In the sea of young adult fiction out there, Gregor the Overlander makes for one of the more pleasant anchorages. The book starts off quickly with Gregor and his two-year-old sister "Boots" falling through a gateway into the Underworld, a sprawling underground land populated by giant talking cockroaches, rats, bats, and spiders, along with several thousand pale humans descended from a 17th century "overlander" who led his small group into the Underworld then sealed the entrances. This descendant left a string of prophecies, including one which seems to point directly to Gregor as the one who may or may not save the humans in their ongoing war with the rats (as is often the case with prophecies, this one is somewhat lacking in clarity). Gregor has a more personal issue at stake; it turns out his father, who had disappeared a few years earlier, had also fallen through into the Underworld and has been held captive by the rats all this time as they seek to use his knowledge of science and engineering. Luckily, Gregor's desire to save his father dovetails with the prophecy and soon a band of rescuers is formed and the journey begun.
Being a young adult novel, the story moves along swiftly, without a lot of detailed description of either setting or society, but if the world is only sketched out, it is done so fully enough so that the reader never feels at a loss and is done so interestingly enough that the reader often wants to learn much more than is revealed.
The same holds true for many of the characters--Gregor, the young human princess and her cousin from the underworld, the grandfatherly diplomat who befriends and guides Gregor, even the bats who "bond" with their human riders. Perhaps the most interesting characters are a rat whose loyalties are not quite clear and two cockroaches who join the rescue mission, the latter interesting despite their relative few words in comparison to the others. Again, aimed as it is as somewhat younger readers, the characterization comes quickly and sometimes bluntly, but there are also some fine subtleties in here and some truly moving scenes whose emotional impact is as much due to the "humanity" of the characters Collins has created as it is to the situations she places them in. I'd even go so far as to say my favorite characters, the ones I found most compelling in speech and personality, were the non-human ones. His sister Boots is a wecome source of comic relief throughout the work, lightening the tone at times, though also used as a prop to create more tension at others.
Some scenes could and probably should be more fully detailed, but while a valid criticism, one can also take it as a compliment to Collins' writing since it's good enough for the reader to want more, not less. As it is, the book speeds along from Gregor's fall to his first contact with the various species of the underworld, to his growing acceptance of his responsibilities and a gradual flowering of inner qualities as the dangers of the journey unfold. All of which sounds quite positive, but it comes in fits and starts. Collins isn't afraid to give Gregor some unlikable moments and also does not shy away from the darker aspects of her tale--while some people (and I use that term loosely) rise to the occasion, others sink. And some of either kind do not survive. It's a good ending, but not necessarily a completely happy one. It's that kind of complex shading that makes Gregor rise above much of its competition. The ending also clearly points to a sequel and in this case, I can only say good. There is a lot more for Collins to mine here both in terms of the Underland society and these particular characters. I for one will look forward to seeing what happens to both.
