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A review by zailonx
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
4.0
It was engaging for me largely due to its in novelty in that it's the first fictional story I've read that takes place almost entirely in a submarine setting.
The challenging (and somewhat tedious parts of the story) were where Verne describes sealife in detail using their scientific names which I and most readers who are not marine biologists have to Google if you want to know what he's referring to. He also describes, in detail, locations the Nautilus visits using latitude, longitude and names of far away places. Again, most readers do not understand the geocoordinate system and might find this aspect of the book tedious and most readers likewise will not understand the islands he refers to as even in college level geography class we skip over these tiny land masses. So the book has a lot of content that would be best enjoyed by someone who is geographically inclined, as such I'd definitely recommend it to someone like a cruise ship captain who happens to have minored in marine biology. For the layman however I feel as though this book would have benefited tremendously from some simple maps and illustrations of the places and sealife they encounter. I am not sure if the original was illustrated but the digital version I read certainly was not, and thus if you do want greater immersion instead of just skimming over details you have to research as you're following the story.
The narrative itself for me was okay, and the ending (without giving it away) I enjoyed esp its open-endedness. The story explores concepts like revenge, liberty, innovation, homesickness and friendship though is not spectacularly specific about either nor do I feel like it teaches some great moral lessons although misanthropists such as myself can certainly identify and relate to Captain Nemo's determined isolationism. I also enjoyed the main character's internal conflict with how he both greatly admires yet also fears and somewhat resents Captain Nemo.
All in all if you are a frequent reader, enjoy adventure books and escapism through reading, have misanthropic tendencies and have not yet read a submarine story I would recommend the book. I didn't give it five stars because to me it is not absolutely fantastic, though it is still good and worth reading to the right person.
The challenging (and somewhat tedious parts of the story) were where Verne describes sealife in detail using their scientific names which I and most readers who are not marine biologists have to Google if you want to know what he's referring to. He also describes, in detail, locations the Nautilus visits using latitude, longitude and names of far away places. Again, most readers do not understand the geocoordinate system and might find this aspect of the book tedious and most readers likewise will not understand the islands he refers to as even in college level geography class we skip over these tiny land masses. So the book has a lot of content that would be best enjoyed by someone who is geographically inclined, as such I'd definitely recommend it to someone like a cruise ship captain who happens to have minored in marine biology. For the layman however I feel as though this book would have benefited tremendously from some simple maps and illustrations of the places and sealife they encounter. I am not sure if the original was illustrated but the digital version I read certainly was not, and thus if you do want greater immersion instead of just skimming over details you have to research as you're following the story.
The narrative itself for me was okay, and the ending (without giving it away) I enjoyed esp its open-endedness. The story explores concepts like revenge, liberty, innovation, homesickness and friendship though is not spectacularly specific about either nor do I feel like it teaches some great moral lessons although misanthropists such as myself can certainly identify and relate to Captain Nemo's determined isolationism. I also enjoyed the main character's internal conflict with how he both greatly admires yet also fears and somewhat resents Captain Nemo.
All in all if you are a frequent reader, enjoy adventure books and escapism through reading, have misanthropic tendencies and have not yet read a submarine story I would recommend the book. I didn't give it five stars because to me it is not absolutely fantastic, though it is still good and worth reading to the right person.