Dark cities underground

the long version

Amazon.com Review: Ruth Berry wants to be the first reporter in years to interview reclusive Jeremy Jones, the son of famed author E.A. Jones and the hero of her classic children's fantasy books. Jeremy does not want to discuss his childhood; he has forgotten it, he has changed his name to Jerry, and he has not spoken to his mother in many years. But he finds his memories returning when strange events seem to indicate that the Adventures of Jeremy in Neverwas weren't fantasy. He, Ruth, and Ruth's daughter Gilly sink ever deeper into a terrifying underworld, pursued by the villainous Barnaby Sattermole, by Sattermole's monomaniacal archenemy Sneath, and by the relentless Shadow Committee, a secret conspiracy at least as old as human history. In Dark Cities Underground, American Book Award winner Lisa Goldstein reveals and explores the connections among the worlds of Narnia and Never-Never Land, the Wind in the Willows and Wonderland, myth and legend. But don't read Dark Cities Underground as an escapist secondary-world adventure; that will lead to disappointment, because this novel is about the nature and meaning of otherworlds, and not about disappearing into them. This fine modern fantasy is also about archetypes, childhood, growing up, loyalty, immortality, death, and love. --Cynthia Ward