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2.9 AVERAGE
2.9 AVERAGE
Only partially read, All about seances and spiritualism mixed with Christianity and ghosts. Not recommended.
First off I'm just going to say that I really do like Conan Doyle's writing. I think he has an incredible way with words when it comes to descriptions. I also like the character he created in the form of Professor Challenger, I feel he has some level of intelligence and endearing qualities despite his blatant attitude as a world class git.
I was stoked as you can imagine but what you can't imagine is how I felt when the disappointment on the printed page befell me.
The book starts of quite promising actually, you get to see some old faces like Ned Malone (the protagonist), The Professor himself and even a new character in the form of his daughter, Enid. but this is where my positives end and my negativity reigns.
So this is heavily inspired by the author's beliefs in spiritualism, (which I have nothing wrong with) and you can definitely tell since pretty much the first scene after Challenger's introduction where Malone and Enid go to a seminar to get a headline for the papers to expose these mediums as frauds. Cool, so that means Challenger is going to help them both by uncovering their shady activities through the use of his scientific expertise right? Well not exactly, because you would be wrong...DEAD WRONG!
He doesn't appear in the entire main section of the story until it's almost drawing to a close and even then he only does one or two things that are remotely faithful to his character, it's almost like the writer forgot it was a Challenger story and quickly shoehorned him in as it was ending. Sure I can understand him mellowing out slightly in his later years and normally I wouldn't mind everyone's favourite 'cave-man in a lounge suit' going through a transitonal period of sorts, I'd be able to forgive that if the story surrounding it was good but it is just so dull and I mean INCREDIBLY DULL! Which is saying something considering how quick I was reading it, I'm not entirely sure if it was my regular reading speed or if I was just reading it quicker than normal because I just wanted to get it over and done with because it seemed like the minutes I was reading were like hours.
The story itself, like Challenger's daughter, I found it to be bland and underwritten, even with Doyle's descriptions which are generally supposed to be comprehensively detailed (in fact the edition I was reading from had a few footnotes on spiritualist annecdotes which I basically just skimmed over), and the lack of substance made the writing seem long winded, leaving the prose about as purple as an eggplant, and I was desperately waiting for a moment where the pace would speed up again but alas, no such luck.
I also found the shifting narratives quite distracting as the book makes it seem like these characters (excluding Enid and Malone) have an impact on the plot (what little there was of it) but none of them did as somewhere along the line it would end up with one dying or another getting arrested. If re-written it probably could have worked better as a standard Sherlock Holmes story with Holmes (and his loyal aid Watson) investigating mysterious deaths which surround those of spiritualist beliefs and the transporting narrative would make more sense in this case since it could show him looking for clues and interrogating suspects etc. But as it just stands it is fairly boring, mediocre at best.
You may not have read through all this (and frankly I wouldn't hold it against you) so in short I do think this is worth a read, mainly for Conan Doyle completists so just be aware of that and don't expect any thrilling scientific adventures or anything because it's certainly a book that I'm not likely to revisit.
I was stoked as you can imagine but what you can't imagine is how I felt when the disappointment on the printed page befell me.
The book starts of quite promising actually, you get to see some old faces like Ned Malone (the protagonist), The Professor himself and even a new character in the form of his daughter, Enid. but this is where my positives end and my negativity reigns.
So this is heavily inspired by the author's beliefs in spiritualism, (which I have nothing wrong with) and you can definitely tell since pretty much the first scene after Challenger's introduction where Malone and Enid go to a seminar to get a headline for the papers to expose these mediums as frauds. Cool, so that means Challenger is going to help them both by uncovering their shady activities through the use of his scientific expertise right? Well not exactly, because you would be wrong...DEAD WRONG!
He doesn't appear in the entire main section of the story until it's almost drawing to a close and even then he only does one or two things that are remotely faithful to his character, it's almost like the writer forgot it was a Challenger story and quickly shoehorned him in as it was ending. Sure I can understand him mellowing out slightly in his later years and normally I wouldn't mind everyone's favourite 'cave-man in a lounge suit' going through a transitonal period of sorts, I'd be able to forgive that if the story surrounding it was good but it is just so dull and I mean INCREDIBLY DULL! Which is saying something considering how quick I was reading it, I'm not entirely sure if it was my regular reading speed or if I was just reading it quicker than normal because I just wanted to get it over and done with because it seemed like the minutes I was reading were like hours.
The story itself, like Challenger's daughter, I found it to be bland and underwritten, even with Doyle's descriptions which are generally supposed to be comprehensively detailed (in fact the edition I was reading from had a few footnotes on spiritualist annecdotes which I basically just skimmed over), and the lack of substance made the writing seem long winded, leaving the prose about as purple as an eggplant, and I was desperately waiting for a moment where the pace would speed up again but alas, no such luck.
I also found the shifting narratives quite distracting as the book makes it seem like these characters (excluding Enid and Malone) have an impact on the plot (what little there was of it) but none of them did as somewhere along the line it would end up with one dying or another getting arrested. If re-written it probably could have worked better as a standard Sherlock Holmes story with Holmes (and his loyal aid Watson) investigating mysterious deaths which surround those of spiritualist beliefs and the transporting narrative would make more sense in this case since it could show him looking for clues and interrogating suspects etc. But as it just stands it is fairly boring, mediocre at best.
You may not have read through all this (and frankly I wouldn't hold it against you) so in short I do think this is worth a read, mainly for Conan Doyle completists so just be aware of that and don't expect any thrilling scientific adventures or anything because it's certainly a book that I'm not likely to revisit.
Forget Sherlock Holmes. My favorite literary creation of Arthur Conan Doyle is Professor Challenger! The Challenger stories are where Doyle lets his freak flag fly, and I love every batshit moment. In the case of The Land of Mist, Doyle decides to bring back his zaniest protagonist in support of his goofiest belief: Spiritualism. It's like the perfect storm of crazy. Although this purports to be a Challenger novel, that character really takes a backseat to Doyle's promotion of the Spiritualist movement. Challenger appears in the first chapters to update us on his life in the thirteen years since [b:The Poison Belt|272751|The Poison Belt (Professor Challenger, #2)|Arthur Conan Doyle|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328819119s/272751.jpg|2553089]. He grumbles about certain fiction writers creating wild stories about his life (ha!), and informs us, rather sadly, that his wife has died, leading to a void in his life. (If you don't know where this story is going, kiddos, then just hand in your library cards!)
The rest of the novel features our old friend Malone (who is courting Challenger's daughter) encountering the Spiritualist movement, along with a couple of obligatory appearances by Lord Roxton. They are skeptical and understand that sometimes frauds do exist, but soon come to be overwhelmed by the powerful "truth" of their experiences during seances with genuine believers that include floating tambourines, glowing ectoplasm, and ghostly apparitions emerging from cabinets. (The spirits must be real, our heroes conclude, since they inspected the cabinets for fraud before the lights were turned off! lol) Naturally, Challenger is skeptical and dismissive. He re-appears in the final fifty pages to "debunk" the Spiritualists. We know exactly where this is leading, but it's all so much of a guilty pleasure that it's hard to put down. The events and characters in the novel are obviously based on real people and Doyle's own experiences, which he freely admits in an appendix that provides all the real-life examples to back up his fictional depictions. The novel is clearly meant to be a soapbox for Doyle's own kooky beliefs, which doesn't take away from the enjoyment at all. In fact, quite the opposite! Doyle's genuine belief in all this bunk makes the novel even more appealing to me.
The four-star rating is not necessarily for the quality of novel, which is pure silliness, but for my own personal enjoyment of it. For all my smarmy sarcasm in this review, I must admit that Doyle is a great writer who creates characters I care about and puts them in situations that make me want to turn pages. Even so, this is purely escapist fiction. Enjoy it for what it is. I've already ordered two of Doyle's nonfiction works on Spiritualism, which I can't wait to crack open. This side of Doyle is far more interesting to me than his Holmes fiction.
The rest of the novel features our old friend Malone (who is courting Challenger's daughter) encountering the Spiritualist movement, along with a couple of obligatory appearances by Lord Roxton. They are skeptical and understand that sometimes frauds do exist, but soon come to be overwhelmed by the powerful "truth" of their experiences during seances with genuine believers that include floating tambourines, glowing ectoplasm, and ghostly apparitions emerging from cabinets. (The spirits must be real, our heroes conclude, since they inspected the cabinets for fraud before the lights were turned off! lol) Naturally, Challenger is skeptical and dismissive. He re-appears in the final fifty pages to "debunk" the Spiritualists. We know exactly where this is leading, but it's all so much of a guilty pleasure that it's hard to put down. The events and characters in the novel are obviously based on real people and Doyle's own experiences, which he freely admits in an appendix that provides all the real-life examples to back up his fictional depictions. The novel is clearly meant to be a soapbox for Doyle's own kooky beliefs, which doesn't take away from the enjoyment at all. In fact, quite the opposite! Doyle's genuine belief in all this bunk makes the novel even more appealing to me.
The four-star rating is not necessarily for the quality of novel, which is pure silliness, but for my own personal enjoyment of it. For all my smarmy sarcasm in this review, I must admit that Doyle is a great writer who creates characters I care about and puts them in situations that make me want to turn pages. Even so, this is purely escapist fiction. Enjoy it for what it is. I've already ordered two of Doyle's nonfiction works on Spiritualism, which I can't wait to crack open. This side of Doyle is far more interesting to me than his Holmes fiction.
I thought all these Professor Challenger books were adventures, but that was a big mistake. This one was about Spiritualism. It was OK.
This is not a novel, it is an attempt to turn the reader into a spiritualist
http://www.susanhatedliterature.net/2019/02/the-land-of-mist/
http://www.susanhatedliterature.net/2019/02/the-land-of-mist/