Underland (Renquist Quartet) [Hardcover]

Mick Farren (Author)

Book Description

Series: Renquist Quartet | Publication Date: November 1, 2002

Victor Renquist, centuries-old master of a small colony of Nosferatu, has been "recruited"-forcibly-by an undercover branch of the National Security Agency, Paranormal Operations and Research. They need his help. It seems that certain members of Hitler's Third Reich escaped to a secret world below Antarctica, taking with them some very advanced technology. Human teams have failed to infiltrate the base, and Renquist is the NSA's last chance.

The team is small: Renquist; his right-hand man, Lupo; an extremely unorthodox hardline NSA operative named Jack Coulson; and Thyme Bridewell, a failed NSA brain-control experiment originally intended as Renquist's lunch. What they find in Underland taxes even Renquist's supernormal powers. The quondam Nazis have some very powerful allies -- the Dhrakuh, a race of sentient reptiles from the dawn of time. Their goal is nothing less than the conquest of the entire world.

To make matters worse, Renquist is hampered by some throwbacks from his own race and by the unexpected arrival of one of his own colony members, Julia, together with Philipa, a darklost whom Julia has led through the Change into Nosferatu.
The future of civilization hangs in the balance.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In his X-Files-flavored novel Underland, ex-rock-musician Mick Farren boldly combines such pulp and tabloid favorites as vampires, the Hollow Earth, Cthulhu, UFOs, conspiracy theories, a modern-day Nazi colony, a serpent cult, and a prehuman race. Unfortunately, the novel turns out to be less than the sum of its parts, perhaps because it's the concluding volume of a series (the Renquist Quartet). Though Underland opens with a tense situation, the imminent torture of captured vampire leader Victor Renquist, the narrative turns immediately to backstory. Numerous bland stretches of flashback and description slow the pace so much that the Hollow Earth implied in the title goes unmentioned until nearly page 140. Series newcomers should be sure to start with the first volume, The Time of Feasting. --Cynthia Ward

From Publishers Weekly

Nosferatu Victor Renquist goes out with a bang-both literally and figuratively-in Farren's fourth and final, fiendishly inventive book in his vampire saga (The Time of Feasting, etc.), noted for its cerebral as well as visceral thrills. More than 1,000 years old, Renquist has been there, done that and seen all there is to see. He has fed on humanity, created undead to follow him, played power games with the best of humankind and almost always defeated his adversaries. This time, however, National Security Agency intelligence spooks persuade the generally unflappable and unshockable Renquist to take on what seems at first an easy job, but he soon finds himself, like a James Bond of the undead, trying to save the world from renegade Nazis and their alien allies, the reptilian Dhrakuh, operating from a secret Antarctic base. While the story races from one unexpected twist to another, with the emphasis more on spy adventure than horror, there are plenty of bouts of vampire feedings and Nosferatu tricks to go around, not to mention dollops of sex and drug abuse. The conclusion neatly ties up loose threads from previous volumes, leaving tantalizing hints that Renquist will be back for more ghoulish fun.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (November 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765303213
• ISBN-13: 978-0765303219
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,680,847 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars BIG IN JAPAN, May 23, 2005

By 

Thomas E. O'Sullivan - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Underland (Paperback)

When I picked up UNDERLAND I didn't know it was part of a series. I just picked it up because I'm always ready for a story involving Nazis and flying saucers - so when starting out I was already behind as to what had happened before. But, to my surprise, Farren did a solid job of filling me in on the backstory, the players and the events up till now that it didn't so much as get in the way of the story, as help to carry it along... but this dosen't mean that it helped to complete the story either. UNDERLAND is a fun book, but like most vampire novels they tend to get crushed under the weight of not only their own lore, but the lore of all vampires that have come before them. There's aspects of Rice here. L. K. Hamilton as well, even Cussler like plotting helps to drive the story along (if Dirk Pitt became a vampire - or as Renquist likes to claim: a Nosferatu, then he'd be a bit like Renquist). And while I was captivated by the set up and the opening chapters, Farren complete loses the reader by the end of the book by giving us a simple "cut and run" ending where everything is blown up (thanks to a handy atomic weapon), crashed and burned (the advanced Nazi UFO technology is crashed and buried) and anyone not making it to the next book is killed off (anyone human). It's all over too fast at the end, and instead of working around the problem Farren just opts to vaporize it. In fact, I'm not even sure why this book is even part of the same series. There is simply no clear reason why Renquist, or the rest of his clan, should be involved as they really don't do anything. In the end some good ideas, some solid writing, but too long to get to an end that's over too fast for it have any meaning. For fans of the series only.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars So appallingly bad I've sent copies to friends..., January 22, 2008

By 

Michael A. Duvernois (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Underland (Renquist Quartet) (Hardcover)

...to show them how completely dreadful a book can be. I wrote a long, eloquent review of this book on my blog. Here, let me just say that if you find a copy at a thrift store, have a good sense of humor, and an afternoon to waste, you too can have a "this is the worst book I ever read all of the way through" experience.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Toss this book into the sunlight........., December 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Underland (Renquist Quartet) (Hardcover)

Farren took on a bit too much with Underland. This most recent attempt to mix the fantasy world of his nosferatu with history and myth falls flat when compared to past successes in the series. Explaining Merlin in More Than Mortal was one thing, but taking on Lovecraft, Nazis, and UFOs in one book was a bit too ambitious. After investing so much time and effort in introducing supposedly integral nosferatu, Farren chooses to focus on several humans in Underland. Darklost in this book are thrown about like so much vampiric flotsam that the importance of being nosferatu is diminished. While Rehnquist is a fascinating character, Farren spends far too much time with him as opposed to other characters such as Julia and the intimidating Lupo, who does nothing but hold Victor's coat in this book. Past characters barely appear on Farren's radar with only a mention of Marieko, Destry, Sagal, Brandon Wales, and Elaine Dance. Other colony members barely warrant but a few lines of dialogue from Farren. The Merlin is cast off as if he never represented the major threat to Rehnquist and instead, we get subterranean Nazis, psychic lizards, and yet another darklost. Underland is a major disappointment that hopefully does not represent the final word on the characters Farren has introduced and readers have appreciated, characters that deserve much better.