Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Jules Verne

Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne is another book that you will find in my top-ten favourite reads. To be honest though when I first picked up the book I wasn't too sure about it and even after reading the first couple of chapters I still wasn't sure I was going to like it. But the more I read on the more I became hooked and eventually I fond it extremely difficult to put the book down. When Professor Lindenbrock discovers an ancient parchment bearing cryptogram maps that he believes will show him the way Dante took to the centre of the Earth he knows straight away that he must follow them. With his nephew Axel, who is the narrator of the ...  Read the complete review

Journey to the Centre of the Earth is about… um… well, it’s about a journey to the centre of the earth. This expedition is led by Professor Lidenbrock, his long-suffering nephew Axel (the narrator of the book), and Hans, and extremely taciturn Icelander. Don’t expect it to be anything like the film version starring James Mason though, in fact it takes about two thirds of the book before they get anywhere near the centre of the earth. While it wouldn’t exactly make a gripping film, the book is in itself a very interesting, albeit slow-moving, novel by one of the most important figures in science fiction history, Jules Verne. (Sadly Verne is often overlooked by ...  Read the complete review

Ah! Caught you! You thought I meant ‘Pulp Fiction’ the Tarantino film, didn’t you? What on earth has that do to with early science fiction? Well I didn’t, I meant pulp fiction as in ‘The Boy’s Own Paper’ and other such magazines of the nineteenth century in which Jules Verne’s work first appeared in translation. Sorry if I’ve disappointed, but I couldn’t resist. What is it you like in a book? Generally I’m not the miserable kind, so I like something that won’t leave me moping about or feeling down in the mouth. Thus I very seldom venture into misery - Thomas Hardy territory for ...  Read the complete review