A review by dlmoldovan
An Antarctic Mystery by Jules Verne, Fiction, Fantasy & Magic by Jules Verne

3.0

This book is a sequel to Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, but you don't actually need to read Poe in order to follow Verne's story-he did a pretty good job summarizing Poe's work. I read this book for a book challenge, as I needed a book for Antarctica. Overall, I enjoyed the book. I had several moments when I cringed at the descriptions-really there were some things that were better left to the imagination, and the overt racism in this book also bothered me (and yes, I know it's a product of its times, but I still can't help being bothered at the language used.) The characters were pretty well developed, and the narrative was interesting. Another thing that I also didn't like was the nicely tied up ending of the story. It is my understanding that Poe left the ending up to the imagination of the reader, and I think that Verne should have done the same thing in order to keep the mystery alive. The ending was just too neat for me. I usually re-read books, but this one won't be a re-read for me.