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echogirl 's review for:
The Mysterious Island
by Jules Verne
I'd give this three and a half stars if I could; Verne has a knack for mixing just enough fact into his fiction to convince you it could be real, but the flip side is that the fact is often so ... boring. Paragraph upon paragraph describing how castaways made some chemical or another is probably interesting for survivalists, but I am not one of those by nature. While Verne eschews the method by which many authors of castaway stories save their protagonists -- wait! what's that on the shore? the boat, and it still has all of our supplies in it! -- he creates his own deus ex machina by which to ensure the perpetuation of the story (Word to the wise: if you've read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, you'll be able to guess the mystery of The Mysterious Island is long before the story's climax and denouement.)
Although I've never read Verne in the original French, some of the wording seems just a little off; given his level of skill, I'm pretty sure that's a result of the translation. Still, I enjoyed it enough to stay up way too late last night reading it, and I polished it off this afternoon.
Although I've never read Verne in the original French, some of the wording seems just a little off; given his level of skill, I'm pretty sure that's a result of the translation. Still, I enjoyed it enough to stay up way too late last night reading it, and I polished it off this afternoon.