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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I don't think I would enjoy this as a book, but as an audiobook it was plaltable.
My all-time favorite book, which I haven't reread since high school. There's been an explosion in Verne studies and a raft of new translations. Most of the old translations were poor, cutting out large portions of the books. The standard Mysterious Island was 90,000 words; this new one is 190,000 words! Still holds up very well as the ultimate Desert Island book.
My youngest son has been after me to read this for ages. It is actually his favorite Jules Verne, and he much prefers it to other "stranded on an island" novels like Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson. So, it just happened to fit into categories on the two separate reading challenges I am doing this year, so why not? As it turned out, my son was right. I can see why he would have loved this when he was ten--I had fun too. Of course some things were silly, and the characters were always on the very verge of ruin and then "Ta-da"--a torpedo blows up the pirates. A saving ship arrives on the horizon. Et cetera. Also some of the descriptions of the animals on the island were hilarious. Not quite as hilarious as Swiss Family Robinson, which my kids persisted in treating as a comedy. LOL But . . . a bear, which is really a koala, which is actually a sloth . . . on an island in the southern Pacific . . . uh-huh. Donkey-like creatures. An orangutan. Whom they train to be a butler. Yeah. Oh, and they make explosives. Out of the dirt. Also there is an open vein of coal, just waiting for the coal to be picked up. Still, it was a lot of fun.
I never would have finished this if it wasn't on the Lost Lit List. It was just too long, not enough happened that I cared about, and I didn't care about the characters all that much. Herbert was probably my favorite.
The beginning was FAR too unbelievable. Why did Verne make such a big deal of them having absolutely nothing - one match, one grain of corn, a sharp edge they created by using the dog's collar? From that and the resources of the island, they create huge pots, iron-tipped spears, and a pickax! All in a VERY short period of time - with no problems whatsoever. Even Brian (of Gary Paulsen's [b:Hatchet|50|Hatchet|Gary Paulsen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1156871821s/50.jpg|1158125]) had his hatchet and still had trouble collecting enough wood to keep his fire going. These guys collected enough wood to fire a kiln with just their bare hands. I kept telling myself, "Fantasy. Think of it as a fantasy." But it wasn't written that way. Verne really asked me to suspend my disbelief - but I wasn't enjoying it enough to go along easily.
There are a lot of Lost connections. As I was listening to this, I asked myself why I was so bothered with some of the things when the same exact thing didn't bother me on Lost? For example, I kept thinking, "Why don't they explore the entire island? Maybe there are people around on the other side and they just don't know because they haven't bothered to go looking." But then I never thought that on Lost. I think one reason is that Lost quickly got busy with all sorts of mysterious and unexplainable yet very interesting things happening while these guys were quickly making pots and tools and bricks for their mansion in an underground cavern. In fact, these guys kept themselves so busy, they hardly even noticed the mysterious happenings on their island until they had been there for more than two years, which is two-thirds of the way through the 750+ page book.
One similarity to Lost that I thought was fun was trying to send a message for help with a bird. Of course it didn't work on Lost OR on the Mysterious Island.
On the plus side, I did learn about some animals I'd never heard of such as the dugong and the onager. And I did start enjoying it more towards the end. Some exciting things did happen. Although, I have to say that the part with Captain Nemo was much too long coming and was over MUCH too quickly! I'm giving this three stars since it did get better as it went along, but for much of it I wanted to give it two or maybe 2.5 stars.
(I listened to the Librivox recording by Mark F. Smith. He does a nice job and has a pleasant voice.)
The beginning was FAR too unbelievable. Why did Verne make such a big deal of them having absolutely nothing - one match, one grain of corn, a sharp edge they created by using the dog's collar? From that and the resources of the island, they create huge pots, iron-tipped spears, and a pickax! All in a VERY short period of time - with no problems whatsoever. Even Brian (of Gary Paulsen's [b:Hatchet|50|Hatchet|Gary Paulsen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1156871821s/50.jpg|1158125]) had his hatchet and still had trouble collecting enough wood to keep his fire going. These guys collected enough wood to fire a kiln with just their bare hands. I kept telling myself, "Fantasy. Think of it as a fantasy." But it wasn't written that way. Verne really asked me to suspend my disbelief - but I wasn't enjoying it enough to go along easily.
There are a lot of Lost connections. As I was listening to this, I asked myself why I was so bothered with some of the things when the same exact thing didn't bother me on Lost? For example, I kept thinking, "Why don't they explore the entire island? Maybe there are people around on the other side and they just don't know because they haven't bothered to go looking." But then I never thought that on Lost. I think one reason is that Lost quickly got busy with all sorts of mysterious and unexplainable yet very interesting things happening while these guys were quickly making pots and tools and bricks for their mansion in an underground cavern. In fact, these guys kept themselves so busy, they hardly even noticed the mysterious happenings on their island until they had been there for more than two years, which is two-thirds of the way through the 750+ page book.
One similarity to Lost that I thought was fun was trying to send a message for help with a bird. Of course it didn't work on Lost OR on the Mysterious Island.
On the plus side, I did learn about some animals I'd never heard of such as the dugong and the onager. And I did start enjoying it more towards the end. Some exciting things did happen. Although, I have to say that the part with Captain Nemo was much too long coming and was over MUCH too quickly! I'm giving this three stars since it did get better as it went along, but for much of it I wanted to give it two or maybe 2.5 stars.
(I listened to the Librivox recording by Mark F. Smith. He does a nice job and has a pleasant voice.)
This was a very entertaining adventure novel, even if Verne's castaways were implausibly gifted with just the right skills and knowledge necessary to survive.
El libro tiene "misteriosa" en su titulo así que no creo estar loca por esperar un misterio y si hay uno,pero nunca es el foco principal de la historia. Este es un libro de supervivencia, lo que no tiene nada de malo, pero en este caso fue demasiado detallado y lento, realmente no necesito que me expliquen con un ensayo de 20 páginas como es que se las arreglaron para hacer un vidrio de la nada.
Lo que me recuerda el siguiente punto,que no es realmente no es una queja, porque no me molesta y de hecho me daba risa cada vez que sucedía (lo que era muy apreciado entre medio de todos esos largos ensayos en los que te explicaban detalladamente paso por paso como sobrevivían en la isla), pero ¿fué Cyrus la inspiración para Macgyver? Porque por dios,no hay nada que ese hombre no pudiera hacer, y casi sin ningún recurso, de hecho si le hubieran dado un año más en la isla habría encontrado la cura para el cáncer.
No odié este libro, pero no puedo ignorar que pasé la mayoría del tiempo queriendo darme la cabeza contra una pared de lo aburrida que estaba.
Lo que si fue una molestia fue toda la charla colonizadora.¿No podían simplemente caer en una isla desierta, no? Tenían que actuar como si ahora les perteneciera ¿Podrían sonar más estadounidenses?
Lo que me recuerda el siguiente punto,que no es realmente no es una queja, porque no me molesta y de hecho me daba risa cada vez que sucedía (lo que era muy apreciado entre medio de todos esos largos ensayos en los que te explicaban detalladamente paso por paso como sobrevivían en la isla), pero ¿fué Cyrus la inspiración para Macgyver? Porque por dios,no hay nada que ese hombre no pudiera hacer, y casi sin ningún recurso, de hecho si le hubieran dado un año más en la isla habría encontrado la cura para el cáncer.
No odié este libro, pero no puedo ignorar que pasé la mayoría del tiempo queriendo darme la cabeza contra una pared de lo aburrida que estaba.
Vinte e quatro de março de 1865. Arrastados em seu balão desgovernado e rasgado por um furacão, cinco "náufragos do ar" aterrissam numa ilha deserta do Pacífico Sul. Somente com a roupa do corpo, o pequeno grupo de colonos irá refazer toda a longa trajetória da civilização: da pré-história aos tempos modernos, do domínio do fogo à fabricação de nitroglicerina, dos primeiros artefatos à pilha elétrica, da cerâmica rudimentar à instalação de um elevador e de um telégrafo, sem deixar de passar pelo advento da agricultura e da pecuária.
Recipe for a classic Jules Verne Book:
One (1) ridiculous setting
One (1) brilliant person who either can make anything or knows almost everything
One (1) faithful servant of the above person
One (1) person who can spout out the scientific name of every species of animal or plant they come across
A whole lot of pages
This book follows that recipe perfectly!
One (1) ridiculous setting
One (1) brilliant person who either can make anything or knows almost everything
One (1) faithful servant of the above person
One (1) person who can spout out the scientific name of every species of animal or plant they come across
A whole lot of pages
This book follows that recipe perfectly!
I haven't been this excited reading a book in a long time. The plot twists literally made me exclaim out loud. The resolution was a little bit disappointing, honestly, but I was so excited to learn about it that it kept me racing through the book.
Minus one star for the racism, especially regarding Ned, the black 'servant' who loves his 'master' dearly, and particularly in comparison with Jup, the organgutan who ends up joining their group.
Minus one star for the racism, especially regarding Ned, the black 'servant' who loves his 'master' dearly, and particularly in comparison with Jup, the organgutan who ends up joining their group.