Pictures and accompanying text about caves, tunnels, mines, and all things underground. Explores the past, present, and future. Not too in depth (no pun intended), and I wish there had been more pictures included.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience

Chris Fitch explores the mysterious world that lies beneath our feet. I found this book to be a captivating read. The book covers a wide range of underground spaces, from natural wonders like caves and sinkholes to man-made structures like tunnels and bunkers.

One aspect I particularly appreciated about this book is how it highlights the interconnectedness between the underground and the world above. Fitch touches on how underground spaces have been used for everything from mining and transportation to hiding and preserving important artifacts. He also explores the impact that human activity has had on the underground environment, both positive and negative.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

This is a beautiful book with lush illustrations and vivid descriptions of the world under our feet. There have been several caving/ underground titles released lately, but this one is pretty enough to serve as a coffee table book - and the information is arranged so that you can dip in and out rather than reading straight through. A great gift for lovers of the natural world!

My schedule flew right out the window when I opened this book! I came home with a lengthy to-do list for the evening and thought I'd just read the introduction before I got to work on the laundry and dishes. -But then the first chapter on Waitomo Caves looked so fascinating and was only a few pages. I'd just read that. It was just a few pages, and it was fascinating, and it was quickly done. I just turned the page to see what was coming next. Oo, cenotes! -And it's just a few pages. So was Kazamura Cave, and Pando, and Dark Star, and paleoburrows, which led to the underground city of Derinkuyu, and Qin Shi Huang's tomb, mass burials in the London Underground, sinkholes, gas craters, tunnels, bunkers, and seed vaults. I just couldn't stop. Yes, despite my intentions, it turned into a one-sitting read. The laundry it still there and I'll have to address that tonight - but it was so worth it!

I love that this is essentially a tribute to underground and subterranean architecture, both natural and man-made. While this may not be a resource for geologists and similarly practicing scientists, I hope everyone gets a kick out of his zingers and enjoys the recreated maps of areas for each location mentioned. Plus, this could be a great conversation starter if you run out of things to talk about.

This is an interesting coffee-table-style book that explores the underground world, with photos, maps/diagrams, and text. A variety of underground settings are explored, both natural and man-made. The photographs are stunning and the maps and diagrams really add to the understanding of each unique area. This is truly a unique book, and I found it fascinating to read the stories behind each of these sites.

Subterranea by Chris Fitch is a really neat book with beautiful color photos highlighting natural, historical, and modern underground spaces. I was surprised at how little I know about what lies below. Some of the spaces include a sunken palace, a cave filled with glow-in-the-dark worms, and the longest lava tube in the world.

I highly recommend this book for those interested in history, science, travel, and art.

I am a library paraprofessional and received an advance copy from #NetGalley. Opinions are my own.

Subterranea is a beautiful book with outstanding, tantalizing photos of what lies beneath our feet, and crisp and clear writing about the forming and exploration of these places: caves, sinkholes, tunnels. It's an ideal book to give as a gift to anyone interested in spelunking, hiking, urban exploration, and similar activities.

Subterranea is an incredible book that looks at underground spaces. This might bring to mind caves, but there are so many other spaces that we never even consider. Most of the ones in this book are ones I had never heard of. I have long been a fan of caves and speleology, so I thought this book would be a fascinating look at caves. I was pleasantly surprised to find chapters on wonders of the world like ancient structures, caves, underground waterways, manmade structures, and more.

This book covers everything. One section looks at my favorite, caves! Each featured location has a map of the underground space, as well as coordinates and an little globe showing where in the world that particular feature is located. The text tells you the story of the featured place. Then, you get photos of it to round out each account. Some of these places are unbelievable! The glow worms were just mind-boggling!

It’s not an in-depth look at any single place, but rather an overview of a selection of locations that are of interest. If you want more in-depth coverage, you have to find it elsewhere. But, that is not a negative thing. I liked that the book covered so many places. I enjoyed learning about the incredible variety of places that can be found under the surface! I do want to learn more about some of these, since they were just that interesting. Everything from ancient history to modern history is featured. I loved this book.

I recommend it as both a coffee table book full of excellent photographs, and an introduction to pique your interest in the subterranean world.

This is a fascinating look at cities under cities, or under mountains; at vast underground reservoirs and water tunnels; at gas-powered eternal underworld flaming pits; at limestone caverns unexplored until recent equipment allowed; at ancient cave paintings; at minings and delvings, escape routes and particle accelerators.

Just enough science of geology and cryology and hydrology is imparted, so you can look up terms if you wish but can take in the sense of the text easily. The brightly coloured photos reveal incredible landscapes, formations and habitations.

We have to be glad that others are brave enough to explore, or inspired enough to create, or educated enough to design and build. This book will provide you with facts to amaze and tourism sites to bookmark. We also learn about climate changing and what it may mean for our future.

I read an e-ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review.

This book combines amazing pictures with the history behind each location. We get to explore different subterranean manmade and naturally occurring areas all over the planet.
I loved how it was separated by Creation, Ancient History, Modern History and Today. It gives an interesting timeline of the worlds history.
Archaeology and history are so fascinating to me! I also loved geology in college as a elective. It's so amazing how you can see so much when you dig.
The pictures alone would be worth the look into this book but it also gives a great insight and history into each and the amazing creatures that can exist in some of the caves out there.

Thank you timberpress and netgalley for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

Just the sort of niche and interesting title I'm always on the lookout for my annual holiday gift guides in the book section!

Subterranea is absolutely breathtaking in its riches of information, other-worldly photography and useful maps. The sheer amount of information is staggering. I live part time in the karst region of Europe and am besotted with underground lakes, rivers and caves, especially those in Slovenia and Croatia. One of the most stupendous sights I have ever experienced is Postojna Cave and its miraculous olms. Exploring beneath ancient cities such as Naples and Split is one of my favourite things to do. But this book really opened my eyes to treasures in other parts of the world, too, such as the dazzling glow-worms in New Zealand, gaping cenotes and unique fish living in acid in Mexico, fascinating paleoburrows in Brazil and the stunning cistern beneath Istanbul,

After reading so much about it, Tunnel 57 is the next on my list. Not only does the author include natural wonders and creatures but also fascinating things/occurrences such as perfectly-round and deep sink holes, mines and ice core storage!

Books such as this are pure inspiration and soul stirring. Nature is truly remarkable. Reading this book makes me feel more knowledgeable. I like that. If you are even just remotely interested in the underground, this book should be priority. It is THAT good. Regardless of what you have and haven't yet seen, you will learn something.

My sincere thank you to Timber Press and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this wondrous book. I absolutely loved it!

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book is well written. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful. It will make you want to visit each place in person. It is an absolutely stunning book. It is very informative. It will be in stores on October 12, 2021 for $30.00 (USD).

Subterranea is a fascinating and seldom-seen look at amazing caves, underwater rivers, lakes, excavations, and other subterranean locations worldwide curated by Chris Fitch. Originally published in 2020, this reformat and re-release from Workman Publishing on their Timber Press imprint is due out 15th Sept 2021. It's 240 pages and will be available in hardcover format.

This was a much more comprehensive and information dense volume than I was expecting. It *is* a graphically amazing book, full of clear, breathtaking photography of the secret underground places, but more than that, it's also full of ordnance survey maps showing the different cave systems and locations as well as interesting cultural and physical background for each place covered.

Each entry (there are 40) contains location, description, maps, background, and color photos of the sites and the features of each. The descriptions are well written and accessible. The author doesn't shy away from descriptions which include insalubrious details such as some caves' previous use in human sacrifice and other rituals, so it might be distressing to some readers. The photographs are clear and the layout is graphically simple and impactful. The author has included a nice selection of links and resources for further reading.

Five stars. This would be a good selection for library acquisition as well as for readers who enjoy travel writing, natural history and the natural world.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This book truly took me on an adventure. I was able to get a first hand exploration of caves, tunnels, and places to explore. I lived reading about each place, having a map of the location and a map of the area underground. The pictures right there were amazing. Truly travel in a book.

This is a seriously cool book! I learned so many new things and was in my true nerd happy place reading this one.

Broken into 4 parts, Subterranea starts with Creation and covers cool places like the Waitomo Caves, home of millions of Glow-worms, Veryovkina Cave, the world’s deepest cave and the Palaeoburrows, tunnels believed to have been dug by extinct Mega Sloths!

The Ancient History section has locations such as Chauvet-Pont d’Arc boasting some of the earliest figurative cave drawings, and Herculaneum a coastal party town buried by the ancient eruption of Vesuvius.

Modern History has the more well-known locations like the London Underground and lesser known places like Coober Pedy, a city built underground to deal with the extreme temperatures of Australia.

The Today section features the Los Angeles Tunnels, Hellisheidi and the Jerusalem Cemeteries plus many other important scientific locations.

With pictures, coordinates, detailed maps and historical data, Subterranea is sure to be a home-run hit with history buffs, science lovers and curious people all over the world! Buy this as a gift for an inquisitive loved one and make sure you buy one for yourself as well. It’s definitely worth having around and kids can learn about some really cool places!

Thank you to #TimberPress and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Chris Fitch delivers Subterranea, a book bursting with gorgeous photographs and astounding information. I was expecting just photographs, but Fitch includes vivid descriptions of the formation of the caves as well as the people and creatures who inhabit them. The photos are so vibrant, they take your breath away. Get this book for the photos then dive into the narrative. Thanks so much to Net Galley for the chance to read an ARC.

This isn't something likely to move from our libraries, but the images are beautiful. I wish there were more of them.