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A review by shreyas1599
The Poison Belt by Arthur Conan Doyle
2.0
A doomsday story where the world is coming to an unpredictable end. The reasoning provided is a fantastical explanation of the ether of the Earth being poisoned which consequently is spreading from the eastern hemisphere to the western. The four characters who proved the existence of magnificent beasts in the first instalment of the Professor Challenger series are faced with the end of the world hanging over them and what they do to overcome or prolong their existence.
There were lines like this that just irked me.
“the less developed races have been the first to respond to its influence.”
“The Northern races have as yet shown greater resisting power than the Southern.”
What was the point even of having these lines? I get the viewpoint that for the time in which the book was written, this was a completely normal thing and for a man as obnoxious and condescending as Challenger, a racist trait is not to be unexpected but nevertheless seeing this just irked me and I find it prudent to make a mention of it.
The story itself had a rather dull plot. Most of the story revolved around the philosophical aspects of Doomsday and loss of life. There was no real adventure in this story. It was a mere fluke that Challenger found a way to prolong the lives of his companions and nothing more. The semi-explanation of how he arrived at his conclusion that Oxygenated tanks would prolong their existence was not convincing.
I expected more, or at least some sort of adventure similar to Lost World, but this was more of a nothing story. Just strings of sentences and philosophical viewpoints were strung together to make a semi-structured story. I think it's a good thing I haven't read Sherlock Holmes yet and picked the Challenger series as my first read of Arthur Conan Doyle. It can only go uphill from here!
There were lines like this that just irked me.
“the less developed races have been the first to respond to its influence.”
“The Northern races have as yet shown greater resisting power than the Southern.”
What was the point even of having these lines? I get the viewpoint that for the time in which the book was written, this was a completely normal thing and for a man as obnoxious and condescending as Challenger, a racist trait is not to be unexpected but nevertheless seeing this just irked me and I find it prudent to make a mention of it.
The story itself had a rather dull plot. Most of the story revolved around the philosophical aspects of Doomsday and loss of life. There was no real adventure in this story. It was a mere fluke that Challenger found a way to prolong the lives of his companions and nothing more. The semi-explanation of how he arrived at his conclusion that Oxygenated tanks would prolong their existence was not convincing.
I expected more, or at least some sort of adventure similar to Lost World, but this was more of a nothing story. Just strings of sentences and philosophical viewpoints were strung together to make a semi-structured story. I think it's a good thing I haven't read Sherlock Holmes yet and picked the Challenger series as my first read of Arthur Conan Doyle. It can only go uphill from here!