Customer Reviews

Subterranean Twin Cities

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I thought this was going to be a bit more informative and educational. It was poorly written with many grammatical errors. It was hard to read as the author would alternate between the subject matter and a never ending tirade on the evils of the internet and some kids who were following in his footsteps or sometimes leading the way. For this treachery against him, he advocates trapping them below ground by slamming a manhole cover over them to discourage their activities. I think he lacks the basic human decency that most of us have. The overwhelming ego presented here was a bit much for my liking. I was very disappointed.

This book was written by a professor at the U of M. After a few phone calls it turns out he's not actually a professor, but a student there. He writes in his boring website that a police Lt. (name censored) says that his arch nemisis Max Action has been arrested several times. After a few phone calls, it turns out, the Lt. was just an officer and did not start these lies, Greg Brick himself must have. He revamped the story several times before deleting it altogether. The U of M PD was not amused with this stunt one bit. We know that the author's story of the Ford Motors mines had one part that appeared to be an obvious rip off of a dated Action Squad story. One can only assume that this was done to spice up his boring story and in no way to ape Action Squad. I just wonder how much of the book is actually non-fiction. Mr. Brick, for someone who has spent 15 years or so in college, you should be a doctor by now. You have no class.

I wanted to read a book about the underworld of the Twin Cities, not be subjected to insecure polemics, so this was a bit of a let down for me. Throughout the book, other local explorers are disparaged continually, which was off-putting. The historical information presented is solid, albeit not much that could not be gotten elsewhere. The non-historical parts were, well, odd - from a story about slamming a manhole lid down on some other explorers (because "they sounded scary") to an apparently fictitious story about a sleeping Ford security guard that seems to have been taken from the website of Action Squad.

All in all, I give it a "meh."

The author has heisted some of his material from a website I saw years ago. I can only assume that he was kicked out his previous group of action squadding buddies and has been feuding with them ever since. Most of his stories are probably true to some extent. But why would he have to 'make good his escape' from the Ford Motors mines if he had permission to be there doing geological work as he so often claims? Why did it sound exactly like the story that appeared years before in the website he loves to hate, authored by his nemisis? And does any of this make it ok for him to slam a manhole cover down on some kids that 'sounded scary'? I would have enjoyed the book much more if it was all original and something new. It could also do without the name calling and finger pointing. Two thumbs down.

This book attempts to look like an informative work that documents the author's adventures, but it doesn't quite pull it off. It is riddled with offensive remarks against other trespassers and stolen stories from those same people. Of these stolen works, the most notable being from the infamous Action Squad, is their tale of adventure in the Ford Motors sand mines. Originally I thought the author was once a part of the Action Squad, but after much searching and interviews some of the local explorers, it seems he was not. I thought he might have been a disgruntled ex-member, maybe that could be his motivation for such insults and lies. But it lies much deeper than that. It seems that over the last decade he has taken any chance he could get to belittle other trespassers, or explorers as they like to be called, for reasons one could only speculate. Some thought it was because of their age or possibly his own feelings of being inadequate. Whatever the reason, it is just bad form in my opinion, and this book is just one more forum for his grandstanding. If he hever writes another, I will leave that one on the shelf.

I live in one of the neighborhoods that is famous for it's tunnels and underground rooms (the Schmidt Brewery neighborhood) so I was looking forward to this book when I heard about it and I grabbed it off the shelf first time I saw it at the local bookstore.

Then I started reading it. There was nothing there. I don't know if his coverage of other neighborhoods was as weak as his take on the West Seventh neighborhood, but what I saw convinced me to put the book back on the shelf.

Let me start out that this book was very solid on facts gathered by the writer. I really had no idea that any of this stuff existed. I thought some of the caves were epic. The adventures in the sewer were a bit more than I could stomach though. Hehe. I was amazed at how the writer braved the stench and the physical challenges and possibly being arrested for breaking the law. He is a real dare-devil. His stealthy escapes from security in one chapter and locking the bad guys in a sewer really added to the sense of adrenaline and adventure. This is one bad*** mofo. It would almost be like a diehard movie if the rest of the book wasn't so dry. That brings me to the part for the 2 star rating. I really had to stretch my imagination to feel like I was there. I admit I did skim over quite a few mundane parts. The facts are nice, the writing seemed like a college lecture for the most part, with a few good passages that did not really quite connect or flow well. It's almost like there was a separate "stunt writer" if you will. All in all it contained plenty of facts that a person could easily find and visit these places if in the area. It would be a good book to toss in the back of the car if going to the Twin Cities. Not so good for adventure, or people with normal attention spans and less than a diehard desire to see the underground. This book could have easily gotten 5 stars, had the "stunt writer" been given a larger part in the book.

I am not going to get into why but this book is a joke. stay as far away from this crap as possible.

This is my 2nd attempt at reviewing this book, since amazon didn't seem I aimed enough at the book itself my first time around. The book is a fun entry for those of us who would rather not take the risk of what greg brick and the action squad do. The book was well informed and a good location that collects information from various well known research books, historical documents, web sites, and word of mouth, but really fails to provide any details that can't be gained anywhere else, so as a research book it's not worth it. The stories are alrightly written, but leave you lacking in much detail. A little more detail is needed to really feel like you're there with Max & Greg. As others have said, the information in the book and from the action squad site seems to overlap a bit, and what happened to who is somewhat questionable. Overall, I'd give this book to a child to get them interested in exploring their enviroment, but to anyone else I'd suggest going to the library, doing some research, and really living it, rather than reading about it.

Hearing a few accounts of recent local fatalities related to this type of activity originally piqued my interest in this book. I was nonetheless fascinated at the abundance of interesting and obscure underground history my hometown has after reading Subterranean Twin Cities, being a Twin City native myself. I enjoyed the candid accounts of the various locations, and I am amazed at the level of curiosity, research, and tireless perseverance it would take someone to investigate these locations with little or no information beyond sporadic archived historical documents, even more sporadic personal accounts, a strong sense of adventure and a large helping of courage. It's a combination of forensic investigation, archeological dig, and an honest childlike fascination with conquering the unknown. Mr. Brick has combined this purely human fascination with his later life formal education and training to give a unique account of each underground investigation. I see the book as more of a story of individual human spirit than a geological, historical or archaeological document, but those elements are there too.

I sense that there was a bit of professional risk of a college professor to publish an account of what could be easily be misinterpreted as a bunch of coming-of-age adventures, and that makes the book all the more enjoyable to me. The author's emotional sense of risk and adventure that were necessary to create the original accounts in the book were undoubtedly revisited in the collection of the accounts here in later life for all to see. The old adage "nothing ventured, nothing gained" comes to mind. I'm glad I picked this book up and that I have become part of its selective audience.