Upon finishing the book my first thought was simply "Delightful!" The general idea of the plot: a simple man taken out of his element and having to bumble his way thru a strange new world: is very familiar. Many authors go with it because it just works. Neil, naturally, works it well here.
Richard is a boring man living a humdrum life in a totally plain existence in a "present day" London. Gaiman was ?intentionally? vague about technology and it feels like that "present day" feel won't be outdated for a while. Richard almost literally trips over a woman fleeing from killers pursuing her from her wold of "London Below". The denizens of London Below are a part of the real world, but are pretty much invisible to the people of London. They are people that you pass by on the street and - if noticed at all - are instantly forgotten. They walk thru our world without really interacting with us at all. Being a very ordinary man with no real family and few friends, Richard still finds it hard to be suddenly unnoticeable after having helped Door, who - surprise - turns out to be a princess. Shocking, I know.. I've heard that one before too. But hey, it works!
With the help of the brash, roguish and handsome ( again! ) Marquis de Carabas, she tries to escape the cruel Mr Croup and the brutish Mr Vandemar who were hired to get her. There are plenty of very interesting and colorful minor characters like the Rat Speakers, the bird man, the Earl of Earl's Court and Door's bodyguard named simply "Hunter". The Marquis is a fantastic character but I was most intrigued by Hunter. I want to know more about her past.
I liked the clever progression of Richard's self assurance thru the story. As he gains confidence he starts to introduce himself to new people with more certainty. When he first is introduced to Door and the Marquis he mumbles and stumbles over saying his own name. So much that they misunderstand what his name actually is. By the meets new people toward the end of the book, he introduces himself simply as Richard. I thought that was a nice and subtle way to see the progression of the character.
I do think that I would have gotten more oft of the book if I were a Londoner. Several of the locations in the book are familiar locales to people who know their way around the Underground. If I ever make it to London maybe I'll take a "Neverwhere" tour. That has to exist, right?
p85
There was no moon, but the night sky was a riot of crisp and glittering autumn stars. There were streetlights, too, and lights on buildings and bridges, which looked like earthbound stars and they glimmered, repeatedly, as they were reflected with the city in the night water of the Thames. Its a fairyland, Richard thought.
p175
Mr Croop smiled like a snake with a crescent moon stuck in its mouth and his resemblance to Stolen Cadavers numbers 1 and 30 was, if anything, increased by this.
p176
"You see," explained Me Croop, in a voice like rancid butter, Right now we're just here to worry you." Mr Vandemar's voice was like a night wind blowing over a desert of bones "Make you suffer," he said. "Spoil your day."
p205
Mr Croup began to laugh. it sounded like pieces of blackboard being dragged over the nails of a wall of severed fingers.
p335
For a moment, upon waking, he had no idea at all who he was. It was a tremendously liberating feeling, as if her were able to be whatever her wanted to be; he could be anyone at all - able to try on any identity; he could be a man or a woman, a rat or a bird, a monster or a god. And then someone made a rustling noise, and he woke up the rest of the way, and in waking found that he was Richard Mayhew, whomever that was, whatever that meant. He was Richard Mayhew and he did not know where he was.
Friday, June 10, 2016
Monday, April 25, 2016
#12 The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (4-6)
THE SHADOW RISING
It took 2 months to read, but I finally got thru. I read it at a leisurely pace.. which seems to match the pace of the series. There is some really good action, some good plot developments, the characters are starting to know their own power.. but it felt slow.
Rand travels thru the waste to get in touch with his Aiel heritage. He feels like he is getting too powerful already and we are still early in the series. I like that he has grown some confidence and has his own agenda. He remains humble and manages his superpowers well. He also has an Aile girlfriend, though he does not realize it.
Mat plays tag-along with Rand. The only thing that changed for Mat is he realized he speaks the old tongue and he gets a costume change. He has the spear and the hat now.. but is still just Mat. He needs to get away from Rand to start making his own waves in the pattern.
Perrin does get super awesome. Falie snares him and they get married. He saves his people and fends off the trollocks and fades. Faces down the white cloaks. He is granted the title of "Lord" by the Two Rivers people and answers to the name "goldeneyes". I suppose that is the best way to pick a ruler. Just decide it is so and start calling him by the title that you have granted. Even if he doesn't really want it. I can't wait to see where he goes from here.
Egwaine goes into the waste with Rand, but not much happens to her. She is a dreamwalker in training.
Min stops playing the Elmindreda game at Tar Valon and escapes the takeover of the tower with Siuan. I am interested to see how Siuan handles the fall from Amyrlin Seat to muggle.
Elayne and Nynaeve's bit is fun. They make friends with a Seanchan. They hunt down some Black Ajahs. Nynaeve kicks some serious forsaken ass. I do like that her massive power is tempered by not always being available to use it. It keeps her in check.
p253 Nayneve and Lan
"I will not be manhandled [kissed] in this fashion for the whole world to see. I will not!"
"Not the whole world," he replied. "But if they can see, they can hear as well. You have made a place in my heart where i thought there was no room for anything else. You have made flowers grow where I have cultivated dust and stones. Remember this, on your journey you insist on making. If you die, I will not long survive."
p421
Voices whispered in Perrin's head, a thousand babbling mad voices clawing at the inside of his skull. Bitter blood. Blood so bitter. Drink the blood and crack the bone. Crack the bone and suck the marrow. Bitter marrow, sweet the screams. Singing screams. Sing the screams. Tiny souls. Arcid Souls. Gobble them down. So sweet the pain. On and On.
THE FIRES OF HEAVEN
Wow this one dragged. People warned me that it got a bit slow around here but DAMN.
I got four or five hundred pages an and they.. walked out of a desert.. others walked to a river.. some other people walked somewhere else. ugh.. There were little flashes of action, but reading about all that walking made me feel like i was being dragged along unwillingly. When you finally get to the big army battle it is rather ho-hum. Mat is coming to grips with being a skilled, yet unwilling leader. Rand is getting comfortable with his power. I think Min felt like she was just tagging along - just like the reader. The dream world is quite interesting and the end battle is a fitting farewell to a BIG character, but it took its time getting there.
It feels like I was reading that book forever. I actually read another book-and-a-half while reading this one because it was to big - in physical size - to pack with me when I went to Chicago and up north.
The next ones better start moving more quickly. This is starting to feel like a chore.
p281
"You are a dirty fighter." she muttered. Melaine quirked an eyebrow, "Do we fight? If we do, then know that in battle, there is only winning and loosing. Rules against hurting are for games..."
p577
"I always say, if you must mount the gallows, give a jest to the crowd, a coin to the hangman, and make the drop with a smile on your lips."
LORD OF CHAOS
Yes, still a bit slow. The whole world is gripped in an extreme heat wave and drought, and the book has the feel of an afternoon spent laboring in the sun. It finally picked up about 400 pages in and the last 200 actually moved rather quickly. Hundreds upon hundreds of pages of planning and plotting. I like that Loial and Min are back, but they are mostly just background.. except for Min making Rand randy. Nyneve and Elayne sneak around in the dream world and try to tell the real Aes Sedai how to do it. The renegade Aes Sedai make a surprising choice for the new Amerlyn Seat. Someone that everyone else thinks is dead scheming to SLOWLY maneuver her self into a better spot. Mat marches.. that's about it. Perrin makes Falie jealous, but not on purpose. Rand wrestles with the voices in his head. Rand setting up and inspecting not one, but TWO schools. F'ing riveting I tell ya.
Then FINALLY a kidnapping, a chase and a rescue.
I hope all this setup keeps paying off.
p437
A Cairhienin playing the Game of Houses was usually easier to understand than a woman making no effort to be enigmatic at all.
p512
"When you wish for so long that you could hear something," he said slowly, "and then suddenly, without warning, you do, it is like a lightening strike and rain on parched ground at the same time. You're stunned, but you can't hear enough.
p751
We are always more afraid than we wish to be, but we can always be braver than we expect.
Monday, February 15, 2016
#73 The Legend of Drizzt (Dark Elf trilogy) by R A Salvatore (in progress)
This one was all right. I'm one book in and it is good, but not fantastic. It is set in the Forgotten Realms and is published by TSR / Wizards of the Coast so it has a very strong Dungeons and Dragons feel to it. A lot of the terminology is lifted right from the game so it was quite familiar. I wonder if Salvatore wrote it that way, or if TSR made alterations to give it that DnD mechanic.. I could see that happening. You can almost see Drizzt rolling a D20 sometimes. I wonder what feet he is going to choose at level 15..
Drizzt is a badass Fighter / Mage born into the evil Drow society. The story of his birth really sets the scene of ruthless ambition well. Salvatore paints a great picture of the subterranean Lawful Evil society. Drizzt himself is not evil and he feels that he does not fit in to the mold of what a Drow is expected to be. He struggles to break the bonds of his wicked clan / community and strike out on his own. Normally I'd write something about a few of the other characters in the book - like his mother Malace or his uncle Zak (shh.. it's his father) but they weren't all that well developed to be interesting enough to note. Sorry, spoiler alert about Zak - but you can see it coming from miles away.
p119
Zak slid one of the swords from the scabbard and admired the weapon's wondrous detail. This sword, as with most of the Drow weapons, had been forged by the grey dwarves, then traded to Menzoberranzan. The duergar workmanship was exquisite, but it was the work done on the weapon after the dark elves acquired it that made it so very special. None of the races of the surface or Underdark could out do the work of the dark elves in the art of enchanting weapons. Imbued with strange emanations from the Underdark, the magical power unique to the lightless world, and blessed by the unholy clerics of Loth, no blade ever sat in its wielder's hand more ready to kill.
Drizzt is a badass Fighter / Mage born into the evil Drow society. The story of his birth really sets the scene of ruthless ambition well. Salvatore paints a great picture of the subterranean Lawful Evil society. Drizzt himself is not evil and he feels that he does not fit in to the mold of what a Drow is expected to be. He struggles to break the bonds of his wicked clan / community and strike out on his own. Normally I'd write something about a few of the other characters in the book - like his mother Malace or his uncle Zak (shh.. it's his father) but they weren't all that well developed to be interesting enough to note. Sorry, spoiler alert about Zak - but you can see it coming from miles away.
p119
Zak slid one of the swords from the scabbard and admired the weapon's wondrous detail. This sword, as with most of the Drow weapons, had been forged by the grey dwarves, then traded to Menzoberranzan. The duergar workmanship was exquisite, but it was the work done on the weapon after the dark elves acquired it that made it so very special. None of the races of the surface or Underdark could out do the work of the dark elves in the art of enchanting weapons. Imbued with strange emanations from the Underdark, the magical power unique to the lightless world, and blessed by the unholy clerics of Loth, no blade ever sat in its wielder's hand more ready to kill.
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
#4 The Dune Chronicles Frank Herbert (done enough)
Damn. I thought I only had to read the first one but the list says Dune CHRONICLES. I have to read ALL of them before I can cross them off. Almost everyone I talked to said the first book is the best and the rest aren't as good.
The fist book was.. uh.. OK, I guess. It wasn't great. There were a lot of opportunities to make things really epic that just weren't taken. Most of the battles could have been more exciting. Feyd-Rautha Harkonen fights a gladiator in one chapter and that combat sequence is done well but the other ones are lacking somehow. The big battles are also glossed over and slow. You can do so much more with those sand worms.. but again, you only get a glimpse. There are chances for so much epic awesomeness but maybe that's not what Herbert is good at.
For all of his talk about "feints within feints" and plots and secrecy, the characters sure seem to be rather black and white. Barron Vladimir Harkonen is clearly E V I L. He is also fat and Russian.. predictable for a cold war era author perhaps. Paul, on the other hand, is always good. He is brave and strong and smart. He leads the Fremen in the desert against their.. Russian.. oppressors.. Hello? Afghanistan?
There are some neat plot twists and turns, but the reader always knows about them. They are secret from the characters but not the audience. I suppose I'm more used to having to figure things out or discover the nuanced details of the characters as you progress thru the book.. but that doesn't really happen here.
I guess we'll see what the other two have to offer..
**Addendum: not much is the answer. I got 100+ pages thru Messiah and NOTHING has happened. Revenant Duncan Idaho is neat. The naked sword-fight against the practice drone was neat.. but that is all that there was in the first half of the book. I had accidentally started reading Children of Dune first and didn't even realize it. It was totally ho-hum too.
He does write pretty, though. These are three of many great passages.
Dune P31
Paul shrugged. " Then she said a good ruler has to learn his planet's language, that it's different for every world. And I thought she meant they didn't speak Galach or Arrakis, but she said that wasn't it at all. She said she meant the language of the rocks and the growing things, the language you don't just hear with your ears. And I said that's what Dr. Yueh calls the mastery of life.".
Dune p230
What do you despise? by this are you truly known.
Dune p277
And I am a desert creature, Kynes thought. You see me, Father? I am a desert creature.
He felt the bubble lift him, felt it break and the dust whirlpool engulf him, dragging him down into the cool darkness. For a moment, the sensation of coolness and moisture were blessed relief. Then, as his planet killed him, it occurred to Kynes that his father and all the other scientists were wrong, that the most persistent principles of the universe were accident and error.
Even the hawks could appreciate these facts.
Messiah p19
"We of the Tleilexu believe that in all the universe there is only one insatiable appetite of matter, that energy is the only true solid. And energy learns. Hear me well, princes: energy learns. This we call power"
The fist book was.. uh.. OK, I guess. It wasn't great. There were a lot of opportunities to make things really epic that just weren't taken. Most of the battles could have been more exciting. Feyd-Rautha Harkonen fights a gladiator in one chapter and that combat sequence is done well but the other ones are lacking somehow. The big battles are also glossed over and slow. You can do so much more with those sand worms.. but again, you only get a glimpse. There are chances for so much epic awesomeness but maybe that's not what Herbert is good at.
For all of his talk about "feints within feints" and plots and secrecy, the characters sure seem to be rather black and white. Barron Vladimir Harkonen is clearly E V I L. He is also fat and Russian.. predictable for a cold war era author perhaps. Paul, on the other hand, is always good. He is brave and strong and smart. He leads the Fremen in the desert against their.. Russian.. oppressors.. Hello? Afghanistan?
There are some neat plot twists and turns, but the reader always knows about them. They are secret from the characters but not the audience. I suppose I'm more used to having to figure things out or discover the nuanced details of the characters as you progress thru the book.. but that doesn't really happen here.
I guess we'll see what the other two have to offer..
**Addendum: not much is the answer. I got 100+ pages thru Messiah and NOTHING has happened. Revenant Duncan Idaho is neat. The naked sword-fight against the practice drone was neat.. but that is all that there was in the first half of the book. I had accidentally started reading Children of Dune first and didn't even realize it. It was totally ho-hum too.
He does write pretty, though. These are three of many great passages.
Dune P31
Paul shrugged. " Then she said a good ruler has to learn his planet's language, that it's different for every world. And I thought she meant they didn't speak Galach or Arrakis, but she said that wasn't it at all. She said she meant the language of the rocks and the growing things, the language you don't just hear with your ears. And I said that's what Dr. Yueh calls the mastery of life.".
Dune p230
What do you despise? by this are you truly known.
Dune p277
And I am a desert creature, Kynes thought. You see me, Father? I am a desert creature.
He felt the bubble lift him, felt it break and the dust whirlpool engulf him, dragging him down into the cool darkness. For a moment, the sensation of coolness and moisture were blessed relief. Then, as his planet killed him, it occurred to Kynes that his father and all the other scientists were wrong, that the most persistent principles of the universe were accident and error.
Even the hawks could appreciate these facts.
Messiah p19
"We of the Tleilexu believe that in all the universe there is only one insatiable appetite of matter, that energy is the only true solid. And energy learns. Hear me well, princes: energy learns. This we call power"
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
#61 The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Starts off a little slow, but by the end I thought this is one of the best SciFi books I have read so far. Humans expand thru the universe and have found life on other planets, but no intelligent life until now. Daring young captain Rod Blaine is sent on a mission to investigate a probe entering the Empire's space that must have been launched from an intelligent species somewhere. The star that the probe came from appears as a small speck of light alone in the "eye" of a constellation that is thought of as a face of a "god".
After investigating the probe, they are sent to investigate the mote. Once they meet the "Moties" they need to find out if they will be friend or foe.
This is the first book by Jerry that I have read. I did read Ringworld by Larry, and I think I see Jerry's influence here. My guess is that Larry wrote the science / space stuff and Jerry wrote the character development and the intriguing plot. I found the characters thin and the plot simple in Ringworld, but the science was super cool. They seem to compliment each other well.
One criticism that I have is that they chose not to write a future where humanity has progressed to men and women being more equal. Sally is a very important and influential character. She is a scientist and an aristocrat. She is very powerful and independent, but she is the only female on the ship. No women sail in the Galactic Navy. When the main conflict is over she is expected to take her place as Rod's wife and have no further ambition following that.
They can predict space travel, but not equality?? Come on, boys..
P 444
"You are so cold! Can you not rejoice with me? We are saved!"
"Study Renner."
"Yes... I know that look. He wears it playing poker, when his down card is an unexpected one. It does not help us. But her has no power, Charlie! A wanderer with no sense of responsibility!"
"Perhaps. We juggle priceless eggs in variable gravity. I am afraid. I will taste fear until I die."
p 454
"No use." said Charlie. "Taste the irony. For millions of years we have been in a bottle. Its shape has shaped our species to our detriment. Now we have found the opening, and now the Navy pours thru to burn our worlds."
P 457
They stood for a long time on the balcony outside Rod's suite. Faint sounds of a city after dark floated up to them. The Hooded Man rose high in the sky, his baleful red eye watching them with indifference: two human lovers who would send squadrons of ships into the Eye itself and keep them there, until they too passed away...
It took most of the book, but i finally found some things worth quoting. The first two are from Moties.
After investigating the probe, they are sent to investigate the mote. Once they meet the "Moties" they need to find out if they will be friend or foe.
This is the first book by Jerry that I have read. I did read Ringworld by Larry, and I think I see Jerry's influence here. My guess is that Larry wrote the science / space stuff and Jerry wrote the character development and the intriguing plot. I found the characters thin and the plot simple in Ringworld, but the science was super cool. They seem to compliment each other well.
One criticism that I have is that they chose not to write a future where humanity has progressed to men and women being more equal. Sally is a very important and influential character. She is a scientist and an aristocrat. She is very powerful and independent, but she is the only female on the ship. No women sail in the Galactic Navy. When the main conflict is over she is expected to take her place as Rod's wife and have no further ambition following that.
They can predict space travel, but not equality?? Come on, boys..
P 444
"You are so cold! Can you not rejoice with me? We are saved!"
"Study Renner."
"Yes... I know that look. He wears it playing poker, when his down card is an unexpected one. It does not help us. But her has no power, Charlie! A wanderer with no sense of responsibility!"
"Perhaps. We juggle priceless eggs in variable gravity. I am afraid. I will taste fear until I die."
p 454
"No use." said Charlie. "Taste the irony. For millions of years we have been in a bottle. Its shape has shaped our species to our detriment. Now we have found the opening, and now the Navy pours thru to burn our worlds."
P 457
They stood for a long time on the balcony outside Rod's suite. Faint sounds of a city after dark floated up to them. The Hooded Man rose high in the sky, his baleful red eye watching them with indifference: two human lovers who would send squadrons of ships into the Eye itself and keep them there, until they too passed away...
It took most of the book, but i finally found some things worth quoting. The first two are from Moties.
Friday, August 14, 2015
#65 I Am Legeng by Richard Matheson
This is actually a rather short book that is followed by several short stories that have nothing to do with the title work. I did not read all of the following shorts, but they were quite good.
The copy of this book that I read had a big picture of Will Smith on the cover and said "Now a major motion picture!" The book and the movie are so totally different that you can't really compare the two.
Matheson gets really into the depressive psychological self mutilation of Robert Neville, the last man on earth. A plague has turned everyone into zombie / vampires and he is holed up in his house utterly alone. He battles the drive to survive with the anguish and guilt of being the only survivor. Matheson really likes to get into the mind of all of his characters. He sets it up really well so that you can feel what they are feeling. It is a little scary at times.
Neville, while on a good manic streak, heads to the local University's library and studies up on medicine to try to figure out what happened and how to combat / cure it. He gets deep enough into medical jargon and has everything based well enough in reality to make a really plausible seeming explanation of where zombies and vampires came from. Being a medical person myself, I found this aspect really COOL!
p32
But are his needs any more shocking than the needs of other animals or men? Are his deeds more outrageous than the deeds of a parent who drained the spirit of his child? the vampire may foster quickened heartbeats and levitated hair, but is he worse than the parent who gave society a neurotic child that became a politician? Is he worse than the manufacturer who set up belated foundations with money made from handing bombs and guns to suicidal nationalists? s he worse than the distiller who gave basterdized grain juice to stoltify the further the brains of those who, sober, were incapable of progressive thought? ... Is he worse than the publisher who filled the ubiquitous racks with lust and death wishes? Really, now, search your soul, lovie - Is the vampire so bad?
All he does is drink blood.
p78
He stood there for a moment looking around the silent room, shaking his head slowly. All these books, he thought, the residue of a planet's intellect, the scrapings of futile minds, the leftovers, the potpourri of artifacts that had no power to save men from perishing.
The copy of this book that I read had a big picture of Will Smith on the cover and said "Now a major motion picture!" The book and the movie are so totally different that you can't really compare the two.
Matheson gets really into the depressive psychological self mutilation of Robert Neville, the last man on earth. A plague has turned everyone into zombie / vampires and he is holed up in his house utterly alone. He battles the drive to survive with the anguish and guilt of being the only survivor. Matheson really likes to get into the mind of all of his characters. He sets it up really well so that you can feel what they are feeling. It is a little scary at times.
Neville, while on a good manic streak, heads to the local University's library and studies up on medicine to try to figure out what happened and how to combat / cure it. He gets deep enough into medical jargon and has everything based well enough in reality to make a really plausible seeming explanation of where zombies and vampires came from. Being a medical person myself, I found this aspect really COOL!
p32
But are his needs any more shocking than the needs of other animals or men? Are his deeds more outrageous than the deeds of a parent who drained the spirit of his child? the vampire may foster quickened heartbeats and levitated hair, but is he worse than the parent who gave society a neurotic child that became a politician? Is he worse than the manufacturer who set up belated foundations with money made from handing bombs and guns to suicidal nationalists? s he worse than the distiller who gave basterdized grain juice to stoltify the further the brains of those who, sober, were incapable of progressive thought? ... Is he worse than the publisher who filled the ubiquitous racks with lust and death wishes? Really, now, search your soul, lovie - Is the vampire so bad?
All he does is drink blood.
p78
He stood there for a moment looking around the silent room, shaking his head slowly. All these books, he thought, the residue of a planet's intellect, the scrapings of futile minds, the leftovers, the potpourri of artifacts that had no power to save men from perishing.
Thursday, August 6, 2015
#37 20,000 Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne
This is the first book I ever read not-on-paper. Usually when I return one book I pick up my next one. This visit was cut short by unexpected circumstances and I had to leave without anything to read that day. I purchased this book on my phone for 99c.
I had initially thought the book - being 150 years old - might be difficult to read but I found it not so. After a moment's thought I realized that it was first written in French (duah) and I am reading an abridged translation of Verne's words - not the original writing. Naturally they smoothed out some of the rough patches.
This is a great book of adventure, but I wouldn't really call it "science-fiction" per se. Maybe it was science fiction when Verne wrote it.. submarines were in their infancy at that time and the technology in the Nautilus was still quite a ways off.
The book has periods of truly gripping and suspenseful adventure interspersed with pages of M. Aronnax, Conseil and Ned Land talking about fish. Describing the fish they see. Discussing fishing. Classifying different fish and what orders and families they belong in. Talking about cooking fish. More calcifying the fish they see on their travels.. ugh. Meanwhile the exciting bits go by a bit too quickly. I still enjoyed it, but there is a big *meh* factor throughout.
p224
It was an indescribable spectacle! Ah, why could we not communicate our sensations? Why are we imprisoned under these masks of metal and glass? Why are words between us forbidden? Why did we at least not live the life of the fish that people the liquid element, or rather that of the amphibians, who, during long hours, can transverse as they like the double domain of land and water?
p378
Here may be seen the primordial rocks that have never known the light of heaven, the lower granites that form the powerful foundation of the globe, the profound grottoes dug out of the stony mass, the outlines of such incomparable clearness, the border-lines of which stand out black as if due to the brush of certain Flemish artist. Then, beyond, an horizon of mountains, an admirable undulating line composing the background of the landscape. I cannot describe the effects of these smooth black polished rocks, destitute of moss, without a stain, and with such strange forms solidly resting on a carpet of sand that sparkled in the electric light.
p507
It was vulgar misanthropy that enclosed Captain Nemo and his companions in the sides of the Nautilus, but a sublime hatred that time could not quench.
I had initially thought the book - being 150 years old - might be difficult to read but I found it not so. After a moment's thought I realized that it was first written in French (duah) and I am reading an abridged translation of Verne's words - not the original writing. Naturally they smoothed out some of the rough patches.
This is a great book of adventure, but I wouldn't really call it "science-fiction" per se. Maybe it was science fiction when Verne wrote it.. submarines were in their infancy at that time and the technology in the Nautilus was still quite a ways off.
The book has periods of truly gripping and suspenseful adventure interspersed with pages of M. Aronnax, Conseil and Ned Land talking about fish. Describing the fish they see. Discussing fishing. Classifying different fish and what orders and families they belong in. Talking about cooking fish. More calcifying the fish they see on their travels.. ugh. Meanwhile the exciting bits go by a bit too quickly. I still enjoyed it, but there is a big *meh* factor throughout.
p224
It was an indescribable spectacle! Ah, why could we not communicate our sensations? Why are we imprisoned under these masks of metal and glass? Why are words between us forbidden? Why did we at least not live the life of the fish that people the liquid element, or rather that of the amphibians, who, during long hours, can transverse as they like the double domain of land and water?
p378
Here may be seen the primordial rocks that have never known the light of heaven, the lower granites that form the powerful foundation of the globe, the profound grottoes dug out of the stony mass, the outlines of such incomparable clearness, the border-lines of which stand out black as if due to the brush of certain Flemish artist. Then, beyond, an horizon of mountains, an admirable undulating line composing the background of the landscape. I cannot describe the effects of these smooth black polished rocks, destitute of moss, without a stain, and with such strange forms solidly resting on a carpet of sand that sparkled in the electric light.
p507
It was vulgar misanthropy that enclosed Captain Nemo and his companions in the sides of the Nautilus, but a sublime hatred that time could not quench.
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