Move Under Ground

The year is nineteen-sixty-something, and after endless millennia of watery sleep, the stars are finally right. Old R'lyeh rises out of the Pacific, ready to cast its damned shadow over the primitive human world. The first to see its peaks: an alcoholic, paranoid, and frightened Jack Kerouac, who had been drinking off a nervous breakdown up in Big Sur. Now Jack must get back on the road to find Neal Cassady, the holy fool whose rambling letters hint of a world brought to its knees in worship of the Elder God Cthulhu. Together with pistol-packin' junkie William S. Burroughs, Jack and Neal make their way across the continent to face down the murderous Lovecraftian cult that has spread its darkness to the heart of the American Dream. But is Neal along for the ride to help save the world, or does he want to destroy it just so that he'll have an ending for his book? "It's Kerouac vs. Cthulhu as the most human of writers tangles with the most inhuman horror. Move Under Ground is a wild, weird ride, and Nick Mamatas shows awesome chops as well as some sad and funky soul." - Stewart O'Nan, author of The Night Country and A Prayer for the Dying. "An intense, inspired crossbred bastard homage-cum-critique-cum-vision." - China Mieville, author of The Scar and Iron Council. "Nick's style is wickedly satirical.... His writing has bite, but it also has meaning." - The Green Man Review "Nick Mamatas is one of the liveliest and most exciting new writers around." - Thomas Beller, author of The Sleep-Over Artist "Mamatas's fiction showcases his sense of humor and fiery imagination" - Rain Taxi Review Of Books