel. Even if Augustus can surmount the technical challenges and confound saboteurs, can even he overcome the greatest impediment of all: Sir Isambard Brassey-Brunel’s opposition to Augustus’ marriage to Brassey-Brunel’s daughter Iris?
I am very unclear what advantages an undersea tunnel offers over conventional transatlantic shipping. Perhaps the concept was simply too cool for mundane objections to matter.
Above by Leah Bobet (2011)
Deep beneath Toronto’s streets, mutants thrive. Or at least, survive. The so-called Beasts who live in Safe each have their own special gifts. Some control electricity; some can converse with ghosts; one can even become a bee when she wills it so. Few would be welcomed if they were foolish enough to leave Safe for the surface world. So history says, and Matthew the Teller would never doubt what he has been taught.
An exile’s return brings violence and calamity to once-safe Safe. As Shadows invade, Matthew is forced to flee. Trapped on the surface, Matthew learns that the truth is more complicated than he knew.
I don’t think that the name “Toronto” ever appears in the novel’s text, but the descriptions and the street names strongly suggest a Toronto setting. So does the cover, although I suppose that could be any Canadian city with a CN Tower4.
The Buried Life by Carrie Patel (2015)
Recoletta’s people are content with subterranean life. At least, it would be hard for them to imagine an alternative. Recoletta’s council judiciously curates the information available to the common folk, to protect the community from disruptive revelations.
Laundress Jane Lin and Inspector Liesl Malone’s otherwise unrelated lives intersect at murder. Someone is murdering their way through Recoletta’s upper crust. Surviving an encounter with the killer, discreet Lin knows more than she lets on. Lin could be the key to solving the murders…if only Lin understood the significance of what she knows. And only if the laundress could bring herself to trust a cop.
This is less a steampunk novel than it is an exploration of the sort of police procedural that would result if Vic Warshawski were to wander into the middle of industrialized Moria.
Although I have no doubt people will eagerly point out all the tunnel-related stories left out of the list above, there is one in particular I’d like IDed. As a kid, I read a fantasy in which the protagonists had to traverse a long tunnel in pitch darkness. During the journey, something unseen eats their horses. Any idea what book that was?